July 25 - August 1st Usa River, Tanzania

Our noses are pressed to the window in the plane checking out the turquoise sea below us and the glimpse of white sand. A welcome sight after our week at Usa River, Tanzania.

But let's back track a bit and tell you about our week. We've just spent the week staying with Crispin, the Founder of an orgnaization called Tanzania Millenium Hand Foundation or TAMIHA. Sounds grand, but it has been a week of very basic living in a small village while volunteering for the various projects Tamiha was created to support local orphans, widows and people living with HIV. We heard of Crispin and Tamiha through a friend of Ron's at Powerex. Crispin offered to take us in for a small fee in exchange for room & board and the opportunity to lend a hand. Wow.

Here are a few of the words that come to mind when thinking about our week; basic, sad, educational, frustrating, dusty, rewarding, interesting, joyous, crowded...We could go on and on. We lived in Crispin's home with his wife, two girls and 7 other volunteers. The house is tiny with no running water and the power goes out daily for anywhere from 10 min.to 3 hours. We stayed in The Bob Marley Shack in the yard - a converted shed with a huge poster of Bob himslef inside. Bathing was a bucket shower when water was available and we had beans and rice for lunch and dinner all week. Breakfast was usually chapaties and bananas, that's it. Janet went for the first time in about 20 years without coffee - and everyone survived. The other volunteers came from Ireland, US and Australia. They were all much younger than us and great company. Most were there for one month and one couple was there for 3 months.

We spent the week volunteering in the morning at the orphanage where a local "teacher" and whatever volunteers on hand looked after about 60 3-6 yr. olds. They do not stay overnight, they are cared for by relatives...sort of. Somehow they all turn up each day in uniform and raring to go. It was so incredible to see Sadie & Anna embrace the kids, and did the kids ever embrace them. Anna learned quickly to tie back her hair back. We would sit with the kids after they had a group lesson and help with their notebooks. The facility is a dirt floor with a roof over top and an outdoor kitchen where they are served poridge in the morning after receiving medicine (many had ring worm, some HIV). they loved to jump and play, and they learned a few of our songs we eventually remembered. Ron and I were handed watering buckets when we first arrived and told to water and weed the garden beside the orphanage with water we hauled up from the local river (water I swore I would never touch), some people get all the glory. We made quick work of that so we could join the orphanage.

In the afternoons we wandered for about a 20 min. walk to a place called The Cradle of Love. This orphanage takes care of newborns to 3 yrs. These children have nobody so they sleep at the orphanage. It is not a Tamiha project but one that needs all the help it can get. We spent 2 afternoons there, one in the nursery with the newborn to 3 mo. olds and one afternoon with the older children. Wow again. There were more than 30 children there, cared for by a great but small staff and again, whatever volunteers are around. We arrived to a tour of three large rooms with cribs. the babies were just waking up and ready for milk. We had to take them outside and lay them down on big mats where they got their bottles, the older kids got sippy cups and we had to bottle feed the little ones. To see so many was a bit overwhelming to say the least. But it was a happy place I think, these kids are the lucky orphans. Feeding time was a frenzie - they all needed food at once. The staff are all women so the boys loved Ron - they climbed all over him for the whole time he was there.

In the early evenings we went to what they call Lukandane, a Tamiha widows project where they raise pigs, keep orphaned exhotic animals and host weekly gatherings for the local volunteers to raise money (buying drinks and dinner). Our job was to help water the garden there and best of all, wash the tortoises. While we were there, they brought in two new Python snakes which Janet, Anna & Ron all took turns holding. Yes, even Ron. On the friday we joined the Lukandane gathering and drank banana beer with our new friends. It was a gas, traditional dancing, snakes, feeding the monkeys and great food for us (a welcome break from rice and beans). I won't say we will give up our favourite beer though for banana beer - it tastes just about as bad as it sounds, but the second one is definitely better than the first!

Tamiha also provides a vocational school for older orphans who are learning how to use computers, sew and cook.

We took one day off to do a local hike in the foothills of Mt. Meru. We paid a small "park" fee which came with a guide for the day - a guy named Sayeeday (no clue how to really spell it, but that's how it sounds) who also works with Tamiha. We headed out of Usa River by Dalladalla, the local transit which is an experience in itself. They are CRAMMED with more people than seats, and the marketing guy is hanging out the side door (it's only the size of a very small van) recruiting more people to squish in, yelling and the driver is honking all the while. Bad BO is part of the ride, BO you could chew on as aptly described by one of the volunteers. Our hike promised to be a full day and started wandering through coffee and corn fields as we headed up hill. Beautiful. It eventually became clear though we were not on the trail we thought we were going to be on, but communication is not and important skill around here as far as we could tell. Apparently we "missed" the lunch spot because we chose not to descend down a very steep ravine only to turn right around and head back up - we didn't know this was the lunch spot. So...we didn't stop for food until after 2:30 (started at 10am) - you can imagine how the mood was in the last hour. The eventual destination was a lovely water fall in a small canyon and fortunately, the trek home from there was under an hour.

Anna was traumatized by the sight of hanging chickens (live) at the beginning of our journey when we passed a market (she has been counting chickens and naming them with Sadie everywhere we go). Aparently it's "ok" to see a lion hunt and eat a zebra, that is natural. But it is terrifying to see a human carry a live chicken by the legs. At the very end of our journey the trauma continued as we saw a local boy take aim with his knife at the head of a mole-like rodent (large), one of thousands that eat the village crops. The tears sprung again. So many tears, a local and ancient village woman carrying her shockingly large load on her head, put it down to ask (translated by our guide) why she was crying. She asked if she could pray for her and once given permission, grabbed Anna's head and chanted until she felt the bad spritis were gone. It got nervous smiles and laughter eventually from Anna. It was a long hike and the destination was a little less thrilling than what we anticipated (but he did change routes on us) but seeing the village life in the foothills was really great.

Usa River itself was a very typical African village with dust, garbage and colourful local life amongst which we felt very safe - during the day. we walked everywhere and eventually found two hidden gems, a German bakery and a small cafe selling milk shakes, lattes and burgers. completely out of place but we didn't question, we just enjoyed. We shopped locally for coke, water, bananas and cookies to fill the gaps between meals. Most nights we did not eat dinner until after 8:30pm.

Sadie & Anna have done an incredible job taking all of this in stride and so early in the trip. These were very tough conditions for sure. We were very proud of them. Their most exciting moments I think are usually encounters wtih animals which thankfully are all around us. Sadly Anna got a stomach bug on our last morning in Usa River so we headed out of town with barf bag in tow. She was better though by the time we boarded our flight to Zanzibar. Here we come beach and SHOWERS!!!