Wednesday, May 10 2006
ARUSHA — Wednesday was the most diverse and interesting so far of the malaria tour. The day featured a combination of field visits and briefings. In the morning, we observed the growing of a new miracle drug to help “break the back of malaria’’ and in the afternoon, we watched how insecticide-treated bed nets are made.
Also, my much anticipated newly designed traditional shirt arrived -- then went missing. And a dash to the airport capped the day.
Read further to learn more as I reveal how an average day unfolds for us:
9 a.m. After a busy day on Tuesday, the team assembled in the lobby of the Impala hotel in Arusha for the 15 minute drive to the local offices of TechnoServe, a U.S.-based company that helps people in poor rural areas of the developing world build businesses to create income, opportunity and economic growth.
TechnoServe is helping mostly small farmers in several Tanzanian communities grow Artemisia plants. An extract from the leaves of the plant is the key ingredient in Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies or ACTs, one of the latest (in Africa) and most potent weapons in fighting malaria.
10:30 a.m. The briefing was informative, but we were eager to get to the field to observe the growing and talk to farmers. We walked down the seven flights of stairs in the modern bank building to our buses for the drive to Sambasha in Arumeru District.
Farmers, many with bright smiles, seemed happy to see us. Excited to show off their latest cash crop. Artemisinin, green bushy plants, line the hillside in the shadow of Mt. Meru.
Many are growing the plants for the first time. One farmer has earned enough money to pay for his two children to attend school and a color television set. It beats growing corn and beans, he tells me with a big smile.
Many of his fellow villages are hoping for similar success.
1 p.m. Interviews and hundreds of photos later, we bid the villagers a reluctant goodbye. A buffet lunch of fish, stew chicken, rice and beans await at the Impala. Full speed ahead.
1:30 p.m. Arrive hotel. Some good news. My shirt arrived while we were away. Truth be told, I didn’t really expect to see it. I bought the material and contracted a tailor during a visit to Usa River Village the day before. It’s a poor village where we distributed NABJ-sponsored bed nets to orphans. Some of us took bets on whether the woman could (or would) make the shirt overnight and deliver to the hotel. She delivered. I leave it at the front desk with the rest of my luggage.
3:05 p.m. We pull out of the Impala and drive through one of the most bustling commercial districts in Tanzania toward the A to Z Textile Mills, the largest producer of mosquito nets in the country. The company manufactures the nets in joint partnership with Somitomo, the large Japanese firm.
We observe the total manufacturing process of the nets -- some blue, others white -- before returning to Shah’s conference room for a briefing.
Over coffee, tea and soft drinks, he tells us that the nets are safe. More people need to use them. The company produces 3 million nets per year. It will have the capacity to produce 6 million nets after a new factory is built nearby in September. And so on.
5:50 p.m. Official activities of the day are over. We head back to the hotel to relax a bit before driving to the airport for our flight to Dar es Salaam. I write blog entry until we were ready to leave. Stopped by front desk to grab luggage.
Told shirt is missing. No way!
We look everywhere. One of the two buses pull out for the airport. We continue searching. No luck. Twenty minutes later. Let’s leave the shirt. It only costs $10 bucks. But 100 times that in sentimental value. We race to the airport.
8:30 p.m. Arrive airport. A member of the team on the first bus walks over. He pulls a familiar paper bag from his backpack. I believe this is yours, he says. Picked it up by accident. Relief.
9:20 p.m. Board Air Tanzania for the hour-long flight to Dar.
9:40 p.m. Wheels’ up, ending a colorful day in Arusha.
— John Yearwood, Miami Herald
