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| From Tanzania 2012 |
Today, we again took the five minute ferry ride across the bay in order to save driving time. Unfortunately, the volunteers driving the trucks with the bed kits had to drive the long route around the bay because the trucks were too heavy to go on the boat. We left the hotel at 6 a.m. but the drivers had to leave their homes much earlier. All of the volunteers have been wonderful to work with and even though they speak very little English and we speak even less Swahili, they often anticipate our needs or quickly figure out where we want the mattresses and bedkits to be placed.
Students from each school have been assigned to sweep the sandy pathways clear of sticks and leaves, and carry the heavy wooden tables we use for the photography equipment and the tracking sheets.
From today’s location at a school in Ugindoni, we distributed 700 bedkits to children from two schools that were much smaller than the schools we have visited previously. Each had around 500 students enrolled. There were a few sprinkles of rain. Following the distribution we walked in the grass and sand, past fields of sweet potatoes and other vegetables, to the homes of two of the bedkit recipients. Their homes were made of tree branches, thatch, and mud. Children sleep in one room and the grandmother or parents sleep in another room, on wooden platforms cushioned with cardboard boxes or on grass mats on the ground. Tonight some or all of the family will sleep under a brand new mosquito net.
We have one more day to give out bedkits. We are both sad and glad. Sad to be leaving the wonderful children, volunteers and Mama, but glad to have almost completed the delivery to 7,000 happy kids and glad to be returning soon to our families.
Marilyn Hagerman
for Team Tanzania 2012
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