Hello everybody reading this, hope all is well. Morgan here,
I will be telling you a little about my visit to a woman’s home from the
women’s group we have been working with. I was lucky enough to visit two
different houses of beautiful women named Gloria and Lucy today. I wish I were
able to say the houses were as nice as they were.. I, unfortunately, would be
lying. The first house we stopped at was Gloria’s! We sat outside on stools.
Noah and I talking to these two women about their families. Gloria was the
owner of two goats and two hens, which had many chicks. She welcomed us inside
her house and it brought me to tears. It was the size of my bathroom at home.
It has two beds on the inside with junk everywhere around in the open space. She
stays in one of the beds and her grandchildren sleep in the other bed. They get
light from a little lantern that gives off little to no light at all. I
complimented her on her cement walls because that is a big deal to have and she
said “Asante Sana” (thank you very much). She also pointed at the ground, which
was dirt and said she wishes for a better floor and I told her it is still very
nice. These women spoke very very little English so we used hand gestures and
expressions a lot to try and communicate. Gloria asked me a little about school
and asked if Noah was my brother, I said rifiki (friend). We were off to Lucy’s
house next where we discovered many pet animals. I got to hold a very ugly
duck, which looked like a mix of a rooster, and duck. We also fed the pigeons
and the children ran around and caught them for me to hold. We were also
invited into Lucy’s house where we found 3 Guinea pigs, and 6 goats INSIDE. Her
house was not much different it was 2 rooms one for the animals and one for her
bed and a bedtime prayer sign. My heart was filled with sorrow for these two
because the hard work they put into their everyday lives I just think they
deserve better. We didn’t have any cultural food made for us like other groups
did and I would consider myself fortunate since I’m the picky one J. I am very grateful
for the experiences we had today and for these 2 mamas I have in my life now.
To my wonderful parents Pam and Rorri, I cannot put into
words how much I love and appreciate everything you do for me. I cannot thank
you enough for allowing me to embark on a journey of a lifetime. I am so sad to
pack up and leave this place but I cannot wait to eat some American food I’m
craving like mom’s cinnamon rolls and chipotle in the airport J Mommy I’ll see you soon
and dad and Hunter I’ll see you when you get home from Wyoming.
To my Papa David: you are my role model and you inspire me
to do the things I do everyday in my life. I love you truly more then I can
express. Thank you for supporting me on this trip and I can’t wait to talk to
you. <3
Madeline:
Well I’m
back again for another post (hopefully you enjoyed the previous one with
Dominic). I visited with Redempta Kiwale
and Frida Pambwe who graciously invited and welcomed Jenny and I to their homes.
First we stopped at Redempta’s. Even though we did not see the inside of her
house, she lived in a cul-da-sac type neighborhood, with a round meeting area
where we sat and talked. Redempta’s daughter knew very well English, so we sat
and talked while plucking dried corn off cobs. Redempta’s daughter was
surprised when I said I didn’t want to leave Tanzania. I often have noticed
that there is a common stereotype that all American’s are wealthy. Which if compared
to them, a lot of us are. I think the main reason though is that are standards
are different, were a lot more materialistic than they are.
As we became
more comfortable with each other, Redempta asked both Jenny and I to marry her
sons. We sadly declined multiple times. After about an hour, we finished with
all the cobs and they were fascinated with our hair. After a couple of minutes
we had 7 women and a couple children surrounding us braiding our hair.
We then
went to Frida’s house and finished braiding hair, and sadly had to leave to
have a final send off at Jessica’s house. At Jessica’s house, we all gathered
together and shared our favorite experiences and memories of the work site and
Jessica translated. After the mamas sang us a good-bye song in Swahili and we
said our goodbye and left for the last time. Leaving was hard for many of us,
these women have inspired all of us to be more open to relationships with
strangers and helping regardless of the work (shelving out warm manure). This
experience with these women has been more than any of us could’ve imagined, we
are all so grateful to have learned from them.
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