Home is where the heart is....

Home is where the heart is…

Recently I was told that I couldn’t “afford” my lifestyle. This was due to a tremendous amount of unexpected dental work/oral surgery/root canal work and a plane ticket home. These unforeseen costs came to a staggering amount of money, much larger than my yearly stipend as a volunteer.

On the plane ride home I began to question my life again and what I am doing with it as it will take me years to pay this debt off. In my past life, I would have spent this amount on a one week vacation! I was a successful executive and spent money without a thought or care, very selfishly which in hindsight was both careless and selfish.

One year ago, I chose to sell all of my earthly possessions, including my furniture, clothes, art, basically everything so I could think of someone other than myself and be of service to others. I certainly admit that I did not account for unexpected emergencies in my life. I just knew in my heart that I was tired of being so self absorbed and wanted to think of someone else for a change, to give to others in a selfless manner.

All of this lead me to my wonderful, but very primitive and happy life here at the Rift Valley Children’s Village. The reality is that I don’t need much here, I have a wonderful room, a roof over my head, food in my belly and I spend what little money I have on the little luxuries of life here i.e. sodas, telephone calls to the states, wine and a monthly stay at a local guest house for some R&R. My day starts @ 6:00am and on a good day ends at 8:00p.m. and this is 6 or 7 days a week. I have hot water on good days and solar power to work by. I am writing this blog by kerosene lamplight as the solar power is down by 7 or 8 at night.

Things that were so important to me before such as blow drying my hair, makeup, nice clothes and my weekly manicure and pedicure are non existent and do not matter to me one bit. I no longer have a house I own or any material possessions, and this is incredibly liberating and freeing and has made me realize how shallow I was for so many years.

What I do have is a heart that is bursting with love for the 69 children we have here at the village, a love for the wonderful Tanzanian staff and a great appreciation for all of the selfless volunteers who pass through our doors every month. I love my three children with all of my heart, but they are now grown and living their own lives in the states. Nothing will ever replace my love for them and I will always be there for them. However they are no longer babies and do not need me like the children here do…

As I travelled home to Tanzania, I was sad and questioning my decision to move to Africa when something wonderful happened. All of my questioning was dissipated upon my arrival at the village. I had been gone for 1 month and as I stepped out of the truck, I was mobbed by a group of children all wanting hugs and kisses, welcoming me home. As I made the walk home to my room and Kirin house, all of the children, staff and volunteers were literally running out of their houses to greet me. I have never felt so wanted, loved or missed in my life! It literally took my 30 minutes to walk to my room, which is a normal 5 minute walk.

So yes, I may not have anything in the way of “things” and will have debt for the next several years, but what I do have is the knowledge that I make a difference by loving and helping these wonderful orphans. I certainly know they have helped me, when you give like this, you actually receive so much more in return, which is a great bonus. I have no idea how I will make it in my later years and frankly I really don’t care. I give my heart to these children and everyone who works here, the volunteers who help and India who has graciously taken me in and allowed me to work/volunteer here.

This is what makes life truly great, this is who I am now and this is where I belong! All I can do is love, care and give these children what they need emotionally, physically and assist with the day to day operations of the village…basically be here for anyone who needs me. As long as I am needed and can help, I will remain here, because I cannot “afford” to NOT be here!

Home is where the heart is and what I now know in my heart is that I am finally home where I belong!

Emmanuel update

This is Emmanuel or "Emma" as everyone here at the village calls him. Only in Tanzania could you have a boy called Emma and everyone think it is normal. :)He arrived just after birth (his mother died in childbirth) I have been aquainted with him since he was 2 1/2 or 3 months old. I am so close to this child and love him so much! I took care of him when he had colic and malaria and really bonded with him, adoring him more and more each day.  

This has been a big week here for Emma. He sprouted 2 teeth in the same day and he took his first steps! We all laughed that he is the first kid in TZ to ever walk before the age of 1. The culture is to strap children on the back of the mama or bibi and then don't let the kids touch the ground for the first year or two. Emma was crawling at 6 months which is truly amazing for here and now is walking at 10 months of age.

A couple of volunteers were in the container today and found a blue button down oxford shirt and a very safi (cool) sweater. He looks so cute I thought I would post the picture right away so everyone could see it.

Today is another holiday here in Tanzania (what a shocker!) so the kids are all home from school, playing soccer, gardening and hanging out in our office where I get nothing done. Oh well! It is great fun to play with all of the kids and just hang out with them...I am off to go rescue the cat from some over zealous toddlers. Cheers!

The sun also rises...

My life has been wonderful lately, I am happy, healthy (relatively) love my work and am surrounded by babies and children. I coast along, busy with my daily tasks, holding babies and enjoying life… sometimes forgetting the harsh nature of the surroundings, where I am and what life is truly like here for these wonderful persevering people. Tragically today, I have been jolted back into reality with a sad but all too usual event.

Death for humans is a part of life. Death in the US, while obviously occurring daily to many people is not something we come in contact with very often unless you work in the medical field etc…I remember the first time someone died close to me, I believe I was 10 years old. I knew people died but didn’t experience it on an annual basis, much less a day to day basis.

Death in Tanzania is something that happens all of the time and that everyone is aware of all of the time. Mothers die in childbirth; many die of HIV/Aids, children die from lack of medical care and malnourishment, many people in our area die from asthma attacks and accidents and unfortunately, many die violently.

In the past week, one of our social workers brother died at the age of 32 from kidney failure due to undiagnosed high blood pressure. Two days ago the 19 year old brother of one of our teachers was killed in a car accident. This morning we found out that a sweet little boy we help out sometimes was beaten to death by his drunken brother at the local village. He was 10 years old. Many of our children went to the primary school with him and were in his class. I personally knew him as we had arranged for him to receive glasses a few weeks ago and he hung out here on the weekends and played soccer with the kids.

I have had a very hard time dealing with his death and the violent nature of his attack. I have cried several times, when additional details come out. The one thing I have noticed is that no one here cries. They are sad and in shock, but it is just a part of life here. They are a caring, loving and happy people, not unfeeling, just doing what they can to get by in life. They have to deal with so many of their babies, family members and neighbors dying that I feel it is the only way they can cope.

One of the many reasons I love this country and the people here is that when life deals them a blow, they persevere and press on. Somehow they know that as sure as the sun sets, it will rise again. Life sucks sometimes, there isn’t enough food to eat, water to drink or clothes to keep you warm, people die and people are born. We, in 1st world countries, have many quotes or sayings to get us through the tough times, little books to read and people to council us. Here they just pick up their head and plug on through the day, grateful to be alive even for just one more day. I am truly grateful to have the opportunity and ability to work side by side with and get to know them and to realize how lucky I have been in my life.

Haircutting day

Every three weeks, the children here at the village all get haircuts. It is an amazing process and quite a production. The purpose of having all of the children's hair shaved is to keep the ringworm population down. What is amazing is how familiar it becomes to see girls with no hair so when you see someone with hair it looks really strange!

Standard 7 Graduation Cooking preparations

The Standard 7 lunch adventure or how to cook for 200 people with no advance preparation!

First, build 8 fires with cement blocks in a triangle around each fire.
Second, find 8 ginourmous pots and put on the fires.
Third, recruit all of the volunteers to grate carrots, slice tomatoes and cucumbers, slice and dice cabbage and so on and so on until it is finished. Thank god the goat was dead before he arrived! (long story from another trip)

Fourth, assemble all of the food on a very narrow walkway outside of the rec hall so there is no possible space to serve the food to the guests.
Fifth have two volunteers (one named Tracie) pop open sodas as they walk by. The following is what I personally repeated at least 150 times.

Tracie “Shikamo”
Guest “Maharaba”
Tracie “Gani Soda?”
Guest “Nini?”
Tracie “Gani Soda”
Guest “Fanta, hapana…Coke, hapana, Fanta” Asante
Tracie Kariboo!

Translation:
Tracie “Shikamo” - I give you my respect
Guest “Maharaba” I accept your respect
Tracie “Gani Soda?” Which soda?
Guest “Nini?” What?
Tracie “Gani Soda” Which soda? ( I assume this repeat was because of my sucky Kiswahili)
Guest “Fanta, hapana…Coke, hapana, Fanta” Asante Fanta, no Coke, no fanta, thanks!
Tracie Kariboo! You are welcome


Needless to say, not the most efficient system in the world, however everyone is pleased we are so polite and friendly and even though my Kiswahili is horrible and has a Texan accent!

Seriously, the event went off and the food was great and was actually hot and best of all no one received a hernia from carrying the 50 kilos of beans in one pot that is boiling hot to the table.

And so sets another day at the Rift Valley Childrens village.

Standard 7 Graduation

The parents seating area

Well, I knew it would happen eventually…my event planning skills were put to use the other day for the Standard 7 graduation. It was as far as I can tell a typical Tanzanian event, which means nothing is typical or planned in advance! All of the children from Gyetighi Primary School

I spent the day prior to the graduation setting up our rec hall. The school had organized committees for everything, however no one had any plans. They changed the menu for 200 people the day before the event! Of course we had to cook everything on site, so just trying to find a space where we could put 8 huge fires and pots was a challenge in and of itself. We had a great diagram of the rec hall and how the flow would work etc… of course those all went out the window too, however somehow we pulled it off and it turned out great. The only hiccup if you could call it that was the morning of the graduation, they moved the ceremony up three hours, but didn’t feel the need to tell us! As I say all of the time….OH WELL! The show must go on...



Our Education Director Andi Trotter (right) and Holly who is a long term volunteer teacher

at the school

The kids who graduated have 4 months now until secondary school starts. All of the other children go to school everyday until the end of November when school is out for the year. They get 6 weeks off and then the new school year will start in January.

The Uhuru Torch has arrived!

Every year a torch called the Uhuru Torch or freedom torch is lit on Mt. Kilimanjaro and then carried across the country by runners to celebrate the country’s independence.

In 1961 the Uhuru Torch was placed at the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro and founder President Julius Nyerere said that the torch was a sign of hope and peace from the highest point in Africa. Nyerere wrote about the philosophy and significance of the Uhuru Torch: We would like to light a torch and place it on top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, so that it shines beyond our borders, and brings about hope where there is despair, love where there is enmity and respect where there is hatred.

The Uhuru Torch is used by the Tanzania government to honor those who have made significant contributions to their communities. It is a 129 day torch race which began on May 31 in
Morogoro and goes to selected sites. The Uhuru Torch arrived at the Children’s
Village on September 28, 2009 A host of officials were on hand to dedicate our latest building and newest house Rubondo, and publicly confirm their support and gratitude for our work.

It was a great honor and a wild time. The guards of the torch take their jobs very seriously and the rumor around the village was that if anyone blew the torch out you would go to jail for a very long time. I have no idea if that is actually true, however the fact that so many believe it, is pretty scary :)

Pole!

Lemomo, Mica, Gabriella and Ellibaracka forming a choo choo train

Playing with the kids

Mama Tracie and Emmanuelle

(not very flattering of me, but isnt he cute??)

Pole (pronounced POLE A and the A is long) is a word utilized frequently here in Tanzania. It means sorry, however people say it frequently as a greeting if you are working…such as when I walk by a mama who is cooking on her Jiko or washing clothes I will say “Pole!” they then respond with “Asante, Pole na wewe” meaning sorry for your work, and the response is thanks, sorry for your work. I say the word pole probably 30 to 40 times a day. It acknowledges the staff members hard work and makes them feel good (hopefully!) On the other hand, if a child falls down or is sick you also say “pole”, which of course is the more traditional meaning of sorry.

So for all of the wonderful followers of my blog all I can say is POLE!! I have been so busy and tired and everything else in between I have been horribly remiss in my correspondence and especially with my blog postings. I am leaving RVCV for the weekend to go take some much needed R&R, however I promise when I return to post several of my recent experiences.

Until then, I leave you with a few of my most recent and favorite pictures…

Lemomo and his pink outfits

One of the greatest things about where we live, is that clothes are clothes and no one cares what color they are! Lemomo (above) has several pink outfits, one of which is a pink Tinkerbell hoody like the one he has on now, but it has sparkles! I just love that the preconceived notions of what colors boys should or shouldnt wear are not present here at all.

Our little man....Dickson

This cute little boy is one of our newest arrivals at the RVCV. His name is Dickson and he is 2 1/2 years old. He has the body and weight of a 12 month old baby, however he walks,talks and is so adorable we just call him our little man. He is literally about a foot shorter than other children his age, but otherwise seems to be at the same level as his peers. We attribute his small stature to lack of nutrition as a baby, but I have to say it makes him so cute!

Thought for the day....

In Tanzania, the word Jamba means fart. So that makes Jamba Juice what?? Fart juice? :)

Sorry, I have been pondering this for a while...I either have too much time on my hands or too little adult conversation....I know it cant be the time thing as I have no time on my hands!

New cooking facilties at Shule or School

We have built a new cookhouse so all of the local children are able to have a hot lunch every day. For most of these children this meal is their ONLY meal of the day so it is vitally important that it is hot, nutritious and tastes good! Our two full time cooks Mama Titus and Mama Kajuju

These are two water purification tanks recently installed to ensure that the kids are drinking filtered water everyday...at least at school.

Shule or School

Our children, as well as all of the children in the area, go to Gyetighi Primary School. We have taken over the management contract of the school and are slowly renovating all of the classrooms as well as the teacher housing and anything else we can get our hands on :)

Below is an example of an older classroom and a picture of one of the newly renovated classrooms.

The new one above is actually the Chucke Chea classroom or Kindergarden so they have little tables and chairs. We are building individual desks for the older students so they dont have to sit at the bench/table style desks. The rooms are great though, high ceilings, white walls and skylights.

Godwin

This is our head Askari, Godwin.

He is a wonderfully regal Masai warrior who guards us at the Rift Valley Children's Village. We have a total of 6 Askaris, all of whom are Masaii. They patrol the property 24 hours a day, predominantly to protect us from the Elephants and Cape Buffalo, but also to keep unwanted intruders at bay. He is walking the perimeter of the village with one of India’s dogs Winchester.

Sunrise, Sunset...

A small glimpse of the daily views and beauty of my surroundings...

Sunrise at Rift Valley Children's Village

A view from our hill to the valley below

The Sun setting over the edge of the rift

The medical clinics are back in full swing!

Local villagers waiting to see the Dr.
Dr. Frank checking out a patient

Our version of Triage :)

And the wait begins...

We are so excited that Dr. Frank and the mobile medical clinics have started up again! Dr. Frank and his team of Dr.’s and nurses show up every two weeks and we host a free clinic for the surrounding villagers. Some of these people walk for hours to get to the Rift Valley Children’s Village in order to receive free medical treatment and dawa (medicine).

Dr. Frank Artress or Dr. Frank as we all call him, has a medical clinic in Karatu and a foundation called FAME. TCF and RVCV actively support FAME and Dr. Frank’s great work in this region. With 69 kids now we routinely send a car to the clinic several times every week!

Mama Upendo and our smallest baby, Gracie

Ester and little man Dixon who is a new arrival at RVCV. Dixon is 2 1/2 years old, however was so malnourished that he is very, very small for his age. He is wearing 12 month baby size clothing! It is amazing to see him walking around and he is starting to really talk, but is so tiny you can believe it.

Baby Emanuelle, my first love here at the Village. He is starting to crawl and wave bye bye. What a doll!

Filling our last house!

All of the new kids plus Colletta.

In June we initiated the process of filling our last Children’s House—Rubondo House. Last week we welcomed 8 little ones to their new home and family. Like our other children when they first arrived at the Children’s Village, these kids looked terrified and shell shocked. Imagine landing in a world so unlike anyplace you have ever seen?? Where there are real houses, real beds, hot water coming from a tap and white people lurking in every direction! But within 24 hours their fears have been replaced by joy. The joy of having a full tummy, the joy of feeling clean, the joy of knowing that all those crazy white people don’t intend to eat you, but instead want to hug you. It’s magic to watch these children be transformed.

Last week we went to Mongola to pick up a little 6-year-old girl named Neema to bring her back to live with us. The area is hard to describe…it is a desolate and depressing area. Deforestation has lead to the loss of all topsoil so the dirt is like red baby powder. Scrubby trees are peppered around, sagging mud houses and skinny cows and goats search for water. This is our cold season where it can be in the 50's at the Children’s Village, however, it was in the low 90's in Mongola! I can't imagine what it is like there during the hot season. Many of our new kids come from this area. I only wish we could get more children out of such a hopeless environment! The area we live in is the complete opposite of Mongola. We are in the mountains and surrounded by rain forest and coffee plantations. As I sit at my desk I can see the peak of Mt Oldeani and the Ngorongoro Crater rim. In the early mornings it is so beautiful, it brings tears to my eyes. The people who live near us are just as poor and struggle daily to survive, but somehow with so much beauty in our natural environment, we don’t lose hope.

This week we will be picking up a one month old baby and 2 more little girls to bring home with us. We will have then filled the Children’s Village with all our children. I am already feeling sad, like a woman who has decided not to have more babies (again!). But, then with so many budding teenagers I realize that 69 children is probably enough!

A few pictures of the kids

A sunny day (one of the few recently) playing with the kids outside

Here are a few recent pictures of some of the kids at RVCV. The school year here starts in January and the first semester just ended so we are on "break" for the next 6 weeks.

Gabriella and Mica are twins and we brought them to RVCV in January. When they arrived they didnt speak Swahili or English and now are great at both! This picture is classic as Gabriella's tummy is always hanging out!

These are three of my favorite volunteers, Kat holding Lucia, Caroline with Gabriella and Taylor with Mica. They all just left and it hasn't been the same without them! They were all here when I arrived and we shared three great months together!

Sunday...a day of lesisure? HA!

Typically, Sunday at the Rift Valley Children’s Village, is an off day for all of the volunteers. 99% of the volunteers take this opportunity to blow this popsicle stand for the day and most of them actually leave Saturday night to receive the full benefit of a day off. Currently I don’t have the funds to take this time off so I “choose” to stay here and spend my day off with the kids, reading in a leisurely manner on India’s veranda etc… Now don’t get me wrong, I am happier than I have been in years and love it here, however being around 55 kids, 7 days a week, week after week, can wear on a poor 48 year old's body and soul. Trust me; I was grateful when I came down with strep throat and 102 degrees of fever last week as I had to stay in bed for the day. For everyone to get a true picture of my “leisurely” Sunday I will run through my day last Sunday.

6:30am wake up – We get to “sleep in” because it is not a school day. HELLO?!!! Sleep in?? 6:30am is not exactly my idea of an ideal wake up time. After I roll out of bed, I go wake up all of the kids in my house and then remembered I had promised to make them French Toast for breakfast. They had never heard of it before so I thought it would be fun while I still have access to a kitchen. First I gather the eggs from the pantry (apparently you don’t need to refrigerate eggs in TZ??) I then “make” the milk from powder where the instructions are in Swahili so I just keep adding powder and water till it looks like a cross between whole and skim milk. I then grate a cinnamon stick (never have done that before!), reach for the Blue Band (TZ’s version of margarine, which by the way they don’t refrigerate either) whip it all together and serve! It was a hit needless to say.

7:15am strip all of the beds, gather all backpacks, shoes and clothes and then dump them over the railing into the grass which is actually mud now due to it being the rainy season. This begins the washing of the clothes etc…which honestly takes hours in buckets of water outside. Each kid washes their sheets, clothes, shoes and backpacks. Once every two weeks they wash their blankets. It is amazing anything lasts very long as they scrub the hell of each article of clothing. No wonder I have holes in all of my clothes!

8:00am After everyone has their clothes/sheets in the buckets to soak, they change clothes and go to church in the Rec hall. I go up the hill to the office to check in with everyone. There is a flurry of activity with Mamas wanting to sign forms and get money for the days off, drivers wanting money for shopping, sick kids everywhere needing to be looked at and the Minister who needs his weekly “donation” for the Sunday service. After an hour and a half in the office, I walk back home to rest and relax for a while. As I slowly approach the house, I start to smell something awful, the closer I get the stronger it gets. In fact it is an overwhelming stench of discusting proportions a cross between rotten meat and carrion. At this point I cover my nose and mouth with my shirt and rush in the house. The kids are doing their chores with their hands over their mouths. I keep screaming “What is it, what is that horrible smell??!!” The cook/housekeeper is nowhere in sight, but as I enter the kitchen, I start dry heaving, the stench is so bad.

Dare I look in the pot on the stove that is boiling? Of course I do and it is apparent that we are having goat stew for dinner. (I use the term “we” loosely as I am not about to eat goat stew) The skin of the goat is still on this nasty ass meat boiling in water not to mention it is ROTTEN! I scream out the door for Catherine (the cook) barely able to catch my breath, the kids at this point are all gagging literally. Catherine runs up the stairs and I tell her to take this nasty meat and throw it away, and I mean AWAY. Over the hill and over the fence. Nowhere near this house. She starts gagging at this point, so I have a feeling she understands my point. Not sure how the meat got in the pot without her noticing the horrible stench, but clearly when you boil rotten meat, it festers and really becomes disgusting.

I then volunteered to cook dinner for the kids. I decided to make something easy like spaghetti and meatballs with red sauce and garlic bread. HA! I have made red sauce from “scratch” before, but I realized that my definition of from scratch and the TZ way of scratch is two totally different things.

I went to the garden and picked a ton of tomatoes, fresh basil and then proceeded to chop up the tomatoes for the sauce. Finally got the sauce on the stove after an hour of slicing and dicing. I started to make breadcrumbs from scratch, so I thought I would toast the bread. Riziki a wonderful 13 year old girl in the house had been helping me and she offered to light the oven. About 10 minutes later I opened up the over and it wasn’t hot, so Catherine came over to light the stove and as she is striking the match she says “ Oh, the gas has been on already” Just as I scream NO! DON’T STRIKE THAT MATCH!!! She does and WHOOOOMMMP! This massive fireball blew out of the oven. Ahhhhhhhhh! It was over in a second, I am asking Riziki and Catherine are they Ok? Are they hurt? Riziki just was standing there with her hand over her mouth in shock. Catherine’s response was “Oh my lord” Luckily everyone was fine, a few lost eyebrows, but not much else. The rest of dinner was pretty uneventful, took forever to cook, but tasted great and the kids loved it.

When the day was over, I hadn’t read a page, nor had I taken a nap, but I had a great day! A few minor catastrophes, nothing major and we all made it through, however relaxing is just about the last adjective I would use to describe it…but fun and fulfilling....definitely!

Passing the time....Tanzanian Style!

The children at the Rift Valley Children’s Village do not have a lot of toys and never watch TV, so what do they do with their spare time? Play! They come up with very ingenious ways to use natural materials and make games up. One of the games they play that is similar to one I played is a kid is hopscotch, they draw in the dirt and use a rock for the marker, but they play all of the way through by kicking the stone with their foot. Hard to explain, easy to play :)

The other game is a modified Jacks type game, they dig a little whole in the ground and place pebbles in the whole, they then throw up another stone and take stones out of the whole as fast as they can before the stone they threw falls down. Again….hard to explain, but very creative. The girls will play this game for hours literally on the weekends when there isn’t any school.

Soccer of course is the most popular boys sport and they play it with gusto. They even have drills before each “game” I have put a few pictures of them practicing, which can be very cute.

Smiling Children :)

I am asked over and over “Are the kids really as happy as they appear?” Believe it or not, these children are very, very happy. They are also incredibly stoic and very rarely cry even when seriously hurt. The only children you ever hear cry are the toddlers who just arrived at the village in January and they are also 2 and 3 years old and tend to cry when someone takes a toy or if they fall down.

The other children really laugh and play a lot. I feel that they are so grateful to have such a wonderful life after coming from such traumatic backgrounds that everyday is a good day. We have a couple of 13 year olds who are starting to show teenage behavior, but even then if you say to them “Why are you pouting, come on give me a smile” they usually will crack up.

Most of the children are very tough and very resilient. The boys’ soccer team had a game in Oldeani a few weeks ago and they walked there which is a two hour walk, played the game which was about 2 hours then walked home. Most of them had forgotten to bring their water bottles and it was hot as all get out, but I didn’t hear one complaint, whine or protest from one child out of 40. It was amazing! I do not know of any children in the US who would have made the two hour walk without complaining, much less play a soccer game and then walk back another two hours in the dark.

So…the answer is YES, these kids actually do love to smile and they do smile a lot! I am so grateful to be part of an organization that nurtures and takes care of the children so well that they are happy most if not all of the time and even if they become upset it never lasts very long. I personally have laughed and smiled more in the last three months than I have in years, it is totally contagious and I love it!

So here are some pictures of the happy kids at the Rift Valley Children's Village...not posed, just having a great time!

Safari at lake Manyara

I actually went on Safari last weekend to Lake Manyara which is about 45 minutes from Karatu, which is about 45 mins from the children's village. The lake is a soda lake and has been dry up until this past month when the long rains have now helped fill it up. The lesson I learned from this safari is that sometimes you DEFINITELY get what you pay for....

Three of the volunteers and myself wanted to save money and so instead of hiring a safari company to take us to Lake Manyara we decided to hire Freddy, a driver from around here who said he was a guide. HA! Well, he was cheap and we did make it home alive and that is about all I can say on a positive note.

I had my first clue that there might be an issue when we stopped in Umtuwambu to shop and had to have the truck jumped so we could go to lunch. We were shopping at the local Masai market, which was very cool by the way...side note...I found a great necklace that I wanted but it was 35,000 shillings, the guy who owned the little store/whole in the wall, liked my socks so I told him I would give him my socks and 15,000 shillings for the necklace and he took it! NOW that is a deal! I pulled off my dirty anklets, gave him the 15,000 shillings and got a gift, (pronounced jift) of a coke on top of it. What a bargain.

Anyway, Freddie asked me to borrow 22,000 shillings to get the car fixed and we could deduct it from his fee...so I am fine, give him the money and we move on. He came to pick us up at the hotel the next morning, and we are off for our safari. The first three stops we made in the park to look at the baboons, elephants and cape buffalo, we had to pop the clutch to get the car started i.e. roll down the hill or push! After seeing the cape buffalo I advised Freddy to PLEASE not stop the car again as I didnt want to get stuck with Cape Buffalo all around. So...he proceeds to the Hippo pond where the car dies with the river to the left of us and the dense bush to the right of the road. We are on this little narrow strip of road and Freddy is trying to turn the car over and I can tell the battery is totally dying so I advised him to stop, lets push and pop the clutch again. I am in the front seat and Freddy with mild alarm says get out of the car...I notice smoke wafting out from under the truck and then next it starts pouring out from under the hood. I yelled at the girls to get out of the truck! I open my door to a huge Acacia bush go to the left and I have massive thorns in my body, to the right i could blow up. Mean time, Freddy is now standing on the hood of the car jumping up and down trying to get the hood unlatched. I made a dash through the acacia thorns got the girls out of the car and am screaming at Freddy asking where an emergency number is....(as he is jumping) he says we no need number I have a radio! I said if the freaking car blows up, the RADIO wont work...HELLO. Oh, Pole (sorry) he says, no emergency number.

The girls meanwhile have their backs together in a triangle watching their section for wild animals as Freddy and I are pouring water on the fire in the truck. We put the fire out, however I am not really sure the car is safe, however figure it is safer than being eaten by a hippo or charged by a cape buffalo. At this point the girls started screaming because they heard a low growl, which luckily turned out to be another car :) They gave us a push and we were off.

I told Freddy he was DEAD if he stopped the engine again.

We had a wonderful day, saw lots of elephants and then stopped to look at a huge herd with several babies. At one point we are literally surrounded by elephants. I am a little wary having been charged by a mother elephant in Kenya 25 years ago, so I am looking in all directions. Freddy however, has opened the door, propped his leg on the window and is texting someone, totally unaware of any danger. Unbelievable.

I am watching the Matriarch of the bunch as she is about 8 feet from our car and giving us the evil eye, meanwhile, Taylor is in the back of the truck watching a mom and baby walk towards our car. The next thing I know taylor is inside the car in a panicked voice saying "should she be stomping her feet like that??" I look back and the mama is giving us the initial fake charge warning and is literally 2 feet from our tailgate. I, once again, screamed at Freddy to get his ass moving....NOW!!!! As the mama elephant is charging towards us we leave her in a semi cloud of dust. I could go on and on, but those are two of the highlights, other than the massive bruises I have on the side of my body from hitting the top hatch while driving and standing up everything turned out well and we are alive.

Moral to the story is that SOMETIMES it is better to pay a little more when your life is on the line :)

Picture is of a small Masai Boma within about 10 minutes walk from our village.

TIA Modified: TIT – This is Tanzania

You’ve probably heard the acronym TIA before. People usually say it when something ridiculous happens that can’t be explained, so it’s just explained with a shrug and three letters: TIA (this is Africa).

Some volunteers at RVCV have modified it a bit to reflect our specific location on the continent: TIT. This is Tanzania.

Starting with the basics – cell phones. It seems like everyone here has a cell phone, and what’s more, there is cell service all over the place. For a country with so little infrastructure (my lack of elaboration should indicate how little there really is), the cell phone phenomenon is incredible. How can ‘everyone’ afford to have a cell phone, when practically everyone is suffering from poverty, lack of education, etc., etc? Oh well, I guess TIT.

to be cont...

Taylor and the tooth fairy

Picture is of Maria (front teeth missing), Khadija and Elizabethe who is a teacher's helper here at the village.

Notes on Becoming a Tooth Fairy (from a 23 year old volunteer, Taylor)

On Sunday night when I returned to the Serengeti house after dinner, the boys’ room was a buzz with talk of the tooth fairy. Simone had lost a tooth and had placed it under his pillow in anxious hopes that the tooth fairy would exchange it for a present. Thank goodness I had overheard other volunteers discussing tooth fairy protocol, because ‘lessons on becoming a tooth fairy’ aren’t included in the volunteer manual I received when I arrived! It wasn’t until 4:40am the following morning that I remembered I was in charge of getting the tooth fairy gift and secretly depositing it under Simone’s pillow in the middle of the night. Frantic that I’d forget and Simone would be crushed, I set my alarm for 5:50 am. (As if Simone, who is 9 years old doesn’t already have suspicions about the tooth fairy.)Seeing as this was my first time as a tooth fairy, I thought out my plan carefully. Waking up at 5:50 would give me enough time to find a tooth fairy gift, dress in some bank-robber-esque attire, and perform the exchange right around wake-up time (which would provide the perfect cover story, should I get caught in the act). The biggest challenge would be the sheer number of boys, which I thought of as ‘landmines’, in the room. All eight of them were just waiting to be woken up by the slightest noise or rise in air temperature. Not only did I need to be careful enough not to disturb Simone (did I mention he sleeps on the top bunk?) I couldn’t wake up the other 7 boys either. What a challenge!So, dressed in dark brown pants and a maroon hoodie pulled over my head (silhouetted curly hair would totally give me away), I crept barefoot into the boys’ room. I turned down the kerosene lamp - for cover of darkness. Tiptoeing across the room to Simone’s bed, I stepped up on the frame to reach the top bunk. My feet were less than 12 inches from Boaz’s face. ‘What would I do if he woke up now’ I thought. It was as if the worldwide future of the tooth fairy rest on my shoulders. Luck would have it that he was facing me, so there was no way I was getting the tooth from under his pillow. I slipped a rubber ball under Simone’s covers – the only remotely masculine toy in the ‘tooth fairy trunk’. How in the world did my mom make it through 28 teeth x 2 kids! Tooth fairy nightmare! I carefully climbed down from the bed, tiptoed out of the room and straight to my bedroom to change into different clothes. More fairy strategy - cover your tracks.Within minutes of wake up, the boys were shouting that the tooth fairy had come. Success. I spent most of breakfast hoping that no one else would lose a tooth for a while. Then, Happy came out of the bathroom with something in her hand. She proudly opened her fist, revealing a molar, while happily tilting her head back to show me its former home. Round two…

The coffee fields just outside of our gates. The coffee beans are growing fast now that the rains are in full swing. All of the hillsides surrounding our village are filled with coffee plants in all states of growth as well as maize. We tried to roast maize last weekend and it looks like corn and smells like corn, but it is definitely not the sweet corn we are used too in the states. We boiled it for 20 minutes before we put on the grill to soften it up and it still tasted like hard, chewey, nasty deer corn. :) The staff loved it though, so we donated it to them.

Believe it or not, Obama is huge here. They even have Obama Kangas (the outwear/skirts that women wear) This is a picture of a truck I saw in Karatu.

The Rainy season is here and there is no doubt about it. I had quite the experience yesterday on my trip back from Karatu. This is the little town that is about 45 minutes away on a good day, on a day like yesterday it took us about one hour and 15 minutes. Part of the delay is due to the horrible condition of the roads due to wash outs and mudslides. We nearly slid off of the side of the mountain. Fortunately, we had stopped and picked up 4 male teachers, two female teachers, 3 kids, a pregnant woman, two Masai warriors, 2 chickens and a goat. SO….even if I wanted to look out of the car, I couldn’t because you couldn’t move much less see through the windshield or side windows. Tanzanian B.O. nothing like it in the world. We finally made it to the village and I am not sure I am going to be going anywhere soon, I take my life in my hands enough just by walking around with the Elephants, Black mambos and Cape Buffalo, but the muddy roads are just about to do me in! LOL