A Final Note from Tanzania

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Dear Friends,

I arrived home last Friday evening. It was good to see Linda in person for the first time since mid October!

My last week in Tanzania was a very busy one.

On Sunday, March 3rd, the annual Kilimanjaro Marathon took place. I watched the runners as they came across the finish line on what was a beautiful and clear (though very hot) day. The photo above shows the finish line, with Mount Kilimanjaro in the background.

Late Sunday afternoon, Bobbie Hallig joined me. Bobbie is a former president of the Great Barrington, MA Rotary Club. Bobbie completed a 12-day tour of the northern Tanzania national parks and told me that it was a wonderful experience to watch the African wildlife so close up. Bobbie had expressed an interest in visiting the Nursing School in Moshi following the safari. On Monday, we had a tour of the nursing school and the hospital. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we visited the second-year students, who were living in nearby villages while doing their four-week community field work.

On Tuesday we visited Sambarai Village with one of the instructors, where three teams of students were based. Each team focused on a sub-village. The students warmly welcomed us and in a meeting the team leaders told us what they had learned about each of the subvillages and the challenges they had identified. We then visited three of the families and a small clinic with the students.

The first family had nine children and the husband was unable to work due to an injury. Their farm looked to be less than an acre in size. There appeared to be significant housing, hunger, sanitation and untreated health issues.

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The second family we visited was a single-parent household- the husband had abandoned the family. The mother was unable to work due to health issues, including elephantiasis as shown in one of the legs. Neighbors provided assistance to her.

The third family was very sad. There were four children and each appeared to be malnourished. The three-year-old child was unable to stand and a six-year-old child looked like a three year old in appearance. We were told that consumption of Mbege (banana beer) was a problem.

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The students told us that there would be a village meeting at which they would present their findings and discuss the need for village intervention in certain situations.

The following day we visited another village. The students here were smartly dressed in their uniforms when we met them.

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When we arrived several students were in the process of cooking lunch.

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We received an overview of their findings and then traveled by Landcruiser to a local primary school and clinic.

We were given a tour of the school. Below is what I recall to be the 6th grade class – crowded and without textbooks.

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Lunch is provided to students. This day (and probably most days) lunch consisted of beans and ugali. In the picture below one of the students posed stirring the kettle of ugali.

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There is a huge Boabab tree on the school grounds, making for a group picture opportunity.

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Following the school visit, we toured a village clinic and then returned for lunch. Our lunch consisted of ugali and a stew made with dagaa, a small dried and salted fish, and vegetables. The traditional way to eat the ugali is to take a lump of ugali, roll it in the hand into a ball, make a dimple into the ball and then use it to scoop up the stew (utensils not needed). Below, a couple of students sharing a lunch plate:

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Following lunch Bobbie and I returned to Moshi.

The other interesting activity was attending a Rotary meeting in Moshi with Bobbie Hallig. Below is Bobbie, standing next to the Rotary sign, located on a Moshi rotary.

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I have now finished another visit to Tanzania, spending time with students we sponsor in Moshi and Tukuyu. Each visit, I am so impressed—reading their autobiographies (written for the school on entry, not for my benefit) makes it clear that these students have come very far in spite of poor schools, poor teachers and difficulty paying their school fees along the way. Educating these kids has been a family effort.

I would like to end this letter with a quote from former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan:

“Education is, quite simply, peace building by another name. It is the most effective form of defense spending there is.”

 

 



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