“Karibu Tanzania!”
“Karibu Tanzania!” (“Welcome to Tanzania!”)- said the immigration officer while giving me back my passport with visa at Kilimanjaro International Airport. At that moment I got an enormous feeling of excitement that I finally arrived to this wonderful and yet unknown country. Magembe, a good friend of Mama Hope, met me at the airport and we got into the car to Moshi. It was a 45 minutes ride, and all the way from the airport I was staring out of the window, curiously observing the areas we were driving by and thinking how it reminded me my homeplace in Russia…
At first few days in Moshi I got settled down in hostel and was toured around the town to get a feel of it. And my first impression of Moshi was filled curiosity and excitement, however later I started feeling a bit overwhelmed. Maybe because of tiredness or maybe everything looked and felt a lot different to me. People. Environment. Vibes. So in the beginning I wasn’t feeling so comfortable moving around by myself as I felt I was always watched, approached by someone or honked by the car. I prefered staying in and giving myself a bit more time for rest. But at some point I decided to get out and get rid of all worries I had inside. And of course, the first time I was walking around the town, some local boy approached to me on the street and started asking me questions. I was a bit intimidated but trusted my gut and started talking to him and let him show me some places around. While walking, he had shared about himself, that he was a student at local university who studies English and Spanish and wants to practice his English with foreigners. He was originally from south of Tanzania, but moved to Moshi because of the studies and he liked that are a lot of foreigners here. At first, I thought he might want something else from me, but then he assured me that he simply wanted to talk and improve his language skills, and shortly after our walkaround we said goodbye to each other…I am pretty sure, I will see him more as Moshi is pretty small. So slowly I’ve got used to the town and vibes, and was able to politely ignore all unwanted approaches, take boda-boda (a motorcycle) by myself and say few basic words in Swahili.
On my first week, I finally met John, Gama and Julitha, the White Orange Youth team that I’ll be closely working with for the next two months. John and Gama shared about history of organization and the major work that has been done for the last years. WOY is a grassroots organization started by John in 1999 due to the need to address the HIV/AIDS problem among young generation in Kilimanjaro region. WOY successfully established few educational programs that oriented on raising a community awareness about HIV/AIDS as well as educating the local youth, both in schools and out-of-school, about HIV/AIDS prevention. Moreover, last year they conducted a gender-based violance and domestic abuse workshops in 2 local villages to tackle against sexual harassment and violance against women and children. They were successful events that brought together local youth and their parents, teachers and many others. This educational workshop is potentially considered as WOY’s long-term project. Another projects that WOY is currently running are the Girls training program, the organic farm and Youth club classes. In the next few months I’ll be working on these projects and sharing a lot more in my next blog posts. The first week was also full with other 2 meetings with potential partner organizations which are interested to collaborate with WOY. I am impressed by the great interest to WOY’s work and achievements that attaract new people and opportunities for them!
On the second week John and Gama took me to WOY’s organic farm which is located in Kahe village which is about 45 min away from Moshi. It was my first ride in dala-dala (local mini bus) and it was quite an experience! They say:“ It never gets full!”. And in fact, there were more than 20 people riding this minibus… Even though the way to the farm wasn’t easy and due to the heavy rains the trails to the farm were very flooded, it was so worth it! It was great to see the hard work that has been done by John, Gama and local farmers to grow these vegetables. Last year WOY purchased the land and established the farm as an income generating project that will help to sustain and cover the operational costs of WOY’s programs. (More details about the farm later).
Few other highlights of my first 2 weeks…
One of other exciting moments that I experienced on the first week was meeting with local youth, teenager boys aged from 9–18. They are all members of WOY Youth Club that gathers on Saturday mornings. Youth Club is designed as an opportunity for kids and youth to have more interactive lessons in English in order to improve their communication and speaking skills. At our first meeting we introduced ourselves and had a casual conversation about Tanzania, the United States, Russia, soccer and upcoming FIFA World Cup and their favourite soccer teams (which happened to be mainly Manchester United!) I also shared about myself and my ethnical background, showed Lake Baikal and Buryatia on the Google map as well as we took pictures together! It was fun! But next Saturday together with local English teacher Vani we prepared more interactive class where we showed a short educational film and had a discussion after. It is challenging to be in this role, however it feels great to share my knowledge as well as to learn so much from them!
Last week I had also a pleasure to meet with local Rotarians. (If you don’t know I am member of Rotary Club of Honolulu Sunset in Hawaii and also here with a mission to connect with local Rotary clubs. (Rotary Foundation and Rotary clubs around the world support the efforts of Rotary International to achieve world understanding and peace through international humanitarian, educational, and cultural exchange programs).
Kimario, my fellow Rotarian from local Rotary club, shared about their projects which provide an access to safe drinking water for children at local district schools. Kimario also took me to the largest hospital in Kilimanjaro region — Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center in Moshi. It is a huge facility and serves a population of over 11 million individuals in the region. We took a walk around the hospital and visited some patients’ rooms.
It seems like it was pretty busy first weeks full of meeting people, exploring around and adjusting to the new environment. I am so grateful for this experience as it shifts my mindset and gives me an opportunity to share about the life, challenges and impactful work done at these communities. This “life school” truly expands my horizons and, hopefully, breaks all cultural stereotypes that I am making an effort to share about in my social media (FB & IG) with my everyday observations. Stay tuned for more and follow my fundraising progress here: https://give.classy.org/arywoy
Asante! Thank you! Mahalo! Cпасибо! Баярлaa!
Aryuna.
