First Day of Work @ Bawodene

Today was my first day working at Bawodene, and it was very cool. The org is quite disorganized, but the women are trying to do some really good work for other women who really need it. Bagamoyo is considered a town (although it’s extremely rural), and one of the things Bawodene does is help the women from the surrounding villages (even more rural) learn about their rights. This is VERY hard. Because of some traditional practices, particularly in the Massai tribe, most women here do NOT see themselves as having any rights and feel they are completely dependent on men/husbands to make all decisions regarding their lives or their children’s lives.

Bawodene helps women—who in many cases are multiple wives of one husband, or have been shunned by their community for some reason—earn their own money. Husbands can leave their wives for any reason they see fit (i.e. they don’t like her cooking) and just marry a new wife. Female circumcision is also still practiced here (if you’ve never heard of this, just do a search on “female circumcision” and “African tradition” maybe…) but it’s not done in the open anymore because (some) women are starting to speak out about it. Those who speak out and those who refuse to have it done to their female children are shunned from the community. What ends up happening though is that the women and the children are left with no provider and no way to support their families.

Some of the traditional ways seem so antiquated according to my Western view, especially with regard to how women are (dis)regarded. And it’s not everywhere; there seems to be a striking difference between life in the villages and life in the towns/cities… or the lives of educated women and lives of uneducated women…education is SO important, esp for the girls here!

So, Bawodene is having a Women’s Day Festival for the women in these villages to come and sell their crafts (baskets, handmade rugs, candle holder, sculptures, etc) to make money. Many of these women traveled for hours to get to Bagamoyo to have the opportunity to sell some of their crafts. They are just so happy and so grateful to be here. They are all sleeping at a local secondary school for the week, and none of them have complained about that at all…They have such an appreciation for things here... I can learn a lot from them...

Pics of Bagamoyo

Crossing the Street in Dar

I landed in Dar Es Salaam on Friday afternoon as planned, but my luggage didn’t arrive until the next day, so my first day in Tanzania was spent shopping for clothes (and I hate shopping!!!) and trying to dodge traffic in Dar Es Salaam. When I arrived at the Mövenpick Hotel, the doorman, Jackson, greeted me with “welcome home my sister” which felt really cool to hear. I think it was clear to him from my yoga pants, sweatshirt (in 80+ degree weather) and backpack that I was probably American… I was extremely uncomfortable and couldn’t imagine wearing that around!

I asked the doorman if there was a nearby shop where I could buy a skirt or something, but he said he wouldn’t advise me, an American, to go walking around alone if I had never been to Dar before. OK… so was it unsafe or something? I wasn't sure what he meant. He could tell I was confused but also really wanted to change into something more comfortable, so he actually offered to walk around with me to find a shop to buy a skirt... I don't think he knew what he was in for!

I soon realized why I wouldn’t have felt safe walking around by myself... not because the area was sketchy or unsafe but because of the traffic! Driving is on the left, very VERY fast, and there were no lines on the road where we were… Crossing the street on an overcrowded, unlined road is much harder than you would think. I felt like a little kid who was crossing the street alone for the first time! Jackson pulled me out of harm's way at least twice. (If you've ever been to Jamaica, or the D.R. it's very similar but much, much worse!)


We walked around for about an hour and I was so hot and tired that I didn't even want the stupid skirt anymore... I didn't have any Tanzanian Shillings to buy anything to drink... couldn't remember the rules about what I should and shouldn't drink anyway, and I was hungry. Jackson could tell I was a little annoyed (although I tried really hard not to show it) so he ended up once again offering to buy me some juice and water cause he said I looked very tired. We finally found a skirt on our way back to the hotel... almost 2 hours later... (The pic is of me and Jackson in my skirt.)

The next day I had my first experience inside of a car, and that was even more scary... we almost hit a random cow at one point...

I don't think I've ever been as afraid for my life as I was walking around the streets of Dar… Crossing the street, although a seemingly small thing, is something I had to re-learn how to do.

Overall, my first impressions are that people are very nice and seem very eager to make sure I am having a great time. They treat my like this is my home and want to tell me and teach me EVERYthing about their life, while at the same time showing me that they know a lot about America and American culture (especially Obama, LOL).