Tanzania--where we left part of our hearts...

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Dear Family and Friends:

Before we launch into Tanzania, we thought we would touch on two small subjects that may be of interest to at least one of you! First, laundry and luggage. As you will recall, we brought only carry-on luggage, which has meant that we wear the same clothes over and over and over again, as they get grungier and grungier. The wash water is always very brown. We started the trip with everyone's bag having some of everyone's clothes, in the event that one bag was lost or stolen. That lasted about 24 hours! It was such a pain to search for some item of clothing in someone else's bag...we also could not purchase much more than a few tiny items (earrings for Lauren and candy bars, for their wrappers, for Sam), which was often dissapointing. After collecting paperwork for the kids' scrapbooks and Coke bottles from each country, we ended up sending home a total of 4 boxes, one from France, two from Italy, and one from Switzerland. All four arrived safely, we are told, so that is a relief. Once we hit the orphanage and pulled out the items we brought for the kids, it freed up a bit of space, so we felt as if we could purchase a few things in Tanzania. Everything was so gorgeous, it was difficult to exercise restraint, but we found some wonderful items, including two fun paintings to hang in our kitchen. After we came to Thailand, however, we had to break down and purchase a fake Samsonite bag (how do the vendors get away with it?) for all of our purchases. We are still capable of carry-on, however, but have started to check some bags either where the size of the plane requires it or it is a one-leg flight. So far, so good. We are, however, looking forward to wearing other clothes at home and using a real washing machine! Kate is tired of feeling dowdy all the time.

The other topic is currency. Ken has been a mastermind at knowing exactly how much to take out of bank machines in each country, so that we leave the country having exhausted its currency. We were fine with having to exchange leftover currency in a new country, but, so far, have done so with only $10 leaving Tanzania. In each country, we collect two of each coin and two of each of the smaller denomination bills (coolest: 1,000 shilling notes in Tanzania!) for the kids' collections and then try to use cash as much as possible, reserving Visa for the larger, safer purchases. We are not eager to have our Visa number liberally sprinkled around the world! Ken checked this morning (for the first time on the trip!) and determined that all the Visa charges are correct. So, we are lucky not to have had any problems in this area. We carry one Visa debit card for the cash withdrawals, since it does not charge an ATM fee, as others do (thanks, Carolyn, for this tip!) and one Visa card for charging, as it has the lowest exhange fee around.

OK....Tanzania. First, we confirmed what we had already been told: the correct pronunciation, in Swahili, rhymes with "Albania." Also, we learned that the British colonized and controlled two countries, Tanzanyika and Zanzibar, until 1964, when the two countries were joined into Tanzania.

We stayed for 6 nights at the Keys Hotel Annex, a simple, but lovely hotel in Moshi, in northern Tanzania, reached by a rutted dirt road and about 5 minutes out of the town center. There are 7-8 white-washed two-story buildings on beautiful green grounds, surrounded by a metal fence and concrete walls. We had two rooms again and our only other floormates were a couple from Florida who were there for 6 weeks! They have created a sister-city relationship with Del Ray Beach, Florida, and Moshi and recently donated 5 computers to the Moshi town library. Most people at our hotel are there for just two nights, on either side of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro (I beleive the climb itself takes 6 days - Steve and Chris can correct me!). One pleasure was going from $4 sodas to 50-cent sodas! And with very fun flavors of Fanta, including passion and grapefruit.

On our first day, we were itching to at least stop in at the orphanage, since no one knew we were coming. We took a taxi for about 15 minutes, the last 1/3 over dreadful, rutted, pot-holed dirt roads. It is a challenge to locate, but, once there, you find a gated house and lawn and large, solid front gates, where you honk and one or more children come running to see who is there. We were greeted so warmly by everyone. The kids take about 90 seconds before holding your hand, asking to be picked up, and yelling, "auntie, uncle," and motioning for you to watch them do a trick, or asking you to push them on the one swing, or to kick a soccer ball with them. There were names like Amina, Neema, Laurent, Rose, Witness, Happyness, Gabby, and Parsley. No toys were in sight, although, later, one of the smallest boys was pulling a vechicle made of a plastic bottle and string. We arrived with 3 new soccer balls, which was a good thing, since the only ones they had were in bad shape. We were quickly assimilated, with the biggest challenge being pulled in so many directions! The Director, Margaret, was not there and, in fact, we did not see her until our 4th day there, but other staff were. The English teacher, a Tanzanian, had been there only a week, but could serve as translator. We had a cheat sheet of Swahili and had great fun trying to use it, getting our pronunciation corrected, and learning more words. The kids are eager to learn English, but we worked harder on learning Swahili. Lauren can now say, "The stupid chicken sleeps well tomorrow," a most useful phrase, as you can imagine!

The ophanage is currently renting two white stucco buildings, one with 3 bedrooms (boys, older girls, and younger girls) for the 23 children. The other has a storage room and the residence of the director. There is a large yard, with equal parts mud and grass, a chicken coop filled with chickens used both for meals there and for sale, a cooking shed (meals are prepared over the outdoor fire), a corregated metal shed with an Eastern toilet (you remember what that is!) and shower head with cold water (the inside bathroom is broken), a pen with goats, and a huge laundry line. While we were there, it was surprisingly cool and overcast (we expected heat), so the laundry, which goes constantly in the one small washing machine, was not only on all available lines, but along the top of the front metal fence, and covering a large portion of the yard (cleanliness is relative, when newly-washed clothes are drying on mud surfaces!). The larger building has a small kitchen, which seems to be used mostly for washing and storing the few plastic dishes they have and the large refrigerator, as well as a main room used for eating and school. The kids run in and out of the building all day, leaving their shoes at the door, but still the mud and dirt accumulate.

The staff consisted of several people. One seemed to do nothing but sweep the floors and deal with the laundry, one does only cooking, and one handles adminstrative and financial affairs. The older girls help with the younger children, as needed.

We spent most of the next 6 days with the kids, looking for need and trying to fill it. We had brought things like stickers and yarn with us, but, once there, were able to do things like purchase all of the new teacher's school supplies (she was so happy!), clothes pins (pegs), scissors, a soccer ball pump, 15 pairs of rain boots (without boots, school-aged kids were not going to school on rainy days), and a long-handled broom (all they had was a small, crude bundle of twigs which you had to bend over to use).

Our biggest project was a sandbox. We were asking the director what she would like us to do and she said, "In America, you have something called a sandbox. I went on-line to read about them, since we don't have them here. Perhaps you could build one, so that the kids would have something outside to play in." So, Ken and Sam went off with a staff person to a sand and gravel place, watched 7 tons of sand be shoveled mannually into a truck by 6 workers (each paid $1 for his 15 minutes), and returned with the truck in tow. The kids were fascinated to watch this truck drive across the yard and dump the sand into the prepared area. Since the area was round, so wood would not work for an edge, rocks would have just become a mess and there was no such thing as bags of sand, Ken bought 40 bags and he, Sam, and one of the boys filled them by hand and laid them in two layers around the edge. By the next morning, it was complete, so we went and bought bright-colored plastic beach toys, shovels, and trucks. By the last day, we were ready for the dedication ceremony, which turned into quite the event. The director had purchased single-stemmed roses for each of the kids, which were initially planted around the inside edge of the sandbox. Everyone held hands while Ken did a prayer of dedication, including phrases like, "and help the children to be kind to each other in the sandbox and to play nicely...." which the director translated to the children. Then, the kids sang us two songs, incorporating our names into one, and then Ken and Lauren sang them a song. It was hysterical, because one of the songs K & L sang is from Switzerland and talks about the sound, "coo, coo." It turns out that, in Swahili, koo koo means chicken, so the kids wanted the song over and over again. After the singing, the kids each picked up a rose and, in a line, brought them to us. It was gorgeous! We unveiled the toys and showed them what to do with them and off they went! We decided it was a good time to leave. We returned later only to take the director out to dinner. She is absolutely incredible. Young, smart, dynamic, and complely in love with the children. She also operates a tour company, so, thankfully, is not relying on the orphanage for her sole income.

Thanks to the help of Committee Assist, in Australia, a land deal was closed only a few days before we arrived. The orphanage now owns 5 beautiful acres of land, including a stream, about 10 miles from town (the last 4 are on more wretched dirt roads!), where it will build, with help from CA volunteers, a compound of homes and a school for the children. With any luck, it will be complete in a year, but we would guess it will be longer. Margaret took time to tell us the background stories on some of the children, and they are heart-breaking. Two girls witnessed their father kill their mother, for example. Margaret will not divide siblings, so she ended up with more than the original goal of 20 children. She talked about one case where she went to the home, was told there were 2 children, brought both back to the orphanage, and then they said, "where is our brother?" so back she went to get him...

As you can imagine, Tanzania is an impoverished country. We saw incredible poverty and learned that the average laborer earns $2.50 a DAY! And gas prices are US $6/gallon....Coca Cola is everywhere - the company has even created a tiny bottle, to ensure its product is available to more people. Street signs, store banners, mileage markers, and even the police station (see photo) all have the Coca Cola symbol on them. Every morning when we drove to the orphanage, we passed a steady stream of women carrying full, large boxes of bananas on their heads for market. Once, we stopped, and purchased about 40 to take to the kids (see photo!). We saw people carrying the following items on their heads: bananas, large plastic water jugs (5 gallons each, probably), pillows, wood, mangos, lettuce, large plastic bags filled with who knows, laundry, and even a huge metal barrel. We saw old bicycles carrying humungous piles of sticks, bruch, and as many as 10 5-gallon water jugs, the pile often many times the size of the rider. Bikes also double as portable knife-sharpening stations. The rider turns around and a contraption on the back wheel has a sharp blade. People walk everywhere, all times of the day and night. There is a steady stream of pedestrians, with piles on their heads, bicyclists, and people pushing wooden carts. What we would put on our backs, they put on their head. What we would put in a pick-up truck, they put on the back of a bicycle.

Instead of flares for a broken-down van, the driver used piles of reed stalks from the adjacent field, which he put out in the road. Ken and Sam each paid $3 to get their hair cut!

It was extremely difficult to leave. Sam cried uncontrollably for 2-1/2 hours and both kids are begging us to find a way to return. We explained that it will need to be part of another trip, to benefit from some economy of scale. But, we are commited to helping, including the kids saving up allowance and mailing books. We discovered that books are the only item exempt from the orphanage having to pay a fee at its end at the post office. We would like to return in the next 2 years, if possible. In the meantime, we invested in a book to learn Swahili.

On Sunday, July 27the, we left Moshi for Arusha. Our taxi driver was named Happy God!

Next: what we each miss from home (not much!), transportation, and our safari.

K4

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Photos

Craft Time with Lauren
Parsley was irresistable and stole our hearts!

Play Area
Beginning of the sandbox project. Note drying laundry fills line and covers grass/mud

Construction of Sandbox Area
7 tons of sand

Off to Market
We lightened their load when we bought 40 bananas for the kids...