Hamna shida!

Arriving home from the safari, I think it was safe to say we were all exhausted. Three days is definitely enough time to see all (well almost all) the animals. We saw many wildebeests, zebras, and antelope, which in the beginning of the trip was so exciting I probably snapped close to 50 pictures of each. Further into the park, we had Lions walk right past our vehicles and our driver even took us to a tree that had a family of cheetahs lounging just below. In the Crater we were lucky enough to spot a rhino, although it was far away, it was still exciting to see. Unfortunately, we did not see any leopards, which I had really wanted to see (ideally sleeping in a tree), but there is always next time.

After sleeping in the Ngorongoro crater, I honestly couldn’t remember a time being more chilled even back in Canada. We had been warned just how cold it could get, but no warnings could truly prepare us for it. We (and by ‘we’ I mean the boys) attempted to make a fire, but the wood was wet and would not burn, so we befriended a group that had managed to get one started. That night we also had two striped visitors playing right in the midst of the pitched tents and an elephant standing off in the bushes. On the third day driving home there was nothing more I could want than an actual bed and a warm sleep. That night was probably the best sleep I’ve had yet in Africa.

The next morning we started back to work. We went to the kitchen to see how sales had been from the previous week, hoping that the graphs and previous meeting had motivated them to get out into the markets. The numbers were looking better, although it was only a week and we will need to monitor to see whether these changes are sustained. In order to make these changes stick after we leave, we will be reviewing the constitution and having them enforce the consequences for not showing up to meetings, not going to market to sell, etc. They also suggested changing up the distribution of Mama’s had our last meeting. With following up, we found they have implemented changes and have even begun looking for more Mamas to cover the shifts in the chapatti kitchen and Junior Mamas to help go to Market. They plan to have 1 TWG Mama at the chapatti kitchen with one of the new Mamas they have found. At the yoghurt kitchen they will have two Mamas working and there will be a Mama to supervise both kitchens. The remaining, they are hoping about 10 Mamas, can go to the Market. At each location in the Market they are hoping to have two to three Mamas. Each team can bring about 15 L with them and if they were to sell out would mean a significant increase in sales. After seeing a short term increase in sales, our last meeting revealed they were now purchasing an additional 20 L of fresh milk. After explaining that despite increasing sales by around 20 L, purchasing 20 L more would still cause them a loss in profit. We are going to have them purchase a set number of litres starting at 50 L. Until they sell out, which should be feasible within the next few weeks, they can begin increasing how much they purchase from their milk suppliers. Milk is also starting to come in from their own cows, although the numbers are around 1 to 2 L per day only. To break even to cover the costs of having the new site they should be bringing in about 7 L of milk per day. Unfortunately, one of the cows is sick and the Mamas do not have the money to dig a pit required to bring in the feed that is supposedly better and can increase milk yield. We will have to wait to see if anything changes with the cows and look at other solutions to increase milk being produced or ways to cut costs associated with the new site.

Milk supply from the Mara region is also being investigated. In Mara, milk is considerably cheaper to purchase and even with the transportation costs, Esther is estimating that milk would still be cheaper. This option would really help to cut costs for the Mamas and can hopefully be implemented before the summer is over.

Yesterday, I went to the Market with three of the Mamas to their usual spot. Walking from the kitchen in Mabatini to the Market took about a half an hour. It was very hot and the buckets of yoghurt were quite heavy. I tried to help carry them, but got tired quickly, so could only help in short bouts. The Mamas are able to carry them on their head, which makes it a little easier, but I would imagine it is still tough. My balance is not good, so I did not attempt to carry the buckets on my head and risk spilling all their yoghurt (although this skill would be something useful to learn)! This is one area that could be improved to make transportation of the yoghurt less difficult for them (or perhaps they are much tougher than I am and don’t find it that difficult). This will be something to discuss at our next Monday meeting.

Other interesting things about the Market was that they set up in a shaded corner and from there take a smaller bucket, scoop and cups to the stores. Mainly the yoghurt purchases were from the shop keepers themselves, though they did really seem to love it. One of the shop owners purchased two of the half litre packages and finished both! This was also the first time they brought the sealed, labeled and packaged yoghurt with them. It was interesting because despite the owners being familiar with the yoghurt, they were able to read the label and learned the name “Fiti” for the first time. Marketing of the yoghurt would be greatly helped by increasing brand recognition, so even having some with labels could help spread the word. Other marketing strategies will need to be looked at as well.

In the Market they brought with them sugar and spoons to stir it in. I don’t believe they do this for everyone that comes into the kitchen in Mabatini, but a lot of people seemed to enjoy the taste with the sugar. I am unsure of what the added cost would be, but if it helps sales, I think this is a very smart idea. All in all, this day was very interesting and after discussing the observations with the other interns, the Mamas and Esther, we can hopefully help improve sales, increase brand recognition and make it easier for the Mamas to get yoghurt to the market.

We have also received a report from the interns in Kenya regarding potential reasons for the difference in quality between the sites. We have reviewed the notes; some of the biggest concerns are contamination from flour, potentially introducing yeast and causing the gas build up. Also, we have been informed that the Mamas do not have thermometer or lactometer. The thermometer ensures that the pasteurization is done properly, as well as the bacteria grow best at 37 C. If it is too hot when the starter cultures and probiotics are added they may be killed and the fermentation process would be affected. The lactometer ensures that the milk is not adulterated. It measures the density of the milk, which is especially important during dry season when some milk suppliers may add water to the milk to meet demands. This is something the Mamas will need to purchase. Lastly, the Mama’s should be using bleach to disinfect, instead of just soap and water for cleaning. We will need to review these areas of concern at our next meeting.

Our search for a new women’s group is going well, but finding funding is presenting a greater challenge. We would like to look at funding through loans, as this creates an ownership and accountability mentality from the start. We met with the City Community Development Officer this past week and despite his concerns over starting a new group with the previous one being somewhat weak, he does seem optimistic about taking the approach of loaning money. Money given can be more disabling than enabling when it creates dependency.

Last Friday we met with the Mamas from Buswelu, a small area just outside of Mwanza. It is not too far, but you get the feeling it is its own little town. It has a city centre and it is a growing area, which means it will be an ideal market to sell in. The Mamas were really welcoming and the meeting ran smoothly. They currently have a small business making oil from ground tree leaves that is therapeutic for the skin, especially helpful for those living with HIV/AIDS. They have applied for a TASAF grant to purchase cows, which originally was solely for the purpose of having additional income, but would be very complimentary to the yoghurt project start up. We are still looking into other groups, but these Mamas seem promising; they are motivated and very interested.

We just finished a very busy and productive week, although the outcomes of our findings are a bit grim. The financial situation of the Mama’s is very worrisome. Jesse borrowed the financial books they keep for purchasing milk, sales and money coming in, and their miscellaneous expenses and performed an audit. He found that at the end of this month or next, depending on their savings, they may not be able to afford to pay for their milk supply. The Mama’s are currently purchasing on average 55 L per day, but only selling an average of 22 L. The market is huge and there should be no reason why they are not selling out of their inventory. We investigated why there seems to be a lack of initiative and from what we see it seems to stem from dependency on external income. In the past UWO has supported the Mama’s in times of need, but as of January they have cut funding. As well, since it is now during the school break for the students at Mtoni High School, income from the chapatti kitchen is not coming in to cover the costs they are incurring at the yoghurt kitchen. This is the first time that they must rely solely on their ability to run the yoghurt kitchen and we are now seeing the cracks in it.

In our meeting with Maimuna we discussed other Women’s groups in the area interested in starting up a yoghurt kitchen. One group in Buswelu, which is a little ways outside of Mwanza, but is currently growing, seemed very promising. The women there she said were very motivated and in need of a positive opportunity, such as the probiotic kitchen can offer. We are hoping to visit them next week to get a better feel for the group and area. We will be setting up a meeting this week with Mr. Mkama, the City Community Development Officer, who was suggested to us at our meeting with Mr. Ngowi. Mr. Ngowi said that he has some funds for projects that will be working to help those living with HIV/AIDS. This would be a promising source of funding for the Buswelu group, as Mr. Ngowi is still waiting to receive his budget and won’t become available until sometime in August/September.

During the meeting with Maimuna, we also wanted to know more about the dynamics of the Mama’s at the current kitchen to help in understanding why there is lack of motivation to go to the market. We learned that on top of always having interns to push them and external funding, there was some divide among the Mama’s. What had started out as a good idea, making shifts for the Mama’s to work, there began conflict between them. When one group went out to Market to sell the yoghurt, there was hostility from the others who were not going and making extra money. As a result the group that was going stopped because their efforts were not being reciprocated by the others. We decided that a serious meeting to discuss the financial situation and potential solutions to these problems were needed. On the following Monday we held the meeting. Although only three Mama’s were present, Esther was very firm and conveyed exactly the seriousness of what is happening. The Mama’s that were present were fueled up by the fact that the other Mama’s were not present. This I think gave them a lot of motivation to let the others know how they felt the following day about the lack of commitment from everyone. At this meeting, Jesse presented the graphs to the three Mamas and for the first time we feel that it clicked for them. From the meeting they have decided to develop a new constitution and have concrete agreements regarding attendance at meetings, selling in the market, and being present for shifts. The shifts and distribution of Mamas was another great change that they would like to implement. Instead of having so many Mamas at the chapatti kitchen they would like one general supervisor over both kitchens, then 1 or 2 Mamas at each kitchen working and the remaining putting effort into going to market. The following day, Jesse and Kathleen went to the kitchen to post the graphs as reminders and the news had definitely spread. This was really great to see and we are hoping by changing up the structure of the shifts that the other issues of conflict between Mamas will be resolved so they can all work toward the common purpose of supplying probiotic yoghurt to the community. In the first day of going to market the Mamas tripled their sales for the day. The following few days were just as successful and we will follow up this week to ensure that it was not a temporary push.

This week was full of meetings; I also attended one at SNV with Mama Paskwalina and Esther. The meeting was geared to bringing together small dairy businesses in Mwanza and Mara. The morning we learned about what SNV is doing in regards to helping small dairy operations and we were also informed that as of July 1^st that in East Africa products can cross the border without any duties. This means that there will be an increase of dairy products potentially coming into Mwanza and Mara region competing for the market that these small operations are already struggling to hold. In the afternoon a consulting group presented on an idea called Cluster Competiveness Programs. In Pakistan it was used to increase milk supply by having people purchase milk chillers that decreased contamination and allowed farmers to use both the morning and evening milk supply from their cows. The refrigerator machines were sold through a government loan that had no interest for 5 years. The day was interesting and could have some benefits in the future. Esther was able to make a good contact with a milk supplier in Mara, where they sell milk at less than half the cost and could be a potential source of milk at some point.

Mama Joyce, Mama Leah, Esther, Kathleen, Jesse and I also arranged to meet Mary Mushi at SAUT to discuss the Memorandum of Understanding between SAUT, TWG and WHE. It went well and we asked Mary Mushi to set up a meeting with the department head of Sociology, from there we can make arrangements to meet the head of Health Sciences at Bugando. We will set up meetings to discuss the potential of doing a student partnership with a student in Mwanza and interns coming from Canada.

Aside from work we have continued to be following the soccer. I’ve been supporting Holland in support of Arja and Yolanda. They’ve done really well and it should be an exciting upcoming week, as Holland is potentially going to the finals this upcoming Sunday. These past few weeks a few more of the students have left, which was sad to see. I definitely could not live in Mwanza as people are always coming for short periods only and it would be difficult to have friends coming and going so often. For the last day of our one friend we hiked up to Dancing Rocks, which has an amazing view and is pretty much as it sounds, a bunch of cool looking rocks that you can climb up on. There were about 15 of us that went and on our way home we took a dala dala back to town, where we filled the entire van save for one seat occupied by a local passenger.

After a productive week and following Monday, Tuesday I became very ill and was unable to do much the remainder of the week. I luckily recovered by Friday (although not 100%) because we were heading off on a Safari.

So much has happened in two weeks! I’ve now returned to the intern apartment, which means that Kinleigh and Jackel have left Mwanza and are now in Oyugis, Kenya. The FIFA world cup has started and you can definitely feel the excitement. Walking down the street you often see (and hear) many people sitting around watching the games. I love being right in the midst of it all and with so many international people in Mwanza you can always find someone proudly sporting their teams colours.

Work these past two weeks have been going well. Stephanie went back to Canada, but we are keeping in touch to make sure that what was started during their internship gets carried through. Olivia is now in Canada, which probably seemed like a short trip considering she went to Nairobi there and back 5 times; each one way trip equaling about 15 hours!  She was able to secure packaging from Tech pack in Nairobi, but because the labeling material was not available before she left, she returned to Mwanza without them. We now finally have the labels, packages and sealing machine procured and stored in the kitchen, but the process to get them had a lot of unexpected problems. Our next step is to look into getting the Tanzanian Board Standards (TBS) stamp. The first step to getting this stamp is to have SIDO (Small Industries Development Organization) come in for an inspection. The Ivey students contacted SIDO and the inspection happened the following week. It went really well and from this we need to follow up with a letter to be signed by the Health Department of Mabatini. This is all very promising and will help give legitimacy to the women’s operations. The Mama’s are very happy with the progress and now we just need to get them into the Market to start selling!

The packaging is great and will help with distribution of the probiotic yoghurt, but we have encountered a few setbacks. The labels, which were supposed to be waterproof, are not and with the condensation that builds up in the fridge, they begin to rub off. As well, the yoghurt when sealed begins producing some gas, which is building up under the tinfoil tops. We are still inquiring about why this is happening, but the yoghurt has been fresh that has been packaged, so we know it can’t be from contamination or the yoghurt having been spoiled. However, we have been informed from a few sources that the gas build up could potentially be the result of yeast contamination, which although not harmful may make the product less marketable to larger stores in Mwanza.  All in all, I think things will work out well with the packaging, but as with most things, there always seems to be little obstacles to overcome and work through. We also want to work with the Mama’s and determine the locations they feel the most motivated to approach to sell their yoghurt. By engaging the Mama’s we are hoping to ensure that the distribution will continue once we have left. We have also asked them for input on transportation of the packaged yoghurt. They would like to build an insulated box that can be wheeled by them. We encouraged them to purchase more buckets to transport the packaging, which can be carried on their heads, as this has already been successfully used in the past. The Mama’s went ahead and purchased these the other evening. We are hoping that since school is out, the Mama’s who would normally be working at the chapatti kitchen use this time to go to the markets.

With the rest of my time, I have been working at NIMR in the labs with Arja and Yolanda. They were continuing to test multiple methods for adding Moringa to the yoghurt and after countless attempts they were able to! This is very exciting, especially after finding a method that has worked after multiple trials. The sensory evaluation of the product is set to be done on July 1^st, so we are just in the process of making changes to the sign-up sheets for participation in the trial. In the lab I also had the opportunity to learn how to make agar plates, which is what Arja and Yolanda use to grow the probiotics. The medium is selective for the GR-1 strain of probiotic bacteria, which allows them to determine if the probiotics are surviving in the Moringa yoghurt product and actually count the survival rates.

Our other focus during this internship is looking into the start up of new women’s groups that can begin producing the probiotic yoghurt. In order to start up another group we need to find funding. We have been researching various funding opportunities and have set up meetings to discuss funding and micro-financing in Tanzania. We had a meeting with Attique from CRS, which was very helpful in understanding micro-financing for groups. Although this is not likely to be a viable option, it was very useful and the information was interesting. Another meeting we have set up for this week is with Maimuna, the executive director and founder of Kivulini’s Womens Group. She can hopefully give us insight into possible start up funding for the new groups. Our last meeting we set up is with Mr. Ngowi from TASAF (Tanzanian Social Action Fund). They have provided funding in the past and we are now hoping with the new budget coming out soon, that we can receive funding for the new groups.

Some other activities I will be doing in the near future will be in regards to quality control at the kitchen. I have discussed with the Mama’s already about coming into the kitchen for about a week and making observations on the process. We have noticed that often the yoghurt varies in consistency, texture and taste. Since we would like to start selling in the market and at stores, I think it is very important that more consistent products are produced. I will use my notes and test the yoghurt each day to compare and track changes in the process and product outcome. We have recently talked to Kinleigh, who is now in Oyugis and she has noticed a large difference in the quality of the yoghurt between the two locations. Although, we have been told people in Mwanza enjoy the lumpy yoghurt and overall the yoghurt itself, the problem is more in terms of using the correct process. We will be looking into the matter further.

On another note, aside from work I had the chance to go out to Starehe Orphanage, where our friend Salome works. The kids are adorable and Kathleen and I would like to go back a few more times. I also went with Sabrina to the baby orphanage, Forever Angels, and from there we went to an orphanage called Timinie. A few of the kids from Forever Angels were placed at this orphanage when they got were a little older and the workers from there wanted to go visit. It was very different; far out of Mwanza and they had their own cows, pigs, and a garden.

Sabrina is doing work here for her Masters and is surveying students that attend SAUT and Bugando regarding cervical cancer and HPV. I went to Bugando Hospital for the first time the other week with her. It’s a very large, ominous building that sits on the top of the hill. On the ride up to it you see many shops for coffins, which was a little bizarre to see.

The other really exciting thing we have gotten to do was to attend the Sukuma tribe festival. All the dance groups from various tribes were competing against each other. Olivia was still here and asked one of the dancers to teach her and I the dance. Which little did we expect this to mean him dressing us up in their costumes and throwing us right in to dance alongside the group. We were shown a few steps, but basically just had to learn on the spot, and in front of a couple hundred people (no big deal)! I definitely got a case of the stage fright right before going on, which reminded me a lot of competing in figure skating. The good thing was that as soon as we got out there, the stage fright went away and I had so much fun. The other girls we were with took pictures and even video of the whole thing. I am sure the local people were impressed by our dance moves!

Monday morning arrived and Marta headed off to pick up Emily from the Airport.  At the apartment Steph, Dane and I worked on filming Mama Paskwalina (and Esther doing the translating) for promotional material to be used back in Canada. She had many great things to say about the impact of the project on empowering women, improving the quality of life for people living with HIV/AIDS and the community in general. While filming, Esther received a call from Mary Mushi at the St. Augustine’s University (SAUT) that the Ivey Interns were also arriving at the same time today. Since Marta was already out there we phoned her to let her know and everyone soon arrived back at the apartment. It was a little cramped with 12 people and piles of luggage so Marta and I took the new interns around town to exchange money, get phones and food, while Dane and Steph finished filming.

After returning to the apartment late afternoon, the filming had been completed so Steph and I took the Ivey students out to SAUT where they would be staying for the next two weeks. Steph and I were also going to have a meeting with Esther, Mama Paskwalina and Mary Mushi regarding the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between SAUT and the WHE project while on campus. Unfortunately, as things always seem to take much longer than anticipated in Mwanza, there was not enough time to do this after Mary Mushi gave a tour of the campus to the Ivey students. The meeting was deferred and I will need to go back out there with Esther and Mama Paskwalina on another day.

I took my first Dala dala back home from SAUT and it was a pretty entertaining experience. If you are careful with your purses and bags, it’s not bad, but I can see how things get stolen when they cram people into every possible free space!

On Tuesday, Dane was leaving to go back to the Mara region and Olivia had left early in the morning to Nairobi to get the packaging. Emily, Marta and I went to the kitchen, where we introduced Emily to the all the Mamas and had her try her first chapatti!  Chapattis are pretty tasty despite being only flour and water rolled out to look like a pancake/crepe then deep-fried; but from a nutrition perspective, I can’t help thinking how little nutrients are contained in the foods they love most. They have so many variations of deep-fried food, each one called something different based on the type of flour used – corn, rice, wheat, cassava flours. The kids do enjoy buying their chapatti and chai, but it would be great if they bought yoghurt along with their meal to add some nutrition. The students are of out of school from June to July, but when they start back up, we would like to try making some sort of package deal; if they buy a cup of yoghurt, they get a chapatti. This is still just an idea, but hopefully the Ivey students can see whether the Mama’s would be profitable making the package. Ideally they would still make a profit from the deal, in addition to providing the kids with a more nutritious lunch.

Another project that I will be working on, which I began today and am realizing how long it may take, is updating the Mwanza Steering Committee member profiles for the WHE website. I am also making my way through Steph and Olivia’s documents from their internship that I got from her before she left. One of the documents I read through was for Joke’s protocol for her research trials looking at the impact of probiotic bacteria on the efficacy of anti-retrovirals (ARVs) and recurrence of bacterial vaginosis. It was very interesting and I am excited to see the results. There are also many other useful documents and I am now making a plan for I want to accomplish over the summer. Often because there is no overlap between interns (outgoing and incoming) there is some lack of communication and continuation of projects started by the previous group. I feel that having been here with Olivia and Steph for a few weeks, there will be less disconnect between our goals and what they have accomplished. The momentum of what they have initiated can be carried through more effectively as a result of having this overlap.

In the evening, Joke invited Marta, Emily and I to see the Sukuma tribe dances at the cultural centre about 20 minutes past Mabatini. They performed traditional dances; one for good harvest, a dance for celebrating a good harvest, a dangerous one that involved a snake – during which they invited us up to dance. All the kids laughed as we danced, I’m sure our dance skills were very impressive to them!

The next day I went with Sabrina (past intern) and the Ivey students to the Kitchen. I tried rolling the chapatti for the first time! It was much more difficult than it appears; the Mama’s definitely have the technique down. This was a lot of fun and I feel like I’m getting to know the Mama’s a bit better now.

The rest of the day I walked around doing some errands, while Emily and Marta finalized their start up package for the Arusha team at the apartment. Sabrina and I met Yolanda and Arja later at NIMR to go swimming at the International School pool. It was really nice and Joke met us at the pool as well.On my walk home to the apartment I was pretty tired and at first thought I was seeing things. Kids starting laughing at me as I walked by to get my attention. When I looked over I had to double take because sitting in the tree was a monkey. But even more strange than a monkey in a tree for me was the fact that it was wearing pants and had a string tied from its foot to the tree. I think it must have been someone’s pet, but my contorted, confused face really sent the kids into hysterical laughter now.

That evening the Arusha team arrived; their trip ended up taking over 12 hours, the distance is about 500 km, but the roads are not great and the bus broke down. The next day the first stop to visit was the kitchen. Mama Leah and Mama Howa explained the yoghurt making process, and then we headed up to the other site to have a meeting with all the Mamas. This was very useful for the Arusha people and allowed them to ask as many questions about their business – good and bad, successes and challenges. The Mamas from Arusha were very nice and spoke fairly good English, which will probably make communication a little easier between Mamas and the interns in Arusha. However, I know Emily and Marta are determined to learn Swahili, so I’m sure they will still make every effort to speak Swahili with them. Boniface speaks very good English and has expressed how impressed with the project he is; he is very optimistic about getting up to 100 L of yoghurt per day fairly quickly. I can’t wait to hear about their first week in Arusha!

In the evening I went to dinner with Sabrina and Attique, the director of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) – and one of the organizations that we could potentially collaborate with to distribute a nutrition package containing the fortified probiotic yoghurt and porridge.

On Friday, the Arusha team went to NIMR to learn about the culturing of the probiotic bacteria and procedures. I met them for lunch because I needed to do some organizing and emails at the apartment. I took the group to Kivulini for their meeting with Maimuna. After waiting around for a bit and experiencing our first Mwanza rainfall, Maimuna was done her meeting. She was able to explain her role as founder/current Executive director of Kivulini, a Women’s Rights Organization and its role in forming the Tukwamaune Women’s Group, which are comprised of the Mamas that run the kitchen.

For dinner Friday night, since it was Steph’s last weekend here, we invited all the Mamas over and the Arusha team to have a big feast at our place! It was delicious and there were so much food my stomach was definitely stretched to capacity.

Tomorrow the Ivey interns were going to be moving into the apartment a week early because Emily and Marta were off, Dane was still away, as well as Olivia and Steph was out at Tunza until her flight on Monday. I am staying at Sabrina’s for the upcoming week, which I had no problem doing and was very excited for because she has hot water at her place (not to mention Sabrina is super nice and has been a great help this past week)!

All in all, the week was pretty productive and I feel now like I’m getting a handle on what I want to accomplish over the summer. I cannot believe I’ve been here three weeks, which I don’t want to think about because it means I’m almost a third into the internship and will be leaving soon(ish).

Time really does fly by here. It has already been another week and so much has happened. Last weekend I celebrated my 21st birthday, which is an experience I will never forget! All the interns (with the exception of Olivia, who was still Kigali) went out to Tunza before noon on the Sunday. Many of our friends met us out there as well. The weather was perfect and all day we hung out in the sun. We went out on the boat, initially hoping to fish, but instead just touring around the coastline. We also swam, which I probably ended up staying in the water for two hours because it was so nice. It is a very beautiful lake, which I just couldn’t resist despite being warned (sorry Bob) of the many parasites Lake Victoria has. Other people out there, even Med Students were swimming and just told us to take medication when we got back home. It was definitely worth it! For dinner Jan and some others cooked us fish that had been caught by them last week.

The next day we had to get back to work and I got to experience my first meeting with the Mama’s. We discussed the legislation regulations that the Mama’s need to work towards satisfying in order to sell in the Market, packaging was discussed, but need to wait to hear back from Olivia because she found a promising distributor. Tech pack was the company she had found while in Kigali at the Dairy Conference; they are based out of Nairobi and the packages are environmentally friendly. This is great because we were looking for a local (East Africa) supplier and something that wouldn’t have a huge impact on the environment. Marta, Dane and I also explained to the Mama’s the goals of our internships and they all seemed very happy with them.

On Tuesday we had a lot of running around to do in preparation for making the yoghurt and doing the sensory evaluation for Steph, Arja and Yolanda. Steph was going to prepare yoghurt using locally grown flours as thickening agents and for added nutrients. Arja and Yolanda are preparing yoghurt using the plant grown and eaten locally called Moringa. They have successfully added the Moringa to the milk before pasteurization and tested for the probiotic survival. At any concentration they tried, the probiotics were still able to grow, which was key to continuing with their product development of Moringa fortified probiotic yoghurt. We picked up the fresh milk from the kitchen and went to the market to purchase pots and containers to make the yoghurt and store them the next day. Wednesday started off very promising, Arja and Yolanda arrived at around 7:30 am to begin making yoghurt. Steph and I went to get more Moringa (which the store ended up being closed, our first sign of disaster for the day!) and some supplies, while Arja and Yolanda began heating their first batch of milk. When we returned, we discovered that the milk was bad and heating caused it all to curdle. We went back to the kitchen to get new milk and found out that yesterday’s milk was in fact a bad batch. Bringing the new milk back we began all over again only to have our gas run out, meaning our stove wouldn’t work. Yolanda and Arja went to get our gas tank filled and shortly they returned. When we began again the milk heated well, but as soon as we added the Moringa paste it began curdling. This was very confusing because it had worked previously using the exact same method. By the end of the day we had gone through 40 L of milk and still no yoghurt had been made! We decided to postpone the evaluation for Stephanie to Friday and start over tomorrow morning at the Mama’s kitchen. To end the stressful day we made hot chocolate from the little milk we had that was good (it made the day feel a little more successful) and headed to Diner’s for dinner.

Early Thursday we went to the kitchen and the day ran smoothly. All the milk we knew for sure was good and even adding the different thickeners (peanut flour, sweet potato flour and milk powder) worked out great. Arja and Yolanda who were postponing their evaluation to the following week decided to experiment with the Moringa, while we were at the kitchen. They tried adding the Moringa as a paste with milk and the starter culture yoghurt (this was the method used originally), as well as adding the Moringa on its own to the milk. Both caused the milk to become cottage cheese like. We will still need to experiment some more next week; the only cause for it not working this time that we can think of is the Moringa itself. They will purchase new Moringa and try again.

Olivia returned from Kigali with some promising information regarding packaging; she is heading to Nairobi today (June 1st now) to purchase 500ml Tech pack packages and the sealing machine. This will allow us to distribute the yoghurt further from the kitchen and to more sites.

Friday, Steph and I headed to the kitchen after printing off the sensory evaluation questionnaires. Steph stayed the entire day, but I left because I wasn’t feeling great. Steph was able to get enough people to do the evaluation and I’ll be interested to see the results. I didn’t mind either of the sweet potato or peanut flour samples. It’ll be interesting to see if the locals enjoyed them too.

The weekend I planned to do a lot of catching up, including the blog, but I ended up sleeping quite a bit. We did get out to Tunza for Jan’s birthday on Friday where we ate South African food called Poikie (I’m not sure on the spelling). Basically everything goes into one ‘small’ pot and cooked over the fire.

On Monday the Ivey student Interns arrived along with Emily, another WHE intern; she will be heading to Arusha with Marta to work on the project there. It was fun to take the new interns out through town and do the orientation. I was even surprised by how well I knew the town!

Day three of exploring Mwanza we started the day by going to Mabatini to visit the Mama’s at the yoghurt kitchen (jiko la jamii). It was much different than I expected; the kitchen was quite a bit smaller, but very quaint and clean. We tried a sample of the yoghurt and this was definitely a different taste and texture than the products I was used to in Canada. Yoghurt is called “Mziwa Mgando”, but literally translated to English means sour milk, which is exactly how it tasted. It will probably take a bit getting used to.

For the morning Dane and I sat out with the mama’s making chapattis and went up to Motoni Secondary School to sell them to the students. A group of the students were yelling at us to come see them and were very excited that we were from Canada. A few even asked us to bring them there. They spoke very good English and so I was able to try speaking Swahili to them, which they laughed and high fived for my attempts. They taught me a few new words too.

We went back to sit with the Mama’s making more chapattis in preparation for the lunch time rush of students. A bunch of them came and sat with us. One of the girls, Frieda, even knew Ashley (a past intern), which was very exciting. At around noon the students had gone, so Steph, Marta (who were back from the clinic now), Dane and I walked back to the apartment. Along the way we saw many cute clothing shops and shops selling a variety of things.

Getting back to the apartment, we only stopped over briefly to change, get more money and put on more sunscreen. We were back out again and on our way to visit Nimri. At Nimri we saw the labs where Arja and Yolanda work and where the probiotics are cultured. After they had finished up for lunch, we went down to where they eat and ordered some food.

On our way home we stopped into U-Turn, a grocery store with all the things you can find back in Canada, but they are much more expensive because most of the items have been imported. Also what was funny was that the chocolate is stored in a refrigerated room, otherwise it would all melt!

Outside U-Turn we met Steph’s friend who was carrying a bunch of paintings he had done. The colours were amazing and I will definitely want to buy one or two from him before I leave. We eventually made our way home after stopping in a fabric store and the bakery to get fresh bread.

It was about 4 or 5 pm already and it had been hot all day. I didn’t realize until I came inside that I had managed to get a pretty good burn.

For the evening we went out to dinner at the Binti Moringo, which is where an organization that raises money for a children has a dinner fundraiser every other Wednesday. The theme was Mexican so we had some tasty fajitas and met many other people travelling from different parts of the world. It was a nice way to end the evening and we will definitely go back the next time they have this dinner.

The next day we had a little less to do, but it still managed to take us all day. I had to go to Nimri again to find the acting Director to get a signature and scan some papers to send back to Canada. To get there today we went on the Piki piki’s, which are motorcycle taxis. So much fun and really inexpensive, it only cost us 1000 Tsh. It was a nice change of pace to get to see the town, but not have sore feet. I am still feeling the sun burn, so the cool wind was much nicer than feeling just the sun. On the way back we walked by the small market so we could go to buy food for dinner. We got plantains to cook in sauce with okra and spinach. We also bought fruit (pineapple, mango and papaya) for dessert. On the way home we stopped in a few spots we visited yesterday to see if Stephanie had left her phone anywhere. It’s yet to be found.

Friday, Marta and Dane went to Mabatini in the morning, while Steph and I went to buy a new cell phone. By chance we decided to stop back into one of the shops we had visited on the day she had lost her phone. It was there! The owner had even fixed the broken back, although we think he only did this because he was going to keep it if no one came back to claim it! We had also tried calling it many times and although it was on, he claimed it was not and that he had tried to phone some numbers but the network was not working. It was more likely that he was trying to make it more difficult for us to get it back, but thankfully he was honest enough to give it back when we did come by. After visiting another shop, we decided to head back to the apartment, and at this time we were now getting calls from a number asking for money. It was definitely the man from the shop! He had forgot to ask for the money Steph said she would pay if someone returned her phone before he gave the phone back. We walked the long way around his shop to get home and the calls stopped eventually.

In the afternoon we took Piki piki’s to Mabatini to see the Mama’s and buy some yoghurt, but had to hurry back for 2pm for Marta, Dane and I’s first Swahili lesson from Mr. Goddence. It went really well and we will be having more lessons next week.

Margaret made us homemade chips; she probably made a few pounds of potatoes for us, but were all eaten up because they were so delicious! We went for a quick dinner at Sunset Bakery, which we got a lot of food for only 3600 Tsh (3 dollars), but the chicken was definitely not the best thing I’ve had yet! Making our way back home, Margaret was still at the apartment making more chips for the night. We were having a bunch of Steph’s local friends over for a going away party. Margaret cut up pineapple and watermelon and served chips, which were gone very quickly. It was a fun night and yet another chance to practice and learn more Swahili.