watermelon & final reflections

I am trying to enjoy as much as I can of all the nice fruits Tanzania has to offer before my departure tonight. I never knew that the watermelons this side were this good. And I usually don’t even like watermelon.

An update on my deadline which I was stressed about; I didn’t manage to hand in the full 80% which I suspected. But I did hand in my progress and turns out we didn’t even need to submit it to the professor online. Oh well. That’s done for now. Can’t wait to go to Orkanen (our uni library) and wriiite wriiiite wriiiite. yeah I love studying at libraries and I’ve really missed ours :p

This MFS journey started of quite smoothly for me honestly. I thank God, I have not gotten sick or any such thing. I have made new friends, seen new places and tasted lots of new foods. I have gotten to learn more about the Tanzanian NGO sector and how they work every day to see a transformed and more equal Tanzania. I really salute the Tanzanian Gender Networking Programme, TGNP Mtandao, that 1) works hard for the empowerment of marginalised groups in Tanzania. 2) they conduct interesting & relevant research which I have been able to read at their library.  TGNP has gender seminars each wednesday were they highlight different issues that are related to gender in Tanzania. The past weeks the focus has been on the budget as the government of Tanzania are making decions concerning the budget for the coming 2 years and TGNP tries to make sure that gender is mainsteamed in the budget. And informs locals on what it means and how. And also listens to locals for their inputs.

One thing that suprised me postively is the amount of people that know what the term ‘gender’ is and what shape it takes in the Tanzanian society. This I think is due to a lot of awarness programms and NGO work.

I am so thankful that I have been able to collect data in this part of the world and learnt many things both academically and personally. I was a bit scared before travelling even though I know my way around Dar es Salaam. Because it’s so different to conduct a field study and going on holiday. But I am really glad I did it and I encourage each one of you that are thinking of it; APPLY APPLY APPLY! You won’t regret it I promise.

Travelling back to Sweden tonight feels sad. I have gotten used to Dar es Salaams 30+ degrees and the hecticness of this city. I will obviously miss my family members that I’ve been able to visit every weekend! Such a blessing. But time’s running out and I have to go back. I hope that one day soon I can come back again, and I’m so glad that the organisations I went to were so welcoming and told me whenever I come I should pay a visit.

Finally, as mentioned in the last post I cannot post my own pics because my phone is more than dead >.< but here are some from google, just for you to get a sense of how Dar es Salaam looks like 🙂 oh and one pic of Morogoro town (different city), where I spent my last weekend 😀