International

My time in Tanzania is coming to an end quickly. With less than a week left in my internship I often find myself thinking of 2 very different realities. I’ve got my reality back in Canada as a student and middle class citizen with just about every opportunity I could ever wish for or imagine. And there is my reality here in Tanzania where I struggle to understand the work I’ve done, the work I hope to do here in the future, and mostly the huge differences between these two realities.

I have learned countless things throughout my internship. From a different culture and language, politics, administration and networking. I think, however, one important lesson I have learned is that I am just 1 person among 7 million people trying to live and survive in this world and 3 months is far too short a time to attempt to settle anywhere and make any significant differences. I feel like the one thing I have not stopped doing since I got here was ask questions, a whole lot of questions. Through all these questions and answers I have only just begun to understand such a small part of Tanzania. I want more time here, so much more time!

There have been many disappointments throughout my stay, there has been very difficult days, but there have been many more wonderful days where it becomes very clear that in life it really is the simple things that matter. The experiences has allowed me to learn a lot about myself and my weaknesses, strengths and limits. As panic starts to set in at the thought of having to leave this amazing country, excitement also creeps in at the thought of seeing friends and family back home again. There is a small comfort to know that through this internship I feel like I know just a little bit more where my path after school will be, which is back here in Tanzania (at least to start). Perhaps there is also more fear in the uncertainty of it all and in chasing down a dream.

I am struggling to accept the fact that I need to leave this beautiful and amazing country in less than a month. I feel like my time here has been way too short and I am scared that this last month will pass before I know it. As comfort to myself I have begun to make plans to move here for a few years following the completion of my degree (hopefully just 6 months away)!

My work over this past month has been a lot of administrative duties. We have finally completed all the reports that were due at this time which is a great feeling. As well we have successfully organized the children’s file (a task I didn’t think would ever get done at the beginning). The focus of my work has now begun to change towards creating a simple system that would allow the director to do these reports on her own for the time being, at least until we can find a full time administrator to work for her. While this month has taught me a lot about administration and financial reporting, I am very happy it is coming to an end and that I’ll be able to once again spend some time with the watoto (children) before I leave.

This past weekend there was a African drumming and dance performance in a nearby town. Another volunteer and I took this opportunity to take a few children out of the centre and to town. Most of the children never leave the centre other than to school. The children were thrilled and we all had an amazing time. What was especially great for me was to spend some time with the children on a more 1 on 1 basis instead of always trying to play and give attention to them in a group. Many of these kids have not had any 1 on 1 time since arriving at the centre. After such a great experience we decided to do this once or twice a week for our remaining time here and hopefully manage to get each child out for a special afternoon.

While it feels like despite being busy all the time, not a whole lot of work has been accomplished, when I look back through my journal entries I can see that we have actually accomplished far more than we once thought would be possible at the beginning of my internship. This is not to say there is not a tremendous amount of work left to do, but realistically none of it is possible to complete before I leave.

Overall I’ve really enjoyed the work, despite often being very frustrated by it all. That said, I think some of the highlights of my time here has, however, been more the networking I’ve been able to do with other NGOs and professionals within the “development” scene. Through friends and acquaintances I have met some amazing people who I feel will be a valuable resource for me being able to get work here in “development” in the near future.

I feel like on a day to day basis it can be hard to see the value of your work and time here. Now that it has been a little over two months, I can see that I have learned a lot and grown a lot over these last few months. While I know some of the work we have done has been useful for the time, I’m not sure it has had any long term benefits for the organization. The experience though for myself has been invaluable.

Greetings from Tanzania! I’ve been avoiding the blog for so long because I am just not sure what to write. So much has happened over these last 6 weeks in Tanzania I feel like it is all just a blur.

My internship is with a local orphanage with whom I’ve worked with for several years on and off. I know the director well and wanted to come back and help her with the organization as part of my internship. I thought knowing my organization and the country well enough would make the work easier, but the work has been really challenging. I feel like this time around I am learning so much more than I ever thought possible. Mostly I’ve learned about the relationships between small local NGOs here in Tanzania with funding agencies abroad. I’ve learned how they struggle to get funding and keep funding. And I think most of all I’m learning about communication and how vitally important it is here, but how so many times things are miscommunicated or misunderstood. As a student majoring in Anthropology I find this really fascinating. I would like to get into international development type work after graduating and have found this experience to be so valuable.

At first my work here seemed to include everything from helping care for the children to assisting with the running and managing of the organization. While this was a tremendous learning curve it was also a little overwhelming and at the end of the day work I could not manage to do without it having negative concequences towards my relationship with the director of the organization.

We’ve now agreed that my time in my internship would be much better spent doing some background research into other organizations with similar goals, visions and missions here in Tanzania to try and understand how they run, opperate and are structured. The organization I am working with is very basic and in fact not really an organization as it is just one person running the entire show. This I have seen is a huge problem for everyone involved. So part of my objective through my work is to try and figure out how we as a team can strengthen the organization. What staff would be required to help run the organization and what steps need to be taken to ensure it runs smoothly and that it is meeting their own vision and goals as an organization.

So far I am loving my little project and learning so much from it all. It is very likely that I’ll actually go stay with another organization a few hours away for a few days or a week so they can show me the ins and outs of how they operate. I’ve also been overwhelmed by the support and willingness of all the organizations to help me and the organization I am working with. I feel like a lot of the NGOs here want to help each other and work as a team.

I’m learning to take things one day at a time here and hope for the best.

I guess that is all for now!