The First Weeks.
We arrived in Kilwa Masoko on Wednesday 17th of February. There was a lot of excitement for all of us, and a great deal of relief for us as a family who had spent 7 days in the car out of the 11 days that we were on the road.
The first few days were mostly used for unpacking all the boxes. We were really blessed to have only a little bit of moisture on one box, so we had virtually no damage despite all the rain we had encountered in South Africa.
Language Study.
We started language learning with Emmanuel, who turned out to be a terrific teacher. Annine also had a small group of children who just wanted to play and are very eager to learn. This was a really good opportunity for her and Andrieka to learn a few simple phrases in Swahili, and then put them to go use.
The Language studies helped Driekus to get some explanations for some of the problems he had come up against while studying language through a program called Duolingo.
Homestay.
The third week in Tanzania was a major change from the program that we had almost adjusted to. We were dropped off in a village about an hours drive (in dry conditions) from Kilwa Masoko. Our objective was to learn culture and language while staying with a local family. We were also on a technology fast because there is very poor internet in this fairly remote area. We visited people in the rice fields which are spread across a fairly vast flood plain, and also got to see quite a lot of sesame crops which are also one of the main sources of income for the area.
Our Swahili lessons from the previous week were applied fairly intensively throughout the week because there were very few people who could speak English.
There were two major challenges that we really struggled with. The first one was the heat. There was no electricity in the village, so we didn’t have a fan in the room to help bring the temperature down just a little bit during the night. The other challenge was the rats. This is a much more serious problem because of the damage that they do by eating so much of the produce that is stored in the village. Our problem was being kept awake every second night when they chose to come and feast on the bags that were stored in the room that we were sleeping in.
The most serious problem in the village is the fact that there in no safe water source. Water is collected from open water sources such as ponds, streams, or the river.
Our plan is to dig a well at the church property and install a pump.
Returning Home.
A major positive result of the week of Homestay was that we were really looking forward to being in our own home again. Andrieka also remarked at the end that Homestay was a lot of fun. This was a major concern for us as parents because we want her to enjoy being where we are, because we have a choice to either go, or stay when things become too tough for us. Andrieka just has to tag along. It is also our hope that she will continue to work alongside Annine, once they officially begin to reach out to the children in the community.
Comments