photogenic

My Wonderful Enumerators

Enumerators help me in the villages with translation, surveying, and other important tasks. They’re absolutely key to all my work, and I wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything without then. The other interns have asked me what the enumerators do for me. But the better question is, “What don’t they do for me?”

Peter is the oldest of the three enumerators, but often times he acts like the youngest. He’s always laughing at me and my poor Swahili pronunciation. You can’t really see him well in this picture, but he also dresses very well. I’ve been trying to get him to tell me where he buys his clothes (I didn’t bring enough clothes), but he only laughs at me when I ask. Coincidentally, Peter lives down the street from me.

Bond (pronounced Bondy) is the youngest of the enumerators – about half a year older than me. He recently graduated from high school and will be starting university in the fall. He was really really quiet the first day he came to work, but since then he’s opened up a lot. I’ve been impressed by his intelligence, maturity, friendliness, and general good nature. He’s the most hardworking of the three and never shows tiredness. Even after a full day’s work in the village, he’s still the most talkative during the car ride back to town. Bond also introduced me to the only English-speaking church service in Tabora.

Juma is the veteran enumerator and leader of the group. He has a kind a gentle soul and always sees the good in other people. One time I complained to him about how our driver Ramadhani took food from the villagers. He replied that without Ramadhani we wouldn’t be able to do any of our work and that he was doing a very good job as a driver. He’s taught a really negative and critical person like me to see the best people and to learn to love them more. Juma was married last year and is expecting a child in October. He only wants three or our children unlike his father who had 27 children from several wives. I think he’s going to be a great father.

Naptime

Our driver Ramadhani (lovingly nicknamed FatRam) sleeping in the shade while we conduct interviews

Tabora Town

Situation in the Field

Whenever we come upon something unexpected in the villages, one of my helpers Peter always likes to say, “The is the situation in the field.”

Sometimes the situation in the field requires us to walk some distance to the households we interview. Here, Bond (named after James bond) is carrying a stove to a household on our second day in the villages.

In this picture, Juma is interviewing a woman in the village of Mbola. Whenever I ask for permission to take pictures, the women we interview always request me to include all their children.

One Night in Dubai

Dubai Airport

I travelled from New York to Dubai with four other people in Engineers Without Borders. After our overnight layover in Dubai, we parted ways at the airport when they left for their flight to Uganda. Watching them leave was probably the scariest moment in my entire trip – I was completely alone and on my own. But even before boarding my flight to Dar Es Salaam, I had a chance to experience the hospitality of Tanzania when a Tanzanian student studying at Syracuse befriended me and helped me tremendously while I was in Dar.