Sakina Scholars and Elerai Village Leaders

Recap from yesterday: I met with Emanueli and Irene to go over some of the plans for the summer. I gave them their business cards, which they were pretty excited about. They didn’t really know how to use them so I explained situations in which we should and should not use the business cards. I told them that we will have chances to practice.

I also met with all of the Sakina Scholars! It was so great to finally meet them. Many of them were pretty shy, so I asked them lots of questions and used my limited Kiswahili, which made them laugh. They have different levels of English, but they took turns teaching me Kiswahili. One boy, Elias, taught me different animal names and said that he is going to give me a test the next time we meet. They range in age from 14 to 16. Most of them said their favorite food is ugali, which is a white, rice based type of flavorless bread that you eat with stew and vegetables. In terms of music, they all like hip-hop, reggae, and bongo flavor. Here is a picture of them with Emanueli and Irene standing behind them. Front (from left to right): Back (left to right): Omar, Falista, Manasi, Raima, Eva, Patrick, Elias, Iddi, William, Damian, Dominic

I am excited to hear about the Carrboro\Sakina connection where students in Carrboro will write letters to our Sakina Scholars here! I think that will be really neat.

Emanueli was wearing his Fleet Feet shirt!

Today, Baba, Emanueli, and Irene took me to the Elerai office. Elerai is the area in which I live and Sakina is located within Elerai. Within Sakina, there are many streets on which many people live. The Maturo household is located on Kabida ya Maziwa.

I wanted to meet some key stakeholders in the community so that they were aware of what we would be doing over the next two months. They will also be an integral part in the health assessment of the community. Baba knows everyone, so he introduced me. I met the ward executive officer and the village chairman. They both were really nice and told me they would help in any way possible with Sustain Foundation’s work this summer. The village government breakdown is as follows: chancellor (elected), ward executive officer (works with chancellor but is appt by govt), village chairman (elected), village executive officer (works with village chairman but is appt by govt), street chairman (elected), Ten sill leader (elected and is in charge of a small group of households).

Then we went took the daladala, which are small vans that serve as the bus system, into town. We first stopped at the Arusha Municipal Center and met with some officials who explained the NGO registration process. It’s a little complicated and may take a little while to become officially registered, so it’s a good thing the village leaders are supportive.

It was fun to help Emanueli and Irene start using their business cards at every office we visited!

Vocab word of the day:
Picha - picture