Home Sweet Tanzanian Home

Out in the middle of nowhere on the Kiran Coffee Estate, near the tiny Oldeani Village and roughly in between Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Crater has been where I live for over 6 weeks now.   Yesterday when I was returning from 5 days away in Arusha, which was perfectly wonderful in a very different way to life here, I got in the RVCV Landrover in Karatu and couldn’t feel more at home as I chatted with Pascali the driver and bumped along up the road over mountains and fields, waving to village children, holding on for dear life as always, and finally turning the corner to the gates of RVCV to be greeted by children yelling at me for clothes and shoes as if I’d never left.   Suddenly I realized this actually feels like home.

Daily pleasures of my Tanzanian life:

• Walking out of the volunteer house after dinner I’m constantly surprised by the beauty of the stars. 
• Stopping by a kids house on an errand in a rush ending up staying for a half hour chatting and joking with the kids.   
• Stepping a million times a day into the Tanzanian staff’s office to ask questions, usually ending up laughing about something, often me I guess.
• Going on a walk every day in the most breath-taking surroundings I’ve ever seen. 
• Eating three delicious meals a day with a lovely group of staff and volunteers, we end up talking about the most interesting and bizarre subjects.
• Having actual time for just myself is a brand new experience…I read a lot, mildly try to learn Swahili, walk, listen to music, get enough sleep, and email with the people I love.

It’s true, I was overwhelmed a few weeks ago.  But now I feel mostly comfortable in myself, my job duties, and my relationships with volunteers, staff, and kids.  Sometimes I have to remind myself I’m doing meaningful work so I don’t go crazy, but I usually feel happy even when I’m doing the most monotonous or aggravating part of my job.  All is right with the world.  Did I mention I have a boyfriend who just moved to Tanzania and will be working a couple hours away?  Oh, and that we’re going on a free safari on Sunday?  Yeah, life is good.  

Jambos and Jacarandas

I’m three weeks in to my stay at RVCV.  It’s unbelievable how quickly time flies, maybe when settling in to a new home, a new culture, a new job, and meeting 100 children/staff/volunteers who will be my companions through the next year.  Figuring out how to love, care for, provide clothing and support, yet constantly disciplining around 70 little ones is exhausting and a giant challenge to me personally (mostly the discipline part).  Simultaneously finding the time to befriend and support 5-10 volunteers, answering a million questions everyday, many of which I simply don’t know the answers to, means that by dinnertime I have no energy or patience left for anything else.  I consistently go to bed by 10pm, up at 6:30 or 7am.  There are few moments of the day I don’t feel like I should be doing something, I’m forever trying to remember which child or volunteer needed something from me, and just keeping up the strength to have a sense of humor and to take care of myself is difficult.

This all sounds negative.  To be honest, I’m overwhelmed.  But I know it will get better.  The reason I know is that just when I feel like I can’t be around another child, Boni who is 5 and wears leg braces for his bow legs, crawls into my lap and kisses my cheek.  Neema who is 16 and just went off to secondary school gives me a sea-shell necklace she made during her trip to the beach.  Ericki and Gericki, wildly energetic, boisterous, deceivingly flamboyant 9-year old twins tell me I’m cute, that they love and miss me every day.  I walk to the nearest safari lodge in the middle of the week with a group of staff and volunteers and have a drink before dinner, sitting around a fire and laughing, feeling at peace and comfortable, then being forced to accept a ride home by the askari (guards) of the lodge who were worried about us walking home in the dark where there are buffalos—appreciating this different culture where people still take care of strangers. 

Not to mention getting the news that my dear Ben will join me in Tanzania later this month!  He will work at a secondary school for a Masai village, and will be only 2-3 hours away from me…I CANNOT believe my good fortune.  I now see myself being able to stay here for a long time, to make it through a year before seeing my best friends and family, to have him attainable to see on my off days and to travel together if we can afford it. 

In short, I am happy and life is good here in TZ.  I hope to write more soon, consistently, and to show pictures of life here, it’s impossible to depict the beauty and reality of the people and landscapes in words alone. 

My New Tanzanian Life: First Days

I’m lying in my new bed of my new home, my home for maybe 2 years. It’s incredible. It’s surreal. It feels like I’m living someone elses’ life. There’s a lovely breeze blowing through my new curtains, birds chirping out my window, and I can hear the kids yelling and playing outside. I’ve already received a picture of a pumpkin drawn by my new friend Dickson, who held my hand through my whole tour of the Village. My cleaning mama has made my home look spic and span, and during my two long breaks today I unpacked everything and found a place for it. This already feels like my home.

I arrived at the Kilimanjaro International Airport around 1pm Monday. It took only about 10 minutes to walk off the plane into the welcoming fresh and hot air of Arusha, fill out an entry card, hand that with my passport and $100 to the immigration officers, and walk out with a handwritten visa in my passport. My bags were waiting for me on the conveyor belt, and after wheeling them 15 feet I found Moody, my driver holding a sign that said “Heather Sibet.” He greeted me with a big grin and questions about me and my home country and my trip arriving. He along with a friend loaded up my bags into our African mini-van, and we went barreling off down the road to the KIA lodge where we picked up the Sponsorship Coordinator staff Ashby.

Ashby and I spent the drive chatting, and we stopped in Arusha at Stiggbucks where we sat in a lovely outdoor garden patio and ate our lunch of GORGEOUS salads and iced coffees. We looked through Shop Rite, the Western-style grocery store, and it looks like I’ll be able to get all the necessities there.

Then we took off from Arusha to drive to RVCV! The drive took about 3 hours, I think. It’s hard to say because there was some unexpected traffic, a road detour, and 2 stops along the way because we saw GIRAFFES about 30 yards away, and I kept taking pictures out the window and our driver would stop so I could get out if I wanted. We also saw banana groves, coffee plantations, Lake Manyara, the little town of Karatu, and baboons! Not to mention a lot of cows, goats, and chickens—sometimes in the middle of the road. There were also Masai people selling things on the side of the road or going about their business of herding cattle or walking through the fields.

Finally, after a road so steep and bumpy that I had to close my eyes at some points, we arrived! I was greeted by Megan, whom I’ll be replacing as Volunteer Coordinator, and my bags were taken into my new wonderful home. I have a bedroom, sitting room, and bathroom all to myself in a little house. Unbelievable .

We went straight to the Volunteer House to join everyone for dinner. We had green beans, salad, shepherd’s pie, mashed potatoes, and fried chicken. Everything was great, and I met the 5 current volunteers. I went directly home to take a very much needed hot shower (the staff build a fire for each house every day in the afternoon to heat the water, it lasts a couple hours but yesterday they built my fire later because of my evening arrival), and went right to sleep, from 8ish pm to 6:30 am.

I got up and went to breakfast at 7:30, where I was treated to the Tanzanian pancakes I had heard about. Delicious thick but airy crepe-type pancakes, plus my first cup of coffee from the local plantation. I then got a 3 hour break to rest and unpack, and at 11 Megan took me on a tour of the whole facilities. There was a lot to see and people to meet! There are 5 houses of kids, 3 boy houses and 2 girl houses. Each house has 2 house mamas to take care of the kids, and 1-2 volunteers living in them to help. There is a staff house for the 20ish Tanzanian staff who live here, and houses for the foreign staff too. Some men were building new furniture when I walked through, washing cars, mamas were doing laundry and cleaning houses, prepping food for lunch, etc. The kids went to their morning classes, then had organized play time before lunch. Just walking through, the kids and mamas are so cheerful and friendly, asking my name, giving me hugs, and repeating “Karibu” – welcome.

At 12:30 we ate lunch—pizza, salad, watermelon, leek soup, and incredible brownies. Now I’m on a rest break until 2:30, when Megan will do more training with me.

I feel incredibly blessed to be here. I can’t believe my good fortune to have the chance to live in this heavenly beautiful place and to get to be loved and love each child and employee throughout my time with them.

Season in the Serengeti

So, I'm moving to Tanzania next month. I'll be the volunteer coordinator for an orphanage, working for the Tanzanian Children's Fund. For two years.

This may seem sudden, this may seem like a dream, like an escape, like a risk. The truth is, I feel like my adult life has been preparing me for this experience. Everything has lined up perfectly and given me the skills, experiences, or desires to do this job in this place. It's exactly what I'm supposed to do, and I know it.

Volunteering in orphanages in Russia, coordinating volunteers for organizations in Seattle, camp counseling, teaching English, mentoring children of all ages, are all just some of the reasons that make me perfect for this role and what makes it right for me.

So, as I couch hop in Seattle, work grave shifts, and put down hundreds of dollars for immunizations and a year's worth of medication, contacts, etc., I regularly smile to myself with the knowledge of an upcoming adventure which will change my life.