Long Distance Neighbour has moved from the downtown Dar Es Salaam craziness to the new craziness of the English countryside! I thought I'd give a bit of context to where and what I'm up to.

My internship in Tanzania has officially come to an end and I've started my new position working with Africa Educational Trust (AET) in London. On top of the fact, its my first official "job"in international development (five years of volunteering and internships have paid off!!), I'm also really proud to be working and fundraising for them. As you might have guessed by their name, they provide education (both formal and informal) in Africa. But their focus is specifically on conflict-affected zones, communities that have been written off as too dangerous and too unstable to do development work. Areas like South Sudan, Somalia and Northern Uganda. But because of the level of local community involvement, AET is able to continue providing education despite how unstable the countries can be. No foreigners, no big camps, no big presence. Just local staff, in the communities, getting work done.  
I was able to land straight into my new job and I'm currently camped out with some friends just outside of London while I set up my new UK-based life. In amongst trying to navigate the bureaucracy of establishing myself as a real UK resident, I've also managed to squeeze in a good number of recreational events during my first week including going to an improve comedy night, bar-tending/go-go dancing at a village wedding and surviving a true English pub-night. It has been a whirl-wind of a time!

Moving countries is always a shock to the system. But in many ways moving to England is not so very different from moving to Tanzania, in any new place what you really need is good cultural tour guides. I had a great initial support system in Tanzania and here, I've been able to rely on some good friends and co-workers who are helping me navigate everything from British slang to the tube system to banking. I'm trusting them to more or less point me in the right direction as I go through this the whole "up feels like down" period of cultural adjustment. 
I owe everyone one more story for the Global Solidarity Challenge. Unfortunately I got rained out on the friday (as did the entire city) and last week turned more than a little hectic with last minute work. In addition to being my last GSC story, this will also be my last story about market women in Tanzania as I fly out to my city and job in London tomorrow.


I would like to introduce Consolatha Cleophas, a tailor in Ilala market who is one of the most energetic paralegals in our programme. All by herself she started using what she learned in the paralegal training to conduct legal awareness sessions in the market. I interviewed her on Tuesday and I would like to share her story.

Why Did You Apply to Become a Paralegal?
When I saw the advertisements for paralegal I didn't know what a paralegal was. Then EfG came to the market and explained which made me curious. Even thought I didn't know a lot about it, I thought it was an opportunity to learn. Now I really like what I am doing and I am happy to be able to help my community know the laws and help people settle disputes.

Why did you start also teaching even men in the markets about legal issues?
I have been teaching both women and men traders in the market. At first I only taught women, but then the men wanted to know as well so I started to teach them. Mainly we talk about marriage and inheritance laws. I discovered that men also don't know the laws. If I only teach women it can create conflict. Men are happy about the teaching and are even asking for publications. I'm happy to share publications with the men because they go home and teach everyone in their household, including women and girls about the law.

What are People Most Surprised to Learn About in the Laws?
Most people are surprised to learn that any property bought during a marriage is joint property. Both women and men usually think that only men can own property but even a housewife is entitled to property bought by the husband during the marriage.

People are also surprised to learn that if a woman and a man live together for two years in a community they are recognized to be married. If they divorce, the women has the same rights to support and property as in a registered marriage.

Why is it important for women to know their rights and the laws?
It is important because laws affect the daily lives of women and they need to be able to defend their rights. Right now married women buy land secretly and keep the title with a friend because they are afraid of their husbands. A lot of women suffer abuse but “only god knows” because they don't understand their rights and where to go for help.

How has being a paralegal changed how you feel about yourself?
Being a paralegal has really changed my status in the market. I have discovered that I love to teach people. Now as I go through the market both men and women call me “Mama Law.” I am respected and people seek me out for advice.

What has been the most exciting thing so far about being a paralegal?

I travelled to Dodoma and I got to meet with an established paralegal unit there. They started just like we are starting but now those first paralegals even train other paralegals. There are some paralegals who have gone back to school and now hold law degrees. When I see that, I think even one day I could become a lawyer.

Working with Equality for Growth has been an amazing experience and the nine months I have spent here were incredible. Thanks so much to everyone whose followed along and read my blog. I plan to continue to right though in a slightly different vein in London so please stay tuned for updates!
Day 4 of Global Solidarity Challenge and I wanted to visit with some of the women who do tailoring in the market. Not all markets have tailoring section so I haven't met very many of them over the past few months and this seemed a great opportunity to see another side of market trading.


I've visited tailors before in Zambia to get clothes made from kitenge (local fabric). However, what I found here in the market was nothing like the small tailoring booths I'd seen before. It was more like being on a factory floor than visiting a tailor. Whole sections with women and men crammed together back behind the clothing shops of the market, working away on pedal sewing machines.

I met with Rukia, she has been working in the market for seven years, ever since her daughter was born and she needed to get income for the both of them. She learned to sew from a class she took in her home town before moving to Dar es Salaam.


Rukia doesn't actual sew for individuals coming in off the street. She's another piece of the used-clothing industry. After used-clothing vendors have bought clothes from people like Betty, they do one of two things with them. If the clothes are good quality the go straight to resell them. But some clothes are bought with an eye to make alterations. This can be as simple as making pants into shorts or they can be made into completely different items. Rukia spends her time making skirts, typically out of oversized dress shirts that are considered too big to sell.

It turns out, a lot of the clothes being sold in Tanzania is "recycled fashion." Now, some of my favourite items of clothing come from a Toronto based store recycled clothing store called Pre-Love where a lot items sell for over $100. However, here recycled fashion isn't a eco-trend. Its part of a waste-not want-not philosophy. Just because an item is too big or a bit ripped doesn't mean it should go to waste!

Being more common its also not nearly as highly priced. Rukia is paid 400 Tshs or about $0.18 for each skirt she makes. On an average day she'll make about 35 skirts, which makes her take home roughly $10.  This is about twice what a vegetable seller would bring home buts it a lot of work to run a pedal machine all day.


I talked to Rukia about how recycled fashion is more of a luxury where I come from. She says that unfortunately they don't get to set their own prices. The clothing vendors are the ones who determine the cost of all alterations and if you don't accept that price they'll just find someone else. This is why Equality for Growth wants to investigate starting a social enterprise among the women tailors. If women came together, they would be able to bid as a group to produce and get better prices overall. And women like Rukia would be able to make a better living, working in a better environment.

Please help support the great work of VIDEA and its partners like Equality to Growth by supporting me through my solidarity challenge!
Day three of the Global Solidarity Challenge and I headed out to see a very different side of market trading. There are hierarchies in market trading. How high up you are depends on two things; the volume of goods you move and what type of goods you have. Therefore it is the wholesalers, those who sell good to other market traders, who always make the most profit. And the most profitable goods being sold in the markets are used clothes.

Have you every wondered what happens to all those used clothes at Goodwill or Value Village? There are far more used clothes than people buying them in Canada. Well whatever isn't sold in Canada, is sold to exporters who ship it off to Africa where alongside clothes from USA, China and Korea its has become a major trade. By the way I've been informed that clothes from Canada are the highest quality and go for the highest price (and the women tried to get me to start exporting to them).


There is a fair bit of criticism of this practice- mainly that it has destroyed most local clothing production in Africa which would provide a lot more jobs than the used clothes industry. But for the people who make their living in the industry its a vital part of business. Importers buy the clothing bales at the port and then sell them to clothing wholesalers in the market. Women like, Betty (the one with glasses) buys 8-10 bags of clothes a week. Bag cost vary by item and quality but a typically a bag the size of a hay-bale goes for 200-300 dollars.

Every day Betty will open up one or two bags and auction off items to the crowds of men and women who buy them to resell the items to customers. Each item can go for $5-$10 dollars. People come from all over Tanzania to buy clothes from Ilala market where Betty works. She says its a lot easier to be a wholesaler than to sell direct to customers because she is never without clients.

Unsurprisingly, the hardest thing about being a clothing wholesaler is to put together the capital to be able to buy the bales. Its taken Betty years to build up the capital to do business on the level she does. She started as a wholesaler in 1999, after coming to Dar Es Salaam from district up near the Ugandan border. She's taken a lot of risk with loans to get the capital to buy her goods and sometimes she's lost her stock because of it but she's managed to make it work. Through her business, Betty doesn't just support herself and daughter but also supports both her elderly parents and helps out brothers and sisters.

The market has given Betty a very good income. But she says the crowded conditions in clothing markets, lack of ventilation and heavy dust from the fabric are a major problem. The biggest concern for her is that Tuberculosis is rampant among traders. While improving her own business is important, she wants to be able to come to work without worrying that she's going to come down ill. Thats why Betty became the chair of the women's association to help campaign for a better market. Because she believes just because the market gives great opportunity for business, she and her fellow traders shouldn't have to put up with bad conditions.

 Please help support the great work of VIDEA and its partners like Equality to Growth by supporting me through my solidarity challenge!
Today for the Global Solidarity Challenge I headed out of the downtown and away from the high rises to Gongo La Mboto market. Far from being well off, its one of the cheapest communities to live in that still has relatively direct access to the city core so lots of people live out that way.


At the market I met with Sihaba, a 34 year old trader who runs a business selling drinks and plantains. Sihaba started trading four years ago. She is a single mother with two children- a girl of thirteen and a boy of seven. Her decision to trade was simple, she needed money but had no real skills. Trading was the obvious choice so she started to look for a good location. It was her brother that told her to look in Gongo La Mboto market. She started off by selling plastic bags to traders and customers in the market, but since bags sell for less than $0.01 she wasn't getting ahead. She switched to selling plantains and eventually got enough funds together to start selling cold drinks.

Because she mentioned her brother, I asked Sihaba if her family had helped her set up her business. Her response was that they didn't offer and she didn't ask. Its not uncommon for women to struggle with finding support for starting business even within their own families. Women aren't seen as a "worthwhile" business investment. So its not surprising that Sihaba has had to make it own her own.

Sihaba actually has a great location in the market. Its a proper stall but its mainly empty. She wishes that it could be more like what we might call a "corner store." Her dream is for it to be stocked with everything from food goods to drinks and cleaning supplies. However, to get the capital to invest in all those goods is way beyond her means. However, next week she and all the other women traders will get back their years worth of savings from their saving and credit group so there is hope for growth in the future.


Unlike Rose, from yesterday, Sihaba is more focused on making ends meet. But then she doesn't have the support of a husband to help share the financial burden and let her invest in her business. Right now the fact that she doesn't need to relying on anyone else and is able to send her two kids to school is a lot. Being able to stand on your own two feet is no small thing. She is someone who does what needs to be done and finds a way to make it work. Market trading has given her the financial means to be independent and make her own decisions. That is a lot of be proud of.

Please help support the great work of VIDEA and its partners like Equality to Growth by supporting me through my solidarity challenge!
This is the first day of the Global Solidarity Challenge 2014. As promised I'm spending time every day with market women this week. Unfortunately, due to the injuring my shoulder, I won't be able to do all day in the market, but I will still take this week to introduce you to these amazing women.

So today I headed out to Kisutu market, a very old market. Its located near the centre of town, making it one of the better off areas. However, that doesn't mean that it much nicer inside than any of the other markets. Walking inside, its hot, dark and the lack of air keeps the musty smell mixed with rotting vegetables pretty much constant. There is hope that it will be rebuilt, but there is always a problem of where people work during construction, especially because construction tends not to proceed very quickly. So for now they are all making do.


We went to the market because one of my coworker was conducting legal empowerment sessions in the market. Taking advantage of a savings group meeting, our Legal Aid officer, along with a couple of paralegals, gave women an overview of the requirements for official marriage in Tanzania. In the word of the women's association chairperson "Marriage can be a dangerous thing for women. We should all learn as much as we can about the laws."


I got the chance to sit down and chat with Rose, the chairperson for Kisutu market and hear her story about about working in the market, which she gave me permission to share with all of you.

Rose has been working in Kisutu for 14 years. After getting married, she realized that she couldn't expect her husband to provide everything for her family. At first she did small catering out of her home but eventually took the stall in Kisutu because she thought the visibility of being in a public market would help her to better advertise her catering.

Now Rose has seven girls working with her. She sells food in the market but also delivers meals to people in nearby houses and businesses as well as contracting for events. Recently, she took a micro-loan to acquire supplies to improve her business, but it was very risky. The institution only gives loans to groups and if one of the women fails to pay her share, all the others have to chip in or they will all loose their investments. She says she wouldn't take a loan micro-loan again and hopes that the savings and credit group will help her grow her businesses without the fear of loosing what she gains.

Working in the market environment is sometimes an advantage and sometimes a barrier. One one hand it gives Rose access to a lot of customers because of its location. But sometimes when prospective clients come and visit her and see the environment where she works, they doubt that she will be able to deliver good services. Rose says she and her girls have cooked at weddings where they've fed 800 guests but looking at the stall she's working in, its can be hard to believe she's so successful.

What drives Rose in her business? The future for her two children. Rose says she and her husband work extra hard so they can send their children to an international school (a good quality private school). Their daughter just sat her final exams and placed in the top 10% in Tanzania. She plans to become a doctor or a pilot some day.

I'm in awe of what Rose has accomplished and I think the women in Kisutu market is lucky to have her as a leader and mentor. For me, Rose's story is what I wish the story was for all market women. Its not without challenges and hardship but the market has been a step up for her. Because the market should be a place of opportunity for women. It should help them grow their income. And ultimately  it should give women the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty and provide their children with a better and brighter future.


This was an awesome first day and please go to my fundraising page to help support VIDEA and their amazing partners.
We had a pretty banger week at EfG. Our Executive Director won the Martin Luther King Jr Drum Major Award from the American Embassy and then we had our women's day celebration. Its important to stop sometimes and celebrate what has been accomplished and these occasions gave everyone an opportunity to do exactly that.

The celebration for the award included a ceremony at the American Embassy (the lack of pictures from the ceremony can be blamed on the security at the Embassy). Our director took this moment to highlight informal sector women and also call upon all sectors of society to seek out avenues to making small trading a step out of poverty.

Our celebration for International Women's day had a bit more locally flavoured. We held the event at Tabata Muslim Market. Key to celebration (and really any celebration we've done) is the inclusion of traditional performance groups. These groups are dance, acrobatics and theatre all rolled into one.

The acrobatics are something I don't remember from my other travels in South Africa, but I've seen them at our events and other events throughout Tanzania. They include contortion and balance acts

leaps and flips...

Some pretty interesting dual dance moves. This woman was dancing with one of the male performers twisted around her waist.

And of course, if there is dancing everyone else needs to join in.

We took the opportunity to explain the award to our traders, and how the Executive Director accepted it in recognition of women's traders. Our women were pretty thrilled to the extent that they actually picked her up and carried her through the crowd (sort of like a coach after a winning game!)


This week also marked the completion of our strategic plan. Hopefully all this energy can carry everyone forward to get it up and going.