mwanza, the city of rocks

We arrived in Mwanza, Tanzania today truly having no idea what to expect. We came to visit our projects here which MM hasn't even seen so we came with no expectations nor any idea of what it would look like. Mwanza is Tanzania's second largest city, a major port and economic center of the Lake Victoria Region... Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake and the second largest freshwater lake in the world! Turns out Mwanza is gorgeous... it has the feel of a Caribbean island. The people, landscapes and warm breeze are much appreciated especially after the stifled environment of Nairobi.

Mwanza has a low key ambience which has a strong village feel. I must say, I love it here. The Nyanya Project began projects here last year in conjuction with the Tanzanian Home Economics Association (TAHEA), the organization which we are working in conjuction with TNP to train the grandmothers in small business skills training. Today we had a couple meetings with Magdalena, the trainer and an employee of TAHEA and then we met with the grandmothers and heard about their grandchildren and small businesses.

TAHEA is an extremely impressive organization and the grandmothers have shown immense improvement in just a few months. For example, Rosa is a grandmother who runs a tea cafe and bakes cakes, she is 59 with 4 grandchilren. Before the training Rosa was buying 4 kg of white flour and was making no profit because she did not know how to do simple math and bookkeeping... after the training began Rosa began purchasing 25 kg of white flour a month and has noticed a much larger profit coming. We discussed the hardships of businesses with the grandmothers and similar to Kenya they all talk about the difficulties of mastering mathematics and dealing with sicknesses which are extremely prevalent in this AIDS infected region. Mwanza, being a community around Lake Victoria, has an extremely high HIV/AIDS rate because of the freight, via trucks and boats moving through the area and the concept known as "Fish for sex" which is way too common. It is unbelievable how many lives this epidemic has reached.

Tomorrow we are going to visit all the grandmothers in their homes, conduct additional interviews and, my favorite part, meet the grandchildren. It should be a fabolous day. We ended today by watching the sunset on the shores of Lake Victoria- it was spectacular.

Lala salama! (Goodnight in Kiswahili)