Trip Summary... by Rylee

Hey everyone, it’s Rylee. I know that the anticipation is building now for everyone back at home knowing that we are coming back soon. Before that can happen, though, there are many things that need to be shared. People always talk about stories. I remember one of the first lessons that we learned this winter, in Global Issues, was the problem of a single story - how we have expectations of different parts of the world because of what we have heard from a handful of people there. The story of Cathedral students taking a trip to Tanzania has been told many times now, yet each one is a little different. All of the groups have had different experiences and some of the same. I would consider our group’s story special. It’s the story of how the group of 2014 fell in love with Tanzania.

Our theme for this trip was Fellowship Creates Peace and it has set the tone for many connections that have been made. Starting with sharing our mission to others on the plane, we had many chances to meet new people and, after, new friends. There were so many wonderful people to meet here, mostly because everyone treats us with ____. When we pass people on the street, they all say a friendly “Mambo!” or “Jambo!” with a big smile and a wave. Luckily, we caught on quickly to what the correct responses were and it was nice to be able to give them respect in speaking their language.

Along with the random people we saw on the street, we also met wonderful people at the orphanage and school. Personally, I only went to the orphanage because it became so hard to leave. The workers there have to be exhausted by the end of the day, yet they spend all of their energy helping these children that don’t have any other home. I believe everyone could agree that, after just a morning of playing with the kids, we all needed a nap. Besides the women there, the children taught us a lot as well. Anyone watching could see the love on our group’s faces as they held and played with the kids there. On the other hand, even though I didn’t visit the school, I was able to hear all of the stories about kids crowding around, wanting attention from our group that was there. Some of the students even skipped their classes just to spend more time with our group.

After a long morning of hanging with kids, we got to spend time working WITH the women from the Jiendeleze women’s group. It was nice not to just go in and work for the women because it created opportunities for connections with them. We were able to get a taste of what their duties are like while working in garden area with them as well as helping them to fix up a building so they could use it as a shop. The welcoming we received every afternoon is something we will remember forever. These women are fighting against the discrimination they get from men in order to live a better life. It was fun to see how all our work paid off and to hear that all of our work will support them for a long time to come. We even bought so much from them that we paid for a women’s electricity in her house! It was nice to know that we were helping a good cause when we bought from them.

Throughout our trip, there were times that our group got to try experiences that others have not. One morning, we visited a secondary school and were able to ask questions about the students’ lives, as well as them asking about our lives. Their faces when we said that we drove ourselves to school every morning were so astonished that I couldn’t help but think about how much we take for granted in our lives. We all were able to remember times where we complained about driving because of trivial things, such as “bad” traffic and “dumb” stoplights. The people here walk everywhere yet we can find complaints about different occurrences we are truly lucky to even have.

Not only did we fall in love with the people here, we fell in love with the different ways of life that we learned. The first was pole pole. In Swahili, it means to slow it down, take your time. In the world we live in, everything is so go go go that we lose track of what’s really important. We don’t take the time to really just sit down and have a conversation with one another because we always have something else planned in an hour or two. Would it be possible to not put time limits on our lives? I don’t know, but it would be nice to try to incorporate it more and more into our days. Our time here consisted of a lot of pole pole. There was a lot of down time at night just so that we could bond together as a group, however we wanted to do so. Some played many card games with one another, there was music played, and all journaling together as one group… even if we didn’t get much accomplished. We shared laughs and stories, deep conversations about what we learned here, and basically whatever came to mind at the time. I must say, many conversations led to what we are going to eat once we get to the D.C. airport. I have a feeling that Chipotle is going to get a lot of business from us J.

Another lesson that we learned here was that, no matter what your situation in life is, there are always things that can make a smile. People here would die of shock if they saw all that we have in the U.S., yet they are the happiest people I have ever gotten the chance to meet. They have few of the opportunities that we get in our lives – going to college, a for sure three meals a day, etc. – but they work their HARDEST in everything they do so that they can create a better life for their families. Jesca, the founder of the women’s group we worked with, was a main inspiration for a lot of us here. She has scraped her way through secondary school, university, and then law school in order to make a difference in not only her life, but the life of the women she supports in her cause. Hearing her story made us all think about our lives a little more and what we could do to be more like her. Another example would be our visit to Mikocheni. If you have read the blog that Josh wrote, you already know how our day went there. It was our glimpse at the “bottom billion”, the poorest of the poor, but they were simply happy. Smiles, waves, laughing, just everything was set in a place where despair and hopelessness was felt by all of us that were visiting. We can never un-see what was shown to us that day and it is something that we will never forget.

There are other lessons we learned on this trip, as well, that weren’t as big I guess. These were just cultural things such as bargaining, learning how to wash clothes without a washing machine, and that Aromat is a life saver when you don’t particularly like the taste of some food you took. It was fun to experience these things with each other and to get a taste of another culture.

Lastly, I, along with all the students and chaperones here, would like to say a special THANK YOU to all our family and friends back home. None of this could be done without your support for us. Another thank you goes to Dick McMorrow for his guidance and work he has put into our trip. It couldn’t be done without him and I couldn’t think of a better person to lead us on our mission. Our last thank you goes to all the people here that helped plan and organize our different adventures. It was the best trip we have ever been on and it helped us immensely.

We all miss you at home, yet we are sad to leave. Our trip to Tanzania will never be forgotten, as long as we live, and we are all so grateful we got to experience something many other teens our age wouldn’t be able to. Please help us, one last time, in praying for safe travels home!

Lots of love,

Rylee Medelberg and the rest of the group of 2014