The Women of Bawodene

I can hardly believe it’s been over a month since I’ve been here! I feel like time has flown by, but at the same time I feel so at home here it feels like I’ve been here for much longer than just a month. At this point I’ve gotten to know some of the women at Bawodene pretty well—they are teaching me lots of Swahili and getting a kick out of hearing me say things. They tell me my accent sounds very Tanzanian and joke that I should just stay here. Initially, most of the women assumed I was Tanzanian, specifically Nyakyusa (a tribe from the Southern region of Tanzania I think, although I haven’t had the chance to read this yet). Whenever I meet someone new the women love to see the person’s reaction when I ask them to speak slowly and tell them I’m not Tanzanian. People always think we’re playing a joke on them and find it so amusing that I’m American.

We laugh a lot—mostly though, I think they are laughing at my inexperience with and questions about how they do the things they do everyday to live and to generate income like: processing cashew nuts (especially since I didn’t even know which trees were cashew nut trees), making baskets (they taught me a little), making jewelry, sewing, drying and preserving the fish, making coconut oil… the list goes on and on.

The women of Bawodene continue to amaze me—they are probably the most welcoming and friendly group of women I have ever met (next to my Sorors!:). Despite having dealt with things in life that I can’t even imagine, they are still smiling and optimistic and happy with the things they do have. It’s amazing to me how they all pitch in to help each other with things. They are all from very different backgrounds—different tribes, different beliefs (especially in the case of the Massai women), some are extremely poor while others are able to afford to attend secondary school and college—yet they all help each other with everything as if they are all family. When someone is successful at something, or someone sells something, all the women are happy for that person. I have yet to see any jealousy or negativity toward the women who are more successful.

As for the work I’m doing, I’m doing mostly office work and helping then get organized on the business side—helping them run the Bagamoyo office, helping them “advertise” and market their products locally and to tourists who are coming to Bagamoyo more and more. I’ve been taking lots of pictures of the women doing their crafts to include in brochures, the Bawodene website, and funding proposals.

Below are some pics of the women doing their thing... and trying to teach me to sew, LOL. The last pic is of the oven used to smoke and dry the fish…

.