Weeki Sita (Week Six)

On Monday Jon and I went to the yogurt kitchen to pick up the estimate for the fencing and store house. It was weird starting the week off without Ashley there. We really missed her. We spent about an hour with the Mamas, talking to them and discussing the plans for the new kitchen. After the kitchen we went home and called Dr. Butamanya from Sekoutoure Hospital and Mr. Ngowi from TASAF to set up appointments to discuss project funding, probiotic cultivation and project updates. I spent the evening working on the new registration system for PLAWs. fft

On Tuesday Jon and I went to the yogurt kitchen to help out the Mamas and to return their cost estimate sheets that we had copied the day before. After the kitchen we went to the internet café to create a list of priority tasks to tackle for the next little while. In the evening I joined Joke (a Dutch intern from the Netherlands) and Sophie (one of my local friends) went to the Family Fitness Centre for the most hard core aerobics session I have ever participated in. I was amazed that they even have a gym here in Mwanza but it was actually really nice. The class was led by a beefed up drill sergeant type man who was really nice but really tough on us. The composition of the class was quite different from classes at home. There were about 20 men and 4 or 5 women (including the 3 of us). The room looked quite similar to a workout room at home with mirrors encasing the room. Unlike gyms at home though, there was no air conditioning…it was pretty hot. The music was also a bit different, the African beats were much more fun to work out too but they were a little fast for my uncoordinated self. The class lasted about an hour and a half and I worked so hard that my face turned purple and I was sweating like crazy. I literally have never worked out that hard and I used to train at a gym at home. After our exhausting workout I headed home so that I could get ready to go out for dinner with one of our good friends, Ingerd, who was leaving the next day to go back to Norway. We decided to eat dinner at Ingerd’s favorite place to eat. She chose to go to a place called Diners that serves delicious Indian cuisine.

On Wednesday we visited the yogurt kitchen to buy some yogurt and to help the Mamas for a little while. We returned home for lunch and stayed at the apartment so that I could work some more on creating the 125 membership cards for PLWAs. Later on that day we paid a visit to Dr. Butamanya at Sekoutoure Hospital to (re)introduce ourselves and to discuss with him Ashley’s health benefits study, probiotic research as well as some ideas for project financing. We had a nice conversation with him outside under a tree while enjoying sodas and water (maji). Dr. Butamanya gave us some good suggestions and informed us that he would make some inquiries into local funding for us and report back to us at the July Steering Committee Meeting. After visiting Dr. Butamanya I decided to go to the clinic because I had been feeling ill since the morning. About an hour into waiting for my test results I had to leave to go home because I was violently ill. My amazing roommates were nice enough to pick up my test results for me. Turns out, I had an amoeba. I haven’t been that sick in a long time, I couldn’t even drink water without being sick and I didn’t eat for three days. But once I got my meds and they started to kick in I felt much better.

So Wednesday evening to Friday night were write-off days since I was confined to my bed. All I did was sleep. This was a nasty Amoeba…worse than the one I had the last time I was here. Its nickname was Pablo…

Pablo died on Saturday and I was feeling much better. Jon and I planned a meeting with Alex (our project coordinator) to brainstorm ideas for the Master Plan for the project. We spent about 4 hours drafting up a task chart and discussing the necessary components of the Master Plan. Since we were in need of some relaxation time we decided to head to Tunza to Relax. Because we were so relaxed we decided to sleep on the beach with a number of our friends. Tunza is one of my favorite places to relax…it was amazing seeing the sunrise in the morning.

As we were leaving Tunza on Sunday morning, walking down the long, bumpy dirt road we got a call from our friend Danny to come over to his house for breakfast. He just lived around the way so off we went. Danny has a really nice place about 5 minutes away from Tunza. He made us French toast (YUM!) and tea (chai). After our large and delicious breakfast we sat outside on Danny’s porch and watched the moneys (yea, I said monkeys) that live in the trees in his yard. As most people know, I absolutely LOVE monkeys so I was really happy to be sitting there. We sat and relaxed for a long while and then went home so we could go to the Sunday market to buy our weekly round of produce. In the evening I relaxed with the girls next door. We made a delicious dinner with fruits and vegetables and home made hummus…YUM! Later on that night Jon met up with another Canadian SFD (Students For Development) intern named Geoff. He was only in Mwanza for a few days so he stayed at our apartment on Sunday night before his bus ride to Kenya in the Morning. It was nice hanging out with another Canadian around our age. Geoff will be back in Mwanza in a few weeks for one night as he continues on to Sengerema. It will be nice to see him again.