My new home- Morogoro

Transportation is different in Tanzania. The buses don't leave simply until the entire bus is full. So we arrived around 10am, and the bus did not pull out until 12... just some more delays in Africa we will need to get used to.
The drive to Morogoro was spectacular. As we left Dar we passed various villages and little cities along the way. I watched out my window as women would sit on the ground in the front of their mud hut peeling potatoes and cooking over a charcoal fire. The children would run about the yard shoe-less and the men hack at crops with a machete. Then about 10 minutes later we would pass another village where you could see women going to fetch water from the well and carrying it in big buckets on their head and children work in the fields looking for any life that might have survived the African sun. If any of your are having a hard time picturing this, simply turn on the memory of world-vision comercials and this was simply the sight.
Once we arrived in Morogoro, my breath was taken away. The mountains that once cascaded in the distance were now within my vision with Morogoro situated at their base. Any picture I had seen of here previous was nothing compared to what was standing before my eyes. Having lived in the mountains my whole life, I thought it would be just like home, but it is so so so beautiful.
Life here is busy on the one paved road of downtown. People hustle and bustle about and if you're not careful, you surely will get run over. There are many Dukas (shops) that sell basically anything we will need and many places to buy fresh fruit and vegi. However, you walk five minutes from downtown and you are in peaceful and quiet residential areas. I live about a 15 minute walk from down town on a red dirt road that is covered in potholes. Once you past the front gate, there is an courtyard that houses about 15 chickens and two dogs, as well as an avacado, papaya, and apple tree. Our house is, well, lets just say HIGH standards for Tanzania. We have a computer (no internet tho), a TV with satelite, stereo and our Mama insists that she warms our water to wash with. We also have two house girls that cook and clean, but I am sure to learn from them. And the food, well that is one thing I will have to get used to. Ugali, is a traditional dish that is made up of cornflour and.. well I dont know. It basically tastes like cream of wheat, but without any milk. Rice is served ocassionally and Chapati, which is a type of fried bread, similar to Naan. We have chosen to eat only chicken for meat here because there is a butcher shop across from our house and we see the beef hanging there... all day... in the sun. We usually have spinach with our meals as well and sometimes fruit. So, like I said, I will get used to it.
Oh, did I mention how hot it is here? While you all are freezing, im sitting in about... 28, 29 maybe, but with very little humidity, which is nice. Soon we will be starting our work and I am really looking forward to it. I have received my placement assignments and I will be working with a Drama/music group, helping them make skits and plays and arranging places for them to perform, as well as arranging local talent nights here in Morogoro. The next is Gender workshops focused on healthy lifestyles. So over 5 weeks we will cover topics like HIV, STI's, Condoms, Birthcontrol, and many other issues aimed towards women. The next is Governanace Modules, so I will be teaching youth in Morogoro about their rights as a Tanzanian and other topics regarding government and politics. Then myself and another girl will be working with the womens netball team, attenting practises and arranging matches for them if possible. Next I will be doing Home Based Care, which is where I visit the homes of children who are living with HIV and play with them and build relationships. Also once a month they have play days where 125 HIV+ children come together to play in a safe, stigma free environment. My final project is a Youth Lifeskills Manual that I must compile information regarding all aspects of living a healthy lifestyle and put it in an organized manual. I will have a heavy work load but I am very excited.

Habari za Leo!
The last few days were spent in Dar doing orientation. The last day or two we had the commissioner of the Tanzanian Aids Coorporation come in and talk to us about the present situation in Tanzania. He is a very well known man here and it was an honour to meet him. He told us that the HIV prevelance rate here has gone down from 7% to 5.7% so that was good news but he also told us that 12% of tanzanians are orphaned children. Later YCI brought in a head mama to talk to us about the current issues that will face us regarding gender. Tanzania has over come many leaps and bounds over the last 15 years but still has much to learn. 10 years ago women were forbade to wear pants, now almost every woman wears jeans. This may seem like not a big deal but it is a huge freedom for women. Although in the city we may not witness many of these problems women face, however, the country side is where women are still very opressed. Rape is still heavily practised among the masai community which is increasing the rate of HIV infection.
So we spent the last night together as the group of 8 before departing our seperate ways in the morning. We said our goodbyes, and off to Morogoro it was for me.

Double Dose of Amsterdam

Well.. Im here!! And wow... was it an adventure. Once in Amsterdam, we boarded our connection flight to Dar. At about four and a half hours in there was an announcement that we were having some technical difficulties and the plane had to be turned around. I guess the cabin pressure monitors went down for about 10 seconds and the pilots had to wear oxygen masks, but then the monitors went back on. We had to turn the plane around and go all the way back to Amsterdam! We were flying above Egypt at the time but we could not land there to fix the problem because it would take a few days. We would not be able to leave due to immigration issues so the best thing was to go all the way back. So, we got off the plane, waited 20 mins, and got back on another that was waiting for us. The flight that was supposed to be about 9 hours took nearly 21! But, we arrived and we are here in Dar Es Salaam now. It is HOT but not unbearable. It doesn't really feel like we're in Africa yet, just another big city with lots of dark skinned people haha. Suprisingly, I would say there are more people moving about here than in China! More cars, more people walking, more everything! It is beautiful and really neat to see but I think more will kick in once I head off into the more rural Morogoro. We have until friday here for orientation before we go our seperate ways to the different locations. I am not sure of the next time I will be able to access the internet so this was just a short little update so you know I have arrived. I will be thinking of you all, wish me luck!

The past two days the group has spent doing sessions with the Center for Intercultural Learning. Throughout various workshops we were taught many skills on how to be effective working in an intercultural environment, ranging from games on group dynamics, culture shock, c!ultural sensitivity and adaptation. The training was productive and I think will be a valuable asset to helping me make realistic goals and achieve success in my own measure.

Last night, a group member and myself decided to really treat ourselves for our last night in Canada. Despite being the coldest night of our entire week in Toronto, we found ourselves walking around downtown finding a good place to get some Canadian grub. Seeing as how we are staying in the Fasion district, the first few blocks of eateries were... lets just say, out of our league haha. Finally deciding on a s teakhouse, we walked in to have our last meal. I, of course, orderded a giant steak and potatoes. Satisfying my cravings, we opted to having a few glasses of wine and even dessert. Once we were finally stuffed, we realized we had spent more on this entire meal than we had all week on eating. Oh well! I think I may be looking at eating vegetarian while in Tanzania, that steak may have been my last look at beef.
We just checked out of our hostel and now we're just bumming around Toronto until it is time to head off to the Airport. Suprisingly, I have remained very calm throughout this whole time; I don't have that nauseous nervous feeling in my stomach that I had before taking off to China. In all honesty, I still have no idea what to expect of what I will be doing in Tanzania, but I'm okay with that. We fly out of Toronto to Amsterdam at 6pm Toronto time this Sunday evening and do not arrive in Tanzania until 11pm January 27th. Once I'm in country, we have a few days of orientation in Dar Es Saalam before venturing off to Morogoro. Wish me luck and I'll talk to you all once im in AFRICA.

Pre-Departure Training, Toronto

We live in a world that has two hundred million youth living in poverty, 130 million youth are non-literate, 88 million are unemployed and 10 million young people are living with HIV/AIDS. Most young people (roughly 85%) live in developing countries.

During this three day training period, YCI has helped me prepare myself to face some of these issues. Day two has a significant value for my learning; YCI brought in two Canadians who have been living with HIV. They spoke to us about their experiences in Canada what it is like to be HIV+. From them we were able to ask as many questions as we wanted, ranging from general info on HIV to personal questions about when and how they think they contracted the virus. Ester, a native from Zimbabwae, was asked the question "In which country did you feel a higher degree of stigma, your homeland or Canada?" I found it apsolutely astonishing that she replied with Canada. I encourage you all to become more educated on the topic of HIV/AIDS, get tested and help reduce the stigma; AIDS is becoming an epidemic everywhere, not just Africa. 60,000 Canadians are infected with the HIV virus and that number is increasing rapidly.

We have convered such a wide variety of topics in just our short three days. However, I think Gender will be my most challenging issue to tackle in the field once situated in Tanzania.

-Out of over 180 countries, only 13 are currently headed by women. (march 2007)

-Only 1% of the world's assets are in the name of women.

-70% of people in abject poverty- living on less than $1 per day- are women.

-Globally, women make up 60% of the 15-24 year olds who are HIV+

Youth Challenge International- Project: Tanzania

For those of you who do not know exactly what I'm doing, here is a little info.
The overseas learning program opportunity I am involved with is an 8 week placement in Tanzania, Africa with Youth Challenge International. YCI-Tanzania is a non-profit, non-religious charitable organization funded primarily by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)'s Global Youth Leadership Program, building the skills, experience and confidence of young people to effect positive change in their communities. . Working alongside local community partner organizations, myself and other volunteers help improve capacity and assist in the delivery and expansion of local programming focused on mobilizing youth through skills development and employability training, HIV/AIDS awareness raising, gender equality training, and enabling local youth to take on leadership roles. In rural Morogoro, some of the projects I will be taking part in are: "The Courage Campaign" designed to decrease negative stigma attached to HIV/AIDS testing, to encouraged healthy lifestyle choices, and join the global fight against HIV/AIDS; Health and Life Skills Classes to educate youth in various aspects of health, as a means to improve abilities to make healthy lifestyle choices; A Girls Club to build the confidence, leadership and life skills of female students at the Faraja Shule; Sexual and Reproductive Health & HIV/AIDS School Presentations to secondary school students; International Women's Day.



Africa- some people think of elephants and lions, some think of naked tribes people, and then some people think of crime and danger. For me, ever since I was a little girl, I can remember dreaming about one day going to Africa. I always talked about it and conspired how I was going to get there; in all honesty, I never thought it would actually come true.

One day, I saw a posting about YCI online and I figured "What the hell, it doenst hurt to try." Low and behold, I got an email requesting an interview. Arranging a date and time, the interview passed and a week later I would find out. Despite stumbling past the questions and studdering my answers, I got the acceptance email. I read it, then I read it again, and then I read it some more. After the words on the screen finally sunk in, I sat down in my chair and cried. The tears, to tell you the truth, im not sure what they were coming from: Joy, fear, curiosity, excitement, anxiety, so many emotions were running through my head and now streaming down my face. After my minute of review, the excitement finally sunk in and I ran down the stairs to tell my mom what every mom loves to hear. "Mom!! Im going to AFRICA!!!"

Despite all my talks about one day venturing off to Africa, I dont think my parents really thought I'd go through with it either. But, despite all their fears, they put a smile on their face and congradulated me. So, here I am in Toronto for pre-departure training, 5 months later, $3,700 raised *cough cough more like $7,000 cough cough*, and my backpack packed, ready to go.

I want to take the time to thank my friends and family. I know everyone always says this, but honestly, I could NOT have done it without you. I appreciate every minute spent on one of my lame fundraisers and every penny donated towards my goal. Sincerely, thank-you.

To my family: Ever since I was little you taught me to follow my heart and to experience life for myself. You all led by example by never giving up when times got tough and showed me that I can do anything I want to. Your compassion, support, and good advice are thigns that I can never live without. I've learned to never fear the unkown and that I can accomplish anything I want to. Kyle, you showed me the way and led me onto a path that changed my life forever. Not many brothers would agree to take their 16 year old sis across the world for two months... so, thanks bro.