Saving the Best for Last

Our final week was perhaps the best, and our description will work backwards, starting with the last two days in Tanzania.

One of the staff members, Honest, was married March 21st, unfortunately after we left Tanzania. However, in preparation for the wedding, a reception was held in the village of his bride, Natalia. It was in Byno, a village in Mbulu district south of Karatu, about 3-1/2 hours over the usual nasty roads.

Mbulu is quite different than Karatu. The rolling hills reminded us of areas in New Zealand, minus the sheep. It appears to get more rain as the landscape is a beautiful green, with pastures and cultivated fields. Karatu has suffered from lack of rainfall in recent years and the fields reflect that.

The reception was the ceremony for the family to give Natalia to Honest, and the only opportunity for most if not all of them to celebrate. Honest and Natalia are getting married in Moshi, near Mount Kilimanjaro, more than six hours by road away from Byno, the latter having no public transportation.

We were the only non-Tanzanians at this event and were treated like family. We were the first to eat, had a special place in the temporary shelter where the wedding party sat, and had the best view during the entire celebration.

The evening was filled with song, villagers coming into the shelter to congratulate the bride and groom to be, apparently passing on advice with good wishes, and eagerly having their pictures taken by us.

Unfortunately it started about 8 PM, so many crammed into the house of Natalia’s family. Eventually, because of the rain, a significant number had to stay the night, and we were fortunate to be given the only bed.

The next morning featured a procession out of the village, with family members walking with the bride back to our Land Cruiser (there is no road to the part of the village where the celebration took place so we had a 15 minute walk up and down a slippery, muddy path). Again there were songs, this time accompanied by tears as the family said goodbye.

Our two months in Tanzania were filled with wonderful experiences, but these two days were the highlight of our time there. We felt privileged to be a part of it all.

After reading our previous blog entries, someone asked if all we did was have fun. Well yes, because our volunteer work was fun, and we did have things to do in the office, going every day from 8AM to 5PM. More or less.

To summarize, MIHV is in the Karatu district of Tanzania to help improve the health of mothers and children under five. Part of that is creating Survive and Thrive Groups, designed specifically for young single mothers and their children, who have very few resources and are very vulnerable to health problems. A goal is to develop income-generating activities for them, and our time was focused on that. As you perhaps read earlier, we spent time in the field to get a feel for the project and the culture in the area. From there we designed training materials to help with marketing, and developed tools for running the businesses. We also created an Excel training to help improve the skills of the MIHV staff, who use the software for data gathering and analysis.

The days leading up to Honest and Natalia’s reception were spent in the office, finalizing these projects and spending more time with staff going over the materials we left. The last day we brought in lunch and showed pictures from our travels in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Peru and the United States.

Before we went to Tanzania, it wasn’t clear how we might contribute to the project, since it is a public health organization and that isn’t our background. MIHV is doing wonderful work in Karatu, working hard to make the project sustainable after they leave. At the end we hope the resources we left behind will add to that effort. Beyond that, the opportunities to experience the culture, to visit the villages, and peek into a slice of life there was amazing. In addition, we saw some beautiful parts of the country, and were in some of the most famous places in Africa for wildlife safaris. Sharon has described the whole experience as “phenomenal”, and it was.

Thanks for joining us on this adventure.