VACATION!

22.-26.04.2011

The 10 hour bus trip to Dar es Salaam passed rather quickly with naps and music. Spent the night in Dar and proceeded to take the ferry to Zanzibar. What a paradise! Two days and nights passed with a flash getting lost in the windy small alleys of stone town, swimming, and hanging out with Rasta’s on a boat trip to a sand bank. The water was turquoise and the warmest I’ve ever swam in. Sold my soul to Zanzibar J Dar Es Salaam… not so much :D Spent our last day there just walking about. It was alright, but possibly the first place I’ve ever visited where I couldn’t see myself living under any circumstance. But Zanzibar on the other hand… Amazing!

 

A FULL DAY OF HEARINGS

20.04.2011

Five kids had court dates today. I accompanied the smallest ones, Elias and Federis. Finally met their mother (the eleven and eight year old I mentioned earlier). They automatically got a new court date to get more time for gathering information. At Mahabusu the mother agreed to take the younger one home, but wants Federis to go to Mbeya, a correctional boarding school. She has HIV and feels that she cannot cope with the disturbed eleven year old. In my opinion Mbeay is not the place for him though and I convinced the director to propose a children’s home with trained psychologists on staff instead at the next hearing.

Monica was released, but it was agreed that she stay in Mahabusu until we can make further arrangements. She lives far away in Dodoma and has no money for her return. The government doesn’t seem to take cases like hers where the family isn’t even aware of her imprisonment into account. They provide no monetary assistance for transfers. Even if they did the kids would have to travel alone. We’ll be in touch with Amani children’s center to see if they can be of help.

Imma, a onetime convictive who ran away from Mbeya and was caught only a year after, had his case in the higher court. The police officers laughed at the sight of the familiar face. James, a houseboy whom after demanding his wages of six months got accused of raping the family’s daughter, also got a new court date on the account of the doctor’s absence who is supposed to provide evidence for the accusation. This doctor hasn’t yet shown up within the four months James has been in Mahabusu. The accusing family’s mother is also a doctor…

PROTEIN FOR BREAKFAST

19.04.2011

Had a bowl and a half of cereal before noticing it was crawling with tiny bugs that had made the packet their home… Yummy…  I’m happy to inform that even though I again paid a visit to the fabric market I left with nothing! How extraordinary :D This strength of character appeared at exactly the right time as I test packed my bag in the evening and came to find out that it weighs a modest 44 kg… 46kg allowed in two bags so luggage shopping it is.

FAIL!

18.04.2011

Perse perse perse L Nothing further.

FESTIVITIES

16.04.2011

We had an early going away party at Mahabusu. We had baked apple pie and chocolate cake, brought in popcorn and marshmallow’s and made Pilau (a local celebratory dish) together with the boys. Played “darts” and a game of catch with water balloons which was hilarious. After the boys got to have a water balloon war and I’ve never seen them laugh so much. Once it got dark the dancing begun, with the classroom light by candles. These 18 boys aged between 8 and 17 totally left us in their shadow’s with their moves on the dance floor :D We had gotten special permission to stay until 19, but the director decided to continue the party until 20 and told me as we were leaving that he had no idea the boys liked to dance so much. From now on he’ll let them dance for a bit every weekend J

Happy birthday to me tomorrow! We ditched the kids and later made our way to town. What a great night!

COURT

15.04.2011

We waited anxiously outside of the courthouse for Mohamedy’s name to be called. It was his sixth court appearance and last time the judge said he would most likely be released next time; as he had said three times already. Mohamedy was sure this time it would happen. As he stood in front of the secretary listening to his case description his face dropped as he was told the case would be postponed for two weeks as the magistrate was somewhere else on other business; as he has been twice before as well. How frustrating! All the cases scheduled for today got postponed because the judge wasn’t there. How is it even possible to schedule something for a day when nothing can happen? This is the perfect example of why everything takes soooooo long here. There’s no organization and people work with the speed on turtles. Argh. Either these kids aren’t picked up for court at all, the judge decides not to show up, the accuser never appears, the reasons are endless, but one fact never changes: the kids are spending pointless time locked up that won’t be deducted from the time of their sentence. One year waiting and three serving your sentence, for example, that’s four years of not going to school, not seeing your family, growing up knowing nothing about the world outside mostly because your parents did not take responsibility but rather dumped you behind bars. One less mouth to feed…

FOOTBALL!

13.04.2011

Based on yesterday I continued a previous lesson on violence with the boys and had a good hour long conversation. After that we carried mattresses into the classroom where they lay as I read them stories that had lessons about different values and morals like honesty, resilience and forgiveness.

We built two football goals and they were ecstatic! Some of the wood is crooked and the nails come out of the wrong places, but they made them with their own hands and the goals turned out great! Good game afterwards. Can’t quite keep up but they always take it easy on the teacher :D

THE BEST AND THE WORST

12.04.2011

Two boys escaped from Mahabusu during the weekend. Regan was caught again on Saturday night and received a beating as punishment for his actions. He was still so sore yesterday morning that he asked me for painkillers.

This morning started horribly. I walked in as usual and was met with the scene of a proper beating of Anderson, the other boy who had escaped and had now been caught. All of the other 17 kids sat around watching as the night guard repeatedly whipped the 14 year old with a long thick rope. The others were also made to hit him as payback for the beatings they endured on the night of his escape. Anderson was also forced to do pushups on his fists on the concrete. The guard in turn made him lay on the ground on his stomach as he whipped his bum and stand up straight while lashes hit him all over his body as he yelled provoking and insulting things. Naturally I couldn’t bare to watch and only saw a part of this as I walked back and forth through the concrete square. I couldn’t do anything to stop it either which was disturbing. It was like watching a scene from a documentary about slavery. The other boys were laughing and found this quite amusing. They all go through it many times in their lives and because of this don’t seem moved by another’s suffering. It’s their reality. Beating starts from the home with children as young as 1 years old. Of course this was nothing compared to the slaps. Finally I got the Mama to interfere. Anderson was running around crying from pain, trying to avoid the hits with the guard closely behind him. As he came close to the entrance the Mama pushed him behind her and the show was over. The boy was taken to the office for a talk and was shaking like a leaf.

I’ve been very aware of the beatings, but this is the first time I witnessed one personally. Usually places with volunteers follow a strict rule of no hitting while there are mzungy volunteers around as it would drive them away. I was surprised the guard didn’t stop as soon as I came. Nevertheless it was the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen. Even more horrible than what the next hour brought.

Baraka got his punishment of 6 hits at the adult prison and a friend and I had agreed to drive him home to his grandfather as he had been threatened he would not be welcome at home anymore after stealing 120 Euros and a cell phone from home. That’s big money for a poor farmer. On the way we ran into an accident sight. A little child of maybe 5 or 6 lay on the ground in a pool of blood. A hit ‘n run. Someone didn’t even have the decency to stop and take responsibility. My friend did clear the issue up for me and explained that if you hit someone and stop, the people around will badly beat you up or kill you as well so it’s safer to drive a bit further on and sent for help, then go to the police. Don’t know if this lowlife did or not. The accident had happened an hour ago so there was nothing we could do to help. The scene was surrounded by villagers and the child was partly covered with a cloth soaked in blood. I don’t know if the impact killed the little one, but even if it hadn’t the chances of getting to a hospital early enough with internal injuries from that little village are slim. There are no ambulances so the only way to transport a wounded person is in a civilian’s car. Apparently it is not hard to find one though. Everyone cares for each other and is willing to help. Although the situation was obvious, there was nothing to be done, I couldn’t help wondering if we should have gone closer to check the pulse etc. I could have given CPR… but with that amount of blood and in that time frame there was no way a child of that age could have survived. Still…. maybe if we’d gotten there earlier…

Took Baraka to have lunch at my friends dad’s hotel and he was so excited about the food. He finished his meal and our leftovers as well. I would have too if I’d have eaten pretty much nothing but beans for months. We drove deep into the mountain on windy, rocky roads, no place for anything but a four wheeler, to Baraka’s grandfather’s home. He was extremely stunned to see the boy. After some convincing he agreed to take him back on the condition that he would be out on one more stupidity. My friend gave the grandfather his phone number to contact him if he was about the throw Baraka out so he doesn’t end up on the streets. I got their number to make check up calls while I’m still in the country. No one to follow-up after I leave so we can just hope for the best. Baraka’s a good boy and told the other boys at prison as well how much he regrets what he did so I hope things will return to normal at the little mud house in the middle of the trees.

  

After the long anticipated reunion we continued our day to Marangu waterfalls. The hike down took about 10 minutes. Up a lot longer with old crooked stairs reaching up to my thighs. Swimming right next to a beautiful natural waterfall trying to beat the current and reach the falls… bliss J

KIBORLIONI

09.04.2011

Fabric shopping at Kiborlioni market. I’m now the proud owner of 22 meters of colorful fabrics… That’s a whole lot of table cloths and drapes and whatever else doesn’t require me turning into Martha Stewart :D

ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE

08.04.2011

Hanna and Louie bought seeds for beans and maize which the boys were planting all day long along the premises of the prison. During shifts changes the boys painted ketchup bottles and other glass jars to be used as candle holders at a party in a few weeks before I leave. I cleaned an office closet out of years of crap and organized things in the cardboard boxes. I found a box full of old belts which the previous director used to beat the kids and thankfully got permission to throw them away. The closet was full of old papers left there for years. Wolfgang reluctantly promised to go through them and get rid of unnecessary ones as well as file them accordingly. We’ll see if that happens… This whole cleaning thing took about an hour and could have easily been performed by any of the Mama’s any day, but because they are lazy and the only thing keeping Mahabusu from developing, even moving some stuff around seems to be an overwhelming task.

A few days ago two brothers in dirty clothes, an 8 and 11 year old, were brought to Mahabusu. Their mother had taken them to the police when the elder had cursed at her because she refused to buy them new pencils and notebooks for school. After some digging horrible information came about. I won’t write it here but it has to do with incest and you don’t wanna know. These boys need therapy to deal with their twisted gender roles that have been formed by improper adult example and another place to live a.s.a.p. Incest is somewhat common here. Also marital rape is an unknown concept. In a developed country the boys would never be returned home under any circumstances, but here there is no other place to go, unless we can somehow interfere. Child protection doesn’t exist. 

UPENDO ORPHANAGE

07.04.2011

Upendo is the only orphanage for children up to five years old in the whole Kilimanjaro region. Despite this fact they get no financial support from the government. It is run by Catholic nuns. They have capacity for 60 children and at the moment the center is almost full with 52, the youngest being just two weeks old. There are six trained staff members, working in three shifts plus local child care students and volunteers. Most kids are brought in at a very young age either straight from the maternity ward or after the death of the mother. Fathers generally do not care for their offspring. In most cases children are returned to their relatives at the age of two; only at the age of two because relatives are not trusted to take proper care of infants.

Front entrance:

Toddler's bedroom:

Going to the playroom:

Its strange how in a country where the utmost respect is given to elders and where everyone wants many children to work at the farm and secure their own elder days children are at the greatest risk of maltreatment and neglect, especially in cases where a parent gets remarried. Stepparents are known to treat children cruelly and without compassion. They do not consider it worthwhile to spend their time raising another woman’s kids. The results of this can be seen in Mahabusu as well.

Once a child in Upendo reaches the age of five years and hasn’t yet been taken by relatives or adopted a place is sought out for them in an orphanage. There are three exceptions. At the moment Upendo is taking care of three boys over the age of five who have been born with a mental disability. They’ve made these exceptions simply because there are no places with room in all of Tanzania that know how to properly care for disabled individuals. The nuns have therefore decided to keep the kids at Upendo where they have grown up until a better and safe alternative is found.

Playroom:

Dining room:

Naptime:

Upendo is quite well financed with donations from abroad and from volunteers and certainly to a normal local level it is clean and well equipped! The biggest lack they have is of baby formula which costs 9 Euros per can (!!!). One baby finishes a can in two days. A normal laborer i.e. house cleaner or guard gets paid between 400 and 1000 Euros per year. You can easily calculate the unreasonable price of the formula from there. Most people cannot afford it. This is also one reason why relatives do not take small babies as their responsibility. At the moment out of the 52 kids at Upendo 31 are babies, mostly smaller than the medium of their age; smaller because they don’t get enough food.

We were at Upendo with a Finnish couple hoping to adopt a child. They are going for independent adoption without the help of Pelastakaa Lapset, which organizes most international adoptions to Finland. Luckily they have a contact with some important figure here in Tanzania which should speed things up. In Tanzania many things may depend on who you know so networking pays off.  

VOTING IN ARUSHA

06.04.2011

I fulfilled my civic duties today by voting for the parliamentary elections in the Finnish Honorary Consulate in Arusha. I can reveal that my vote landed for a black woman in favor of immigration and gay adoption. In your face Soini :D Afterwards we went to several shops in Arusha for things that you cannot get in Moshi like folders for papers, map of Tanzania etc.

On the way back we stopped at a small village and tried to ask around for Elias’ grandparents. We got directions from Elias as follows: Pass the big bridge, stop at the next village, ask for ‘his grandfathers first name and where he’s originally from’, they live in a house with a red gate. With information like this the task was ambitious and we didn’t succeed. As soon as we stopped the car several people gathered around to help, a few ran to the bar, the grocery store etc. to ask if anyone knew this man. It was very touching how people took genuine interest to help us even though they had no idea of our motives. But with few phones and no addresses this is how things work around here: through word of mouth. Elias has been sentenced to Mbeya, a corrective boarding school across the country and has now been waiting for transfer for four months. He would like to hear from his family before his departure. Most likely his family is not interested in visiting him (his own grandfather brought him to prison), but we were hoping for at least a note we could give him. Anyway the helpful villagers requested we try getting a bit more information and coming back for another try.

Chinese for lunch and Italian for dinner… I’m starting to like this eating out thing J

LOST SONS

05.04.2011

A fourteen year old boy, Baraka, has been sentenced to six hits on the butt with a hard wooden stick executed by a professional from the adult prison. This is the first corporal punishment given while I’ve been here. The judge gave this ruling as a consequence for stealing 50 Euros. He’ll receive the punishment next Tuesday. I spoke with Baraka and as it turns out he’s been living with he’s grandfather and his new wife before the incident, but now his grandfather wants nothing to do with him. According to Baraka the rest of his family treats him as an outcast and doesn’t want to take him in either. It’s been like this for years. The grandfather hasn’t told the judge that he won’t continue caring for him because otherwise the judge would not release him after his punishment. Problem is apparently he has nowhere to go from next Tuesday onwards. The prison director said he would arrange for the boy to get a bus fare back to his village, 45 minutes away, and advised him to go get the village elder, explain his problem and together solve issues with his grandfather. This is a common method used here when dealing with issues within the family. Every village has elders, “wise men”, who can be contacted to serve as unbiased mediators in situations of conflict. Many times a judge will dismiss a case between family members and have it brought back to the village. Meaning it is to be dealt with the help of village elders.

Wolfgang doesn’t see a problem with letting a fourteen year old child travel alone to settle a conflict with people who claim to have no interest in him, but determine whether he has a place to sleep the next night. Well I can’t let him go knowing he’s whole existence might change from child to street child so I’ve arranged for a local friend to drive us over to the village which he luckily has contacts in. We’ll go to see the elders and then hope the grandfather will accept his responsibility and take the boy back home. If not, my friend can make arrangements for Baraka for a few nights and we’ll have to contact orphanages to see if one of them has room. In law a caretaker cannot abandon a child and is meant to care for them which will make it hard to find Baraka another place to stay. In reality at least half of the cases at Mahabusu deal with parental neglect.

I’ve had counseling sessions with each of the kids and have come across 8 cases where the child’s parents most likely have no idea where he or she is; dead or alive. Some have been at Mahabusu for months without a word from the family which gives cause to believe the family thinks they are still at school or working as a house boy/girl with the parents living in another part of the country. Most people don’t have phone numbers and houses don’t have addresses so it is very hard to find them. Mahabusu doesn’t have the funds (and the Mama’s don’t have the interest) to inform relatives of the kids faith. Neither does the police. When a child is caught in act or accused of a crime by someone they are brought straight to Mahabusu through the court house. The police don’t mind themselves with contacting guardians. They’re only concern is the allegedly committed crime. No investigation is performed. If you are accused you’re taken to prison which can easily be for months at a time. The time spent in custody pending trial is not subtracted from your possible sentence. Mariam, a substitute to Beatrice (translator) for the time being, and I will try to find some families or relatives which live in the area.

In general during my time in Mahabusu my concern is not who is innocent and who’s guilty, I’m not a lawyer nor can I influence the courts decisions, but rather human rights, fair treatment, counseling and education. Of course the circumstances limit the possibilities, but even a small step is a step.

At night we said goodbye to Maja and Sara our Danish nurse friends with dinner at an Indian restaurant. Yummy! 

TETTE

02.04.2011

I wrote before about Tette getting in an accident in Kenya. Well here’s the proof:

http://www.iltalehti.fi/uutiset/2011040213477132_uu.shtml

All my sympathies to her, but travel insurance, travel insurance, travel insurance!

HAHAHA THAT DAY AGAIN

01.04.2010

Saw Love and other drugs last night at the Watering Hole, quite a good movie for a romantic drama. Not your typical Hollywood Jennifer Aniston type of flick since the underlying theme was Parkinson’s disease. I woke up this morning to a text message from Louis saying that Hanna and their young son were in the hospital in intensive care. We sat around the table at breakfast all worried when Louis popped his head in through the window screaming April fools laughing his head off. Alright it was funny, but what a terrible thing to joke about! He’d got Hanna as well saying our night guard just called that a tree had fallen on top of our house. I only managed to fool Annika my sister. I sent her a text saying that I’d been asked to lead a project here starting from September lasting for two years. They were already planning a holiday here with her boyfriend :D The project bit is true, but I didn’t accept. Don’t want to stay away from home for so long although the project is very interesting. Miss you my friends! Time has gone by extremely fast; I only have five weeks left here. Have to get on move on work if I want to get everything done that I’ve been planning. I would definitely regret it if I left knowing I didn’t do all I could to improve things at Mahabusu. So gotta get cracking J

ONE OF THOSE DAYS

31.03.2011

The day started with another tiny uprising from the boy’s side. They’re offended with the way they are treated by the Mama’s and quite maturely had set up a discussion space in the classroom before our arrival. They’d lined up all the desks perfectly, carried a table in front and placed a chair behind it for the Mama on duty. When the Mama was asked if they could have a word together they were rudely given the reply:  I don’t want to hear your bullshit. Who do you think I am, you’re mother! Get out of my sight! And they were all locked back inside the bedroom. Of course this is the boy’s side of the story, but I have no reason to doubt it, having witnessed things like this many times. We started class talking about what’s going on. Just general discussion to smooth the mood before starting to study. Didn’t take long before master Mama herself barged in and shouted: “Are you talking or teaching? You don’t talk about this. The boys don’t need to say anything. Teach now, teach!” What a c**t! So we switched to the days lesson, but I went to talk to her during the break through gritted teeth. Typical to her split/sadistic/psycho personality she was all smiles and of course she understands that I’m a social worker not a teacher and of course I can do my job bla bla bla.

Later on the boys and all staff had a meeting to discuss the issues at hand. Wolfgang, the director, explained smartly why the boys don’t get the eggs from chickens donated to them, why they will not get new shoes if someone broke theirs after only two weeks of usage and how the government does not give enough money for the prison. He is as well disappointed in the boy’s behavior of ungratefulness. There are no medicines so when someone is really sick he pays for it out of his own pocket. According to him the boys need to learn to be more appreciative with what they get, which is true. This whole happening could have been entirely avoided though, were the boys kept on track at all about what is happening and with simple on-going dialect between the boys and the staff. Today’s meeting was supposed to be a chance for everyone to be able to speak of their troubles yet it turned out to be a speech from the staff. The Mama echoed Wolfgang in the background with comments of not such constructive nature. “Think about it. We are the only ones who take care of you. Your family doesn’t love you because you are so stubborn. They never visit because you’re bad children…” OMG! With her nature the only job I’d recommend her for would have been an SS officer in camp.

If you think of it simply, the life the boys lead in prison can be compared to the death camps in some ways (of course not nearly as horrific). The prisoners work, are beaten and have no concept of their release or the developments in their cases. They have an uncertainty of the end which creates a sort of provisional existence. If you cannot see the end it’s hard to live for the future or aim at a goal. Many boys have become increasingly apathetic during their stay. Some counseling would do wonders. Or a hug.

                                                                                                                                                                             

TINKA TINKA

30.03.2011

Interesting lesson about domestic violence with the boys today. At first they found the whole concept quite funny since beatings are such a normal part of life here. Slowly while learning about the possible consequences their expressions turned serious and they asked many good questions. We discussed a lot about how they are in no way required to continue the pattern of domestic violence they may have learned at home and how each individual is responsible for making their own choices. A dozen serious, pensive boys left the classroom and if at least one of them refrains from violence in their life I’ll be very happy!

In the afternoon we had booked a time to learn how to paint in Tinka Tinka style, an old Tanzanian traditional art form originally created by Mr. Tinka Tinka. As none of us can actually paint we were very happy to find that the owner of the shop did most of the work and left the coloring in for us :D Of course they are my initials on the bottom so if someone asks… ;)      

                                                                

HOT SPRINGS

28.03.2011

A day of bliss resulting in a burned stomach, back and legs. A fairytale pond in the style of the old movie Blue Lagoon; behind country villages only accessible by driving on the bottom of a river during dry season. Swam, sun bathed and ate our lunch amongst charming nature, meter long lizards and huge monkeys. The water was so clear you could see to the bottom no matter how deep it got. Snorkeling provided views of fish, turtles and an underwater cave with air bubbles coming out of it (do not want to know why!!) You almost expected to see an ancient sunken ship. We gathered our courage to swim through an opening at the back of the pond only about three meters wide. Trees lowered their roots and branches into the water and a few times we got tangled in the underwater foliage. Just had to try stay as close to the surface as possible. The narrow transition path resembling something from the Amazon opened up into a bigger pond, the water surface tucked by algae. The perfect place for human eating crocodiles. Needless to say we swam back as fast as we could :D

MKOMBOZI

26.03.2011

Kaisa and I visited Mkombozi street center for their monthly “talent show”. Mainly boys of all ages rapped, danced and sang for an audience of their peers. The atmosphere was like at a real gig. The commentators we’re funny and included the audience which consisted of disadvantaged and street children from all over the city. Many walked for over an hour to get there.

Apparently Mkombozi is one of the rare centers which don’t have financial issues. They won’t even take just any volunteers, but require a university degree for example in psychology to provide therapy for their kids. On the other side of the street is Mkombozi orphanage which can afford to send its children to school J.