Half the Fun

[Note: This particular blog post was specifically written for the YCI blog.]

Travelling alone. As a girl. In East Africa.

If you want a genuine reaction when you are informing people about your upcoming travel plans, open with some arrangement of the above.

Shock value aside, there are considerable challenges and rewards that come with working alone as a YCI Innovator.  This is especially true when working in a city that is new to both yourself and the organization you are representing.  YCI’s programming is still relatively nascent here in Mwanza, as there has only been one YCI volunteer in the city before me. Partnerships with local organizations are still fresh and unfamiliar. My YCI Program Manager and I are still learning how to navigate Mwanza’s dala-dala interpretation of public transportation. So far, all things considered, I have encountered many challenges- from coordinating and scheduling trainings to finding someone to hang out with during my time off.  But one of the true joys of travelling and volunteering abroad is turning challenges into adventures, and adventures into rewarding experiences and memories.

This week I facilitated my first Gender Training workshop with the MYCN staff.  This training session was a general introduction to gender and gender issues, and was meant to act as a standardized foundation for all staff members, as well as an open forum for staff members to discuss their questions and hesitations with regards to gender equality in Tanzania. There is a common misconception that discussions on gender only relate to women, so one of my primary goals in the training was to clear this up and explain how incorporating gender into MYCN’s programming will benefit boys and girls, men and women.

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The session was very enlightening for me, and I did my best to approach it with an open mind.  Tanzania is a much more conservative country than Canada, so I knew going into the training that cultural sensitivity would be very important.  Between preparatory research and informal discussion, I have learned a lot about the extreme challenges that gender roles and expectations pose for both men and women in Tanzania. 

At the end of the training, one of the MYCN staff members raised their hands and stated the obvious:  adjusting social norms to accommodate gender equality in Tanzania will be extremely challenging.

“Yes,” I replied, “Absolutely it will be a challenge. But that’s half the fun.”