Weeki Kumi na Tano (Week Fifteen)

Monday morning I made may way to the kitchen and the school to help the Mamas make Chapattis. While making the chapattis I tried to encourage (using my half broken Swahili) to continue their efforts at marketing their yogurt product. I told them about the possibility of selling at Isamilo International School and I introduced them to the idea of putting together a marketing pitch. The Mamas seemed keen on the idea and I encouraged them to look at selling to more places in order to expand their market and to expand the project as a whole.
In the afternoon I had to run some errands and had to grab some food from the market so I headed into town. On my way I grabbed some drinks and snack for our weekly meeting with Alex and the Mamas and headed home in time for the meeting. Unfortunately Alex could not make it to the meeting so the Mamas and I talked about what we could and enjoyed some snacks and drinks together.
In the evening I started to organize a task list for myself since there were many things running through my head that I wanted to do and there were some requests from the team at home. It seems to be much busier now without the other interns.
Later on I headed to Tunza Beach Lodge for my friend Kate’s going away dinner.

On Tuesday I did a little bit of work from home and printed all materials for Membership Card System so that I could bind them and give them to the Mamas so that they could implement the new documentation system. Later on in the day I headed off to Isamilo International School to book appointment with the Headmaster, Iain, so that we could talk about the possibility of selling the yogurt at the school canteen.
After I book the appointment I headed home to put together the Mamas marketing ideas into pamphlet form so that they could effectively promote themselves and the probiotic yogurt product. After doing some work at home I headed to the kitchen to get the Mamas to look over the pamphlet that I made and to tell them about our appointment for the next day at Isamilo. I also suggested to them to bring some yogurt so that they could sample it. When I went home I cut up a bunch of different fruits and bought some honey for the next day too to show them all of the different recipes that you can make with the yogurt. The Mamas and I talked about thinking of different ways to market the probiotic yogurt. We also talked about changing their marketing strategies depending on who their target customers are.
After visiting the Mamas I went to the internet café to print the pamphlet to take with us to Isamilo International School.
Later in the evening I worked on editing some more documents for Kivulini.

On Wednesday morning Mama Paskwalina and Mama Elizabeth came over to propose a pricing strategy for the yogurt. We wanted to make sure that if institutions were buying in bulk, they would get a better price for the yogurt. After typing up the cost per litre form we headed off to the International School to meet with Iain and the lady that runs the canteen. Alex met us as the school in case we needed some assistance with translation. The Mamas, Alex, and I explained about Tukwamuane Women’s Group and the benefits of the probiotic yogurt. We then did a little bit of taste testing and both Iain and the Canteen Supervisor loved the yogurt. After a few minutes of negotiations, they decided that 17L of probiotic yogurt would be purchased per week for both the canteen lunches and the students who live in residence. The Mamas and I were pretty happy since increasing their sales puts them closer to their 100L per day production and sales target for sustainability. After the meeting I headed home to work on the Master Plan document. Alex wasn’t feeling well so he headed off to the clinic. He called me later and informed me that he had malaria so there would be no meeting that day with the Mamas. Some of the Mamas ended up coming over anyways since we would be able to discuss a few things.

Thursday I had planned to do a lot of paperwork on the computer, do some photocopying and printing and use the internet but the power was out both at home and throughout town. At the same time, the water was also cut off so I couldn’t shower, couldn’t do the dishes, I couldn’t even wash my hands. It was a little frustrating not being able to get anything that I wanted to do done, but here, you have to be flexible with all of you plans and be able to adapt to and deal with unexpected roadblocks. The electricity and water has been shutting off quite a bit lately, there must be city-wide shortages. Again, it made me think of how lucky I am that I even have access to electricity and water since many people here in Mwanza do not have access to these amenities.
I thought that I may as well make myself useful so I decided to head to Mabatini to help the Mamas cook the yogurt or to maybe help cook chapattis at the school.
Later in the afternoon I walked to Kivulini to see if they had any volunteer work for me to do. I always love going to Kivulini because the staff and volunteers are always so friendly. They are a great bunch of people.
In the evening I studied Swahili again by candlelight.

On Friday I headed to the print shop to bind the membership card documentation books and the attendance log that I had made for the Mamas. It was nice chatting with the ladies who work there again while I waited for them to do the binding. After that I headed to the internet café to send off some emails.
In the afternoon I headed to the kitchen to visit the Mamas and to check if there were any more updates or business matters to deal with.
My friend Jessica had invited me to her brother’s wedding so in the evening her and I headed of to the Wande Hotel to enjoy the wedding celebrations. This was the second wedding that I have attended here in Tanzania and it was very different from the first one. Just like in Canada, I bet all weddings are different. The one thing that was the same though was the constant addition of music and dancing throughout every part of the ceremony…I loved it!

On Saturday I woke up later in the morning and finished editing some documents for Kivulini. I also worked on a few documents that I had to prepare for Tukwamuane. In the evening I went out for dinner with some friends.

On Sunday I decided to go to Church with my friend Salome. Even thought I am not associated with any religion I am very open-minded and eager to learn about any religion. So she came around 8am in the morning to pick me up so that we could walk there together. It took us about an hour to walk there but it was a nice day and we had a good chat on the way there. Salome’s church is a Pentecostal church. It was a large church that was decorated very nicely with Christmas lights and big decorative sheets and awnings. The service was very lively and full of life as the majority of the time people were singing and dancing in celebration. Most of the service was in Swahili but a Pastor and his wife from Oklahoma had been visiting and gave a sermon in English that was translated into Kiswahili. Even though I didn’t understand the majority of the service the music was wonderful and the spirit and energy within the crowd of people was very positive. At one point in time a children’s group came up to the front and performed a song and dance session for about 30 min. It was so cute to see all the little ones dancing. They sure know how to make church fun. Although I had a great time, I don’t think that I will go again since the service was about 5 and a half hours long…it was a little too long and intense for me but I am happy that I went for the experience.
In the afternoon I came home to rest and spent some time on the Kivulini documents.
Later on in the evening I was happy to meet up with my friends Letitia and Joseph for a nice meal. I met Letitia and Joseph the last time that I was in Tanzania and we hadn’t seen each other for about 2 and a half years. Letitia is a Canadian woman from BC. She is a nurse had has worked in Tanzania many times as her husband is from here. She has also worked in Kenya and is now off to Sudan for a year to work with MSF (Doctors Without Borders). They are good friends of mine and it was really nice to catch up with them over a delicious Indian meal!