Ken's Journey to Tanzania: Journal Entry #12

Note: For pictures associated with this blog entry, see the Atlantic Bay Sotheby's International Realty "Real Estate News Blog."

I’ve just finished serving breakfast, and having weighed myself at the clinic, found that I am down about 11 lbs. I’m sure at least 3 of those lbs. are water and will be replaced. The heat has played a major role in my weight loss. My appetite has diminished and I am eating much less. When I was on safari our guide commented that the people of northern Tanzania believe the people of the coast are lazy and sleep more than work. I told him that it’s amazing to me that the people of Dar and Bagamoyo have any energy to work at all. The heat and humidity are that enervating.

I am taking a few doses of cipro for the first time since I’ve been here. It’s amazing I have had few digestive problems since I arrived in January. I decided not to fool around and start the cipro before it gets any worse. I thought of how fortunate I am that I have access to western medicine and don’t have to suffer for very long. That is not the case for the vast majority of the people I have met. They must rely mostly on traditional medicine and hope for the best.

Amina was at the breakfast program with her mother again today. That is the fourth time in a month and I am curious as to what’s going on. People usually come to the clinic no more than once a month. She had a burn on her arm that was mostly healed and about 3 inches long and an inch wide. She was in great spirits and she adores her mother so I hope it was accidental. It saddens me that my mind even goes to the place of suspicion. I will miss this little girl with her big smile and her drawings of animals and flowers in my notebook. I worry about the future for this 8 year old HIV+ child.

I have spent more time at the orphanage lately and have seen such positive changes in Faiza. So shy and non-verbal when I first met her she now runs to me when I arrive and has the most infectious laugh you have ever heard. She is finally starting to signal to use the toilet and when I ask her simple questions in Swahili she responds. If I ask her “Hadija wapi?”(where is Hadija? Her little friend) She looks around the room and when she spots Hadija she smiles and points right to her. She is now 6 years old but developmentally she is 2 or 3. This poor little girl has a limited future but according to Terri can live her life at Baobab with all the love, affection and good nutrition it supplies her. You cannot imagine how sweet and gentle this child is. You may remember, Faiza was malnourished, is HIV+ and was sexually abused and has now been under Baobab’s care for about a year.

Last week I took Halima and Terri out for lunch. As much fun as Halima and I have trying to understand each other it was just great to have Terri as interpreter. I want to know so much of Halima’s life and with my limited Swahili it is impossible. Halima and I took a bajaji from her home and we met Terri at Traveller’s Lodge. Halima was wearing a beautiful purple and white kanga and was very excited to have lunch out. I know she seldom goes out to eat and I really doubt that she ever does.

What a fascinating life this 64 year old woman has had. In the late ‘70s when the ruthless dictator Idi Amin invaded Tanzania from Uganda she was outraged and determined to put her anger to use. She traveled by dalla dalla to Lake Victoria on the western side of Tanzania. The lake is shared by several countries, including Uganda on the north. She joined other young women and learned to operate a motor boat and transported guns and other weapons to the front at the northern border. She said all gun running was done under the cover of darkness and was accomplished mostly by women as men were engaged in active combat. I asked her if she was ever afraid. She said it frightens her more now when she thinks back on how dangerous it was. Then, she was involved in something she passionately believed in and she was also a lot younger and felt invincible. She said the fighting was awful and she was witness to firefights and she saw the horrible wounds suffered by bombing victims. Almost 40 years later she has occasional nightmares about the people she saw torn apart by the bombing.

She has one living child, a 42 year old son who is a fisherman. She has lost 3 other children, one in childbirth and two to malaria. I believe those losses are what drive her to be a foster mother, and what a foster mother she is! The 3 children in her care now are thriving. You may all remember the story of little Habibu, 9 years old, rejected by his mother who believed he was possessed by an evil spirit. Habibu’s younger brother, Shobani, 5, is a victim of malnutrition as is Habibu. They are very small for their ages and have developmental problems. There is also Neema a beautiful little girl who’s parents and aunts and uncles have died of AIDS. I will be sending current photos of these children (in a separate email) that I took last week in Halima’s home so you can see what love, affection and good food have done for these children. According to Terri the change is astounding. Even I have seen a huge difference in these children in the short time I have been here. Halima showers these children with affection, washes them, feeds them, clothes them and sings with them songs she makes up about them. These songs never fail to get the children up and dancing as Halima accompanies her songs with hand clapping and encourages them to join in. Babobab Home pays Halima a stipend each month to support her foster work and she told me that no amount of money could equal the joy she receives from Neema, Shobani and Habibu.

Last Thursday Halima said she had something for me. She presented me with a hat and bag that she wove by hand. I offered to pay her as I know how much work goes into each piece and she waved it off. She then proceeded to kiss me loudly on each cheek, twice on the right, in very European fashion. Each kiss was accompanied by a loud “mwa”. She then held my face in her lands and looked into my eyes and said I was her dear rafiki, friend, and said to me “nina penda u”, I love you. I will miss her greatly when I depart.

Today is Terri’s birthday and I want to do something to celebrate it. She is a remarkable human being. I hope one day that some of you can see for yourself what she accomplishes with so little. She does everything with a sense of joy and purpose and never stops thinking of ways to expand as she is well aware of the desperation of so many here. Her goal is to make people self sufficient after the initial help of Baobab ends. There are so many success stories from the 8 street boys to the babies at the orphanage, the home building, to Ally and Assia and the people of Uwambaba. Now, with the expanded HIV testing program in the villages that we have implemented I don’t see how she continues to move forward. She’s due to deliver her second child in two weeks and has not slowed down a bit. Add the countless emails she answers and writes to secure more funding and I doubt that you will find too many others like her. The most amazing aspect of this for me is, this is her life. This is not a 3 month volunteer stint. She doesn’t get to return to an easy western life and I truly doubt she would even want to. She and her wonderful husband, Caito, live so simply and by US standards they would be considered poor. Her home is chaotic and doubles as the second room of the pre-school building across the street. There are children, neighbors, the street boys and volunteers in her home constantly. We value our privacy at home. Privacy is a foreign word here. We have grown very close these past months and we will miss each other sorely when I return home but we both know I will return. There are so many projects we have worked on together and I want to see how they have impacted the people we have met.