Here in Tanzania a huge amount of communication is done via text message - or SMS as it known around here. And many of you know I don't really text message at home, to me it's easier and faster to just talk to the person. Anyway, here I text, but am in a conundrum, I cannot figure out where to find the apostrophe. I've been sending messages that are either a) longer than they need to be because I'm writing out words rather than the conjugation or b) the messages aren't making any sense because I'm making up my own without the use of the apostrophe. So, after you are done laughing at me, if someone could help it would be much appreciated.
All of you in the Dayton/Cinncinnati/Columbus area know about "Touchdown Jesus" (and for those of you who don't, just Google "Touchdown Jesus"). Anyway he was recently hit by lighting and the Church will rebuild. But anyway, this story was highlighted on BBC Radio on Wednesday morning - in Swahili. The fact that "Touchdown Jesus" was on BBC Radio made me shake my head, but that the story was at the top of hour and translated into Swahili made me just laugh. It was not the easiest to explain to the men that I was travelling with.
I came back yesterday from spending a few days in Iringa District (a District is similar to a county in the US) in southern Tanzania. It's at a higher elevation than Dar es Salaam and is therefore significantly cooler than the city. It was beautifully cool and breezy there. It was about an 8 hour drive on tarmac road (we only made one stop!) between Dar es Salaam and Iringa District. I was there to observe a colleague facilitate a Coordination Workshop. A Coordination Workshop is a meeting between local government health representatives and representatives from the local faith-based health care facilities to help facilitate conversation between the entities.
In many instances the faith-based community is not a participant in health planning for the area and this is an issue because they provide a significant portion of health care. Nationally in Tanzania, faith-based health care facilities provide 40% of health care and in Iringa they provide 20% (of the 70 health care facilities in Iringa District, 14 are faith-affiliated).
The faith-based community is eligible to receive certain medicines and medical supplies from the government free of charge, however they either a) don't know about this eligibility or b) cannot access the appropriate mechanism to gain the necessary resource. The Coordination Workshop helps to break through these barriers. If the faith-based health care facility is purchasing these medicines and/or medical supplies they are passing the costs to the patients, something many patients cannot afford; whereas if the facilities receive the free medicines and/or medical supplies they don't charge the patients, therefore saving the patients some money. Although my project is focusing of the medicines and medical supplies specifically geared toward maternal newborn child health (MNCH) the principle remains the same for other health issues. Once we can link the faith-based health care facilities with the appropriate government network they are able to gain assistance for their individual facilities.
A hot topic of conversation is the World Cup. I don't know how many of you in the US are following the World Cup, but here it is all the rage. (In Iringa in the hotel, of the 7 channels 4 were showing the World Cup games.) It's great fun to be in Africa during this time. Everyone has their team of choice - and are very disappointed in the Nigerians, right now the hopes are pinned to Ghana to advance to the next round. I've been watching the games, and am able to hold my own in most conversations on the games - I guess that year or two in Soccer in elementary school finally paid off (can you see my parents shaking their heads at that comment!).
Erika Pearl
Program Officer
