Mikocheni Village... by Josh T.

Hey everyone it’s Josh... What an eye-opening day that we had as we were able to travel to a rural village that the Tanzanian Village Fund has been working with. Due to a little later breakfast at around 9:15, many people were able to catch up on some much needed sleep. After our typical breakfast that we have had almost every single day on this trip, we set off around 10 am, and after a brief stop at the diocesan office to pick up Fr. Daniel, we set off for the village of Mikocheni.

Mikocheni is a rural village that is located about an hour south of our lodge in Moshi. The drive to Mikocheni goes through about 45 minutes of sugar cane fields, which are owned by TPC, followed by about 20 km of pothole filled dirt roads. The moment that we turned off of the nicely paved government roads, we could tell that this wasn’t going to be anything like we expected. Mikocheni is part of what is commonly known as the bottom billion, the poorest of the poor who live on less than a dollar per day. Upon entering the village, the harrowing reality of what this looked like became all too real. For those of you who have been on this trip and have seen the village, I’m sure that the memories and images that come to mind are as vivid and heartbreaking as the day that you were here; and for those of you who have not been here, words can not even begin to describe the sights and emotions that come with this experience.

Our first stop was at the pump house and outpost church, which are two of the first buildings/shacks that could be seen once we reached the village. When our bus turned in, about 50 screaming children with some of the biggest smiles you will ever see immediately greeted us. It was amazing how, even though these kids had almost nothing and are stuck in such a terrible situation, they were still some of the happiest and most joyful kids that we have met on this trip. After getting acquainted with everyone, we were able to take a look at the well and pump that the Tanzanian Village Fund has sponsored and built for these people.

This well, which is run entirely on solar power, provides around 4000 people with clean water everyday. The well is around 70 meters deep, and pumps water several times a day into the holding tank, which is nearby. As of now the village has a 3000-liter tank that Fr. Daniel says gets filled around 3 times every single day. He also told us about some future plans which would call for a new 10,000-liter tank that would sit on top of a platform that would be built about 200 feet away. This well has been such a gift for the people of Mikocheni, and has greatly benefited all of their lives. Before this well was constructed, people from the village had to walk 6 km in one direction just to find clean/free water, which they then had to carry back to their homes. I say free because as we looked into the distance, we could see what looked to be two large holding tanks right in the middle of town. These tanks were put up by a private investor, who chooses to charge a dollar per gallon just to have access to this water. Personally I feel as if this is about as low as a person can go. You are choosing to spend a large sum of money to put in a well in a village that is in dire need of water, but you then decide that you are going to use this to try to make a few extra bucks off of people who make less than a dollar per day and are among some of the poorest people in the world. This just seemed like one of the most evil things that a person could do. Fortunately the village now as free access to clean water thanks to the generosity of the T.V.F.

After a brief blessing by Fr. Daniel in the local church, which is basically steel sheets placed together in order to form a shelter, we walked a little ways over to the Mikocheni Primary School. The children there chose to sing us several songs, which, as Fr. Daniel translated for us, were songs about their village and how proud they are of Mikocheni, as well as the Tanzanian national anthem. This beautiful performance was followed by a brief tour of one of the classrooms at the school. This room, which was no bigger than the average classroom at Cathedral (25x40ish), was the room in which all of the P4 students had their lessons. Fr. Daniel told us how currently there are about 100 P4 students at the school, and all of them have their classes at the same time. Suddenly a typical American class of 25-30 kids doesn’t seem all that bad. Currently there are 572 kids who attend this school, all of these kids are taught by just 8 teachers, in only 7 total classrooms. We later asked about the passing rate of the Standard 7 exams, which all students take upon completion of P7. Fr. Daniel said that the passing rates are actually relatively high, but only because the government has lowered their standards so much that almost anyone is able to pass. In reality, the students are not able to get a quality education, and even though a majority pass, many are unable to afford to go to secondary school, and those who can afford it are not able to cope with the more rigorous demands and end up either dropping or failing out.

Following the brief tour at the school, we took a walk through the village in order to reach our bus on the other side. It was here that we saw many of the images that will be among the most prominent and eye opening of our trip. Almost all of the buildings were of the stereotypical African build. That is: dirt floor, hole-filled mud walls, and thatched roof of extremely poor quality. As we took this journey though the village, hand in hand with many of the local children, I believe we were all struck by just how real of an issue extreme poverty is. Oftentimes on T.V. there are commercials by UNICEF or some other group talking about how there are kids who live on only one meal a day and stuff like that. Before this trip, I’m pretty sure many of us would have just blown these off, or thought of the issue as being non-existent. Afterwards, we could all safely say that this issue is very very real.

We took a short bus ride after the village in order to reach the lake, which was about 1000 meters away. For many people in Mikocheni, fishing is their only source of income, and therefore their only available job. Upon hearing that we were going to the lake, almost every kid who had walked through the village with us took off in a dead sprint in order to meet us there. A few of the more innovative ones jumped onto the back of the bus and held on for dear life, and there was even one sly guy who snuck into the bus with the rest of us. We stayed at the lake for just a short period of time, enough to get a glimpse of what this part of their life was like and for a few kids to take a short canoe ride, and then we hit the road in order to head back to the lodge.

For many of us, I don’t think the gravity of what we saw truly sunk in until we got back. We met together in order to get an understanding of what going to that village really means and what comes along with that visit. Mr. McMorrow talked to all of us about Ndoto, a Swahili word meaning dreams. So often in our American way of life we simply plan things out or become ignorant to the opportunities and blessings that we have. Instead of saying I wish or dream to be a doctor some day, we simply say I plan on being a doctor, as if it is a given that it’s going to happen. This isn’t to discourage people from trying to plan for their future or anything, it is just important to remember that nothing is certain and we can’t take anything for granted.

Although this experience was heavy on both our minds and hearts, we had some time to reflect on all of it at Mass. We planned on going to the 4:30 Mass together, but upon arrival we were confused as to what was going on. Apparently there was some sort of singing competition going on in front of the Cathedral for a 200,000 Schilling prize. Little did we know, Mass was actually going on inside, behind all of the festivities. After about 20 minutes of sitting outside, Mr. McMorrow and Jeff wandered inside and quickly figured out that we had missed at least the first half of Mass. We quickly hurried in, but unfortunately it’s kind of tricky to sneak 21 white people into a Tanzanian church during the middle of Mass. We were a little confused as to what part of Mass it was due to it being in Swahili, but within about 15 minutes we had had Communion and the service was over. We returned to the lodge and had a pretty relaxing evening, still reflecting on the reality of what we had seen today.

Sorry for being so long winded but words cannot begin to explain what we experienced today.

Lots of love to friends and family at home,

Josh