In the field, chiggers and all

By Sarah Sevcik

Tanzania
August 2, 2008

The past couple of weeks have gone by so quickly. Lizz and I took a 5-day holiday from Karatu to visit the island of Zanzibar, via the Dar Express bus: a 13-hour bus ride from Karatu to Dar es Salaam. The last of the Temple med students were leaving Tanzania, and we wanted to tour another part of the country with them. Zanzibar proved to be a great mini-holiday: full of fresh seafood and fruit drinks, warm weather and beaches, and plenty of spices and kangas to buy in the market. Also, the trip gave us a chance to enjoy the beautiful Tanzanian scenery: rolling hills of corn, sunflowers, and sisel plants.

Upon returning to Karatu, we quickly re-packed for a three-day “out to the field��? excursion with a few MIHV staff: Honest, Harry, Eveline, and Veronica. We piled into a car and drove on some of the rockiest, most dust-filled roads I’ve ever seen; so bumpy that Veronica and Lizz took Dramamine to not be ill! Although my head hit the car window one too many times, I enjoyed the ride, as it showed me an even more rural part of Tanzania. Indeed, in some of the villages we visited, the children were so unfamiliar with muzungus (white people) they either became fascinated with our skin and hair (wanting to touch us) or would cry and run to their mothers for safety. :-)

I love to watch Eveline and Veronica work in communities; they have such a great spirit about them, and they immediately connect with the traditional birth attendants (TBA) we were there to see. We spent the days talking with the TBAs about their most recent experiences and problems, completing our conversations with an introduction to the new monitoring and evaluation tool: the pregnancy monitoring book. It was fascinating to learn about birthing issues in these villages. Many TBAs explained how difficult it is to travel long distances by foot, especially in the night, to reach the pregnant mother’s homes. Often, the TBAs desire for the women to travel to the TBA’s home, where they can rest and the TBAs are available when needed. Indeed, in the second village we visited, a TBA helped deliver a birth just hours before we arrived. After the TBA training we had a chance to greet the new mother and her first child, who were resting on the TBA’s bed.

TBAs, one with a prized certificate of her training as a TBA.

TBA at her home, where she helped with a birth just hours before this photo was taken.
Some of the TBAs and me.

Veronica became quite popular in the villages, as she is a nurse by training, and her skills were needed on various occasions. One such occasion was to dig a chigger out of my toe. It wasn’t until a big hole behind my nearing-the-falling-off-stage-toe-nail, as well as the production of an egg sack full of nearly a hundred eggs, was presented to me that I truly believed I had chiggers. What a bugger. Needless to say, I’m a bit more nervous about wearing my sandals around town; I might stick to my “rubbers��? from now on. Thankfully, Eveline said a prayer for my toes: “In the name of Jesus, may there be no more chiggers in Sarah’s feet.��? I hope her prayer is answered.

Other than having wonderful conversations and laughs with the staff, my favorite part of being on the field was meeting with a group of TBAs who ended the session by declaring their desire to sing for us. Their voices were beautiful, and my body started to groove with the sound. The oldest woman of the group, probably in her late 60s or early 70s, noticed my movement and came over to dance with me. Boy could she dance! She started moving her hips and sticking out her bottom and swaying her arms; I followed along. She removed a kanga from her head and put it around my waist so it would bounce around as I jumped. Almost everyone started dancing, and we continued to dance and sing for another 15 minutes or so, until it was time to go and there were a crowd of men standing outside the building, wondering what was going on. The older woman then told me (in Swahili, which was then translated for me) I was her daughter. So sweet!

We returned home to Karatu last night, and I was dropped over at Peter’s home to help him make a dinner for Jolene, Lizz, Peter and me. A couple weeks ago Peter and I took a long walk towards the Ngorongoro conservation area where we passed a woman’s home with many ducks walking around. At the time, Peter inquired about the ducks; what will she do with them? Well, one of those lovely ducks was sold to Peter this past week so that we could eat it. I was very excited to take part in this process: I had never before killed my own meat. Not that I did much last night, other than take a few photos, help stuff the bird in a bag, and pluck it’s feathers, but nevertheless, in the end we had a most delicious meal. By the way this was an indigenous, not exotic, duck. :-)

The "before" shot. Poor duck.

The "after" shot. Hmm Hmm good.