Vince's Blog: Mission Tansania

Karibu,

This time I will write about my three week travel through Tansania, which I started quite spontaneously. My studies kept me quite busy over the summer so my original plan to travel through Uganda, Ruanda (maybe Burundi) and finally Tansania got trimmed. Nontheless I decided to take the trip anyway and booked a flight three days before my departure.

Like in all my other post I will just write about my experiences and will share some of the pictures I take along the way. As usual I regard this more like a travel memory for myself.

As I mentioned before this is definitely my most spontaneous trip I have ever taken. Albeit I have read a quite lot of travel blogs in advance (most of them not really helpful I have to say). I especially focused on tracking experiences about the Kilimanjaro but after all consideration I decided to book nothing in advance so that I can maintain a general spontaneity along the way.

This most certainly was the right approach. After meeting Lena (a africa experienced austrian physician), on my first flight I met Erik (the swedish administrator for the missionary projects of the evangelican church in Sweden) on my flight from Addis Abeba to the Kilimanjaro Airport. His mission was a general follow-up on some of the local projects in the area around Lushoto close to the Usambara Mountains. Visiting the projects and meeting the local people sounded like a unique opportunity, which I didn’t want to miss out. After half an hour of consideration I decided to join him and postpone my original plans to start a track in Moshi (close to Kilimanjaro airport).

Provisions for the roadtrip (only for Elia)

Roadtrip Tasania

At first I was told that it would only be a 3,5 hour drive, which transformed into a 5 hour drive on the way and evolved into a 7 hour road trip. I have to say that at I was not quite keen about that fact at first. But this basically resembles the “African planning” concerning trips in general. Everything goes a bit slower and a bit more chaotic when it comes to planning, but more of that later.

Our "four-wheel drive"

When we finally arrived at Irente village in the Usambara Mountains it was already dark and a nice dinner was prepared for us. The rooms were perfectly clean and after a cold night we met Anneth (a preacher and professor of theology). I was met with a warm welcome and was immediately integrated in the plans for the day. Not far from the farm we first stopped at the local orphanage of Irente village.

Nearly all of the children are half orphans, which means that the mother died during or closely after childbirth. In these cases the father cannot take care of the child by himself so the orphanage carries for the babies until they turn two. Afterwards they try to reunite them with the father or other family members, which doesn’t work out all the time. On that occasion the orphanage tries to find sponsors that are willing to pay two million Tansanian Schilling (400 Euro) per year to provide the abandomed them with proper education and accommodation. At the moment there are two children staying at the orphanage for whom a sponsorship is desperately needed. I still have the contact information of the Irente orphanage so if anybody is interested in providing a sponsorship please let me know.

In general they do not allow visitors to take pictures of the establishments but they made an exception for me. After some consideration I decided not to post to many pictures of this part of my journey online. I chose a couple that should provide some proper impressions.

sharing is key

The inner courtyard

forgot the name but love this tree

Right next to the orphanage we met with the director of the school for the visually impaired. This school was founded by the church in 1963 to provide blind women with education (in 1975 they also enrolled male students). The school grew over the years leading to a total of 101 students of whom the majority lives at the school. The mission of the school entails primary school education, basic medical care and the destigmatization of visually impaired people in Tansania. We walked with the principle through the classrooms and watched how a couple of students learn how to read. When we were leaving all of them gathered to sing for us and Erick and I were asked to address some words to the whole group (which were translated by Anneth in swaheli).

I have to say that I was really amazed how professionally and widespread their vision for those projects. Especially their mission against the stigmatization was narrowly thought out. particularly the orphanage seemed to be perfectly put together. They even follow up on certain families and also provide the opportunity for interested family members to learn though a two month course how to better take care of their children.

On our way to the school for the visually impaired children

An impressive and touching chant

The principle, Erik and I

Our last stop for the day was the Rainbow school for children with disabilities. On that day the kids weren’t there because they were taking care of their garden projects, but we got to meet some employees and a mother of two students. We were welcomed with great appreciation and got to see some of the current projects. They focus on creating an environment in which the students can work more independently and create something that helps their families. Current projects focus on teaching the children how to manufacture soap, cream and how to dye some cloth. Their goal is to teach the kids how they can better contribute to their family income.

I liked the message of this mural - it entails the message of the rainbow school

singing and dancing

tie-dye

When we were driving back to the farm we made a quick stop at the orphanage because they prepared a little chant for us. It was touching and will be a lasting memory. Erick said quite properly: those are the pictures for your head.

some last goodbyes

On my way back to the Irente Lodge I took a detour to view the sunset at a viewpoint with a great scenic view over the valley. I ran into Josef (a local tour guide) who nudged me into the right direction of the track.