Hamjambo.
The team is continuing to work hard at their volunteer placements. Our community assessment is begining to reveal a root issue in the community. Tanga is suffering most in the sectors of education and health care. Our team believes the root issue to both of these problems is with primary and secondary education. Primary and Secondary schools require students taking sciences to acheive more credits than students taking arts. Students in Tanzania have the option of what classes they want to take, therefore most students stay clear of the sciences in order to get better grades. Many of the science text books are oudated averaging an age of 12 years. The text books are teaching old and now thought as dangerous procedures such as ciphoning harmful chemicals via the mouth. The text books are mostly full of lab experiments, yet the schools are ill-equiped with lab equipment. The result of this lack of infrastructure and quality of science education in primary and secondary schools leads to poorly educated students going on to teach other students poorly, and to be underqualified in the fields of nursing and medicine. It is a chronic cycle which leads to poor health and education sectors. All dispenseries, health centers and some hospitals lack the proper equipment and trained personel to provide anything more than basic aid, and minor procedures. Many patients are sent away, refered or evacuated to other cities or outside the country. Our team is beginning to focus on how we can participate with the community to solve these problems.

This past weekend I traveled to Mwanza (north-western Tanz.), a city nesstled among gigantic stones where the sun sets over Lake Victoria. I connected with a friend and NGO worker John Sweya who is a partner of ProjectHOPE (http://www.projecthope.ws/index.php) working to give widows the counceling, knowledge, skills, and financial support to move forward and begin economic generation activities in order to support themselves and also commonly the orphans they are caring for. Often NGO workers like John have to intervene and stop men from the community abusing the rights of the widows. Attempts are made and kicking them out of their houses, stealing their belongings, taking control of their property etc. John took me around the intercity and also the rural outskirts of Mwanza to visit the widows and see their work projects. I learned so much about maximizing the potential of the resources that are available to you. John was eager to extract any knowledge or ideas that I had learned in my education or misionary experience. We talked about making the additions of rain-water collecters, since the rural areas south of Mwanza are some of the dryest in the country. Also city power doesn't reach too far outside the city, and it is expensive and unpredictable. Power outages are commonplace every day. Therefore we also discussed implementing solar power. I will be comparing solar power units from Canada with the prices of local units. We also talked about the design of burnt-brick charcoal stoves, a step up from the outdoor braziers often used by the majority of the populace. John had designed two at his house and we came up with some ideas of making them even more efficient. John is also growing trees for firewood, and others which when the leaves are grinded up serve to cure malaria, and another to increase the CD4 count of an HIV/Aids victim. Local agencies have also discovered that grinded avacado nuts can also perform the same function to help HIV/Aids victims. John is teaching over 20 widows to provide these services to their community, manage the business and invest their money strategically. I have hopes that next year Trinity can offer some aid to partner with John and ProjectHOPE in their ministry.
There is so much else we are getting involved in. It is difficult to catalogue it all. Continue to pray for development in Tanzania. Also pray that the Tanzanian team members catch a visions for long term ministry and agents of change in their community. Similarily, pray that the Canadian team members leave this service experience with a motive to be continually intentional, active and missional for the honour and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Work week

Team activities:
After our first work week we came together for a community assessment meeting. Each counterpart pair gave a presentation which taught the rest of us about their work placement and issues observed in their field. For four hours we discussed, conversed, debated, brainstormed and shared ideas. More time in the field is needed to validate assumptions, confirm suspicions and generally get more acquainted with the social environment.
Ollie and Regis hosted our team’s first Bible study at their host family’s house. Their message from 1 Cor. 13 encouraged us all to love each other, remain unified, and to minister to the community.
Our team had a weekend adventure to the famous Amboni caves. The Amboni caves are famous for their natural limestone formations, and also for containing 250 square km of winding archaic caverns. We also biked through jungle, and canoed across a crocodile-inhabited river to visit “Maji Moto” (Hot Water) natural sulphur springs. The day in the natural wild was refreshing and stimulating.

Counterpart activities:
Ollie and Regis are daily traveling to various public and private schools and youth centers in the community teaching Geography and Christianity. They are also counceling various youth in issues of religion, drug abuse, life-style choices, economic generation etc.
Stelna and Asnat have the large task of preparing daily meals and washing clothes for 22 orphans. They also bathe the 3 babies, and attend to children’s general needs. When not working Stelna and Asnat play with and teach the children. All but the 3 youngest children are suffering from HIV/Aids.
Arend and Antony are serving in separate departments of Tumaini (Hope) Health Center. Antony is currently working in reception, admitting new patients and writing up their files. Arend has been shadowing a doctor for the past week, and will begin assisting surgeries, taking blood slides etc this week.
Sara and Helen have been looking over Echenford Middle School curriculums for Chemistry and English. They prepared their lesson plans, and their first classes have gone smoothly.

Profile of Tanzanian team members, and news...

The Canadian team members arrived a week ago and have been strategically paired with a Tanzanian counterpart. Here is a short profile of the Tanzanian counterparts:
Helen Kavisha, age 24. Completed teachers college. She will be teaching with Sara at an English Medium School. She has a desire to teach English. Sara will be teaching Chemistry. She loves the Lord.
Asnat Lyimo, age 25. Completed high school. Has been working in hotel management. She loves working with children. She is working with Stelna at an orphanage. She loves the Lord.
Anthony Hango, age 27. Completed high school. He is passionate about working with youth. The past 4 years he has volunteered to counsel youth in issues of HIV and drug abuse. He will assist Arend in the hospital. He loves the Lord, and likes to sing gospel songs.
Regis Milambo, age 25. Completed 1st year university. He has been volunteering as a Youth Coordinator at the Diocese Youth Center. He also has some connection with 4 H in Tanzania. He will be working with Ollie at the Diocese Youth Center, and possibly other youth centers. He loves the Lord, and enjoys praying.

For orientation we bussed to a quiet fishing village to relax, build team dynamics and hold some project and culture orientation sessions over the course of a few days. We attended a local church on Sunday and the pastor invited Shayo, Jamie and I up to speak in front of the Church and tell them all about our program. They welcomed us warmly.
Now we are back in Tanga. The Counterparts have moved in with their host families and have had an orientation to their workplacements. They begin full-time work on Monday. We have already had a meeting with the mayor of Tanga at which point he was able to give us many answers to important questions we had concerning social development and city infrastructure. We also had a meeting with the bishop of Tanga.
The population of Tanga is approx. 300,000. Throughout the day and especially the night our activities are accompanied by the mysterious chants of Islamic prayer over a loudspeaker. It is beautiful and haunting all at once. There are also many Indians (Hindus and Sihks). The staple diet here is starchy foods such as white rice, polenta, and white bread. Oranges are in season. Mosquito bites/nets/spray are a natural part of life. The streets are crowded with colourful and cultural clothing. The team is fitting in quite well, wearing local dress, taking public transportation, eating from street vendors and speaking Swahili.
Pray that the Canadian team members adjust to the culture and living situation well. Pray that out team and our aspirations will be accepted and embraced by the local community. Pray for mutual learning to take place, often learning happens after persevering through frustrations.
In the long term pray that our team will be filled with a spirit of discernment and wisdom as we seek to build partnerships and assess the future involvement of TWU in Tanga.