A ceremonious weekend

This weekend was very busy and productive for me and it was kicked off by a great Indian dinner in town on Friday evening.

On Wednesday of last week I received mail at ZANGOC from one of its member organizations ZAO (Zanzibar Anti-Poverty Organization). The vision of ZAO is “better and improved living for youth in Zanzibar in all aspects of life, in rural and urban areas.” The mission of ZAO is “involving youth in activities and to facilitate these activities toward better living situations, individually and for the community.” The Executive Director of the organization, Mr. Ali, invited me to attend a ceremony Saturday morning in a district of Zanzibar called Chumbuni. The ceremony was held by ZAO and its purpose was to give awards and recognition to the students who had passed from form three to form four with excellent marks on their final exams. ZAO gave recognition to these students as a way to encourage them to keep up the good work and stay in school for as long as they can, which acts towards achieving their vision statement.

So at 9:30am on Saturday I walked into the school and was greeted by Mr. Ali who then directed me to the head table which I should have expected but forgot that I was the “muzungu” and people would want to hear from me! With this being said, they had also inserted me into the ceremony schedule to “say a few words”! Having been put in this situation multiple times while working overseas, I have become much better at making things up on the spot! I really don’t even remember what I said but I think I spoke for about 5 minutes around the basis of obtaining a good education which is the key to success (or something like that!) The rest of the ceremony was in Swahili and having sat through a fair amount of meetings in Swahili already, I am also getting better at pretending I know what the heck they’re talking about while trying not to nod off!

The ceremony ended and I had a quick interview with a reporter who was asking me what I do for ZAO which was kind of awkward as I had to re-explain that I didn’t actually work FOR ZAO but rather for ZANGOC and then had to explain again what ZANGOC does and how they work with ZAO. However, this I’m not even quite sure of just yet as ZAO is a recent member of ZANGOC, and also because ZANGOC doesn’t really know what their members do which is part of the problem and a huge task that I am undertaking starting next week! 

Anyways, we left the Chumbuni district around 11:30am and I thought that I would be home soon but Saidi ended up taking me to visit the Sultan’s Palace ruins since we were in that area. It was a really interesting tour and nice to learn the history of the Island. The first Sultan of Zanzibar came from Oman in the 18^th century and had this particular palace constructed as his “weekend getaway” and also where his concubines lived. The ruins were cool to see and they even have a reconstructed part of the palace so you can see what it actually looked like when it was still a standing structure. I also learned that the last Sultan of Zanzibar (whose reign ended in the late 1960’s) is still alive and currently living in London! 

Sultan's Palace Ruins

I have a home!

I officially have a home in Kiembe Samaki, Zanzibar! Wednesday evening Sabrina and I finally shifted from the apartment on the second floor to our very own apartment on the top floor! It was so nice to be able to unpack everything and find a home for all of my stuff!

The apartment is much more than I could ever hope for and for just the two of us, it’s huge! We even have a spare bedroom for guests which, at the moment is currently being used to hang laundry. And on that note, we actually have a washing machine which I definitely was not expecting! This aspect makes me very happy considering I have yet to master the art of hand washing my clothes.

The apartment as three patios, one in the living room, one in the dining room and best of all, one in my bedroom. I feel so spoiled as I even have my own bathroom which is equipped with a hot water heater, no more cold showers! (Check Facebook for apartment pictures!)

Work is coming along pole pole (slowly slowly)! For you to have a better understanding of ZANGOC as an umbrella organization, let me just describe the organizational structure first. It has a General Assembly which is comprised of 120 people (3 representatives from each of ZANGOCs 40 member organizations) the General Assembly attempts to meet once a year but this is sometimes constrained by lack of funds. However, the next General Assembly meeting is set for early May, 2011 and I am excited that I will get to observe this and maybe even hold a workshop or two for the member organizations, time permitting!  

Next is the Steering Committee which is comprised of 40 people, 1 representative from each of ZANGOCs 40 member organizations. The Steering Committee meets on a quarterly basis and the most recent meeting was on April 10, 2011. I attended this meeting because I wanted to start networking with some of the member organizations, which I was able to do. I even started my data collection process in which I hope to find out what each member organization does (ie: their vision, mission and objectives), how they currently work with ZANGOC and how they wish to work with ZANGOC over the next 5 years. The meeting itself was not really all that useful to me as it was entirely in Swahili and I did not have a translator!

After the Steering Committee is the Executive Committee which acts as management for ZANGOC staff and projects. However, since all of the Executive Committee members have full time jobs during regular working hours it is hard for them to meet and it is also difficult to get information. However, I have been lucky so far to have the full support of two Executive Committee members and one member of the Steering Committee. For example,last Friday I had a meeting with my supervisors to discuss the strategic plan, including the need to revise the vision and mission statement. I thought I was going to get suck at this point as I would need to wait for the Executive Committee to create these documents. However, in the meeting, I found out that the vision and mission had already recently been revised but in Swahili! So, Mohammed, my direct supervisor, had to translate the document for me and yesterday I received the updated vision, mission and objectives in English! Pole pole!

What I fear the most....!

Take a second guess, because your first one was probably wrong! What I fear the most here is something I take for granted at home. In Takoradi it was running water and here in Zanzibar it is electricity, or rather, lack there of!

During our first week here on the island we noticed that the power was going out at approximate the same time each night (9:30pm) for about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. After talking to people who live in our area and have been here for a while we came to the conclusion that this 1 hour power outage is routine and to be expected daily. This one a hour a day seemed tolerable and not all that frightening until last week when it went out routinely at 9:30pm but didn't come back on for nearly 30 hours! Ever since this night (which we no longer like to talk about) we have been living in fear of the routine power outage! Is it coming? is it not? More importantly, when it does happen, will it ever come back on?!?! I think what fears us the most is knowing that some few years ago the entire island lost electricity for about 3 months! 30 hours was long enough for me, I couldn't even image 3 months! I think we would have to pack our bags and work remotely from Dar es Salaam!

Sometimes the man who flips the switch likes to keep us on our toes for instance, last Sunday it didn't go out and we were waiting anxiously with our laptops fully charged! And, a few nights ago it went off earlier than usual (7pm) and we were afraid that it wouldn't come back on until the usual 10:30pm time! Fortunately, this was not the case and it did come back on exactly 1 hour later.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I just think it's funny how every night we get worried over something trivial that I would not even think twice about in Toronto. I guess that's what you can expect when you live in a developing country, and to be more exact, live on a tropical island in a developing country!

Catching the sunset in Stone Town

Ocean view from our favourite Indian restaurant in town

The beautiful, old architecture in Stone Town

Stone Town and the like

I have to say, the streets of Stone Town are lovely...if you know where you're going that is! The streets are very hard to navigate for a number of reasons some being: all the streets look the same, all the shops look the same and sell basically the same curios, and possibly worst of all...the buildings are tall which means that you can't see the ocean to navigate your direction! I like to say that I am good with my directions but the first few times walking through Stone Town, I was absolutely lost! On our second attempt wondering aimlessly we were lucky enough to run into a muzungu who looked like she knew where she was headed so we stopped her to ask for directions! To our luck Wendy (also from Canada!) has been working in Zanzibar for about 6 months now with CUSO/VSO and she was happy to help us find our way. We ended up having coffee with her and another CUSO member we ran into. After coffee these 2 lovely ladies let Sabrina and I tag along with them through Stone Town and showed us some much needed landmarks to watch for to avoid getting completely turned around!

This past weekend, Sabrina and I attempted our luck at Stone Town just the two of us and I am happy to report that we did not get lost! In fact we made a "to do" list before hand and we were able to locate and purchase everything we needed.

Work is going swimmingly! The ZANGOC office as a whole is very nice and the best part about it is that I have my very own office complete with 2 desks and chairs, a computer and reliable internet which is more than I ever hoped for! The staff members (that I have met so far) are all wonderful and very eager for me to be here which is nice. I have made good friends with Saidi who is a project coordinator and also who drives Sabrina and I home from work everyday! Yes, we have a fairly good set up going on!

Last week I had a few productive meetings with my supervisors to compile a list of tasks for me to work on over the next 7 months. It has turned into a very extensive list and I am hoping that I can accomplish a few of the tasks! The first thing I am working on is the ZANGOC strategic plan for 2011 to 2016. This five year plan will include an updated vision and mission statement for ZANGOC as well as delve into issues the organization is currently facing and creating goals, objectives and activities which will focus on where the organization wants to be and how it is going to get there. Obviously I cannot make up the organizations objectives for the next 5 years but I do have full support from the ZANGOC Executive Committee and I am in the process of setting up meetings with key committee members to talk about where they see their organization in the future.

In terms of living arrangements, we are currently in the apartment complex that we want to be in but we are waiting for a lady upstairs to move out so we can move in! Our wonderful, and very patient, landlady has told us that we will be able to move in Wednesday or Thursday at the latest which actually works out perfectly for us as Thursday is a holiday here so we can spend the day nesting in our new pad! I know I keep promising apartment pictures and I know I keep saying soon...but I do promise they will be posted SOON!

I have heard vicious rumors that there was a snow storms recently in Toronto. I think I've already forgotten what winter feels like as the temperature here is just crazy. Everyday is hot and so humid that as soon as you step foot outside you are already sweating. I don't think I will complain about being cold ever again!

The first week details!

So it’s Friday which means we are at the end of the first work week! Overall, the week went very well. We arrived in Dar es Salaam late Monday evening (11:30pm) and after obtaining our entry visas and claiming our baggage we got out of the airport very early Tuesday morning, around 1am. We were greeted at the airport by Domitilia, our operations officer in Tanzania and the 3 of us jammed our luggage into the car of a normal sized economy car and headed for the Safari Inn. I wrote car and not trunk because between the 3 of us we had copious amounts of luggage so there were suitcases shoved in the trunk, the three of us got in the back and Domitilia and loaded more bags onto our laps and she even sat with some in the front seat as well. Thankfully, it was early enough in the morning and there was no traffic on the road so we sailed on through Dar to the Safari Inn, carried our bags up to our rooms and crashed.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent in Dar doing orientation with the in country staff which included logistics and more importantly, Swahili 101 (my Swahili is improving!) We ate some amazing Indian food both nights and then 3 became 2 when Sabrina and I caught the ferry to Zanzibar Thursday morning and Larissa departed inland to Morogoro.

Upon arrival in Zanzibar we met up with our Country Manager whose passport I was in protection of all the way from Canada. This meant that for at least the past 3 weeks or more, he was literally trapped on the island because Zanzibar is semi autonomous and you have to go through immigration on your way in and off the island. Speaking of the island, whenever I refer to it as such I automatically think of Lost...hopefully I don’t find myself travelling though time over the next 7 months!   .275

Zanzibar is beautiful, just as I remembered it to be, from the small narrow streets of Stone Town to the gorgeous white sand beaches and turquoise water of the Indian Ocean. We arrived in Stone Town around midday and it was very hot! We’re still unsure of the exact temperature on the island because we haven’t had access to the internet since Tuesday to find out these essential details! All I can tell you is it’s hot and very humid, but I’m adjusting and so is my skin colour!

Sabrina and I are currently living with a home stay family and their house is amazing and they are very nice people, however we are reluctant to unpack and settle in because we want to find an apartment to call home sooner rather than later. It’s hard to live out of a suitcase when the thought of having our own space to call home is within reach!  We have connections for apartment hunting so that will be our task tomorrow so we are both very excited about this!

Today was a very long day but it was really productive. In the morning we met in the office and prepared our paper work to be sent to the immigration office so that we could receive our CTA permits (Clear for Temporary Assignment). This permit lets us legally work in an office in Tanzania for 2 months, however we will be applying for our resident permits next week which will clear us to work here for the full 7 months.

In the afternoon we ran some errands which included picking up more passport photos as well as shopping around for the best deal on internet sticks so that we can access the www from home! We did find the best deal, however airtel was out of stock so we had to go with the more expensive Vodafone option, but nonetheless we now have personal internet access which is nice for not getting those nasty viruses!

At 2pm we had our first meeting at UMATI which is the HIV/AIDS organization that Sabrina will be working with. UMATI seems like very well established and reputable NGO and they do a lot of great work throughout the country. UMATI is one of the 40 member organization under the ZANGOC umbrella that I will be working with so it will be interesting for us both to see the connection between the two NGOs. At 4:30pm we walked to the ZANGOC which is literally just around the corner from UMATI. I met with the Executive Director of ZANGOC and also my direct supervisor and they both seem really enthusiastic about having me there and the work that we can accomplish together. Monday will be my first official day of work which will probably consist of a pile of information thrown at me but, as always, I am up for the task!

Check your passport!

This is the latest passport issue I ran into...

When I was in the office this week, we went through my files and documents and noticed that my passport expires February 2012, a fact that I was aware of but didn't think would be an issue since that's 11 months from now. However, in order to get a resident permit visa for Tanzania your passport has to be valid for 6 months after you return. So, this morning I called the Tanzanian High Commission in Ottawa and the lady told me that they might over look the 2 month difference but then again, that would depend on the immigration officer upon arrival in Tanzania....a chance that I'm not willing to take!

I then called Passport Canada but hung up after about 2 minutes of fun automated voice options that just take you in a loop and you either end up on hold for another 20 minutes or listening to the same options over and over again trying to figure out which one best suits your inquiry. My day was going well enough so I decided to just go and speak to someone in person. Since I had to go to the travel doctor anyway, I though I would kill two birds with one stone as both offices are in the same area of the city.

The guy at the Passport Office told me that he couldn't rush my passport renewal because they only rush if you need it within 10 business days or less and today is 12 business days for me. Apparently 2 days makes a world of difference. I sensed that he was starting to get frustrated with my inquiries, I understand that he must deal with a lot of people yelling at him on a daily basis, but I was trying to be rational! Now, my next plan of action is to go back first thing Monday morning and just pray that I have a passport in my hands by the 18th of March!

Useful Links:
Passport Canada
Foreign Affairs Canada

Something else to keep in mind with your passport:

Make sure you check how many blank pages you have left. Most visas and entry stamps take up a full page and if you don't have this space available you might run into trouble at the immigration office in your country of destination.

This story was sent to me in an email...

I WON'T BE GOING TO SOUTH AFRICA

André Désiront

As I write this, I should really be photographing lions and elephants with my Nikon, on a private reserve located next to Kruger National Park in South Africa.

Instead, I am sitting in front of my computer in Montréal. Last Tuesday (Feb. 22), I took a United Airlines flight to Washington, where I arrived on time - long before the South African Airways (SAA) desk opened – and where I was to check-in for the Johannesburg flight taking off later that afternoon.

When the SAA employees opened the desk, I was among the first in line. A few minutes later, I was presenting my passport to the SAA employee, who leafed through it for quite awhile before informing me that she could not let me board me the plane.

Why? Because all the pages meant for visas and entry stamps were already full. There were a few empty spaces here and there, but the young woman informed me that South Africa requires a complete blank page on which to affix its entry permit.

After I asked her if this was some kind of joke, I had her bring over her supervisor who reiterated to me that it was a requirement that we were not going to find a way around. She showed me a notice issued by the South African Embassy in Washington which effectively stated that travellers without a completely blank page for visas and stamps in their passport would be refused upon arrival in the country.

“If I let you board, they will put you on the first flight back,” she explained. She suggested that I call the Canadian Embassy and ask that new pages be added to my passport. “If you act quickly, you might get back in time for tonight’s flight,” she continued. “Otherwise, I’ll keep a place for you on tomorrow night’s flight.”

I contacted the Washington Embassy where the consular services attendant, to my bitter disappointment, informed me that, for a number of years now, additional pages cannot be added to Canadian passports.

She told me I had to get a new passport, either at the Washington Embassy - which would take between 48 and 72 hours - or in Montreal, where I could get an emergency passport in 24 hours upon presentation of my travel papers. This was in the afternoon. One way or another, the schedule constraints were going to prevent me from taking an SAA plane before Friday night, delaying my arrival in South Africa until Saturday night, at which point it would be too late to take part in the events I had been invited to (but that’s another story).

So I decided to cancel my trip. I went to United’s ticket booth where a kind employee modified my reservation (I was supposed to return a week later) so that I could return to Montréal that same evening. Normally I would have had to pay a $75 fee for the modification but she was sympathetic after hearing about my little misadventure and made an exception for me.

Back in Montreal, I contacted the Ministry of External Affairs, where Pierre Florea, consular matters spokesperson, explained to me that “having a blank page available in one’s passport for visas is not an exceptional request limited to South Africa.” I was aware that we had to provide blank pages for authorities to stamp their visas in countries that require one, but South Africa does not require a travel visa from Canadian citizens.

I should have paid more attention to the ministry website. Only afterwards did I realize that in the destination section it clearly states that “Canadians arriving in South Africa with a full passport (i.e. does not contain at least two empty pages for the necessary South African Temporary Resident Permit or visa), will be denied entry to South Africa.”

Unfortunately, I never read the recommendations and tips provided by the website, even though I consult it on a regular basis. My mistake! Travel agents sending their clients abroad to places other than the Caribbean or the European Union should make it their bedtime reading.

The process by which you can add pages to a full passport was brought to an end on Jan. 4, 2005. Any applicant whose passport pages are full must now request a new one.

I had a 24-page passport. I went to the Passport Office yesterday and applied for a new one, this time with 48-pages. It will cost me an extra $5 ($92 instead of the $87 for the 24-page document), but for people like me who often travel, it’s indispensable.

As for my travel experience, I visited Washington’s Dulles Airport, which is all but deserted in the middle of the day. While waiting for the SAA desk to open I had a burger and fries at the Harris Bar Tap, a small bar located next to the Air France registry desk. The fries were dreadful.