Sooooo... I had a white Christmas on the white sands of the beach of Kigamboni. I am fortunate enough to have a place to stay here with my friend, Durban (Bushman) as he truely comes from the Bush, who happens to have rented a home with 2 bedrooms, kitchen bath, living area and front porch and yard complete with mango, coconut and cashew trees... He will be accompanying me on many of my travels to translate and help me navigate my way. So for Christmas Dinner we cooked fish, coconut rice, guacamole, and an omelet.... yummmm!!! So as I write in my journal this morning I was thinking ... who would have guessed that the girl who can't stomach, steak and eggs or pizza for breakfast is eating octopus, tomato/onion/lime salad, and chipate at 9 am!!!
We have no stove or oven so we cook on a small clay 'local stove' using charcoal, with coconut leaves for fire starter... Girlscout style!
Went to see my friends in Bagamoyo and the children at Imuma center for orphans.... sooooo good to see them all!!!!!
Now i want to share some of my observations after 2 weeks, that are helping me to reflect on what is really going on here in Tanzania and what direction I need to take in this adventure.
*** a woman in my village walking down the dirt roads and byways in the 90 something degree heat of the African sun, a 1 year old laying strapped in a sling across her belly, nursing as she walked, with a heavy pail of fish in her hand chanting , "Samaki, samaki, samaki" fish, fish fish... as she attempts to make enough money to feed her family
***an elderly woman 70 or 80 years old sitting in front of an 8 foot pile of white rocks ranging from 2 ft. to 6 inches in diameter, that have been dug from the ground in the surrounding area, hitting them with a blunt object of some kind to split them into pieces the size of golf balls to soft balls, to sell to others who will grind the small stones to powder to be used for a cement like material for building homes.
( as I walk leisurely by this scene I am dripping in sweat and ready to be home relaxing in the shade...)
*** as I observe these things I ask myself, where is the balance in this world, How has it not gone into a tail spin???? Maybe it has....
***As I round the corner I hear the sound of a child making a motor sound much like a child in America would make when playing with a toy car. What I see is a 4 year old child with 2 long sticks in his hand pushing an old dirty box top along the ground. Another older boy soon after, down the road, has created a more sophisticated version of this toy they see as a car, made of sticks and bottle caps found on the ground, discarded from the litter that is so prevail ant here in Tanzania.
*** a small boy at the bus station at 6 am carrying a portable coal burner, an aluminum coffee pot filled with steaming hot coffee and a pail with water and cups in it, selling coffee to travelers, including us... for 10 cents a cup.
*** children with the same clothing that they have been wearing the 5 days in a row that I have seen them, dirty faces, no shoes, yet... laughing, playing and seeming to enjoy life to its fullest... perhaps more than what we observe of the spoiled children in our neighborhoods in America.
*** schools with simple hand made benches, no materials, no books or visual aides on the walls, but yet many are not privileged enough to attend this place.
***An elderly woman hunched over, hoe in hand, working the soil on a plot of land that must have been 3 - 4 acres in size, Me feeling so hopeless for the task she has ahead of her, this tiny woman with one small hoe with a huge job ahead of her... seems so futile and hopeless to me, yet she is diligent.... How does she have the willpower to go on? Then it hit me... this is their life.... EVERYTHING is a struggle... all they they face each day, seemingly impossible tasks... so they have good attitude and they forge on. they have faith..... that somehow they will make it! This is how they survive...
**** and then there is my sweet boy Salumu from Imuma center for orphans and vulnerable children. We went to visit my children there last week and found that Salumu had the worst infection on the bottom of his foot I have ever seen. So Bushman and I brought him to the local clinic where they cleaned it and bandaged it with only gauze, nothing to keep the elements out of the wound, and then we were told that he must go back for 5 days to have it cleaned an bandaged again, he was given pain killer and antibiotic. ....All of this, including the medicines and 5 days of check ups came to $14. For me this is nothing for but his family it is not possible to come up with this money...For this reason many here lose a foot, a leg or die from infections. What is wrong with this world???
*** So now... as for me... Because my computer will not make it to Tanzania because it will cost over $200 to send it... I am sooooooo inconvenienced by the lack of a $2000 computer.... wow... things are really being put in perspective for me each and every day.
So now today I am here in the hot city of Dar Es Salaam to do what I can in the 2 hours I have on the Internet. Sorry if I am not responding to emails and face book message...there is just not enough time to do the research I need to do, write in the blog and respond to everyone. Please know that I am thinking of you and hope that some day I will have the time to respond. I am creating a timeline tonight of travel plans to visit NGOs(non profits) in Tanzania so that I am using my time wisely. Everything takes so much time here, laundry, cooking, walking to the market... Internet...etc...
But for now... my plan is to continue the work in Mnangole, finding a way to bring water to them, in the form of a well!
I miss all of my friends and family.... If you feel like calling, I can be reached at 011255789563878
I will will leave you with the words of the reggae artist Luciano:
This song was playing from the speakers of my ipod this morning as I was writing in my journal:
We need a miracle to make a change
some people have it all
While others have nothing at all
Some people live like kings
While others can't find a thing
Gonna take a miracle of love
to see us through
Gonna take a miracle of love
ME and YOU
Sometimnes I shed a tear
To see so much despair
so many people are suffering out there
still no one seems to care
Gonna take a miracle of love
so see us through
Gonna take a miracle of love
ME and You!
Please stick by my side on this adventure... I need all the support I can get if we are going to make a change....
Peace and Love,
Beth
Now i want to share some of my observations after 2 weeks, that are helping me to reflect on what is really going on here in Tanzania and what direction I need to take in this adventure.
*** a woman in my village walking down the dirt roads and byways in the 90 something degree heat of the African sun, a 1 year old laying strapped in a sling across her belly, nursing as she walked, with a heavy pail of fish in her hand chanting , "Samaki, samaki, samaki" fish, fish fish... as she attempts to make enough money to feed her family
***an elderly woman 70 or 80 years old sitting in front of an 8 foot pile of white rocks ranging from 2 ft. to 6 inches in diameter, that have been dug from the ground in the surrounding area, hitting them with a blunt object of some kind to split them into pieces the size of golf balls to soft balls, to sell to others who will grind the small stones to powder to be used for a cement like material for building homes.
( as I walk leisurely by this scene I am dripping in sweat and ready to be home relaxing in the shade...)
*** as I observe these things I ask myself, where is the balance in this world, How has it not gone into a tail spin???? Maybe it has....
***As I round the corner I hear the sound of a child making a motor sound much like a child in America would make when playing with a toy car. What I see is a 4 year old child with 2 long sticks in his hand pushing an old dirty box top along the ground. Another older boy soon after, down the road, has created a more sophisticated version of this toy they see as a car, made of sticks and bottle caps found on the ground, discarded from the litter that is so prevail ant here in Tanzania.
*** a small boy at the bus station at 6 am carrying a portable coal burner, an aluminum coffee pot filled with steaming hot coffee and a pail with water and cups in it, selling coffee to travelers, including us... for 10 cents a cup.
*** children with the same clothing that they have been wearing the 5 days in a row that I have seen them, dirty faces, no shoes, yet... laughing, playing and seeming to enjoy life to its fullest... perhaps more than what we observe of the spoiled children in our neighborhoods in America.
*** schools with simple hand made benches, no materials, no books or visual aides on the walls, but yet many are not privileged enough to attend this place.
***An elderly woman hunched over, hoe in hand, working the soil on a plot of land that must have been 3 - 4 acres in size, Me feeling so hopeless for the task she has ahead of her, this tiny woman with one small hoe with a huge job ahead of her... seems so futile and hopeless to me, yet she is diligent.... How does she have the willpower to go on? Then it hit me... this is their life.... EVERYTHING is a struggle... all they they face each day, seemingly impossible tasks... so they have good attitude and they forge on. they have faith..... that somehow they will make it! This is how they survive...
**** and then there is my sweet boy Salumu from Imuma center for orphans and vulnerable children. We went to visit my children there last week and found that Salumu had the worst infection on the bottom of his foot I have ever seen. So Bushman and I brought him to the local clinic where they cleaned it and bandaged it with only gauze, nothing to keep the elements out of the wound, and then we were told that he must go back for 5 days to have it cleaned an bandaged again, he was given pain killer and antibiotic. ....All of this, including the medicines and 5 days of check ups came to $14. For me this is nothing for but his family it is not possible to come up with this money...For this reason many here lose a foot, a leg or die from infections. What is wrong with this world???
*** So now... as for me... Because my computer will not make it to Tanzania because it will cost over $200 to send it... I am sooooooo inconvenienced by the lack of a $2000 computer.... wow... things are really being put in perspective for me each and every day.
So now today I am here in the hot city of Dar Es Salaam to do what I can in the 2 hours I have on the Internet. Sorry if I am not responding to emails and face book message...there is just not enough time to do the research I need to do, write in the blog and respond to everyone. Please know that I am thinking of you and hope that some day I will have the time to respond. I am creating a timeline tonight of travel plans to visit NGOs(non profits) in Tanzania so that I am using my time wisely. Everything takes so much time here, laundry, cooking, walking to the market... Internet...etc...
But for now... my plan is to continue the work in Mnangole, finding a way to bring water to them, in the form of a well!
I miss all of my friends and family.... If you feel like calling, I can be reached at 011255789563878
I will will leave you with the words of the reggae artist Luciano:
This song was playing from the speakers of my ipod this morning as I was writing in my journal:
We need a miracle to make a change
some people have it all
While others have nothing at all
Some people live like kings
While others can't find a thing
Gonna take a miracle of love
to see us through
Gonna take a miracle of love
ME and YOU
Sometimnes I shed a tear
To see so much despair
so many people are suffering out there
still no one seems to care
Gonna take a miracle of love
so see us through
Gonna take a miracle of love
ME and You!
Please stick by my side on this adventure... I need all the support I can get if we are going to make a change....
Peace and Love,
Beth
mrembo Beth, beautiful
ReplyDeleteBeth! So good to hear from you, your posts are really making me lok foward to my time in Tanzania and stirring up alot of ideas, enjoy your time there and keep up the work!
ReplyDeleteYou are amazing!!!!!! im proud to have you as a friend. Such as inspiration to us all beth. We love you!
ReplyDelete