Tanzania 2010

Rafiki (Friends),

Monday - This is our first day with TAFCOM. Nie did an orientation for Megan. She showed her picture albums and a notebook with information on all their programs plus profiles on some of the families affected by HIV/AIDS that TAFCOM works with (always heartbreaking). The pictures brought back many fond memories and I have to confess that as i was looking at the pics I came across one with Lee Ann and being the sappy mom i am, i got choked up. 

We then headed by taxi to Pasua Ward. Nie explained that Moshi is the town and the wards would be like suburbs which is pretty amusing because nothing i saw reminded me of Dublin. A village is a much more rural area. Pasua Ward has the highest poverty rate of any area in Moshi. It is also the most populated. Earlier this summer, the government divided it into 2 wards – Pasua and Bomambuzi. Nie and Jonas moved to Pasua in 2005 in order to live in the community where they work.

We first visited the Women's Tailoring center that i referenced in the first email. I showed them my purse that Robin M had made for me out of leftover fabric I had bought for a skirt last year. We talked to them about using it as a template and they liked that idea. 

On to the site of the new Children's Center. One building is complete. It will be used for 2 classrooms and an office until the other buildings are finished and then will be the offices for all programs. They have had to stop building until they can raise additional funding but their plans include classrooms and dorms for children and volunteers as well as moving the tailoring center to the site.

A short walk and we are at the Children's Center. I love this place. The kids were very excited to see us and some remembered me from last year which was way too cool.(Mama Lee Ann is what I was called). They recited a greeting in English that was too cute.

There are 45 children aged 2-6 enrolled. It is free to attend and it is educational and fun. Education is very important to Nie as she, like me, believes this is the way out of poverty. She also repeatedly says how these children do not deserve this. Many are HIV positive or have AIDS. She also wants the children to experience as much joy as possible and Katherine, their teacher, does a wonderful job. Katherine has finished her first year of schooling and will start her second and last year in November. She will then be certified which is a requirement. Lee Ann, some friends and I were able to pay her tuition last year and I am taking care of it for this upcoming year as well as using some of the donated funds i received before i left. I think I mentioned they get porridge every day if TAFCOM can afford to supply it. It costs $5 to feed one child for the month. I have taken $100 of the donated funds to be put towards  purchasing porridge. (I know I talked about mosquito nets but these were taken care of by another volunteer.)

The children have a chalkboard and sit on a rug in a room with a concrete floor. it is very crowded and they have a few books which the teacher uses. There were math problems on the chalk board and we played duck, duck, goose with them changing it to zebra, zebra, simba!! The kids are fascinated with Muzungu (us white folk!). They would pet our skin and hair and were amazed when they saw brown freckles or age spots (depending on whose arm they were examining).

Last summer I had spent time with a little guy named Calvin who is HIV positive. I asked about him and was told his family had moved but he was doing well.

We returned to Moshi and Nie took us to lunch at the Coffee Tree hotel where she took Lee Ann and i for the first time. We went to the fabric store and I couldn't resist so I bought material for 2 skirts.

Megan and i returned to town and walked around. She was already missing American food so we went to Deli Chez and she got a hamburger fries and shake and I had a veggie burger. How about that!! Mona also joined us for dinner and we had lots of good conversation.