President Magufuli’s reasoning against pregnant girls returning to secondary school was that they would be distracted from their studies by breastfeeding their babies. I found this somewhat surprising, because a friend of mine in Dodoma had told me about how at her workplace, breastfeeding women are given regular breaks to […]
I’ve been thinking about the idea of ‘rights’ recently, more specifically human rights. I’ve been thinking about it in relation to breastfeeding, which in Australian law is a right not a privilege. The hungry baby has the right to be fed without delay, and the mother has the right to […]
I don’t know if there are stages, but after my initial impressions our real re-orientation began, and learning about a new place too. It’s all mixed in together. Here are ten observations 5 weeks in. We are not as tired this time. During our first year in Tanzania, we were pretty […]
Not long ago I visited my friend Lizzy and her 6 week old baby at her home. I only found out she has been pregnant when she sent me a message to tell me that she had had a baby girl! This is a woman I had seen just about […]
Whenever I breastfeed Elliot around Tanzanians, they comment on it. Without fail. They don’t generally ask questions, but they just say, ‘Ooh, breastfeeding!’ or ‘I see you are breastfeeding him’. At first I thought it was just because he is twice the size of Tanzanian kids his age, so he’s […]
Meet Jesus at uni 