better together.

welcome to africa!

after a almost 24 hour trip i made it to arusha, tanzania on thursday, july 9. it started out with rain in my city, rain in amsterdam, rain in dar es salaam, but when we arrived: sunshine in arusha!

the beautiful girl hannah i met in amsterdam and me were picked up at kilimanjaro airport thursday morning to start our volunteering adventure out here. my first impressions of tanzania are humbling and exciting! life is the opposite of our western way. everything is pole pole, much slower and relaxed. you see women carrying heavy things like food on their heads. you see the small shelters where they are selling something right by the main streets. almost all of the other roads are not paved. you see men caring for their goats and oxes by the roadside. sunflowers and corn grows left and right, sometimes not a foot away from the street. it’s a completely different world, a very beautiful one if you come here with an open mind and heart.

the first day consisted of getting to know the ways of transportation. most commonly used is the dala dala, a small bus as many people as possible squeeze into. covid 19 is not really a thing here or let’s say ignored by almost everyone. except at airports and high end supermarkets. there, they take your temperature and you are advised to sanitize your hands.

yesterday, we started at twiga vision, one of my projects for the next couple of weeks.

twiga is a day care center, a place to empower women and to teach teens some necessary life skills. like to name already suggests, the owner has a vision: he wants to support the community as much as possible, especially women and kids who are struggling. abuse and poverty are big issues. 

his vision is to start a primary school, to teach teens not only life skills but also a craft and that women learn how to start their own business to make their own income.

but right now, there are bigger issues at hand. covid 19 has made things much harder for everyone since places and schools had to shut down. they now are dividing the day care groups to limit the threat of getting infected, so space is a big issue.

he showed us the little classrooms where a teacher now takes care of 15 kids.

in this place, there is not outside space to play. the kids stay inside until 2pm before going home. 

there’s another place about a 10 minute walk away where there are many more kids in small rooms, but with a big outside space with a playground. inside, there are no chairs, just a carpet to sit on.

the kids are lovely! it is a lot of fun to play with them and interact even though communication is tough. all they can say is teacher, all i can say is asante. even though it’s about 25 degrees, most of them run around in big sweaters while i would have loved to be wearing shorts (not appropriate out here). 

that’s the nice part. you also get to see a lot of poverty, shoes that are way too small, ripped and dirty clothes, poor sanitary facilities, the little, simple food they get and everything that is missing when you compare it to a standard classroom/kindergarten in a western country. they are happy though.

still, in the small amount of time i have out here, i want to do as much as possible for them. i’m not here to cuddle with kids, but to make few changes to make their life a little better. 

we already have a few ideas: buy them a big tent, so they have an additional outside space, support the teachers by getting them a few things they need and transforming this space right here:

it really needs some fresh paint, new toilets (!!) and some nice furniture. some of you guys already donated some money, i’d love to collect some more to change as much as possible! if you have anything to give, contact me. it’s not going anywhere but here to make their lives a little better.

i will keep you updated on the progress we are making here and on insta!

asante sana.