Habari za jioni, mimi rafickis
Today was an fun-filled day with many activities in the village of Marangu. This was a much-needed outing after yesterday's journey to Nganjoni. I will speak of yesterday first.
NGANJONI VILLAGE: Mama Mrema from WEECE, our hired driver, Mac, and myself drove to Nganjoni yesterday. The last 10km of the ride were across ridiculous washed out roads that are only worsening as the rain season moves in. We traveled this way to visit the village of Nganjoni, which has about 4000 people and is extremely impoverished. WEECE has helped the village to learn how to grow and cultivate Maize, quarry for rock and shape "bricks", refurbish a few of their school rooms, sponsor 20 kids to attend school, and is soon to help with a dispensary. The entire village has no electricity or running water. Our primary visit was to the school to take photos of the sponsored children and confirm their names and attendance. We also toured the classrooms and Mama Mrema briefly spoke with the children. At "lunch time" Mama Mrema led an administrative meeting with all the staff and I was left to hang with the Watoto (the children). At first, I hung out with the very young children (kinder and maybe 1st grade equivalent) while they lined up to receive their cup of porridge (which was cooked over an outdoor fire in an open walled hut). They watched me (the Wazungu) and were not quite sure what to think of me...and I watched them somehow frozen relative to my recent Swahili lessons. After awhile I took a picture of a couple girls directly in front of me and then cautiously walked over to share it with them. This was a big hit! They began shouting at the picture and called over their friends and soon thereafter I had 50+ watoto pushing and shoving around me to see the "peechas" (I would love to upload some now but it takes too long on the internet here). A little later, the older children came out and were caught up in the commotion. I worked the same camera magic with them and had a big crowd. I noticed though that they were not eating lunch...and I asked our driver what was going on, and they had no lunch to eat this day as they had not cultivated the Maize. So, the older children were going from morning until sundown with no food, not even a snack. My heart broke with this understanding. MOYO WAMBU UNA UMA. MY HEART HURTS! This has haunted me ever since. I am still processing what I experienced, but there is more.
Eventually the older children sang to me (WIMBO..."Song"...one of the few words I could pull out of my pocket...)...and they sang "We are so happy! We are so happy! For our Jesus died for us!" What a moment! No food...tatered & dirty school uniforms, shoes falling apart from their soles...and they are happy! Again, I am still processing this! As we left, all the watoto that were at first very timid with me sang "Goodbye to our Sister Shari". The crying started here (...and Mama Mrema mocked me a bit at this point, but in a care way...). We attended to more school business and then headed home, or so I thought. On the way back to Moshi, we made five stops to various families with disabled children that Mama Mrema and WEECE support. I took pictures of each of them for Mama Mremas report. You would not believe the family dwellings for most of these children. Very unbelievable situation. I was told most were suffering with Polio because the poor do not always vaccinate against it, but I think a couple had a variation of Palsy. By the end of yesterday, I was mentally broke. I fasted during the afternoon yesterday, for the love of the watoto...arrived home to eat a nice dinner, prayed, and meditated. I went to bed quite early and 24 hours later, after an amazingly eventful and light-hearted day, still hurt in my heart.MARANGU VILLAGE: My time is running short on the computer, but today was heavily outdoors and a great diversion from yesterday (although I will be returning back there soon in my thinking). Today we did the following: went to a local batik artist and ordered custom batik canvas (art), visited a traditional Chagga market, went to the blacksmith area (I bought two traditional spears...awesome!), spelunked down the caves of a traditional Chagga hut (we all got terribly muddy due to recent rain but it was a great adventure), we hiked down a steep path to an amazing water fall and some swam...I just hiked around in the water, we had lunch at the same falls, we had a historical briefing on the Chagga tribes, tasted mbegae (traditional banana beer...looked disgusting!), rested at a beautiful hotel Kilimanjaro, stopped at a batik clothing shop, and had a barbeque at home base tonight that was wonderful! We eat so much better than I could have ever imagined. Weight loss does not look possible. :-)
Next on the agenda: prep an excel lesson for tomorrow and rest. I've become such an early bed person (we seem to run out of steam early here).
Lala Salama - and love to all!
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