Nearing the End

          On Saturday Kellen and I got back from my last visit to Engaruka before I head home. We ended up spending 6 days there, which was longer than we had planned but I’m so glad we did! I’ve been lucky enough to see quite a bit of Tanzania during these past 4 months but out of everywhere I’ve been, Engaruka is my favorite, hands down. The thing that makes Engaruka so special is the people that live there. To me, they define the meaning of community: if a person is in need, someone will try to help. If a family is short on school fees, chances are the other villagers will help however they can, even if it isn’t much. We saw a woman who was very sick and going to the hospital. There was no one with a car available that day so a group of other villagers was took turns carrying her to the hospital. The love that the people in Engaruka have for each other, and for visitors, is beautiful and a philosophy I want to live by. 

     
     We visited Oldonyo Lengai Secondary School and Engaruka Juu Primary school again to talk with the girls in the Empowered Girls Club. Instead of the mzungu (white girl) Q&A that we did previously, I got the chance to talk to them about some life skills! For the secondary students we talked about goal setting: why it is important, how to make goals, the difference between long term and short term goals and some other goal related topics. I hope they found my information useful and will apply it to their own lives. At the primary school I talked about peer pressure, something that seems to be pretty universal. When I asked for examples of peer pressure many of the things said were so similar to the types of peer pressure faced in America. A few of the things they listed were someone pressuring you to have sex, try drugs and gossip and play instead of doing your homework. With them, I talked about the importance of focusing on school instead of letting yourself become distracted as well as the reasons to not give in to peer pressure. The younger girls at the primary school really seemed to have taken in everything we talked about during our previous times there, which was so encouraging! This is the first primary school that Empowered Girls is working with and they have set a high standard so far. 

  
After I talked, Kellen took some time to give some feminine hygiene products to all the girls who attended the meeting and answer any questions they had about  their menstrual cycle. Imagine having to miss school one week every month simply because you don’t have consistent access to hygiene products. These girls had so many questions and I think that it was one of the first times that they had been able to ask any questions about their bodies without being embarrassed. We also listened to the song that they had written for Empowered Girls and it was great! 

      During the rest of our time I got the chance to talk to a group of widows who make and sell jewelry to support their families and afterwards they asked me to (try) to dance and sing with them. I also spent ore time with the 19 year old widow who lives in the same compound (an extended family’s area enclosed for protection where there are sleeping areas, cooking hut and pens for livestock) where we stay in Engaruka. It still amazes me how different her life is compared to any 19 year old I know in the states. She has had a very hard life, yet she is still such a happy person and has one of the most beautiful smiles I have ever seen. She is an incredibly loving mother, and seems to harbor no resentment or bitterness for the way her life has turned out. Most days she is only able to afford for her children to eat twice a day, breakfast and dinner, and only a very basic porridge. I decided to give her around $20 and told her she should use to it buy food for her family. She told me that instead she was going to buy clothes for her 3 children - for the first time. Her children have always worn simple pieces of cloth. Having food and clothing were two things I always took for granted growing up but is something that is not guaranteed for so many children.  She is truly an awe inspiring woman and I hope to write a much longer post about her in the future.  

      I cannot believe that my time in Tanzania has gone by so quickly, but I have loved every minute of it. I leave this Tuesday and head to South Africa for 10 days to visit a friend before heading home. I’m so glad that I am not leaving Tanzania and going straight back to the States, because there is a good chance I would just “miss” the plane and stay here! 

My first dust storm!

      I think I have already done the hardest part: leaving Engaruka, knowing that it would be years before I am able to return. A piece of my heart will always be in Engaruka, and I know that I will not forget the people there who have taught me so much.  It is strange to have such mixed feelings about leaving Tanzania when it is so vastly different from the world I grew up in. I am so excited to see everyone from back home,  and I know that I will be able to share what I have learned and experienced with many people:  yet, I am really not ready to leave. 

The two faces of Empowered Girls

    We were returning to Engaruka with great news. In addition to telling Saning’o that he now had a sponsor and would be going to school in January, we would also be telling an orphaned girl that we had found a scholarship for her secondary school education.  I was very excited to share in her good news, but on arriving at the village and finding her, she revealed that she was

pregnant - eliminating all hope of future education. 

     This is a heartbreaking reminder of why Empowered Girls is so important, and so needed. Teenage girls in this culture are very vulnerable to pregnancy and the problem starts with complete lack of factual knowledge about sex. This situation is then exacerbated by being taken advantage of by older men, by choosing to be sexually active or by being forced into marriage by their families. In many cases it is far from the families’ first choice that they marry their daughters off, but they are left with very little choice as the bride price is needed for survival and they feel pressure from friends and family members to find a husband for their daughters.  

      Shortly after returning from Engaruka however, I experienced first hand how Empowered Girls is such a positive influence on secondary school girls. Empowered Girls was first started last September at Enaboishu Secondary School in Arusha. Whenever I visited Enaboishu I found it hard to believe that the club had only been around for a year as so many girls were participating in the club and putting so much into various Empowered Girls activities. 

                      They prepared a skit that showed the benefits of staying in school and focusing on their studies. They had a fashion, show showing off different dress designs they had made out of a single piece of fabric and pins. They wrote and performed songs about the challenges women face and overcoming those challenges. The atmosphere in the room was electric, and it made me realize just how few chances most of these girls had previously had to sing, dance and talk openly about the issues they face. There were several students that Kellen knew from her time teaching at the school as well as from when she helped start the club last year who had become much stronger and outgoing. I believe that all the girls at Enaboishu school , even those not directly participating,  benefited from the Empowered Girls program. 

     For me, seeing the incredible result that   Empowered Girls has been able to accomplish in such a short time is a tremendous motivator to continue my involvement after I return to the States and college. While the reasons the clubs need to exist is heartbreaking, the result of Empowered Girls is nothing short of transforming. 

Safari!

I had a last minute chance to go on safari last week and it was incredible! On Tuesday I found out I would be able to go, and I left Wednesday morning - good thing I pack light! We visited the Lake Manyara, and Tarangire national parks as well as the Ngorogoro Crater. Our outfitter was East African Voyages and they were wonderful. Simple but comfortable accommodations, perfect for my budget! Our delicious picnic lunches every day made all the other toursits with their box lunches pretty jealous. Check out the rest of the pictures here.

It only takes a moment

       My heart hurts for East Africa this week. Two horrible accidents struck Tanzania and Kenya within days of each other, taking many lives. The world famous white sand beaches of the Zanzibar archipelago were crowded with locals, rescuers and bodies alike after a horrible ferry wreck off Saturday morning when a ferry bound for Pemba, an island near Zanzibar, capsized killing almost 200 people.
Perhaps the most heartbreaking part is that this could have easily been prevented had the boat not been overloaded. The boats are not built to carry more than 600 people, yet this one had over 800 onboard in addition to more cargo than is recommended. The ferry sank in the early hours of the morning, making rescue efforts limited until after dawn. The lucky individuals managed to cling to mattresses, fridges and anything else that kept them afloat until other boats were able to reach the scene of the accident.

         In the Sinai slum in Nairobi, Kenya at least 120 were killed, and more than 100 additional people injured, Monday morning in an explosion from a fuel line leak. The number of deaths was so high partially due to the fact that at the time of the explosion many were walking to school or work. An even larger factor was the fact that many raced to the scene of the leak hoping to collect some fuel.

     Imagine living the kind of life where you understand the risk involved in flocking to such a dangerous spot instead of away from it, yet you do so anyway because one pail of fuel will pay for a month's rent. Imagine having little choice but to build your home, made only of corrugated steel, above an unstable pipeline because you cannot afford to build anywhere else. Imagine living in a place where a lack of roads makes it almost impossible for firefighters to access the scene. Imagine rushing home to find the bodies of your two children, perhaps the only part of your life that truly brings you joy-- an agonizing experience Joseph Mwangi and so many others were forced to live on Monday.  For many this is not something they have to imagine, it is what they live. 

       Take some time today to tell those you care about "I love you". Remember to be grateful for what you have, because you never know when it might be taken away. Tragedies like this happen every day around the world, and while they are truly devastating and heart breaking, they also serve as a reminder that anything can happen and that every day needs to be lived to its fullest. It only takes a moment for everything to change. 

Kyela

First batch of books

         While planning my time in Tanzania, returning to the village where I had first fallen in love with this country was near the top of my “to do” list. While my expectation that Kyela wouldn’t be the same as I had remembered it ended up being true, it was only because it was an even more rewarding experience. This time, I knew some Swahili, knew more about the country, was familiar with its customs and most importantly, I had a connection to the people I was going back to see. I was only able to spend a few days back in Kyela,  but it was worth every bit of the 16 hour bus ride of motion sickness!

The second batch of books

     Most of my time was spent at the Mwaya Secondary School. This is the school that Cocoa Honors visited last summer and that has since received almost $10,000 worth of text books. This gift was made possible thorough the support of many people in Springfield who care about this small school in a little frequented corner of Tanzania. I was surprised that the textbooks had already had a significant effect on the school. Besides providing a much needed resource for the students’ learning and exam preparation, we found out from the headmaster that the simple presence of the books has inspired and motivated the students to excel in their studies. To the Mwaya students, these textbooks (books that made my peers and I groan mentally upon being issued each year) showed that someone cared about them. They are tangible proof that people outside their small school believe in them enough to invest money to ensure that the students have the basic materials necessary for learning. 

       

     Kellen and I met with a group of female students to talk about a range of subjects related to the Empowered Girls goals.  Interestingly, the topic that was returned to again was me. As at the previous secondary schools where we have spoken, the girls had an endless number of questions for me:  Do many girls in the U.S. go to university? How old are most girls when they marry? Do US parents want daughters to continue with their education or do they think marriage is better? Do girls in America face similar issues of pregnancy and being deceived by boys? - and many more.  They even ask the mundane of "do American teens have problems with acne?" It is fascinating, though often disheartening, to see the contrast between the teen experiences in their world and mine.

Part of their library!

         The Cocoa Honors group who visited the school last summer has been far from forgotten. The mzungu mrefu sana (really tall kid) was the Cocoa Honors student that the largest number of people seemed to remember, something I found fitting considering Taylor Curtis is still very involved with Tanzania and hopes to return in the near future. They also remembered ‘that man who took lots of pictures’, so thanks for outshining me dad!  According to the Headmaster, who extends a big thank you to everyone involved with Cocoa Honors and the Textbooks for Tanzania campaign, our presence has shown many of the students that the world beyond the one they know is accessible, but it requires hard work and determination. 

        While many aspects of my visit are memorable, there is one that stands out. While Kellen was giving a lecture on how to prepare for exams and I was acting as photographer (like father, like daughter?) one student stood up and asked the best way to manage his time. This student is an orphan who has no relatives able to pay his school fees. Instead of simply accepting this and not completing secondary school, he spends most of his time outside of school working in order to pay his school fees.

                   

       That kind of determination is a reminder of how much I have taken for granted in my life. It also reminds me that some things are the same across cultures and continents and that not infrequently, teens at home must also hold jobs to help support themselves and their families. Once again it raises the question in my mind of where to help, how to help: how to step outside of my “wants” and into a world of need.

Guess what I bought today...

A cow! Daudi and Kellen and I were at church, and afterwards they had an auction for the non monetary offerings and....we bought a cow!

Uganda (and some random thoughts)

       Sorry for the lack of updates recently! I have been in Uganda since the 28th and love this country! They get so much rain and everything is so green, quite different from Tanzania. I had planned on returning to Arusha today, but ended up staying until Friday with a family I know in Kampala. I'll be sure to post more once I get back home to Arusha!
       On an unrelated note, I cannot believe that I have less than 2 months until I head back home. Time has  gone by so quickly, and I know I will be very sad to leave. Thank you to everyone who has been following my blog and sending me encouraging thoughts and messages, they always make my day! When I started this blog I figured on a few friends and family members reading it, but to date I have had over 3,000 page views with an average of almsot 1,000 a month! I have to admit, I am a bit surprised by the number of people that are reading my blog but I am very excited that I am able to share my experiences and how wonderful East Africa is with so many!