Rainbow Sunday

The school farm has been my daily duty and delight. For the past two months, every single day I go to the school farm to do all sorts of stuff, like irrigate with the kids, plant new seeds, cultivate the land, harvest the crops, and so on…It is such a pleasure to be working with the kids and for the kids…

(Pic taken by Lindsay Myron. http://lamyron-tanzania.blogspot.com/)

The school farm is not just the place where we physically do things, but it is also the place where all the dreams and hopes are being built. That’s where the kids work really hard to be able to have meals at school. Every single day they carry heavy buckets on the top of their heads to go irrigate the plants. That’s where they put their hearts and souls in a daily basis life to guarantee that they will have something to eat at school. That’s where the students ultimately plant the seeds of hope for better days.

*    *    *

In the first month I was in Magoma, the days were really hot and the sun shinning like hell. Irrigation was a big issue to keep the plants healthy and it was such a struggle to make sure the plants were watered properly. Right now we are in the rainy season and, of course, I’m really glad to have rains as they naturally irrigate the school farm. Every single day that we have rains, you can not picture my state of happiness.

But lately we’ve been having lots of rain. Too much rain.

This past Sunday, me and Lindsay (the lovely American girl working with me), we woke up and went to the school farm, just like we do every single day in Magoma. There are two ways to get to the school farm. First, we tried to take the short cut, but we couldn’t pass it because it was flooded. We went on the other possible way and, for my big surprise, it was also flooded. There was a river where it used to be waterless and dried pathway. In that instant I got scared. If the pathway was flooded like that, I could picture what might have happened to the school farm…Just the thought of it was frightening…

I wanted so badly to cross the river to go find out what hap happened to the school farm, but crossing the river would be too risky.

As Lindsay said “I don’t think you should cross, there might be crocodiles in there”

(There are crocodiles in Magoma and last year we lost people from crocodiles’ attacks.)

I hesitated, but, you know, f* it.

I just couldn’t control myself. I HAD to SEE with my own eyes.

I then crossed the new existing river and kept walking towards the school farm. Only half way there, I found myself in a completely flooded area. I literally saw water everywhere. That was one of the saddest moments of my life.

You know those few moments in your life that you get petrified and speechless?

That moment was just like that.

I felt inert, motionless and vulnerable as I’ve never felt before.

For you guys to picture the scene I saw: There is a water channel being currently built around the school farm, and it is all unfilled and dry, but on that moment it wasn’t just filled with water, but it was entirely flooded. I could hardly see it.

The entire area was unrecognizable. Where it used to be dried land, there were little waterfalls and several rivers instead.

From the point I was, I could see far away the current pepper crop we have (had) and the nursery plot with the new planted seeds of peppers and onions. They were far away and for me to reach them I would have to go through a lot of water and mud. Of course, it was very unlikely that the plants would’ve survived, but in an irrational-desperate-hope-attempt I just kept walking in the direction of the nursery. The water was reaching my waist and I had a hard time moving around. When I got closer to the nursery, I saw all our new planted growing seeds submerged in water.

I don’t know how mad I was to think that they could’ve survived that much water and inundation, but that’s where all the dreams and hopes were placed and that’s why I had hope. Just the hope to see it alive.

But everything was gone. Right there under my eyes. And I couldn’t do anything. Anything.

I couldn’t breath. I couldn’t think. I could cry.

I was completely unable to clearly understand how I was feeling and I just had to do something with myself. To cool off my mind I decided to go up in a mountain in Magoma. I then started hiking,…

crying,…

running,…

crying,…

climbing…

My body was just reacting to my mind process of regurgitating that awful scene.

That flooded vista killed me in a way that as a matter of fact everything at the school farm was vanished. Everything that the kids have been working and fighting for was gone.

I was now able to somehow understand the meaning of vulnerability.

*    *    *

For the subsistence farming people, like the people in Magoma, one of the challenges mentioned in the books and papers I read before coming to Tanzania is the vulnerability that they face within the climate and weather changes. And I knew it. But living and experiencing this together with them is absolutely a different story. I then realized what millions of smallholders and subsistence farmers around the world go through when something like that happens.

And so the issue goes beyond our project in Magoma. The rain didn’t affect just our school farm, but all the other farmers in this region. All of their farms were destroyed and who knows how many farmers are in the same situation around Tanzania?

80% of the population is dependent on subsistence farming.

Along with that, as subsistence farmers depend on the outcomes of their farms, they don’t have enough to feed their families…

What I felt is very little considering to what all those farmers actually feel… The difference between me and them is that I’ve never experienced how it feels not to have food to feed my family and they, on the contrary, have been facing hunger since long past generations.

The little scale and magnitude I felt already knocked me down. The idea that other millions of people go through worse situations during their entire lives - and most likely future generations- tortures me.

They don’t have enough to feed their families and children.

And the world keep wasting 1.3bn tones of food each year. (FAO)*

?!

*    *    *

While I was regurgitating all those thoughts in my head, my body as a natural response just couldn’t stop moving up in the mountain…

When I reached the top of the mountain, my mind was restless and thoughtful. I then looked at the view from the top.

The whole village looked so small and far away and all the mountains and its surroundings were amazingly beautiful.

It was so silent.

And then I saw one of the most astonishing things I’ve ever glimpsed in my entire life: the biggest and most colorful rainbow you can ever imagine. It was arising from the rice fields and it was all benched over the blue sky and gently covering up the entire village.

I felt like that rainbow was just there to deeply touch my heart.

Then I genuinely understood why I came to this place.

Under all those bad prospects and awful things, I’m here to fight for a different reality.

You know those few moments in your life that you get petrified and speechless?

That moment was just like that.

I felt inspired, motivated and encouraged as I’ve never felt before.

So, oh, well, let’s start all over again when the rains easy off a little.

Tuko Pamoja! (We are all together!)

Cintia.

*http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/may/12/food-waste-fao-report-security-poor

*http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/74192/icode/

Karibu Tanzania/ Welcome to Tanzania

First of all, thank you for taking your time to read this post. I’m saying that because I’ve never had enough patience to read people’s personal blogs. To be honest, I personally never understood why people brag about their lives on the web. So here is my sincere gratitude for you, if you ever get through this post…

I’m gonna start with a simple question: “Are you afraid of spiders?”

Keep that in mind.

For my first post, I can’t avoid sharing some personal experiences I had since I got in Tanzania. Things have been pretty different from my life back in Brazil and so many things already changed my life perspective. Sorry for being so egocentric in this post, but this will be mainly about my impressions and specific moments I had in Africa.

My first impression of Tanzania is definitely the welcoming people I met here. Everywhere I go, people want to talk to me and they all welcome me with a great smile. People open up their houses and share everything they have with outsiders. The sense of collectiveness is unbelievable, what belongs to them belongs to me as well, without them even knowing me at all.

So that's home! That's the village I'm living. It has about three thousand people and pretty much everyone has a little piece of land where they farm and that’s how they support themselves, from the outcomings of the farm… People do suffer from hunger in Magoma… Right now is a period just after harvest, so no one is actually starving, but  some months before my arrival people were dying from hunger. The previous project coordinator went to 4 funerals in a week…

This is a place where electricity is luxury. I paid 33 dollars for electricity at mine and it will last for about three months. Just a few people have TV. Probably three people in the whole village have TV. (I’m actually glad they don’t). Just an example, one banana costs 6 cents (in dollar) and many people don’t have money to buy it, if there is any available banana on the market anyways…

You would probably think or assume that if I’m going to a rural village where many people are poor and/or suffer from hunger, that would be ironically a natural spa, where I would loose weight and get dehydrated. But no, that’s a totally wrong idea. Wherever I go, whenever I visit people, they feed me up with loads of food all the time. Denying would be rude, that’s what hospitality means for them, they share food and welcome you that way. And I do eat a lot here, full of starch and oil. And I’ve been putting up some weight…

The first month of my stay in Tanzania was Ramadan month for Muslim people and that was an amazing experience. Muslims during this period feast during all day and when they have the first meal of the day at night, it is a huge “banquet” full of great food. I was eating every day with a Muslim family and had a blast!

The family is HUGE (I still don’t know who is son, cousin, uncle, ant, … It is just impossible to know who is who… and I see this family every day…) and that’s how most families are here, they have innumerous kids, some of the parents can’t even tell how many children they have. If you ask them “How many children do you have?”, some will answer “Many” or “Not less than 5”…

Talking about Muslim people… Religion is one of the things that surprised mehere in Africa… You would think that if you are going to an isolated place in a rural village that can’t even be found on google maps, you would expect a certain presence of an African religion, but again wrong idea. (Or maybe that’s my own stupidity of not knowing stuff).  

Half of the people in the village are Muslims and the other half are Christians.  I wasn’t expecting to see that type of share in a rural village in Africa. And surprisingly they get along really well, they go to each other’s houses, they are friends and celebrate together. Religions do coexist in this place. As one Muslim local person said “Muslim Religion and Christianity are pretty much the same, there are just a few differences between them, but the essence is the same”.  I wish I could bring him on CNN to say that out loud to the western world.

Next topic is the Kids. OH MY GOD. Seriously, they arise from the profound of the earth all the time. Everywhere you look there is a child. I’m not exaggerating. The school I’m working on a project has about 820 kids. If you think of the size of this village, that’s a huge amount of the population.

I absolutely love their reaction towards me. Lots of children want to be around me, touch my hair, grab my hands and walk together. Their smiles are truly my everyday motivation to be here.

There is this particularly child, my 3 year old neighbor, who is so scared of me. Whenever he sees me, he cries hard. He looks at me with a scared little face. When I say something to him, he either try to hide on the back of his brothers or he runs towards his mother full of fear and searching for a safe place away from this white ET person. The other day I tried to approach him and he literally ran as fast as he could away from me searching for his mother, but she was out of sight and his brothers were not around. The mother saw from further away that he was crying because he was scared of me. She came towards us and said to him “Come here right now. Be fast!” That was a shock treatment for him, he would take to steps forward in our direction and one backwards crying to death. And his mother “Come now!”. She forced him to talk to me.
She after all said “He just need to get used to you”...

I do regret my move. I was sorry for him.

Here in Tanzania kids are very independent, they know how to take care of people and their homes. At age of nine they are able to cook for the whole family, kids at 4 years help their mothers at home. I’ve seen many times little kids holding huge knives that are bigger than their bodies and I still haven’t gotten used to this though.

The other day I was cutting tomatoes with this little tiny knife and I cut my finger… Seeing children with knives that are bigger than themselves it is a scary thought...

At school they get beaten with sticks. They have to obey the older authority no matter what. That I’ll never get used…

Last week me and 5 other American friends, we were talking to this African lady about beating children... We told her that in America it is a crime if you do so and her answer was  “You Americans are smart, we Africans need to be beaten.”

(No further commentary on this).

And so…Let’s talk about the project… There is the project website if you guys want to check it out (www.themagomaproject.tumblr.com). We (me and the American girl working with me) haven’t been able to update frequently… I think we will be soon posting some interesting stuff there… And that’s the official place to look for project news…

But here is a bit of what I’ve been working. The picture you see is the school farm in the primary school in Magoma. That’s where we are currently having pepper crop and this week we will be planting onions and more peppers. After the harvest, we sell those crops and with the money gained we can keep up with the school feeding program. Every kid eats at school every day.

The projects investments we have made so far is 219.000,00 xelins (approximately 139,33 dollars). That’s going to be probably our biggest investment throughout the 9 months in Magoma. With that little money we can see many positive things happening in this place and community.

(And we see so many millions of dollars coming to Africa from foreign aid for years and years and nothing meaningful actually happening…)

One interesting thing that has happened frequently is people asking me for advice. When I talk to local people about the project they keep asking me questions, “What should we plant here?”, “What do you think we should be doing with this piece of land?”… My inner me is pretty much like “Woops, I have no clue!”. I feel like saying “Hey, sorry, I have no clue about this. You are talking to someone that has a business degree and no knowledge in agricultural matters, I can’t even recognize the difference between the crops we are planting, I don’t know if they are peppers or whatever else”….

I think some see us white people coming from far away as wise and knowledged people that have answers for all sorts of stuff.  The other day a guy asked me “What do you think we Africans should be doing to change the poverty in Tanzania?”… And then he said “You Americans that come from far away are able to see things that we Africans don’t see. So, for the time you have been here you already oversaw us, what shall we do?”….

As far as personal and daily life, showers are pretty much bucket showers with brown water from the river. No access (or very limited access) to the internet. Sleeping under bed nets. Electricity was coming in spurts, it was lasting for ten minutes and then it would just switch off. So I was going to bed very much early. Now it seems to be working better, it has being working properly for the past days and I hope it remains like that.

Daily meals at peoples’ places with lots of food. As I said before, people keep feeding me up all the time.

Dressing code here is pretty strict. Woman here don’t wear low cuts and don’t show their legs at all. It is culturally and religiously unacceptable. And so I gotta wear long skirts and closed up t-shirts with sleeves. And here is SO HOT! I will probably melt during summer in January…

Me and Lindsay (the American girl), we are the only white people living in the village. Probably we are the only white people living in this entire region…lol…And so we are very much popular. Everyone knows who we are and we gotta greet people every 5 seconds when we are walking around the village.

I’ve never valued being unknown as much as I value now.

(I very much miss being unknown and anonymous.)

One of my main challenges is Kiswahili language. It is a mixture of Bantu and Arabic languages.  I came with zero knowledge of the language. The only thing I was able to say was “Hakuna Matata” because of the movie Lion King (the movie was inspired by East Africa and Kiswahili language). Literally it means “There are no problems”. But when I got here I found out that that’s not the proper way to say it. Lol. And so the truth is that I knew nothing and I couldn’t say a word in Kiswahili.

I’m having fun learning it. It is actually one of the fastest growing languages in the world and it is spoken in countries like Somalia, Kenia, Uganda, Ruanda, Congo. Being able to speak it fluently is one of my main concerns, because it is important to be able to effectively communicate in order to deeply understand community needs and to address the project involving actively local people.

Back to the question I had in the beginning and I promise this is the last thing.

The first night in the village, guess what!? A black scary huge spider in Lindsay’s bedroom. That was a huge issue. We are both afraid of spiders. We actually didn’t really know what to do… Shall we kill it?... Shall we hunt it and enclose it somewhere?... Shall we… what!?... And, of course, no electricity to help us keep track on the spider footsteps…

Lindsay suddenly says “Shit! No light! We lost the spider…  Cintia, get the headlamp, quickly”… And so in a team effort and some epic moments hunting the spider, we made it! We captured it and put it in a Tupperware well closed. And just to make sure it wouldn’t come back, we put the Tupperware outside the house and we also locked the door, just in case the spider suddenly becomes a giant spider…

Second day in the village, I’m tired and ready to go to bed, and… Hah, another scary spider ON MY BED. Apparently, that’s a dangerous one, as Lindsay said. (That’s when I realized how dependent I’m on google, just as a source of information for general survivors’ things)…And here I go again on the mission to capture the enemy…

Ok, third night, and guess what?!... Oh, just another scary spider…

Oh, well, it doesn’t look that scary anymore…

A month from now if you asked me “Are you afraid of spiders?” the answer would positively be “Yes!” . Now try to ask me the same question… my reply would be “No, I even named the one living in my bedroom as Nini, cute nickname for my new pet”…

__

So, after all this post, the only thing I can say is that I’m happy being here.

Stepping out of my own bubble world and experiencing what is different is changing my perspective of life. Nothing more meaningful than be thrown out in a totally diverse and isolated place.

In Magoma there is clearly a lack of materialistic resources, but people are amazingly great and welcoming. They’ve taught me so much in such a short time. This place has shown me the beauty that arises from being part of such a joyful place.

Reality and people are changing me.  

I hope that with this brief post you were able to somehow feel this experience.

Thanks for your patience! ; )

Tuko Pamoja! / We are all together!

Cintia.

P.S.: I forgot to put pics from my camera in my computer before coming to Korogwe (town where I have good internet service)... Sorry people!...
I'll try to post pics next time I come to Korogwe.

Meta atingida e malas prontas!

Quero agradecer à todos aqueles que investiram no Projeto Magoma na Tanzânia.
Obrigada por acreditarem e por fazerem parte disso junto comigo! =)
A seguir um raio-x das doações:

META DOS RECURSOS NECESSÁRIOS: R$11985,00

Arrecadação antes do Catarse: R$2685,00
Arrecadação no Catarse: R$4630,00 da meta do site de R$9200,00
Arrecadação em conta corrente: R$2195,00
Arrecadação em dinheiro: R$2698,00

TOTAL ARRECADADO: R$12208,00
OU SEJA: CONSEGUIMOS ARRECADAR TUDO E MAIS UM POUCO!
Quantidade de pessoas que doaram: 129

Os recursos que foram doados em conta corrente e em dinheiro serão direcionados para o Catarse para que a meta do site seja atingida.
Ao final da experiência haverá um relatório financeiro que será enviado a todos os investidores contendo a prestação de contas de todo o recurso arrecadado.

Para aqueles que ainda desejam contribuir, sua contribuição será muito bem-vinda e será direcionada inteiramente para investimentos no projeto.
Quanto mais doações, mais coisas bacanas vamos fazer para o projeto! O vídeo no Catarse fica até dia 30 de setembro (http://catarse.me/pt/projects/201-projeto-magoma-tanzania). O investimento pode ser feito por meio do site mesmo ou por meio da minha conta corrente:
Banco do Brasil
Cintia Teruko Kawasaki
Agência: 5702-9
Conta Corrente: 12245-9
CPF: 350619468-20 

Obrigada novamente pela confiança!

E lá vou eu quarta-feira para a Tanzânia! Um grande abraço e continuem acompanhando no blog do projeto ou no meu blog pessoal!
Blog do projeto: www.themagomaproject.tumblr.com
Blog pessoal: www.deepinsidetanzania.blogspot.com

Lista de todos os investidores:

Ademar Bueno

Adriano Akio Kawasaki

Adriano Santos

Alessandra Hashimoto

Alexandra Sá Moreira

Alexandre Constantino

Aline Lilian dos Santos e família

Amélia Naomi e Carlos Almeida

Ana Carolina Favaretto

Anderson Tadao Hashimoto

André Takaki

Andréa Hashimoto

Andréia Leitão

Andrew Nauata

Bianca Iramina

Bruno Matsumoto

Camila Machado

Camila Tsuzuki

Carlos Frederi

Carlos Pignatari

Carol Amgarten

Carol Rochel

Carolina Bellinger

Cintia Kawasaki

Ciro Ota

Clovis Bueno de Azevedo
Daniel Hayakawa

Daniela Kawasaki

Douglas Yamashita de Moura

Eduardo Diniz

Eduardo Iramina

Eduardo Suplicy

Eliane Keiko Kasai

Fabio Katto e família

Felipe Ruiz Mazin

Felipe Tumbasz

Fernando Coutinho

Fernando José Bruni

Fernando Nogueira

G.esley F

Gabriela Kawasaki

Gabriella Shammas

Gisele Menezes

Guilherme de M

Hideo Hashimoto

Hiroshi Kawasaki

Hisao Hashimoto e família

Hugo Yamashita

Hygor Dupin

Isabela Salhab Costa

Isabella Bellinger

Jacqueline Komura

João Livoratti e família

Jorge Nakamura

Julia Kawasaki

Julio Iwamura

Karen Novais

Karina Sayo

Kazumi Kawasaki

Lauro Yuzo Miura

Leandro Govino

Leeward Andrade

Leticia Livoratti

Luis Okamoto

Luiz Fernando Abel

Maira Barreto

Mariana Florentino

Marisa Bessa

Martin Jayo

Mateus Amaral Campos

Mauricio Martins

Midori Kawasaki

Mika Hashimoto

Monique Eisenzimmer

Nana Camargos

Natalia Giglio e mãe

Natalie Susan Tang

Natasha Hennemann

Nilson e Regina Witkoski

Nori Kawasaki

Oraci Pinheiro Jr.

Paloma Livoratti

Paula Yamashita

Paulo Barbosa

Paulo e Juliana Goes Monteiro

Pedro Menchik

Pedro Santos

Priscila Nakahara

Rafaela Sousa

Raquel Carmelo

Renan Compagnoli

Renata Santoniero

Rodrigo Ikawa

Rotary Club Oeste SJC

Santiago Chang

Sizuka Hashimoto

Solly Nissim Sayeg

Tadashi Kawasaki

Tam Kawasaki

Tatiana Kawasaki

Thaís Araújo e mãe

Vanessa Camargos

Viviann Kawasaki La Selva

Wu Shih Fu e família

Yoshie Hashimoto

Yoshie San Hashimoto

Video do Projeto no Catarse!!!

Olá Gente!

Está online o vídeo para captação de recursos. As pessoas podem doar a partir de 25 reais!...

A seguir o link:

http://catarse.me/pt/projects/201-projeto-magoma-tanzania

Se puderem contribuam e ajudem a divulgar! =)

Video for Catarse Crowdfunding Website

Hi You All!!!
Today me and a friend, Duane Rios, we started editing the video to post on the Catarse Website. I'm really excited about it and soon everyone will be able to contribute to the project! =)
So HAPPY! Looking forward to seing it online!

The biggest challenge before Tanzania

The biggest challenge before landing in Tanzania is to fundraise the money to be able to get there and to invest in the project as well.

It is a voluntary work and each Project Coordinator is responsible to fundraise a pre-set ammount of money to cover for airplane tickets, food, accomodation and also money to support the project.

The goal is R$11.000 (reais) and right now I'm working on it, talking to people, designing fundraising materials, talking to friends of friends, etc, etc...

I'll be recording a video to post on Catarse (http://catarse.me/pt), a crowdfunding website where anyone can invest different ammounts of money, starting from 20 reais...Unfortunately just brazilians can donate on this website... But there are other ways for people outside Brazil...

And VERY SOON the video will be online!

If you have any idea on how to help me out I'll be pleased to hear you. Please, don't hesitate to contact me! =)

The Magoma Project Video! Have a look!

Why Africa? Why Tanzania?

In May 2011 I was selected among many young people in the world to work as a Project Coordinator for 2Seeds, a non-profit organization that serves as an umbrella organization incubating small, efficient, and effective agricultural development projects in Africa. I’m the only Brazilian on board, the others are all Americans. In total we are 24 new Project Coordinators, working in 9 different projects for 9 months, starting from August.

Tanzania is one of the 10% poorest per capita income countries in the world. The majority of the population live in farms and the subsistence farming is the only food source for many tanzanian people. With the aggravation of dry seasons, many people are not able to produce to provide food for their own family, consequently denoting the serious problem of hunger in the region.

The project I’ll be working with is called The Magoma Project and is located in the village of Magoma in northeastern Tanzania, about 465 km from Dodoma, Tanzanian capital.

The Magoma Project began in July 2010 with a mission to integrate farming into education, an emphasis on sustainability and a commitment to self empowerment. The strategy is to utilize schools as community centers to teach innovation, nutrition, environmental conservation, and market-oriented thinking.

Rather than simply giving donations to meet community needs, the Magoma Project develops tools and knowledge to enable the community to provide for its own needs and actively involve local people to build a project sustainable in the long run future.

I've decided take this challenge as I got passionate about the purpose of the project, the sense of adventure, the project's capacity to inspire young people, the possibility of living and experiencing other cultures, the possibility to have genuine contact with local communities, the importance given to the local self empowerment.

I’m really looking forward to being in TZ! =)

First Post

This is my first post and I'm still figuring out how to use this blog. My friend Natalie Tang is helping me as I have no clue how to match colors and designs and she is helping me out. I would like to thank her and also say that I'm glad to be posting here. I feel excited about sharing things with all my friends, family and also whoever is interested in my journey. Please, feel free to write, give ideas and share thoughts. I'll be happy to hear you!