WOW.
That is the best way for me to start. I know that it has been a while since I have updated my blog, but I promise you that I have been busy for every hour since the Take a Lead conference started 2 weeks ago. This is the third year for the Take a Lead conference which has been held here at the Kange 4H Center. This year there were delegates from 15 countries: the U.S., Canada, Finland, Austria, Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Namibia, Cameroon, Gambia, Ghana, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Liberia.
Before the conference began, Paivi arrived from Finland to work on preparations for the conference. If you didn’t know, 4H Tanzania was actually started by 4H Finland and they have been working together ever since (nearly 30 years!). Then, Mark from Canada arrived to further assist with the preparations. When the delegates finally arrived on Tuesday, August 2nd, after many delays and a 6 hour bus ride, I was delighted to meet everyone in a whirlwind as all the 41 delegates and 7 facilitators checked in and unloaded their luggage. Even more of a delight was meeting the U.S. Delegation for the first time and finding that Jeff Howard, Maryland 4-H Director (the Charles Cox of Maryland) is, in fact, an Aggie (WHOOP!). The others here representing the U.S. were Denise, a 4-H Agent in Wisconsin, Shingi from the National 4-H Council, and Yoko from the States’ 4-H International Exchange Program. I cannot tell you how awesome it was to be surrounded by all of the amazing delegates at the conference. If I could share with you each and every one of their stories, I would, but I will try to pace myself (no promises). The schedule for the conference was packed with activities, workshops, and planning sessions. To tell you all about it would take a full two weeks, so I will summarize and try to hit all the high points, without turning this into a novel rivaling “War and Peace.”
The first day of activities focused on all of us getting to know each other through games, discussions, and constantly changing our groups so we never spent time with the same people twice. As we tried to recall the names of nearly 50 people, we had a great time being kids again. The Take A Lead conference was a little like summer camp for adults, except with a little more focus and maturity (sometimes). The main topic of this Take A Lead was “Volunteerism”— how to manage your volunteers, recruit volunteers, and be a good volunteer. Aside from this we also learned a huge amount about networking, fundraising, and of course the various 4-H and other youth programs that exist around the world. As Paivi said, lunch time is the best part of the conference. I have always held fast to the belief that lunch time is the best part of anything, but I was surprised to hear the woman in charge admit to that, until I figured out what she meant. She wasn’t talking about wali na maharage (rice and beans), she was talking about the conversations you have with people from all over the globe, and she was right! I never got tired of hearing about the new 4H program in Malawi that is only 3 months old from Judith, or the youth program in the refugee camp in Uganda from Coco and Benson, or the awesome fundraising that 4-K clubs are doing in Kenya from Millicent. This is aside from the amazing personal stories you hear and general conversations you have. I had gone from being basically alone here to having 50 friends around me all day long! It was a little overwhelming, but amazing as well.
One of the things that impressed me the most about the training sessions was the variety and creativity in the activities. After you have been involved in 4-H for 15 years you start to think that there are no new games. You can only do the ‘human knot’ so many times. I am here to tell all you 4-H Agents and volunteers out there: THERE ARE NEW GAMES! Just not in America, apparently.
We ended the first day with an International Buffet where you could visit different displays from each country and try some food from there. I was excited to see that Shingi had brought M&Ms and Skittles from the U.S. and am ashamed to say I enjoyed them far more than anything from another country. Since I had been here for two months, I really couldn’t bring anything from home to share, so I went to the supermarket here in Tanga to see what I could find. I came up with two items: Pringles and Jello. Then I got hungry and ate the Pringles, so Jello was the winning commodity and I attracted quite a crowd as I prepared it over my propane stove. I had no idea Jello was such a novelty, but people were totally amused by it, even if they were a little scared to taste it.
Thursday was the official opening for the conference with community leaders from the Tanga region present along with the Chairman of the 4H Tanzania Board of Directors. After quick speeches, introductions, and pictures we headed to our tea break. One of the best parts of the conference was the many scheduled eating times. 8:00 am- Breakfast, 11:00 am- Tea Break, 1:00pm- Lunch, 4:00pm- Tea Break, 7:00pm- Dinner. Glorious. We ended our Thursday by watching drama and dance from a local 4H Club from Tanga. We also held committee meetings. Everyone was required to sign up for one of four committees: Social, Networking, Media/PR, and Sports. I was on the Networking committee and had a great time discussing the needs of Global and African Networks and the various components that are important to these countries. We had great discussions and I learned so much about what is needed by newer 4H programs.
Friday was spent learning about cultures and beliefs. I am normally one of those people who participate in teamwork activities and laugh at all the people who get truly frustrated by them because I can always remind myself “hey, it’s just a game.” These activities however made me more frustrated than I have been in a long time...the must mean they were good. I would go into more detail, but I am sure I will be using the activities in the future, and why spoil the surprise?
Saturday we spent the morning talking about motivation and empowerment. This is a great topic that leaves everyone feeling awesome and ready to take on the world. One of the best things that I heard that day was from Stephen from Ghana 4H. He said “I believe that I am a unique person and so when a problem comes my way, I decide that it has come to me because I am the best person to handle it. I am the person with the unique abilities required to deal with the issue better than anyone else.” What a great way to look at your work. Jeff the Aggie decided to have that cross-stitched onto a pillow when he returns home. I don’t think he was kidding.
Sunday brought a day of rest (sort of). We began by packing two mini-buses and heading into Tanga. My bus left first and then pulled over to the side of the road to wait for the other one. Once the other had passed us, we started to pull back onto the road. Unfortunately the engine died and wouldn’t restart. If you have never pushed a mini-bus uphill, let me warn you, it’s harder than it sounds and I wouldn’t recommend doing it just for kicks. Once we caught up to the others in town some of us went to church service and others walked around in Tanga. After church we went to the Amboni Caves (a few miles outside of Tanga). These caves are beautiful both inside and out, but the outside doesn’t have bats, so while some toured the inside, I walked around outside and discovered some beautiful paths by myself. The path opened into a crop area and I turned when I saw some of the crops moving. A head popped up out of the short crops and I discovered it was…a lizard. Not a small lizard. A big lizard. Like, a Monitor Lizard. The more I have thought about it though, the more I am thinking it was actually a baby crocodile, as crocodiles live in the river near there. Whatever it was, I didn’t stick around to find out. After the caves we headed to the beach for some fun in the sun. The sports committee brought games, some swam, some talked. I was in the sitting and talking group and got a nice chair-line tan on my back. Once we returned to the 4H Center, I think we were all exhausted from our nice, restful day! I ended the day by skipping dinner to Skype with Collin for the first time since he left. It was great to catch up on what he is doing and we talked for a good hour about what is new since he left!
Monday began with open discussion groups about topics of our choice. Then we moved to conflict management and then time management. Then, the moment we had all been waiting for—we found out where we would be going for our “practical learning period”. The practical learning period involved a 4-night stay with a host family with the days packed with 4H Club visits. My traveling companions were Paivi and Tiina from Finland, Judith from Malawi, Mercy from Nigeria, and our only male and Swahili speaker—Victor from Kenya. Tuesday morning our group headed into Tanga to catch our daladala to our destination, the coastal village of Pangani. I have visited Pangani twice before so I knew that I would love it. Once we reached Pangani we were met by the District Advisors for the area and were taken to meet some school officials and then to our host families. I was envisioning 2 or 3 of us each staying with a host family. Wrong. We were almost all with different families, so I was a little nervous when I was dropped off at a house by myself.
I was quickly welcomed by Rukia (age 18) who is in secondary school at a nearby Islamic school. She took me through the house and into the backyard where I was handed half a coconut and a bench thing to sit on. She taught me how to grate the coconut on a blade that is attached to the bench. It takes a little practice, but I got the hang of it. I also helped stir things over the fire, and shred tomatoes into a pulp, sift through rice, and I was even put in charge of scaling and cleaning the fish. I had never done that before, but I am now a pro…even though I really don’t need to ever do that again. After I helped with dinner preparations for a while I was told to grab my things because we were going to my host family. I was a little confused considering I thought that this was my host family, but I did what I was told and grabbed my bags. Rukia led me down little trails until we reached my host family where the mother was cooking up a storm. Rukia stayed for a little while to help me with dinner and Swahili. Eventually my 2 host brothers and host sister came and started talking to me as the two boys (ages 14 and 16) spoke quite a bit of English. At some point in time my host mom must have told them to only speak to me in Swahili because I had said that I wanted to learn Swahili while I was here. I was a little sad when she forbid them from talking to me in English because now I was back to barely understanding a word. It was only when I was really, truly, and completely confused that she would allow them to explain to me in English. My new family was so full of love for each other and so cheerful and welcoming to me, I knew we would get along just fine! That evening they pulled out a children’s book called “Juma na Malaria” (Juma and Malaria) for me to read and see how much I could comprehend. We barely made it through the first page because I was so slow in reading it, but we had a great time as they tried to teach me some new Swahili!
The next morning I got up and ate breakfast and was again told to grab all of my things to meet the rest of the group for club visits. I was again a little confused as to why I had to take all of my things but just did what I was told. What I didn’t know what that I wouldn’t be staying with this family anymore but with the first family I was with for the remainder of my stay. Unfortunately I didn’t know that so I didn’t take any pictures of my first host family and never told them goodbye! Hopefully I will be back in Pangani and can see them again to thank them for the awesome night I spent with them.
Each day in Pangani we visited two 4H Clubs at primary schools. Every primary school in the Pangani district has 4H! Isn’t that awesome? When we visited the schools we were always welcomed like royalty with singing, dancing, dramas, and even acrobatics at one school. All of the Clubs also have gardens that they care for. When we spoke with each Club about their needs and challenges, they all said that they need access to water as there is none near the school. In order to water the gardens they have to bring water from home. There are no wells for the schools. When we returned to Kange we found that this was a common problem amongst all of the clubs visited, not just in Pangani.
When I returned to Rukia’s house (my new host family), I again helped with the cooking and was provided with a little snack since dinner was several hours away. Rukia’s family is Islamic and since it is Ramadan they are fasting from dawn to dusk, so I was the only one to snack while the cooking was taking place. That evening Rukia also took me to visit her school. Because it is an Islamic school, I wore a hijab to visit. A my hijab was a black, long sleeved dress that went to the ground and I wore a head scarf. It was interesting to see how people’s response to me changed when I walked through town. Some looked at me with more respect, some with less, some didn’t look at me at all, and some looked confused as to why this mzungu (white person) was wearing a head scarf. I also dressed in hijab the next day when I went to pay my respects to a family friend whose husband had died.
When we ate dinner that night, we sat on a mat on the floor and ate with our hands. There are a lot of things people eat with their hands. Ugali (sort of like grits) is always eaten with your hands, but here they ate everything with their hands. Rice, beans, fish, tomatoes, sauce, eggplant, everything. It took some getting used to, but I am surprised to say that I did quite well at it considering I generally exhibit the grace and elegance of a hippopotamus. We also ate dinner separately from the men in the family. They were in the next room over.
On Saturday when we returned to Kange, I was totally exhausted and couldn’t wait to get to bed even though I knew we had a full day ahead of us. When someone mentioned going to a local club that night I was hesitant to say I would go because I really wanted to get some sleep, but how often do you have the opportunity to go dancing in Tanzania with people from all over the world? I had to say yes, but I would probably leave early. Around 11 pm we boarded a daladala to take us into Tanga, the daladala would take us back at 2 am so I would need to get a taxi if I wanted to go back early. I had so much fun the time flew by and when the bus headed back I was amongst the 6 who decided to stay behind until 4am! I am not normally a nightlife person, but we had a great time and only regretted it briefly when my alarm went off a couple hours later.
The last days of the conference were spent working on action plans to carry out when we got home and evaluating the conference and ourselves. The last day we had a closing ceremony and received certificates for our completion of the seminar. The last night we had a banquet and a farewell party with lots of fun and dancing and hugging. The next morning I woke up at 5 am (after a whopping 2.5 hours of sleep) to see my new friends off on the bus heading for Dar es Salaam. I was so sad to see everyone leave, and I hope we can see each other again. Each and every participant contributed so much to the conference and to my own personal learning. Everyone is so dedicated to their work and their organizations it is truly inspiring. Here are some stories and programs that truly inspired me. This is really the best part of this blog post, so don’t skip it.
Namibia 4H: This program has been in existence for 12 years now but receives very little support from their own government and relies on funding from the Finnish Government for all of their programs right now. Unfortunately they are still waiting to find out if they will receive funding for the next 3 years of their program. They will find out in November if their funding has been approved. If it is not, they have no other sponsorship right now so the program will probably shut down. Kulu and Beatrice are two of the most hilarious, passionate, and hardworking people I know who would do anything for their program to continue working to serve the youth of Namibia.
Malawi: The Malawi 4H program is only 3 months old, which means that they have a lot of growing to do and are just figuring out what opportunities there are for the 4H program. This is a very exciting time to shape and mold the program. They are focusing a lot on environmental work as well as agriculture. Judith is such a passionate leader for the organization and would do anything to make sure that it succeeds! She is so full of energy, I know that she and 4H Malawi WILL succeed!
Uganda: While there is a Uganda 4H organization, Benson and Coco were actually representing CIYOTA (Coburwas International Youth Organization to Transform Africa). And if anyone could transform Africa, it would be these two. This organization is housed in the Kyangwali refugee settlement in Uganda, where the founders live. They live there because they are also refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Listening to their stories is like reading a book. Because they are not my stories to tell, I will not go into much detail. Benson was attending school in the DRC away from home when the war came to his school. He fled the area by himself and spent 2 years in forests, jungles, and various villages before he found his way to Uganda. He was 14 when he left school and 16 when he reached Uganda. It was 7 years before he was able to locate his family in the DRC again. In the refugee camp he started playing soccer and was so good he was able to attend college on his soccer skills. He saw such a need in his camp for youth to learn skills and have something worthwhile to work on that he started this organization. Now there is a hostel, school, and various livelihood skill clubs like 4H.
Coco’s story is similar in that she fled the DRC with her aunt and cousin. She has never completed secondary school even though she has less than one year left, she does not have the money to cover the school fees. If she could complete this she would possibly be able to attend college. She works hard for her organization and always has such a bright attitude and personality.
There are 50 more stories where these came from and like I said, I wish that I could share them all. The people that I had the honor to live with and learn with for the past two weeks are some of the most inspirational people I have ever met. They talk about their lives and hardships and challenges so matter-of-factly that it makes me grimace when I think of the things that I complain about. I hope that I have given you some inspiration for the day and helped you know a little more about 4H and youth organizations around the world. If you have any questions about anything specifically, please don’t hesitate to contact me. As always, if you want to find a way to help, let me know and I will put you in contact with the right person. Thanks for reading all the way to the end! You deserve a little treat for your perseverance!
