The Big Trip Upcountry and Birthday Surprises

Hello everyone

I should start by saying thank you so much for all your kind birthday wishes and lovely presents most of which have arrived at this stage :)

So it's been a little too long since my last blog but well it's been a really busy couple of weeks.  I will endeavour to blog more regularly as I have nearly forgotten what I did last week never mind two weeks ago!

TAWLA - The BIG TRIP UP COUNTRY


So for anyone who has been on facebook recently you will have read that I was in Arusha with work.  I attended with three of my colleagues at a gender sensitisation training program.  The program was delivered to twenty key stakeholders within the Mererani community (Mererani is located about 70 km outside of Arusha).  The training was interactive and concentrated on the Law of the Marriage Act, the Law of the Child Act, succession rights and the importance of will writing. The participants were also given guidance on self representation so that members of the community could represent themselves through the formal court system also.

Participants were educated on the importance of proper implementation of these laws to ensure that the rights of women and children are properly protected.  For example, it is a common held belief that in the case of separation unless the child is of tender years (i.e below 7 years) the child should always remain with the father.  However, the Law of the Child Act requires that in determining which parent should have custody of the child it is the best interests of the child which should be the determining factor.  While the training was all through swahilli, and much of it had to be translated for me, I did understand the gist of these debates and it was very interesting to listen and understand the cultural context within which these laws have to be upheld. I find now because I am surrounded by swahilli speakers all day that my understanding has greatly improved, however my spoken swahilli is still kidogo dogo (broken at best!).

In an earlier blog I mentioned that there are very few practising advocates in Tanzania relative to the large population.  Tanzania has a population of approximately 35 million but only 450 advocates.  This, in addition to the high costs of legal representation, mean that many people cannot access justice through the formal legal system.  Therefore, many people will resolve their disputes by seeking guidance from senior members of their communities.  It was these members of the Mererani community that we targeted for our training.  Therefore, the training which we conduct is crucial to ensure that the correct legal information about rights in relation to marriage disputes, succession and child protection and so on is disseminated amongst the general populace.  No pressure then! I have to say I was so impressed with my colleagues.  Their talks were informative and also sensitive to customary laws which at times do conflict with the formal laws which are introduced at government level.

Weekend Break in Arusha....
The training took place on a Thursday and Friday but rather than coming back to Dar the next day I stayed on with a friend of mine Saorlaith who is working in Arusha with the UN.  Saorlaith was the consummate host and I had my first hot shower in about two months which was lovely :) This was a great comfort as I was feeling pretty miserable with a headcold (my colleagues were convinced it was malaria but thankfully it wasn't!).  On the Saturday I volunteered in an orphanage in USA River which is about a 30 minute drive outside of Arusha.  The children were just gorgeous and we had great fun doing arts and crafts and then a good old fashioned game of hide and seek.

While I should have had an early night given my general state of ill health, I decided to throw caution to the wind and head out to a house party. Even though the party was nearly all lawyers who are working in the ICTR it was great fun, maybe we're not such a boring bunch after all!.  My bus back to Dar was leaving at 7 the next morning which meant a 6 o'clock start so you would think that I would have gone to bed and rest??? Absolutely, not myself and Saorlaith went on to a club and danced until the sun was coming up...The bus back to Dar took 10 hours...I would like to be able to say that I slept the entire way home but with Westlife (yes I tell no lie) was blaring through the CD player sleep was not much of an option!  I got into Dar that night a shadow of my former self :)

Birthday Surprising....


So well as you can probably tell I came back from Arusha in a pretty poor state of health.  I stayed with friends in town on the Sunday night so it would be easier to get to work on Monday.  I think though the lack of sleep and flu finally caught up with me and by lunchtime on Monday I was ready for bed.  My only problem was that my flatmate had my keys! I tried a number of times to get my keys unsuccessfully, which at the time I was pretty annoyed about.  When I eventually got home the house was a hive of activity and Emily who works in our house was cooking up a storm.  She told me her boyfriend was visiting and she was cooking traditional African food for him.  She told me to head off to bed and she would wake me when he got there so I could meet him.  So about 4 hours later I was woken still coughing and spluttering and brought into the living room.  I should have been suspicious at this stage considering, we had electricity and Emily wouldn't put on the lights.  It turned out all the food was for my benefit and they had been busy planning a surprise birthday party for me.  Needless to say I felt pretty bad about giving out to Tende about my keys! Oops....thankfully I am all better now.

Anyway, just realised that this blog has been quite long.  Promise to blog more regularly and not leave it for a couple of weeks next time.  I can't believe my parents are here in less than two weeks and I get to go on holidays!

Until next time,
Eithne