Life is a Blessing

Every day in Tanzania is mind-blowing, but this weekend I felt an overwhelming mix of emotions. The work that we did on Saturday and Sunday was more than worthwhile, but one left me feeling proud, and one left me with a pang in my heart.

On Saturday, we were lucky enough to be able to sleep in for an hour, and we left for the school at 8:00 am, knowing that although there were no kids at the school, we had a lot of work to do. The teachers, along with our three chaperones, all met in the office for a team-building seminar while we brought out cleaning supplies, divided them up, and began cleaning the classrooms. There was a lot of work to be done. Though my room may have been cleaner than many of the others, cleaning it was still a grueling task. I spent endless hours cleaning the walls alone, scrubbing off dirt and pencil marks until my arms were sore. At times, I was even frustrated with the way the dirt refused to come off the wall. It made me angry that these kids didn’t have a cleaner school. The cleaning ladies work very hard, and LOAMO is much nicer than many other schools in Tanzania, but the kids deserve a facility (and materials) as nice as those in the Vail Valley. Everyone at LOAMO works so incredibly hard, and it is difficult to watch children be set back by lack of materials or a nice space to learn in. Because of this, I loved being able to improve the conditions of the school and lighten the load put on the cleaning ladies. It was extremely satisfying to, at the end of the day, look at the result of my sweaty forehead and tired arms and know that I had done a good thing. There were two occasions where I felt an intense sense of pride:

1) At around 1 o’clock, when we were still hard at work, several of the ladies from the kitchen came into each of our rooms to offer us tea. Politely, we refused, saying that we had to get back to work. However, it seemed that their offer had not been a request, but a demand, and they literally dragged us into the kitchen, pushed us into a sitting position on plastic chairs, and gave us tea and bread. Though I was laughing at the time, their generosity and insistence that we rest for even just five minutes warmed my heart and showed me how much our work meant to them.

2) At the end of the day, when we were all sitting together, completely wiped out, Loserian (the husband of Maria, LOAMO’s founder) addressed us all and thanked us for our hard work. “When I heard that you wanted to clean the school, I thought, Can they really do it?” he said. “But you have done it beautifully.” I was so glad to hear him say that, not only because I knew that we had done well, but also because it meant that he, as one of the directors of LOAMO, appreciated the work that we had done and welcomed us in his school. I was incredibly proud of our group, and myself, and I am beyond happy that we have been successful on this trip so far.

Sunday was a new experience altogether. At around 1 o’clock, we went to the Save Africa orphanage about thirty minutes from our guesthouse. The orphanage, just like everything I have seen here, was nothing like I expected. It was very small, with only about thirty kids, one main building about 3/4ths the size of our house, a small chicken coop, and a large field outside holding a few cows. The children were skinny, dirty, and ate food out of buckets with their hands. Lunch was made by cooking rice and eating every part of the bird, including the feet and intestines. The kids would constantly be asking for something, anything that they could have – bracelets, sunglasses, just something. We gave them all the love we could, but it was not enough to fill their bellies and bandage their scraped knees. It was difficult to see that they really did have nothing, even though we earned their love very quickly, and spent most of the day cuddling and playing. I let the orphanage feeling grateful for my food, my shelter, and my family, but also feeling angry that some people have to live like this. Everyone deserves a warm place to sleep at night and enough food to satisfy them, yet it seems so hard to give this to everyone. I felt almost helpless, not knowing what I could do to give people in that situation what they deserve, but my passion for volunteering only increased.

Today we started our second, and also our last, week at the school. And though I did switch from Class V to Class I, I saw the same drive I have always seen in these students – a drive to work hard, to learn, and to love. I am sad that we are leaving so soon, but I am proud of all that we have accomplished here. As I was reading stories to the kids and laughing as we acted out jumping jacks, I felt an enormous amount of love in my heart. The connection I have made with all of them in just one short week is why I love working with CGA – the lifelong bond you make with each one of them is something that changes you forever. I am so glad that I have found that with these kids, and I hope to continue changing their lives in the week to come.