Siku ya Wanawake (Women's Day)

11 March 2010

Three weeks now until we arrive in Denver and we are trying to use our last weeks wisely. Zach's friend, Jordan Edgcomb, arrives for a visit tomorrow and we will spend a week with him around Arusha and going on a short safari. We are excited to have him and look forward to being able to show someone first hand what we do and how we live here in Tanzania. Our last ten days will be spent trying to say goodbye and thank you to all the people who were so helpful and friendly to us during our time here!

Last week we went to dinner with a family of a friend we have back home. He married an American volunteer who was doing something similar to what Zach and I do, and they now live in Fort Collins, CO. Grandma Esther introduced us before we left thinking that Zach and I could use all the contacts we could get during our time here. We had such a great time with his family and were grateful for the connection and for being welcomed so warmly into a family and home.

We celebrated Women's Day on Monday this week. We visited a little village called Nduruma which is about 20 km outside of Arusha. There were hundreds of women there and lots of singing and dancing and speeches that stressed the importance of women's rights and empowerment. I was pleasantly surprised, also, by how many men were at the celebration and actively participating in the festivities. From my own personal observations it seems that most women here are well aware of their status and role in this culture, and are also aware of the problems with it, and yet not many women seem to be ready to put up a big fight to demand their rights and change their status. Even Mama Hindu, the director of the CWCD whose sole mission is the empowerment of women, still cannot get through her head that Zach does most of the cooking in our family and that our marriage works as a partnership, not a dictatorship. It is hopeful that the women here seem to be getting the knowledge needed to make changes to their lives, they just need to work out how these changes can be incorporated into their relationships and work places without changing the aspects of their culture that they value and want to preserve.

We are getting excited to see all you at home in the first weeks of April!

(Coming Later...internet is not working here! The picture today is from us giving wheelchair to the doctor of one of the village antenatal clincs that we visited that was incredibly under-equipped. The wheelchair was purchased with money from the Olson Family and my Grandma Chandler at home. They were extremely grateful for such a generous gift.)

Written by Whitney