So my Sunday is I work a bit in the office (one of our two days a week with reliable electricity supply) then am walking up the road when a fellow strikes up conversation. As answering his questions a guy who hustles on the streets who's become a friend in a way, Ganga, walks by. I like Ganga and am a bit aimless so I catch up to him accross the busy streat as he is heading up the hill into the village. Next we are sitting in a local canteen, he who has nothing has insisted on buying me a simple lunch. I eat his greens and he eats my meat. I like the way we manage to talk with his little English and my little Swahili, he's got some unusual skill at communicating even with such limited language; v. smart. And tells me how he grew up 35 km outside of Dodoma the original capital city (more a small town) in central TZ. And so for 3 yrs. his father got him to walk to school through woods though it was dangerous with lions, etc. his farmer parents had no money so while the other kids had uniforms he tied a kanga around himself. the 4th yr the teacher told him that's it, no more school without a uniform. That's why no english he said. I don't know why it struck me so but i felt like crying. Such a good guy, now in his 30's selling trinkets, so smart and so many like him here. If they don't have money for uniforms as many don't, they don't get education. Comes on the heels of Megan and I failing to accompany a street boy late at night with a bloody leg asking for a bandaid, to the hospital. we pointed him the direction only, then repented, tried to find and accompany him, only to find him gone. No money, no help from the hospital - not for an alone kid with a gash in his leg at 10.00 pm, not for anyone.
In the Arusha Times they polled locals opinions of TZ joining an East African Federation w/ Kenya and Uganda: "Queen Alex, a resident of Njiro told the AT that what she hated to hear most is the talk about East African Federation. She said that TZ is a peaceful country and should not be contaminated. 'we do not want wars, conflicts and the other awful things that happen in neighboring countries.' She claims that in the event of a political federation, TZ will also be drawn into bloody conflicts. 'let's remain with our poverty but live in peace. Federation? No.'"
counter that commonly held opinion with this exert from Ben Terrall reporting in Counter Punch magazine on Haiti:
Rene Civil, a grass roots activist recently re-arrested speaks to an international delegation: "'we're here to end all forms of discrimination, we're here to end all forms of violence. The violence of not being able to afford to buy a meal to eat, the violence of not being able to have a house to live in, the violence of not being able to go to school... 'you always hear that it is the people in Cite Soleil, it's the people in Bel Air who have all the weapons, but what's actually happening is the poeple with the most weapons are the people who live up in the hills who have a house where they can store the weapons, who have cars to transport the weapons. And yet it's these very people who carry the weapons who continue to demonize the poor in Cite Soleil and Bel Air.'
Civil asked the delegation 'for your support in making sure that his demonization of the poor does not continue because the real problems that they have are not weapons, they are the social problems that they face. It's that they cannot eat, it's that they cannot have a roof over their heads. And I ask you to get this message out to the media, that this is a demonization of poor people, and actually what's happening is that they're suffering because of the economic and social problems in this country."

as i go about linking into ex pat community hung ry for organics to farmers who want to pro vide for a market , have to give thought to what an expat who w\ orks with another farming marketing group up north - they've succe eded in helping farmers double and triple their incomes, but she's been researching the social effects of the success. with the extr a income alcoholism and aids rates have gone up, as m en now afford prostitution. unintended consequenses! at this point my group s' mission has been to increase food security for farmers and some rural dwellers who before weren't even farming much. now they have full beds of vegetables which feed th eir famil ies healthy variety, and save them the cost and bad effects of chemical pesticides, etc. but they are itching for a market and feelin g a bit let down that our group hasn't provided one for them. our mission originally didn't include a market plan, it was rathewrt to improve the local health, and food security should they get struck by aids/ they aren't on the bri nk of poverty / hunger. i worked with a newly trained group on friday and asked them about their experience before our training, with conventional farm ing. they said they couldn't always afford the chemicals, and had trouble with market. i asked how they planned to solve the market trouble now that they are learning organic. they said that they didn't need to solve it because we would provide them with the market! so i found out that that's been the misunderstood expectation, and let them know that we don't actually provide the market, but together we can work on the problem- that they themselves have to re search the market and see what is oversuppli e d an d what's in demand, figure out what they want to plant- be t hinking about market already now that they are prepar ing their beds for planting. that was new for th em, they figured we would make the choices on what to grow. they got more enthused actually because they had a lot of ideas about what to grow that they didn't think they had a choice about. and they got enthused about finding their markets. it's this sort of disempowering presumptions, that they don't need their o wn ideas, because all will be provided, that we are trying to route out. i think our trainers have been feeding them with ideas of what to plant which aren't market based, which has been part of the problem. i like my assignment which has been to route out passivity, it's tricky sometimes. on the demo plot we run my counterpart and i have made some changes. rather then have the two hired helpers (my swahili and karate teachers) be only partially trained in organics, work for a wage and follow expert s' instructions, they are going to get full trainiing just like any of our other farmer grou ps. they will then be res ponsible to make their o wn choices in the management of the plot, and will earn a share of the profit s. they were energized with these changes as were my co horts and i. . based on what the ex pat friend of mine observed w/ her group, if we do help some of the farmers link with marketing groups and training we may need to investigate that their training also includes money management. I feel like these changes in the program away from passivity as much as possible are positive and are just like what i w as t rained to do in acupuncture. we were a lways on alert to keep pati ents taking responsibility for their own health, and not coming in passiv ely to get th eir health and life 'fixed ' by the expert. western medicine sets up a passive r elationship with patients just like development projects set up pas sive relationshipos with people here in tanzania. so it's a similar challenge, it's fun for me to work with it on a macro level rather than micro.

some of the most enjoyable people i've met over here are from the democratic republic of congo- i keep running into these great strong, vivacious, women from there with great sense of fun/humor- gives a different perspective on what i've always thought of the place. on the otherhand a less enjoyable thing i've encountered here in arusha is enthusiasm for george bush and his "punishment of the muslims" lots of local hostility here to muslims and the east indians. tanzanians traditionally feel like your boss at work ought to take a paternal sort of care of employees, helping them to move forward in the world, helping out if they're in need or trouble etc. the guides i know complain of the indian run guide companies only paying bare minimum and keeping their workers down. strongly bitter towards the indians around for not giving back to the community. on the other hand an australian guy i know who runs a lodge opinions that were it not for the east indians nothing would get done in this country...
i'm at work traipsing around villages and consolidating strategies w/farmers, followed by lunch in the dives back in town-
dad would not approve of the tradition here of expressing sympathy any time you notice someone exerting themselves physically- you are carefreely hiking about and are greated everywhere by the eqiuvalent to i'm so sorry for your exertion! the required response is to thank them and offer sympathy back for whatever work they might be finding themselves doing. follwed of course by several rounds of how are you doing? to which you may say, i'm cool!, and you? they tell you they're clean, and how's your home doing? so peaceful you say, and their work? going along beautifully they replyy, and so on. i've gotten a massai and a meru greeting under my belt as well , impresses greatly in the hills.

progress at home, and project report for September

things are beautiful over here. sat. i took an amazing
hike with a guy who lives around the corner from me- like a fairy
tale out here with hills and clouds and little wooden bridges and cows
and sheep, massai, children strolling around. one of my more beautiful
hikes. i got my family to give me their teenage son's room- he's away at
school- so i have my own space. it makes a huge difference- i really
need a place to recharge or consolidate or something- sort through my
ideas. we stopped in at a family my neighbor friend here used to stay
with- way up in the hills. they still have a little hut where someone
could stay and he doesn't want it, so i am considering it- it is like a
different world up there in the hills- i really was loving it up there-
only like a 20 minute walk down to a main road i live along, but a
different world. work is going well - my 'boss' and i appreciate
the way eachother thinks and we're making a lot of changes with the
agriculture program.NAME: Daphne Jochnick

Country: Tanzania

Reporting Period: month of September, '06

I. Project Update and Accomplishments:

I am working on an over-all assessment of and strategic planning for the
BIA program, traveling between Tengeru and the Arusha office. I helped
to organize a successful BIA trainers meeting at the end of Sept. in
which we discussed the BIA mission and ways in which we want to change
and move forward with the program. We will be ironing out the mission
over the next several weeks and have a strategic planning meeting
scheduled for the end of November. To prepare for both the meeting we
held in September and the November strategic planning meeting I have
been meeting one on one with each of the BIA trainers as well as William
and several other people relevant to the BIA program to elicit their
ideas on how we can best move forward with the program. I also met with
one of the high performing farmers to get his input. The consistent
message so far is the need for GSC to assist with marketing. For the
September trainers meeting we invited representatives from Fido Mali, a
nonprofit which works on marketing initiatives with Farmers. William
and the trainers were impressed with the presentation, as were Deborah
and I. I will be working with William on other marketing groups we may
want to partner with. Deborah and I will be looking into
micro-financing groups that we may want to partner with. In preparation
for the November Strategic Planning meeting Sommie and I will be meeting
with high performing/key player farmers one on one or two at a time, to
elicit their ideas on how the program can move forward. Specifically
where they would like to see themselves over the next 5 yrs. and how GSC
can help them reach their goals. I will be looking into organic
certification groups, marketing groups and micro-financing groups who
may be of use to our farmers. In the November Strategic Planning
meeting we
will be going through all of this information.

I have been helping to assess the state of affairs in Tengeru and have
been meeting with Deborah to discuss how we can best use the talents of
the people under our employment in the BIA program; William, Mary, the
trainers, and myself. We have been clarifying and tweaking the roles
that people play- streamlining William's role, and expanding Mary's and
mine, to take on some of the managerial duties that William has been
doing. William will be training Mary and I in record keeping. Initially
I will assist Mary in record keeping for the Tengeru Demo Plot; all the
money coming in, going out, monthly reports on expenses and income. As
Mary gets comfortable with the record keeping I will phase myself out of
this position and she will take over all together. I have been out at
the plot 4 days a week. Placid and I have been overseeing what happens
on the plot. Now that placid is out, Sommie and i will be an occasional
presence. The goal is that Mary and Josephu who work the plot will be
trained enough that they can essentially run the plot with minimal
oversight. this means they will handle all phases of BIA on the plot
including companion planting, crop rotation pesticide application and
record keeping. As I say, Sommie and I will continue to be an
occasional presence, as is of course William, on the plot.

II. Challenges/Problems:

Our challenge is to keep the relationship between GSC and the farmers
dynamic so that we assist them on their initiatives and not take the
role of doling out services to passive recipients. Deborah and I are
keeping this idea of a dynamic relationship foremost as we iron out our
mission statement and next steps. She and I are discussing how our
current role has been primarily a training service. Our future role may
include facilitation. We facilitate those who we have trained to
partner with organizations who can aid them to take their next steps,
ie. marketing organizations, micro-finance organizations. organizations
who can assist them in realizing their goals now that they have the BIA
training.

We are also looking at the problem of groups whose member range from
very committed practitioners of BIA to farmers who continue with
conventional practices and aren't putting trainings thus far into
action. We are talking about forming new groups of farmers who have
shown initiative in practicing BIA. These can be the groups on whom we
focus our attention, and who can become leaders and inspire others to
come on board.

These are just the ideas we are talking about at this point as we
brainstorm our future direction. I will continue to get input on these
and other ideas from the farmers themselves and trainers as we prepare
for our November meeting.