Skirts and Squat Toilets, January 30

One piece of wisdom you may never have been taught is that long skirts and squat toilets are not a good combination.  Our female students have been very good about wearing lovely long skirts, but this morning when four were sick with some sort of intestinal bug, they all showed up as usual at Kundayo because here they have access to western style toilets.  As one said, "The last thing you want to deal with when you feel like this is one squat toilet for the whole household." Because there was an exam scheduled for this morning, I was somewhat suspicious of this sudden plague at first, but as I watched the students lying flat on the sofas or sofa cushions and sleeping hour after hour--except for frequent trips to the WC--I sensed how miserable they really were.

In the afternoon, when the majority of the group went to the Arusha Declaration Museum to learn more about Julius Nyerere and the years of Ujamaa (http://www.mydestination.com/tanzania/things-to-do/124928/arusha-declaration-museum), I stayed with the sick students and did what I could to make sure they stayed hydrated and ate small amounts of yogurt and toast.  By the time the students returned from their museum visit, the four who had stayed here were awake and looking if not good, maybe better.  We certainly want everyone fit for the transition to Zanzibar this Saturday, so those who are sick need to recover, and those of us who have remained healthy need to stay healthy.  We haven't identified any common source for whatever is causing this illness since those affected live in different households.

This morning, I managed to fall back to sleep after the usual pentacostal wake-up concert, but then I was awakened again by the sound of a baby next door.  Since I hadn't seen any baby the day before or noticed anyone checking in, I was curious.  It didn't take me very long to find our that a Danish women, perhaps in her 30s, and her 20-month-old son were are new neighbors.  Later in conversation, I also found out that she is a correspondent for some Danish publication, and East and Southern Africa is the area she covers.  She told me her name, which sounded something like "Karnitz," and her son's name, which is "Elfie" for short of whatever it really is.  Then she told me how it happened that they moved into Kundayo during the night.  She is now based here in Arusha and had been renting a small house in the back of a compound owned by a Masai woman, a widow.  However, as is very common in this area, the male relatives were extremely unhappy that the wife had inherited property from her husband, and trouble brewed. One of these men--perhaps the woman's own son--showed up in the night and poured gasoline all over the houses and was about to torch the whole compound when he was caught, just in time, by the night watchman.  At that point, Karnitz grabbed her son and whatever else she could and fled to Kundayo.  Now, she has found another house to rent but will need to stay here for several weeks until she can move in.  I regret that we are leaving tomorrow, as I would like to find out much more about her and what she actually covers in her reporting.

If you want to learn more about the legal problems widows have in this region go to this website: http://www.inherityourrights.org/  A young woman from Spokane, Jana Harding, is one of the co-founders, and two of our students will be interning there in March.