Dokumenti - Some Humorous Finds

There are lots of writings here - on t-shirts, dala dalas, walls, signs and in various other random spots - that just make you chuckle a bit. I saw a dala dala (minibus public transport) drive by with the following on the back window:

Don't tease me, if you can't please me

There was a cute little girl standing in the market in her black skirt and a pink t-shirt that said: Tough guys wear pink. That was funny in the moment and became even funnier when we saw a piki piki (motorcycle taxi) driver wearing a pink woman's jacket and then another young man walking with a pink woman's purse a few days later. Tough guys use pink purses.

Then, there was a quick flip through a couple of primary school English language texts before delivering them to friends in the village. What I love most about these texts is that they are created here in Tanzania by a big publisher in Dar es Salaam. For this reason, they are culturally appropriate in context, illustration and overall content.

One little sample dialogue was between a fat headmaster who was gobbling down his chicken and a very hungry school boy who had forgotten his lunch at home. The headmaster shooed the boy away with a toss of his chicken juicy hand. The boy walked away with drips of saliva falling from his lips, his shoulders slumped and a hand on his belly. The follow-up exercises focused on reading comprehension and grammar. The content was never addressed - in terms of 'right or wrong' or how the headmaster could have shown sympathy - no, that was clearly not the point.

Below are two images that are specific to Tanzania (and probably several other African countries). I remember being traumatized by the films Watership Down and Bambi as a child because I anthropomorphize everything! So, I'm sure the Zebra and Croc cartoon would have been hard for me to swallow. I wonder how the kids here view it ... as funny as the Coyote taking a boulder to the head by Roadrunner, I suppose ... I never did care much for those violent cartoons.





























This mural is from the office building in Mgaraganza - newly built by Lucas' brother Isaya in the past year. It shows their dedication to preserving the local forests. For this village in particular, this mission is important. The Chief and his son are both very invested in the goal of fighting deforestation, limiting burning and chopping in the area and replanting indigenous seeds. They are both trained on Roots and Shoots programming through the Jane Goodall Institute. Happy to have them so committed as we get ready to initiate this program at Amahoro Secondary School in the coming year!





















I thought it was 'funny' - not 'haha', but 'bummer' - when I paid money for a text and found these stamps inside ... Donated by Allianz and Jane Goodall Institute. This is the same partnership that added two classrooms to the primary school in the village. I had to wonder if they were meant for that school. The next time I went to buy another text, I asked the shopkeeper about the stamps. He explained that more books had been stamped than were intended for the school, so now they are selling some of those... and he put his shop's stamp over the top of the NGO stamp. The headmaster of the primary school corroborated the story when I showed him the text that was intended for his school. Hamna shida (no problem) - I hope!

















There are lots more images like these that I would like to share, but sometimes you just can't point and shoot. Here's one final pic from a menu in Mercury's Bar in Zanzibar - Freddy Mercury was born there apparently. Can you guess which drink I like? Don't miss the description!

Salt Lake City's McGillis School Greets Mgaraganza Primary

A few days ago, I wandered through Mgaraganza village with Lucas and a couple of friends. Those of you who know her will laugh to hear that Rebecca (Becky) Burton is here in Kiganza, TZ living at GOSESO as I did three years ago! She worked with the Salt Lake Film Center and we collaborated on a Burundi film project a while back. I gave my business card to Shujie, another girl staying at GOSESO and when Becky saw it, she was in disbelief – just as I was when I got her subsequent email saying she was here.

Anyway, Shujie, Becky, Lucas and I were walking to see the building site for Amahoro Secondary School and we passed Mgaraganza Primary School. I remembered that I needed to set up a meeting with a standard 6 teacher to discuss visiting with letters I brought from Cassi Lanie’s second grade class at McGillis School in Salt Lake City, UT. I had visited Cassi’s class back in February when they were studying Africa. Hadley Rampton and I visited with slides about animals, homes, language, school and family in Tanzania plus some information about our upcoming summer project in Mgaraganza. After our chat with the students, they wrote letters for students in Mgaraganza.

The headmaster was very happy to see us and vaguely remembered me from my visit in 2008. It was cool to flip back in the visitor registry and see my name alongside Heather, Tamrika and Dagny – from a time we visited with Yared. We signed the book again and talked about Amahoro Secondary School and the penpal letters. I met the S6 teacher and he welcomed me to return.

The next day, Lucas and I returned with 12 letters from Salt Lake City. The students were uber eager to hear me speak English, although Lucas had to interpret the majority of what I said. Even though these students are only two years from entering secondary school (which is taught primarily in English), their English was quite poor. Primary School is taught through the medium of Kiswahili with one period devoted to English class.

Unfortunately, my eyes are always opened to the plight of children here as a result of a weak educational system. Among many problems are the following: students rarely have text books for their subjects; many don’t have pencils/pens/notebooks; many can’t afford uniforms and are thereby sent home; most of them come to school hungry; many teachers just up and leave midday for various reasons; some teachers drink on their breaks (insider information); many teachers are so poorly trained that their teaching is abysmal; many teachers don’t speak enough English to have a basic conversation with me, let alone teach it to their students. I hate to report the ugly truth, but I should be honest about the situation here.

Fortunately (or not), the examination process is (mostly) well-regulated and students who don’t pass the exams, don’t go to secondary school. A big component of those exams is English proficiency as much of the exam is in English. Imagine never really being taught English in primary school and then having to take an exam in English. So, those who do pass and can go to secondary school will hopefully fare well given that they understand English enough to learn in their classes. Unfortunately, many of those who pass won’t be able to go because unlike primary school, secondary school is not free – so no money, no education. That’s why Project Wezesha also has a small scholarship program. We only help about a dozen students, but it’s a start and it’s 12 more youngsters given a sliver of a chance.

But enough of the dark side. I invited students to come up and read each letter. Some of them read quite well and loudly enough for the class of 64 students (yes, 64 students to one teacher – a teacher, incidentally, who left before I arrived to ‘take care of some problem to the home’). Others didn’t read so well and I repeated the letters aloud for the class. As we read each letter, I wrote details on the board – the names of the students who wrote the letters, things they liked (football, pizza, skiing), sports teams they mentioned (Utes, Jazz) and other cute information, like the name of a student’s dog – Ziggy. So from Sam, Caroline, Andrew, Reuben, Jake, Ella, Izabella, Elisabeth and more, greetings and wishes were shared with this huge class. The young Salt Lake students expressed their desire to meet these students, their requests for replies, their hopes and dreams – to become Olympic skiers, play soccer with the Tanzanian kids, travel to Africa, etc.



After we read all the letters, the students wrote back. I had mentioned on a quick visit the day before that I would return and I suggested they think of something to write. To my surprise, many of them finished their letters the day before and only wished to transfer the writing to a new, neat page. I was happy to read the first few letters – saying ‘Thank you’, introducing themselves, discussing their family and their animals. I saw some students were struggling, so I wrote a sample letter on the board with basic information they might include. I realized after collecting the 6th or 7th finished letter that there was a strange pattern in the content…. Each student had two brothers and three sisters, a father who was a peasant farmer and a good goat (or dog) or combination with a slash between each … very much resembling the ‘options’ in an exercise book. As I wandered around, I saw that they were pretty much all writing the same letter. I started to ask a few of them directed questions about their family and helped them make some changes – such as correcting the number of siblings they have. I should have known when I saw that first letter saying they have a good dog at home. No one has dogs at home here! Haha! The letter pictured here is one of the few original letters.



Well, aside from the fact that most of the letters weren’t really representative of their true lives, they all wrote one and signed their real names, making sure to include Mgaraganza Primary’s address for a reply message. Hopefully, the kids at McGillis School will continue to correspond. After the letters were written, the students sang a couple of songs for the students which I recorded to share with the former 2nd graders and others who may wish to see the students. Lucas stepped in and led them in a Kihaa song (Kihaa is the local tribal language). It was so great to see Lucas step up and make that suggestion and then walk up and down the isles clapping and singing the lines so that they could repeat after him. Then, after singing he went over the meaning of the song with them – which basically reinforced the importance of education and studying to avoid poverty and welcome a better life. Make sure to watch the video and see Lucas’ big smile at the end! (oops, video upload problem ... coming soon)

Finally, I delivered one pencil to each student as the McGillis School kids had wished. The video below shows them priding on their pencils, and while they seem as amped about these pencils as an American child would be with an iPad, they were really just psyched to be in the video. They were thrilled about the pencils – whooped and clapped when I said I had one for each, but I don’t want their enthusiasm in this video to mislead and imply that they have so little that a pencil made their year – but I bet it made their day! (video coming soon)

Musings

I have time left on my internet session but no connector for my camera and the computer - so really no desire to tell any of my stories at present ... but, I made one discovery today.

One day last week, I started to feel exhausted and shaky. It hit me around midday and I returned to the hotel to eat, pound some water and hope with all my might that it wasn't the malaria that I was expecting. After long hours of sleeping and lying around - moping really - I recovered with bright eyes and all my energy the next day.

Then, one day this week, I started the day with massive exhaustion. I had already planned some business in town and a trip to the village so I went about my day with Lucas only something was very very off. I sat quietly next to Lucas on the dala dala, I walked quietly through the village painting on a smile with every greeting - trying my best to not show how wiped out I was feeling.

On the way back from the village, Lucas asked if I was ok. I told him I didn't know what happened - I was not feeling like myself. As I looked out the window, watching cows, goats, kids, women, cars, trees, red sand, tarmac and chickens fly by - the common denominator hit me... The first time I was wiped out was the day Laura and Hadley left. The second day I felt wiped out was the day after Carter left. Somewhere deep deep down beyond even my conscious recognition of my sadness about my friends leaving me was a depression that manifested itself physically and left me grieving a little bit to see them go.

Today, the day after the second bout of 'depression' I awoke sprightly at 7am with energy for an 8am morning meeting, a trip to the market in Kiganza to have a skirt made and a long journey on foot into Mgaraganza village to visit the building site. Now I'm back early enough to blog a bit, grab some grub, and head home for an early evening with a glass of wine and a new book.

A good friend and mother figure in SLC, MaryJane Simmons, recently shared an email - a toast to girlfriends - that recounted the physical benefit of girlfriends and girlfriend time. According to some studies, time with your girlfriends actually contributes to the creation of the happy brain juice - seratonin. Now - while Carter isn't exactly a girlfriend, he's a great proxy! He would even say so himself ... he's great at diving into those girly topics of love, longing, relationships, emotions, etc. etc. (Carter, I hope you don't mind me calling you out!) Anyway - I've pasted the little blurb that MJ shared in her email. I get it and I miss my girlfriends. But tomorrow I'll share pics of the work, updates and a great video of kids singing on the school site!

A woman just finished taking an evening class at Stanford. The last lecture was on the mind-body connection--the relationship between
stress and disease. The speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends. At first everyone laughed, but he was serious.

Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life
experiences. Physically this quality "girlfriend time" helps us to create more seratonin--a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of well being. Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk about how they feel about certain things or how their personal lives are going. Jobs? Yes. Sports? Yes. Cars? Yes. Fishing, hunting, golf? Yes. But their feelings?--rarely. Women do it all of the time. We share from our souls with our sisters, and evidently that is very good for our health. He said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym.

Nime Choka Sana! Lakini, sasa naweza kubeba mawe!

Which means: I’m so tired, but now I can carry stones ('to the head', as they say). If I had typed up this blog yesterday after working with the villagers in Mgaraganza at the school site, the title might have read ‘Eff That!’ And ‘That’ would have been a reference to the work that we did – which was ridiculously difficult and in my opinion just plain ridiculous. But let me back up a bit…

The day before I worked side by side with the villagers, we had a meeting in the town with the council. As I mentioned, there were about 15 in attendance – 4 women, 11 men, one infant, one toddler and one pre-schooler (moms always come with kids in tow which is why I think they are often discouraged from participation in leadership positions; I was happy to see them this year. Last year there was one woman, this year, seeing these four – including Ashahadu’s wife – was inspiring).

In our meeting, Lucas simply recounted our trip to Kigoma the day before and the need for this council to step in and get to business with the official matters that I can’t (nor should I) be responsible for, such as acquiring the building permit, meeting with the land engineer to approve the building site, etc. I know full well that this is business that should have been taken care of prior to my arrival with the funding; however, as the request fell into my lap days before I left last year, I had no time to investigate and prod Lucas throughout the year to get x, y, and z done before my arrival. The village council probably could have done so – but again, without knowing what nudges to send Lucas into the village with – there was no way to get the ball rolling…. One more lesson learned - I'm merely a linguist for cryin' out loud! haha

Regardless, I’m happy with how things are going now – the ball is rolling. I was feeling like Atlas to this point and as Atlas, I shrugged and now we’ve got a great project unfolding daily. So, in our meeting one woman piped up about the village contribution to the project. They will donate the stones, sand and bricks when the time comes – but she wanted to propose an exchange for the labor. Labor here pays 3,500Tsh a day (that’s about $2) but she would settle for 1,500Tsh ($1) a day because the labor is so difficult (carrying sand and stones on the head). In that moment, my response was that this was absolutely a village decision. I said that I had done my part to fundraise and I fell short of my goal for this year by just under half. (I didn’t tell them how much I raised, but while I wanted to raise $20,000USD, I came over with just over $10,000USD, which is actually awesome – but not quite the target number.) I emphasized that they could choose the best way to spend the money. Every penny they spend on labor will be less for the materials and therefore less construction ultimately for the amount Project Wezesha can give at this time. “Please know, this is not my project. This is your project and you as a community council should make this decision without me.”

Another man spoke to say he ‘supports my vision’ and agrees that they will donate the labor. I smiled and said they could vote and see what would be best for the group. The woman then spoke again to say that she was so grateful for Project Wezesha and the donations of all the people back home (I showed them the long long list of individuals who had given varying amounts of money toward the project so they would truly understand it’s not coming from me, but from all of you!). The woman went on to say she has three young children in primary school and she knows that this is their future. She is happy to work for the school. (I had to bite my cheek a few times in this meeting to avoid crying under the weight of the significance this project carries for the village. Seriously – THANK YOU so much to everyone who made this possible.)

I told them I would return early the next day to work with them. This is where my ‘Eff That’ sentiment comes in. The site had been partially cleared for construction prior to my arrival. The site is just as beautiful as I remember – atop a hill with views of Gombe National Forest in one direction and every possible valley and hill in all other directions. The initial work that we are doing now is the preparation for building. Isaya, the builder, will be coming early next week to start laying the foundation. The foundation is comprised of stones (large stones), sand and concrete. The villagers prep work consists of carrying the sand and the stones to the building site. This is where I join them – carrying stones and sand ‘to the head’ (This is how Lucas says it and I like it).

The men go in one direction from the building site to break up large boulders into stones that are reasonably sized to carry on the head. The distance they walk from the site of the stones and back to where the piles are being made is about 50 meters… not too bad. About 20 men showed up to work the first day I joined them. Each can carry one large stone or two medium/small stones. There is no transport for the stones (wheelbarrow) and there is no road that leads up to the site which would allow the use of trucks (and actually trucks cost too much anyway – this is a remote village with no vehicles, no real roads, just large paths and one or two wider dirt thoroughfares for walking and biking). The stones have to be broken with a pick axe. When I arrived, they told me their axe had broken – it was still partially functional, but I’ll be shopping for a new axe in the morning. When they told me about the axe, showed me the broken part and said work was difficult now, I told them that I would buy a new one and hand it over when the chief comes to Kigoma for our meeting Monday morning. They all started clapping.

The women walk in another direction down a hill and toward an old river bed where they fill plastic painter’s buckets with sand. After carrying two stones with the men, Lucas told me a woman had an extra bucket for me and I was to help the women. The distance from the sand pick up site to the school site is about 200 meters… at least. I went with Jane, Ashahadu’s wife, for the first collection. There were about 8 women working as well as one grandpa. Also, that morning I recruited (they offered to help the day before) Hindu, Dibeit, Saidi and Musa - the kids from Kiganza.








The sand buckets weigh a ton! The women roll up a scrap of kanga (the colorful fabric they wrap around their waists) and place it on their heads to soften the load a bit. Jane gave me a piece for my head. I couldn’t get the bucket on my head without help – it’s that heavy! Once it was on my head, we walked single file up the single track trail back up the hill to add to the growing pile.




We only made about five trips before they were calling it a day. It was only 11am! I can’t say I was unhappy about quitting. My neck – not strong like theirs from a lifetime of carrying ‘to the head’ – was tired. I wondered if I could do damage by jumping in like this, but I felt fine the day after. I could never carry the sand without balancing the bucket with my hands. These rockstar women not only carried the sand without the help of their hands for support, but in the case of three women they did so with babies on their backs. I told Lucas they should have one woman or even a ‘bibi’ (grandma) babysit while they worked. He replied with a laugh (and his all too familiar response to many of my observations or comments) “Rai, this is African peoples. This is Africa.” haha - I adore my partner!!



After a few hours of work, the whole team was ready to head back to the village center to congregate in the tea houses (men) or prepare the lunch (women). For the rest of the day – would they work? No. I don’t get it, but I can’t exactly expect much more productivity when they are all working for free and working hard!

Many things about the way this has to be done puzzled me. It seemed so slow and tedious – one bucket or stone at a time, three hours a day, 30 hands on deck. It seemed to me that it would take years to get enough for the foundation. Lucas said as Isaya’s team begins the work, the villagers will continue to come with sand and stones. Pole Pole (Slowly, Slowly). My frustration that day came in part from the pain of hefting the sand on my head uphill and in part to the sight of the work being done so inefficiently and slowly. But, it'll happen and I'm sure I'll be pleasantly surprised by how well.

Before we all retired back to the village, one elder man – the grandpa helping the women work – pulled out his whistle. Everyone gathered around clapping as Grandpa danced a ‘happy’ dance to celebrate the work done and the chai to come. We all laughed and clapped when he finished. Then everyone wandered off in various directions into the trees, back to their homes or the village center (don’t blink – you might miss it.)



As the day was young and we were all tired, I decided to treat Lucas and the kids (Hindu, Musa, Saidi and Dibeit) to a thank you meal. The kids seldom get to go into Kigoma town from the village. We walked about an hour back to Kiganza where we piled into a tightly packed dala dala and headed straight to the ‘New Modern Café’ to share three plates of fish and rice. After filling our bellies – we walked another distance to the lake – to a part of Lake Tanganyika where the water is never more than 4 feet deep for quite a distance. The boys dropped to their shorts and Hindu and I made our way out fully clothed. Some other ‘watoto’ joined us and we all splashed around and laughed until it was time to get the kids home. Lucas saw them off at the dala dala station in town and I went back to my hotel where I slept 11 hours!

Amahoro Secondary ... Coming Soon!

My good buddy Carter Jensen has arrived in Kigoma! I thought it would be a long lonely road for me from this point on – after saying Kwaheri to my girls on July 5th, but now Carter – a good friend from SLC, UT – has arrived! On his first day in town, Carter had to endure a day heavy on the business for Project Wezesha. This was our tick list: open a post office box, open a joint bank account (Lucas and I), register Project Wezesha in Tanzania, meet with the architect for school plans, meet with the Kigoma Ministry of Education, meet with the land officer.

So – why such a crazy list? Some of it was pre-planned and some of it evolved as the day progressed. When the earth moved such that the sun was hidden by the mountains of DRC across the lake, we had accomplished this much: opened a post office box (but need to return for key Monday), met with Ministry of Education and the land officer (but have to return on Monday) and the plans for the school are ready!

Isaya, Lucas’ brother, and his partner Ahamadi are the general contractors for the project. I am lucky to have Lucas as a partner and then just superbly fortunate that his brother is one of the best builders in town! They are efficient and detail oriented at the same time – a rarity here. After seeing that the school project in the neighboring village has only produced one classroom in four years with tens of thousands of dollars worth of donations (big trouble in little Kiganza), I was worried that Tanzania might be a nation within which productivity might just be out of reach. I was soooo happy to see – upon my first return to Mgaraganza village - that they had built two new classrooms on their primary school (in partnership with Jane Goodall Institute and an NGO called Allianz) and a new office building for the village – also donated by Allianz and JGI – since I left one year ago. So, with renewed faith the project moves along.

Before Carter got here – Lucas and I met with Isaya and Ahamadi. I told them that I raised about half of what I had hoped to produce for the project by this summer. With that number in mind, what were the prospects of making something happen? Isaya and his partner ‘shared views’ as Lucas says. It was our first official business meeting about the big project and it took place on a building site – me squatting on a pile of rocks, them leaning on a dirt wall – all shaded by a kind tree. Final verdict – hamna shida, Rai – No problem. The plan is foundation for four classrooms and the walls for one – maybe two classrooms. I am leaving Lucas with a digital camera that my boyfriend Adam donated before I left. Lucas will continue taking pictures and emailing images to me so I can track the progress from home and continue with fundraising. In the meantime, we do have a goal of getting foundation and one classroom up before I go in under 3 weeks time … no complaints here!

Today – Carter, Lucas and I made our way back into Mgaraganza village for our second big business meeting with the Chief and Chair of the village and the 15 or so council members who weigh in on all village decisions. They were so delighted to see that I had returned. A little rumor was spinning that I wasn’t coming back – so when they saw me walking around the other day, they knew I didn’t break my promise. In fact, two days ago, as we wandered through the forest and across the river to the village, every man whose path we crossed asked Lucas, is this the mzungu who is building the school? Then big welcomes came my way, smiles and renewed confidence. I’m so happy to have NOT let them down. Importantly, I was only able to come back and follow through with my promise to help thanks to the amazingly generous donations of so many supporters and friends around the country and world who chipped in for Project Wezesha! Asante Sana and Urakoze Cane to all of you!!!

In today’s meeting we talked about the need for some members of the council and the Chief to go into Kigoma town and pick up where we left off yesterday with the Ministry of Education and the Land Department. They have to verify that the village has donated the land to Project Wezesha for the construction of Amahoro Secondary School. The Ministry of Education told me two days ago that they are happy to have this be a government school. The will contribute as much as they can. For a neighboring secondary school, they built one or two classrooms for every two that the village built. They will do the same for us!! They are also willing to donate the latrines!! Excellent! Government buy in! Just what we needed!!

After our meeting, we were invited back to the wife of my friend Ashahadu for a nice fish and chips lunch. We’re heading back into the village early early in the morning to carry stones and sand with the men and women who have already started working to prepare the land for building. Today, after knowing that I had returned and this was a reality – 30 of them showed up to carry stone and sand this morning! Tomorrow the same – plus two wazungu who are bound and determined to learn how to carry buckets on their heads!!

Tulienda Kiganza - Visiting the Children

Today we made our way into Kiganza village to visit with my friends – young and old. It was an emotional day for several reasons. Lucas met us in town in the morning and after puttering around a little bit to get some money changed and buy some sunscreen, which we shockingly found in the duka la dawa (pharmacy), we hopped on the dala dala for my first ever ride into the village. In past years, Lucas and I would ride part of the way until the road basically became impassible by cars and the transport cars wouldn’t go further. From that point, we would walk 1.5 hours each way in the blazing sun (uphill both ways). After walking 3 hours a day, eating dust, burning flesh and starving – we would grub down on a full fish and some rice together and I would collapse in the bed. This year, we three spoiled princesses get a ride right up to the Kiganza market – footsteps from the homes of the students Project Wezesha supports and the families I’ve grown to love. From here, it is still a 30 minute walk to Mgaraganza village, but it’s through the shaded forest and across a stream, so who’s complaining!

From our drop off point, we walked along the newly constructed highway. It was remarkable to walk without dust and see how well the village has adapted to the new situation. Lucas told us that everyone is so happy now with the paved road. I think the speed of the cars and the fact that toddlers and animals still wander into the road could be problematic, but so far they’ve had no accidents. Within a block or so of the market, we reached GOSESO, the educational program I worked with three years ago. From that point on it was smiles, handshakes and greetings flying this way and that – Welcome, Welcome; Karibuni, Karibuni! Laura and Hadley received happy hugs and Lucas and I stirred up some very excited faces.

We wandered into the forest to see the new classrooms that were built for the GOSESO program and I was happy to meet two of the baboons that I had spent some time with two summers ago. They jumped all over me … mainly because I welcomed them into my lap. Next thing I know one was hopping up on my shoulder and basically standing on my head – nitpicking through my hair. I reached up and picked him up like an infant and plopped him into my lap. He sat facing me and started trying to remove my moles … more nitpicking. He would go to each mole, pick at it and go to take it to his mouth only to realize he didn’t quite grab it and it wasn't a bug. Some things never change. “Silly monkey.”



We were welcomed into a couple of homes to visit. As is always the case, we were offered the best of what they had to offer. We hate to take, but it’s impossible to not accept their offer when they go out of their way to give you all they have. In one case, we each got a banana and then were offered the chance to take the extras to go. Given that this is a family with 5 children, we urged that they give them to the kids, which they did happily. Everyone commented over and over – “Rai. Nzuri sana. Karibu sana.” Just happy to see me, to know that I do come back as I said I would – year after year. I have such a good feeling this year, knowing I have 3.5 weeks here – so much time compared to last year! So much to do of course, but so much time!

On our way out of GOSESO and to the main road, our aim was the house of my friend Hindu, whom many of you have read about. She is one of the students I sponsor for secondary school, the one whose sister married last year and the one whose father died two years ago, a month after I sat holding his hand as he wasted away on his grass mat in their small home. It was so wonderful to see her lovely smiling face. We sat exchanging greetings, both having too much to say to even know where to start. My Kiswahili became less accessible as I had more thoughts come to mind. Instead of saying much, we just smiled, giggled and held hands. I showed her the album I made for her sister of the wedding last year. She marveled over the pictures, laughing with the memories inspired by each one.




Then, as conversation lulled again – I asked her about her brothers, who I met last year at the wedding. Next thing we knew, there was an intense conversation taking place in Kihaa (their local, tribal language) with many ‘pole sana’s (I’m sorry) from Lucas to Hindu. It didn’t take long for us to figure out that something bad had happened and that most likely someone had died and that even more specifically, a brother. Sure enough, one of her two brothers died this past May in Dar es Salaam. He was studying at an Islamic college in the big city. Tragically, he was riding his motorcycle in the city and lost an unfair battle with a car in an accident that claimed his life. Hindu was crying into her scarf, I was rubbing her back while blinking away tears and Lucas was asking the other two men sitting with us about the situation. Her brother was a kind soul who always took the time to visit everyone when he came home to the village on breaks. In the collection of pictures I gave to Hindu, one lovely picture captured her brother – alive and smiling on a day of such happiness for their family as Amina got married. It might be the only picture they have of him.

Shortly thereafter, when the time was right, I gave Hindu a card from John Cederquist in SLC, Utah who met her on his visit two years ago. She was delighted about the message and happy to have some monetary support to help her family. I also gave her an English language learning text that I bought in Dar es Salaam so she can keep working on her reading and grammar leading up to her final year in secondary school which begins in January.

Next, with Hindu in tow, we made our way across the street to Saidi’s house. I love this family! Saidi, along with his sister Zainabu and his brother Musa, will all be rounding the bend in primary school this year and next. All three of them will enter the Project Wezesha scholarship program and I am so proud to involve them. They have this wonderful drive to learn, to read, to speak and to do something big with their lives. They are also remarkably gentle and kind (two adjectives I love to use about good people, but it’s true!). When the other kids are tripping over each other, pushing and tearing at each others’ clothes to grab pencils from my hand, these children in the Sadicki family stand to the side, puzzling over the bad behavior of the other children. They are just polite, gracious and thoughtful – unique at any age, exceptional at ages 11, 12 and 13 respectively and even more impressive given the examples set by many of their peers. We sat with this family for a while among the chickens, children and elders. We talked about books, about school, about family, about my friends and about my timeline. Then, Laura gave them a frisbee she brought from Spain. We showed them how to throw it and left them playing while we made our way out.

At the dala dala stop near the market, who should appear in the last minutes before we made our way to Kigoma? – None other than Dibeit, another of my beloved young friends. I don’t like to have favorites but I’ll just say it – Hindu, Saidi and Dibeit … top three!! I think of all the students we support through our scholarship program, these three are the most devoted, inquisitive, gentle, grateful, humble, loving and hopeful. I will make sure that each of them – if willing – will have support through high school and university if they so choose to take that long route. I know they will become something…. I just feel it!

Anyway – our visit with Dibeit was quick, but fabulous. His smile fills my heart. Unfortunately, when I asked about his younger twin siblings, I found out that one twin died last year of complications in the chest. He had a hard time finding the vocabulary to describe what happened, but he smiled sorrowfully as he said ‘thank you’ in response to my ‘pole sana’. I promised my return on Tuesday after Hadley and Laura return to Dar es Salaam. I’m excited to sit still for a long time, enjoying the kids, reading, playing, singing, dancing and being with them.

Of course, at the end of a long day - our famous painter, Hadley Rampton, still has time to bang out a quick water color of the Lake Tanganyika sunset over the DRC mountains... hamna shida.... all in a day's work.

Interview with Hadley and Laura

I asked Laura and Hadley some questions on the veranda of our hotel the night before they left. Emotions soared as they thought back on some of their experiences.

You’ve been in the city, the beach, the small town and the village. Which do you prefer and why?

L: I don’t like the big city at all. Zanzibar is good for tourism. I felt relaxed there and wanted to go to the beach. I liked the atmosphere. It’s touristy so if you’re looking for that, it’s good. If you’re looking for life experience and something deeper, then being here(in Kigoma) is the thing.

H: I would say that Dar was not my favorite place, but I’m glad that I experienced it because it let me see kind of the sad state of affairs of the reality of things here. That people would be coming from villages to Dar looking for a better life only to find more desperation is unfortunate. Zanzibar was a nice touristy respite, but it did feel touristy and didn’t feel as real. And now that we’re in the villages the landscape is incredibly beautiful and while the people are probably just as poor as they were in Dar, there is more warmth and there is more friendliness. It makes me sad that people would leave the villages where there is still warmth and love to go to a place like Dar where the desperation is that much more evident. Overall, I would say that I’m enjoying my experience in Kigoma and surrounding villages the most because it feels the most real to me and I am enjoying connecting with the people on a more personal basis.

What are your impressions of the people in Tanzania?

H: Overall they’re incredibly warm people and beautiful. But they are very much in need. In a place like Dar, the constant pressure to give money can be overwhelming. Here in Kigoma they are still very much in need but they’re much more open and they have so much love and fun in their hearts. They love being your friend. It’s so fun to see how much they love Rai. I understand why Rai wants to keep coming back because the friendships you form here are everlasting.

L: Dar is a big city and as such it’s more impersonal. People there just approach you to ask for something. It’s not a real connection. They know you are there passing by and they don’t bother to get to know you. Zanzibar – the experience with the woman who runs the hotel was nice. If you’re a tourist in the city, you’re not going to get to know anyone unless you’re there for a while. But at the hotel, it was nice to spend time with the owner and her baby and the guy helping us with the cat. They are warm … shy, but warm. Here in the villages, even if they are in need, and they ask for things, they offer you what they have. Which is very little. To see the eagerness they have to learn, meet people, know about others’ lives and learn from your life to make theirs better, it’s just great.

What do you think about opportunities here?

L: Very little. Too many people wanting to try and not so many opportunities for them. There is also a big difference in opportunity between that for men and women.

H: I agree with Laura. Very little opportunity. They want to learn. They want a better life and they want better prospects for their country, but it’s so difficult for them. They have so many obstacles. In contrast to American children, they desire so much to learn… they try so hard to learn and so value education; if only American children could see how lucky they are.

What will you remember most? Your favorite memory?

H: I would have to say, visiting Lucas’ family and seeing how little they have and how much they want to give. Stan and Maiko ( Lucas’ neighbor and brother) wanted to know why the US is so strong and so powerful and TZ is not. I entered into a discussion with them about our government, about how a key feature in our government includes our freedoms and our government’s ability to regulate corporations such that our country as a whole is strengthened by our resources, whereas here resources are being stripped, leaving the people with no profit from the resources. Sometimes, I thought maybe I was losing them in the conversation but they continued asking challenging follow-up questions, wanting more knowledge. I could see that if people like this who have so little and are clearly so bright could receive the education that they desire, there could be hope that TZ and all of Africa could be stronger and less impoverished. So while I was given hope by talking with them, it also made me sad that they continue to be held back by corruption and the lack of money for the education sector.

L: The two young guys asking those questions was amazing, but also seeing the children in the village – how well they speak English compared to our children in Spain who have so many more opportunities and they don’t take advantage of them. (Laura pauses and tears up). It’s so much… it’s not just one thing.

What made you feel uncomfortable or maybe disillusioned?

L: We were waiting for the dala dala to go back to town. When it stopped there was no room to get in. I don’t know how it happened but they made four women get out so we could fit in. We thought they were making them stay to wait for another bus to come. That would have been really bad. We wouldn’t have gotten into the bus if they had done that. Still – being able to sit down where they had been sitting was bad. Then after a while, I asked a girl to sit next to me and Lucas – who is a very nice guy – educated and what not – asked her to get up. I didn’t like that at all. I don’t like the feeling that maybe they think that we are superior because we come from another country. I just hate that because we are all the same. It just pissed me off so bad and it almost ruined my experience of the whole day. I thought, after such a great day, it can’t end like this – please! Hopefully by me asking the girl to sit by me, she knew I saw us as equal.

What would be your favorite story to tell about this safari of yours?

L: Playing with Felipo’s daughter was great. Even though we couldn’t say much to each other, we communicated.

H: Meeting Hindu. I love seeing all the children being educated, but especially knowing that it’s so important to educate women. Although she was initially so shy we came to find out that she is very smart and knows English quite well. Listening to her read from the text in English – I was blown away. There were some big words in there. Even though she was so shy, she wanted to keep reading. She has a hard life – she lost her dad two years ago, she just lost her brother this year. And yet she is pushing forward with her education. It gives me some hope for the women here. She is an incredible young women and it gave me hope.

L: She asked us when we were coming back to see her again, and that about broke my heart. (Laura and Hadley are both crying now!)