Bagamoyo is a small, cute beach town on the coast of Tanzania.  The more you explore it, the more you find.  It is outlined with century-old history of stone rumble structures from its days as a German settlement.  There’s a lot of construction and openings of centres, fresh restaurants, new homes, new ideas.  You can’t walk very far without stopping to have a conversation with someone. The streets have no names – you’ll figure out how to get where you need to get soon enough, and help is friendly and easy to find.  The sun rises and sets early, making room for a sky sprinkled with stars that actually flicker with different colours.

You meet really cool people here. Within the community, both international and homegrown volunteers blend into the mixture of friendly people who do their best to support the community’s development. 

There’s an art centre nearby started by a fantastic group of guys.  They’re fun-loving and hard-working, painting and teaching youth art lessons.  Some of what they sell even goes towards helping provide for backpacks and uniforms for students to go to school. It’s no wonder their eyes twinkle.

We’ve been going to IMUMA a bunch, helping out with cooking and cleaning and the kids here and there, but primarily assessing their current conditions as part of the study. At IMUMA, going through the records of the children was an extremely eye-opening experience.  The kids come from a myriad of backgrounds with the kind of stories you only wish were fiction.  As I get to know them more, I realize how emotionally difficult it is going to be to get the findings for the database. 

Fortunately, the founders and supporters of the IMUMA centre have created something exceptional in their community, giving the children the opportunities that everyone deserves. The signs are everywhere: a group of girls clutch onto their class exercise books, giggling with excitement for school the next day, a little boy chases a goat back into its pen with a firm sense of responsibility, a group of children share a warm meal like a family. The aura is beautiful and bright.

Again, the signs of things that could be improved, to provide even better for the children, are clearly highlighted.  A boy gulps down water from an untreated well, a four-year old girl shows several signs of nutrient deficiency, and many other difficulties in the facilities where a centre depends mainly on the donations of its members and outside organizations to operate. 

There’s a lot to be done.  Alongside the work for the nutritional study, we’re moving forward to add filters to their water system, and working closely with IMUMA to assess income generation projects.  This kind of work gets me really excited, trying to support the centre to develop and provide for the kids sustainably. 

At night, I look into a dark calm of the sky.  In the morning, I pass people meditating, exercising, writing poetry on the beach as they stare into the sea. In the dusty afternoon, I see the hard work of builders, shopkeepers, artists, teachers, families. The stars are very bright here.

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Mojia, mbili, tatu. One, two, count ‘em THREE days and I’ll be departing for a country I was born in and haven’t been in since I was three years old…whoa..

It’s kind of surreal that on Monday I’ll be leaving for Kenya with my family to spend a week, hanging in Nairobi, checking out my dad’s hometown of Kericho, meeting family, and much more in between!  Then, I’ll be flying solo to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania and head over to the coastal region of Bagamoyo where I’ll be spending two months with Student Reach at IMUMA, a centre for orphaned and vulnerable children.

There, I’ll be engaged in a nutritional study, learning from the centre’s volunteers, getting to know the children and their needs, and gaining an understanding of the community and it’s available nutritional opportunities.

This past month I’ve been prepping with research, meeting with specialists in international development and nutrition, and learning as much as I can about the community while I’m still in Canada.  It’s been two months in Tanzania, rockin’ out in a new place, spending time with some great people (like five awesome SRI volunteers!), and hopefully leaving some sort of meaningful contribution to a place I will surely learn and take much away from.  More than anything, I’m excited for some adventures and a chance to share them..so 321…let the countdown begin, mates!

-pinky.

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