Kwa Heri Tanzania

I am enjoying the last few hours of my three month journey.

My Rwanda and Uganda trip was incredible. Rwanda is a beautiful country and it can easily be seen by any traveler why it is called the land of a thousand hills. It was very lush, green, and clean. I would recommend Rwanda for anyone to visit. As you do drive through the country you see signs for many different genocide memorials. In 1994 there were a million people killed in 100 days. One person would never guess this if they today if they traveled there not knowing about those dreadful months. The people there are amazing and now there is no more division in the country as everyone now views themselves as Rwandan. When my friends and first stepped into the country we were shocked. The roads are better paved there then back at home. We happened to wander into a mall with a food court! There were also Christmas trees there!! I thoroughly enjoyed myself even though I was happy to return to Moshi, my home in East Africa.

Uganda was also great. We had to change our travel plans do to an Ebola outbreak. no worries though, the 4 of use made it out alive. We ended out trip by doing a full day of grade 5 whitewater rafting on the Nile river!!!

Yesterday was perhaps my most memorable day of the trip. For the past 5 weeks I have been trying to find a school and home for a 15 year old street boy named Baraka. I have a friend in England who wants to sponsor him and so I said I would help Baraka when i arrived in Tanzania. In order to find Baraka when I got here I went through a local Tanzanian, Rashid, someone I knew from my first trip, to help me find Baraka. It has taken many weeks to get everything setup. I wanted to finalize everything for Baraka on Monday but the problem was that I couldn't contact Rashid. Something probably happened to his phone, it is a usual problem here, so I had been unable to find Baraka. So Yesterday morning I woke up very early and went into the streets to find Baraka. I already knew where the boys slept so i hoped that I would find Baraka there. When I arrived I found he wasn't around! Then one of the other street boys decided to lead me around town to where he thought Baraka was. It was an interesting journey as I walked through many places I would have preferred to stay away from. Finally we found Baraka after about a half an hour.

I then told him to come with me because we had a meeting with the teacher who was going to work with him. we arrived right on time at 8:30 am. Baraka then had his first lesson. After the lesson I took him to where he will live. It is a hostel type setup for local children attending school where he gets room, board, and transportation. It all worked out incredibly well. In the morning when I set out to find Baraka he had no idea that any of this was going to happen to him and I had no idea if I was going to find him. I had only met him only one time before all this happened.

Life is difficult for street children. Then have to battle hunger, disease, infections, abandonment, and more. I can't even begin to imagine what their life is like. It is difficult for a street child to go right from the street and into a school or home setting. My friend chose to sponsor Baraka over the other children because he has proved to us that he wants to attend class. He is already attending his second lesson at this very moment. I wish to go into more details with you about everything but i must be going.

I will never forget the people of Tanzania and East Africa. I will never stop thanking them and I thank you again and again for reading through my blog.

For those who gave donations for my projects here I also say thank you because you have forever bettered the lives of many children here.

Kwa heri

Tyler

This past Saturday was World AIDS Day 2007!!! It was quite exciting to be in Tanzania as there were many events going on in Moshi. There was a march where all of the organizations in area who deal with AIDS participated along with anyone else who wanted to walk. The march ended in a small town just outside of moshi and where it finished there was a large circle of people, tents, signs, and organizations. There were then many different music and drama performances about HIV/AIDS and the stigma attached with it here. There are rumors about how one can contract HIV/AIDS, what happens to a person when they have AIDS, and more in Moshi and the surrounding areas. Because many people do not have access to magazines, television, radio, and other such things, is is sometimes difficult to fully learn about the virus. Some people believe that you can contract HIV from sharing a toilet seat. Sometimes, not all time, a person may be kicked out of their house if they have HIV. That is why World AIDS day 2007 in Moshi was great. There was even a center set up at the rally to test people for HIV/AIDS and counsel them for free. Tow other volunteers and I also got tested. It was quite scary but we were all negative but many of the locals really appreciated it. I hope it set a good example for some. Overall it was a great day!!!

Last week i also went to Newlands Orphanage for a day and the boys dorms are complete!!!!! I can't wait to post photos. I don't have enough time right now so sadly I will have to wait to post pictures till December 17th. they really do look great and all of the boys are very very very happy.

I went to the Nursery school that I have helped out at for the last time yesterday. It was sad leaving but I was so happy about how far the school and children have progressed. I'm not sure if I told you but I used some of my own fun to hire a local teacher and the teacher has been doing great. Much better than I was. haha. It helps that she knows Swahili and english. My swahili isn't at the point where I can teach it. anyway. It was sad to leave the school but I know that the children are doing great and more volunteers are coming in January to help out!

Now I must be leaving. I'm off to rwanda tomorrow. Thanks for reading!!!

BYe!