Swahili Word of the Week: Kwanza Kalima- Farmers Fest, Nane Nane- literal translation 8 8, or Aug 8, date for Kwanza Kalima.
Weather In Dodoma; Arid, Dusty and Biridi Sana at night.
Special Shout Out: Happy Birthday Little Viv!
Connections and Communication
This past weekend our team traveled up to Dodoma to celebrate national farmers day. It was a huge event covering 400 acres. It was seriously quite a spectacle, similar to a county fair but African Style (lions on display, roasted goat meat on a stick etc.). We went because we were supporting the Tanzania National Nurse Association who set up a booth to check random blood sugars. The Tanzanian Ministry of Health set up a “city” of health in the middle of nowhere complete with blood donation, dentistry, ophthalmology, pediatrics, cervical cancer screening, sugar checks, mobile lab, HIV screening. It was very impressive, so much so, that they won the overall Prize when competing with all the other Ministry’s (including the Ministry of beekeeping, YES beekeeping). When traveling up there it went through my head, “what was the point of many, many top level officials taking the entire week off”, not to mention the prep time to travel to the middle of the country to stand in a field under a tent to talk about their work. I have learned living here though that often my perspective, judgment and preconceived notions are wrong, and yup I was wrong again…
Communication here is different. There is the obvious; that a greeting will often go on for 3-5 minutes. Hello, Whats the News? News is good. How is your Home? My home is fine. How is your work? My work is fine. Is business good? Yes, business is good. Are you here? Yes I am here. (this is my favorite, though it is better in Swahili- Upo- Are you there? Nipo- I’m here!). This is done with almost everyone you meet. It is considered rude to pass someone and not at least ask how the news is.
Then there is the subtle communications that I blatantly butcher and am just forgiven because I am a visitor. When someone comes to your house you say Karibu-Welcome. And then you go and get them juice. Instead I would welcome them and ask if they wanted chai, water, juice, soda etc. In Tanzania this is considered rude as I am showing off with all that I have to offer. I learned this the hard way.
Communication is also key with work and getting tasks accomplished. Email is very rarely an effective way of communication. I send them and they go into a black hole with about 10% getting a response. Internet and electricity are luxuries that are often not consistent enough to rely on. Cell phones are everywhere and most Tanzanians carry at least 3 if not 4. Why? Because the networks are much cheaper to call from the same network. If someone is on Zain, I will call them using my Zain phone. Makes life very complicated.
Face to face time is the best and accomplishes the most. After working the developed world there is something endearing about doing business face to face. You don’t misinterpret what someone says (like in an email), you can cover a lot in one meeting and finally you really form a relationship with someone. In Tanzania relationships are key, if you have a relationship with someone the job gets done, if you don’t, it doesn’t. This brings me back to Kulima Kwanza. The amount of networking, sharing of information and meeting of the minds at this festival was evident and more got accomplished then I could have imagined.
Our Nurses collected 300 pints of blood, checked 810 blood sugars (with 20% being referred to treatment!). I also was lucky enough to meet the president and discuss nursing in Tanzania! Unfortunately, as you will witness in the photo, I was wearing quite the outfit to try and avoid the sun, wind, dust storms but oh well so was he; a plaid jacket, neon green polo and white hat. Please don’t report either of us to the fashion police.
Miss you all.
Signing Out from Dar…
