Weather and Climate in Morogoro

Before I begin discussing the weather and climate here, I should note that I have only been here seven weeks and that is not really a good sample size of what the weather is like here, so read this post with that in mind.

When we first came to Tanzania, it was very hot and very dry. There was a lot of dust everywhere. I had heard that rain has been scarce throughout the country in the last few years and a lot of greenery has died off because of that.

Generally, days were very hot and sunny with a few clouds. Most people rest and stay out of the sun from about 11 until 3 or 4 (my estimate). Walking home for lunch (and then back into town after) can cover me in a lot of sweat. It’s kind of gross, but everyone here is sweaty all the time, so it’s not that big of a deal.

The mornings and evenings, however, are generally quite cool, though I would not go so far as to say they are cold – which some locals would try to tell you. If it weren’t for the mosquitoes that come out then, it would be a very nice time of day.

Soon after we arrived, we were told that the short rainy season (which typically begins in November) would arrive early because of the El Nino effect. A few weeks into my stay, we started to get some brief spurts of rain. It would come down for a few minutes. Sometimes it would be hard. Sometimes it would spit. We had about a week of rain and then a couple weeks of a lot of sun. This week we had a couple of pretty big downpours. I read somewhere that there have been landslides triggered in Tanzania due to the large amounts of rain that have been falling after such a long time without them.

For about a day after each big rain, it gets a little humid here and the dust dies down. But due to the heat, the water evaporates and the dust comes back very quickly.

These rains will likely (according to my friends here) continue to December or January. Then from March to May there will be a lot of rain. I’ve been told that sometimes the downtown streets completely flood at that time. After those rains, it’s pretty dry again until the fall.

Lately the weather has been cooler and I’m hoping this continues for my traveling (which starts in just over a week!). Hopefully the rains don’t pour down on me when I’m camping.

Anyway, that’s a brief snippet of the weather and climate here. It is by no means scientific and based solely on what I’ve seen and heard from people who live here.

Programming Part V: HIV/AIDS Outreach

The Program

With a local drama group, YCI puts on three different types of outreach programs to educate about HIV/AIDS. The three types of events are: Rural Presentations (within an hour and a half drive from Morogoro), Secondary School Presentations, and Talent Shows (usually around Morogoro). At these presentations the drama group along with YCI presents a lot of information, entertains the crowd (with lots of interaction) and often demonstrates how to put on a condom (if the community or school allows it, and obviously with a banana).

My Job

Since most of the presentations are in Swahili, my involvement has been minimal. Our biggest task is to do pre and post surveys to compare the knowledge of the audience before and after the presentation. We also help out in various ways during the presentations including: being in the skits, holding signs, speaking about HIV/AIDS in Canada (with a translator) and generally offering up advice when necessary. Another important job we did was to do the condom demonstrations. We also attend a drama club practice once a week to liase with them and to practice any skits we might be doing that week.

Challenges and Successes

Generally, this program is the one that reaches the most people, so it is pretty successful right there. We have, however, had many challenges with this program. At various times we have had problems with: getting a power generator, a truck driver backing out at the last minute, the DJ being late, the music not working, schools switching the date on us at the last minute and just general confusion.

That being said, at the end of the day during each of the presentations we did, everyone was happy and all the information we wanted to deliver was delivered. Despite the problems we were successful and made things work the best way we could. The YCI staff are very experienced here and would not take no for an answer (with all of the above problems). Also, on almost every question we asked during the presentations we saw an increase in correct responses from the pre test to the post test. There were still some questions that the audiences had trouble with, though a lot of that might have had to do with shyness or feeling uncomfortable with speaking about these things.

All in all, though it was frustrating at times, these were very good programs which are attempting to help educate over a thousand people a month about HIV/AIDS.

Pictures: 1) The drama group getting ready for one of their skits at the first rural outreach in Kiloka. 2) Some girls dancing at the first talent show in Mazimbu. 3) Nicole performing with the drama group in Mazimbu. 4) Godfrey and Makho playing a game with students at the first secondary school presentation at Mgulasi School. 5) A female student rapping at the second secondary school presentation at Nanenane School. 6) The crowds at our second rural outreach in Dumila. 7) Someone performing a comedy routine in Dumila. 8) Some of the drama group members singing at our second talent show in Mafisa.

Mountain Climbing: Part Deux

Not too long ago, I managed to convince Gasto to climb the mountain behind town with me. This time, instead of stopping at Morningside we went to the communications tower at one of the peaks. It was a long and tough hike (Gasto told me that it’s harder than Kilimanjaro, but obviously shorter), but we made it to the top in four and a half hours. I was surprised at how cold it was at the top. I took a lot of pictures on the hike and here they are. Unfortunately, it was very cloudy at the top and we didn't really have a view from there.

1) The beginning of the forest as seen from below. These trees are huge. 2) A butterfly. 3) The dense forest we hiked through. 4) A tree on the edge of the mountain. If you look closely you can see the level of clouds BELOW the tree. 5) A millipede There were many on the path. The longest one was about 10-12cm by my estimation. 6) The last part of the climb. You can see the gate to the area where we rested. 7) The communications tower and building. I would not have wanted to be the person who had to carry up all of those materials. 8) The three of us before our descent. 9) - 13) Various pictures of the town from the mountain during our descent.

Religion in Morogoro

There are two main religions in Morogoro: Islam and Christianity. I have seen a Hindu temple, but generally the two I mentioned are the main ones here. There are many churches and mosques around and often you can hear the call to prayer at various times throughout the day – sometimes we are woken up in the mornings (which is a more common experience for our friends volunteering on Zanzibar).

Though there are large groups of people who in other parts of the world could not coexist peacefully, the people here have found a way and there seems to be no problems (at least none that I can see) between the two religions. People frequently ask us if we are Christian or Muslim (and consequently get baffled when we tell them neither).

So far, none of us have gone to church with our families, though we have been told that the shortest service here is Catholic and lasts for 3 hours. Even if I wanted to go to church, I probably wouldn’t go for that long.

Religion seems like an important thing here for the people, but it’s not something that causes major problems. Though, like I said above, this is from my perspective and I don’t know what’s really going on…

Another Set of Pictures

Here is another grab bag of pictures from my stay here. 1) I thought some people might find this funny (you know who you are). 2) It's blurry because the light was fading and I didn't want to use a flash, but this is a very large load of baskets balanced on a bicycle. This is typical of how people transport things around here. 3) Gasto with his Hallowe'en costume and "candy." 4) Melissa with some children (at playday). 5) Ilimara (a girl who lives in my house) showing us here dance moves. She likes the camera a lot. 6) Mee-gook lang-gwi-chi seu-kool (hahaha). I have seen many bags with Korean writing on them. I think the green bins go directly here. This one was from one of our Outreach events. 7) Pouring rain at the Faraja office. 8) My street at night. This picture was the best one, but it doesn't do the view justice. 9) Nicole and Melissa doing Good Governance (actually this was us waiting to meet with the Headmaster of the school - this was before all the problems we had with starting this program).

Programming Part IV: Good Governance

The Program

YCI has developed 7 modules to train students in good governance. The modules deal with many different topics, including what good governance is and some problems that can affect a nations ability to be governed well. About 30 students are offered the chance to go through our training (which in this case is about 5-6 sessions and potentially one or two field trips) to get a certificate of attendance.

My Job

My job is twofold. Along with Melissa, I helped prepare a pre and post questionnaire, implement it and mark it to check if students learned a lot from our course. Luckily for us, previous volunteers with YCI had already done this and minimal modifications were made.

The second part of our job is to help teach the class. Godfrey is always present and offers help with translating when necessary, but many of the students speak English quite well and we have so far been able to understand most of what is being said. Our job is to deliver some information and lead the students through activities which will hopefully generate meaningful discussions and allow students to gain the confidence needed to actively participate in the way their town and country are run.

Challenges and Successes

The biggest challenge to this program was just getting permission to start it. Originally Godfrey had confirmed everything with the headmaster of the school. When we went after exams were finished to double check that the times were ok, we were sent to two other teachers who were very skeptical of our project and made us come back several times to make sure that we weren’t going to teach any bad things to their students. Eventually, though, they saw the modules we were going to be presenting and were very pleased with the material. I’m glad that this worked out and we were able to start, but it is a good example of how difficult it can be sometimes to do things here in Morogoro.

When we did start, the class went fairly well, if a bit rushed due to us starting late. Some of the students were very involved and loved to speak a lot. It’s nice to be able to discuss things like governance with young people who are willing and eager to participate in public discourse.

One challenge we came up against was that a lot of students recognized the problems their communities are facing, but many didn’t feel like they could do something about them now. When we asked what they could do many of the responses we got were about what they would do when they were older. I’d like to think that by the end of this class we will inspire a few of them to take action on issues that are important to them and to give them the confidence to feel like they can make a difference.

Below are pictures of the students performing skits.

Cultural Differences

Being from Canada, I have noticed many cultural differences between there and here. Most of them are pretty small, but some can often be a bit jarring at times.

Most people in Tanzania (and I’m pretty sure all of East Africa) eat with their right hand only. It is considered an insult to eat with your left hand. Though I won’t go into exact details why (I know at least one of my family members will have a smile on his face about this), it has to do with what they use their left hand for. Shaking hands or waving to people with your left hand is apparently a bad thing too, though we have mistakenly done that many times and have not had any problems.

Greetings are an important part of life here. When we walk down the street, many people will greet us randomly. The thing is, though, that greetings can go on and on for a long time. Those of us in Morogoro have developed a quick reaction to most of the greetings that get thrown at us. Some of the Tanzanians we’ve met even seem to think it’s funny to throw as many at us as they can. We also get laughed at often for not knowing the correct greeting. Once, in retaliation, we tried it in English with many different greetings.

People here are also mostly laid back. There is not really a sense of urgency when it comes to getting something done, getting somewhere or just in general. Sometimes that attitude is nice and relaxing and at other times it can be very frustrating when we only have such a short time here.

To be honest, these are all gross generalizations. Obviously there are people who are extreme in the above cases and people who do not fit them at all. These are also only three things I noticed and I’m sure that given more time I could come up with a better picture.