Expansion

This past week I decided to accompany Erica on an expansion trip into the Kilimanjaro region. After five years of serving the Arumeru district in the Arusha region, Support for International Change (SIC), has decided to look for other districts as prospective areas to offer their services. SIC has been providing HIV education campaigns, mobile voluntary counseling and testing (VCT), peer education programs and community health workers in rural villages surrounding Arusha. Field Officers continue to follow up on different communities, in order to manage sustainable on-going HIV education, patient support, and testing. In these next few months, SIC plans on finding on a new district, in which to expand and develop their programs. Through the volunteer program, SIC is able to continually train and provide schools with HIV education. Volunteers live with their respective communities' homestay families and do a six week awareness campaigns with local Tanzanian teaching partners. The volunteers become involved in their communities and organize big testing days. Just recently SIC broke their own record and tested 200 people at the Ngorobob Market in Mateves. With such programs on-going year round in different communities, Field Officers and staff counselors are able to continually provide services, when the volunteer programs are over. I hope that when most of these volunteers go back to their homes, albeit the United Kingdom or the U.S., they know that they made a real and sustainable difference in their communities. One more person listening to teachings or getting tested, is one more person educated about HIV and their status.

The expansion project involves going to new areas and meeting with government officials about their service needs and gaps. Erica last week had gone to Babati, and gathered that the district's existing HIV services, appeared to be far from complete. The government officials welcomed SIC and their programs with open arms.

Erica and I set out to Moshi to meet with relevant government officials, including the TACAIDS Kilimanjaro Regional Facilitating Agency (RFA) and the District Medical Officer (DMO). On our drive towards Moshi we saw a piece of the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro peeking through the clouds. Moshi is about 1.5 hours away and has an amazing view of Kilimanjaro. In addition, Moshi has good coffee shops and I enjoyed a delicious crepe for the first time in a while. I would like to mention that 'Indotaliano Restaurant' is exceptionally good in Indian and Italian cuisine. Our meetings unraveled that Moshi Rural has many services, and the DMO confirmed that there were a number of organizations attempting to link HIV services to the rural community. Nonetheless, the trip proved to be extremely informative. Many areas besides government facilities are also shadowed by private religious hospitals offering similar health services.

Early the next morning we were off towards the Rombo district. Our drive would lead us towards the Kenyan border and present us with a view of Kilimanjaro without cloud coverage. As we drove, an amazing panoramic vista of the summit of Kilimanjaro and Mt. Mwenzi appeared. We cherished this view that seldom gets seen, unless you happen to be driving to the border or to Rombo. After missing a turn and actually hitting a customs check, we redirected ourselves towards the mountain. Rombo lies at the base of the north-eastern slopes of Kilimanjaro. Our Land Rover took a beating, but the area was lush with exotic fauna, colorful red dirt, and Chagga people. We had seen only a handful of Maasai people. We eventually made it to the District Hospital and spoke with the DMO. He explained that the region was being serviced by a Belgian NGO and Mildmay International (an International Healthcare NGO). Both organizations seemed to be building a plan to cover the area and according to the DMO, he was hoping there would be no service gaps. For a variety of reasons, including ease of working conditions and existing infrastructure, this region seems to attract a lot of international attention. Hence, SIC's presence was much less needed around these parts than what had been experienced in Babati. After a long day, we dropped back down several degrees into Moshi. Moshi tends to be five degrees hotter than Arusha, and I could tell. Even though SIC most likely would not be coming to Moshi Rural or Rombo, it is reassuring to know that people seem to have the opportunities to get the services they need. The clouds would stay heavy over Kilimanjaro, and we would enjoy some excellent coffee...

Ol Tukai and Tarangire

This year I turned "ishirini na nane" 28 years old on October fourth. We had a blast at Stiggy's Restaurant, where our roommates played some good music. It was an evening of good food, good friends, and my performance debut of the Swanglish smash hit- "Samaki in the Bahari". As a memorizing mechanism towards learning Swahili, I have begun to write Swanglish educational songs. These songs incorporate the best of what someone would need to know to walk around town and communicate. Nonetheless, it was nice to have a wonderful birthday out in Africa. After a long week, Erica and I decided to head out to the bush and camp. Our first night brought us out to our friend Corbett's conservancy area in Ol Tukai. The Ol Tukai Conservancy is a small, focused, and effective conservation organization designed to protect and conserve a vital wildlife corridor in the Tarangire-Manyara Ecosystem of Northern Tanzania, while simultaneously benefitting, empowering and educating the people of the Ol Tukai community.
The area is amazing and full of palm trees, hence the Masai word for palm tree- 'Ol Tukai'. We called our guide Balozi to take us into the conservation area. The drive passed Masai bomas, some schools, a dam, and eventually out to edge of Lake Mayara. When we landed, I felt as if I was on the beach somewhere. It was such a breath of fresh air to be by a body of water. We parked our Land Rover next to two towering palm trees, as this was going to be our designated camp site. It was truly gorgeous, no one around and the cool breeze blowing into our hair. In the distance were pelicans sunbathing, as their comrade flamingoes were away. This year the lake had come up too high, so flamingoes had flocked elsewhere for this part of the year. Normally, game travels through the area, however, the area was a bit dry. All regions have their dry and wet seasons, and we happen to be at Ol Tukai during the dry season. Nonetheless, we set up camp and built an outdoor grill for our dinner. Balozi continued to tell us about the area, explaining how the conservancy had helped fund and build some schools in the area, and bought a vehicle to help against local poaching. Soon the sun was beginning to go down and we watched a beautiful sunset and pelicans float by with the current. It had been a while since I had seen the sun go down over water, perhaps the last time was Venice Beach, California.
We made a tomato, artichoke heart, and avocado salad medley with balsamic vinagrette. Our grill worked out perfect for our apricot-marinated rib-eye steaks. The Chilean bottle of wine some friends gave me complemented fabulously. We ate and laid down and starred at the stars for hours beside a nice camp fire. When we awoke in the morning and I pulled back our tent door, I could have sworn we were on the beach. I thought we were beach camping, and the breeze blew nice during the dawn hours. We got up and packed up our camp site. Balozi had come back to take us to his family's boma in the village. After a short drive, we arrived at his place. We were greeted with traditional Masai jewelry and met his family and children. It really had been a pleasure to meet him and Israel, our other guide. Unfortunately, on our way back to the main road, we got a small tire puncture. Some of the Masai women we were giving a ride to showed us the way to a place that fixed tire punctures. The main road was a place that many safari vehicles travel, thus, this was the perfect place to find a tire fundi. The next couple of hours we spent waiting for our tire to get fixed.
Luckily we were only 7 km from the gate of Tarangire National Park. Tarangire is home to the largest concentration of elephants than anywhere else in the world. Inclusive, the swamps are green year round and are the focus of 550 bird varieties, the most breeding species in one habitat anywhere in the world. The strong sun sucks the moisture from the earth and turns the ground a dusty red. No matter what time of year it is, wet or dry, there is always water in Tarangire. Thus, thirsty predators and migratory wild life know to come. Tarangire also has some rare antelope such as the oryx and gerenuk. We drove all day, as it was my first time in the park and Erica hadn't been inside the park in three years. We encountered a lot of elephants, but unfortuantely, did not see any predators. We took a nice break at Sopa Lodge, which has a swimming pool and a nice deck to grab a drink from the bar. After seeing an alpha male baboon attack a tourist to get his food at a picnic site, we decided to make some ham and cheese sandwiches in the car. Rule number one, if there are monkeys around, close the windows if you're not in the car, because they will come in at will to find food, especially if you have bananas.
The view from the picnic site was really spectacular. The panarama of the river presented us with a view of drinking elephants. We could hear some folks telling the baboons to get away. Honestly, baboons are no joke and they can be aggressive, do not take their presence for granted. We ultimately, did have a wonderful day inside of Tarangire. It's nice to know that it is only 75 miles from Arusha, not far at all. Not bad for 'jumapili'- Sunday.. We drove towards Arusha before it got dark and encountered vistas of Mt. Meru behind coffee fields and blossoming purple jacaranda trees. What a pretty place..
I encourage any and all of you to check out Ol Tukai Conservancy (www.oltukai.org), educate yourself or perhaps donate to the cause. If you plan on being in the area, we can help facilitate a trip there and experience a special place. If you would like to go on a luxury safari, I mean the real deal, mobile tented camps getting set up in the middle of no where and private chefs, please visit (www.cbsafaris.com). I'm sure Corbett can accomodate your customized safari or Kilimanjaro climb.

'Tuko Pamoja'- We are together... 'Usiogope Ufahamu'- Knowledge is power...