Blog from Jada & Brent
“Kamwene” (hello!!) From the Foxes NGO!
After a fun week of student directed travel, we made our way over to the Mufundi highlands, where we started the week off in homestays. We were in groups of 2 spread among 3 villages within the community. During our homestays we had the privilege of learning and experiencing daily life in rural Tanzania. Students participated in everything from carrying water back to their homes-some did so in the traditional form on their heads-to using the jembe (hoe) in fields to make fire breaks and plant crops. Others simply spent the 3 days at home, getting to know their families, helping out around the house with cooking and cleaning. Brent and Reed were even lucky enough to learn how to create and fire bricks!
After a short 3 days, we bid our families farewell, and headed over to the Foxes NGO Orphanage and Farm. Foxes NGO focuses primarily on aiding children infected or affected by HIV. For example, the children’s home takes in children whose families have either died from HIV/AIDs or have become too ill to take care of them. Another program Fox offers is bringing powdered milk to mothers with HIV in order to prevent their children from contracting HIV, being that HIV can be spread to infants through breastfeeding. The organization also provides ARV’s (much-needed medicine to help those with HIV live a normal and healthy life) from clinic to local villages, of which have a 45% HIV rate among women of reproductive age (ages 15-45) and a 35% rate among the village population as a whole. This clinic also provides home-based care to those who are unable/too ill to make it to the clinic. The Children’s Home (which is less of an orphanage because they have families and are not up for adoption, but instead a safe place for them to be) also offers schooling, from daycare to a small secondary school.
Our daily routine here varies, as we were divided into 3 groups. Each group rotates between different tasks. These tasks include helping out at the kindergarten teaching math, writing, and spelling; accompanying the clinics nurses to outpatient care, which also included checkups on children who were formally in the orphanage with a social worker from the NGO to ensure the children were being adequately taken care of. The final group spends the day learning more about Tanzanian culture, life at the orphanage, and finally attempting to pain ornaments.
The group as a whole is doing very well, with the exception of one student contracting typhoid. Paiton was fortunate enough to have access to the Foxes clinic and nurses who quickly diagnosed the illness and provided her with care and antibiotics that allowed her to recover swiftly and completely.
In our final days here at the Foxes NGO, we have been planning a somewhat traditional American thanksgiving meal that included some students participating in the slaughtering of a turkey, inviting our homestay families as a way of thanking them for welcoming us into their homes and culture-by giving them a small taste of ours.
In the spirit of thanksgiving, here is a list of things our group is grateful for.
Rory: I’m grateful for the love and support of my family that encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone and venture to East Africa. I love and miss y’all!
Brent: I’m grateful I don’t have to slaughter my own turkey for thanksgiving.
Jada: I’m grateful for the love that sent me on this journey and has carried me throughout. It has allowed me to realize that though things may fall apart, with strength, they can always come back together.
Adam: I’m thankful for the privilege of being an experiential educator and the support of those closest to me.
Pation: Having spent 10 weeks traveling through East Africa, I have grown increasingly grateful for the rich variety of cultures that exist within this world. I am extremely thankful that I was born into a life in which I have the means to explore these cultures. And finally I am endlessly grateful that I have a family who loves and supports me in my endeavors.
Jo: I’m grateful to have been given life when I was, because I feel this is the perfect time for me to be alive.
Audrey: I’m thankful that my parents let me go to Africa and I got to meet this amazing group. I’m grateful for my experiences in general because they are what make life a journey.
Reed: I’m thankful for my family, and all of the opportunities I have had in my life.
Aiden: I’m thankful for my family’s unconditional support for me doing whatever it is I want with my life and for their letters they gave me to read/have on the trip. I miss you all so much and feel you in my heart when I read them. I love you!
Matt: I’m thankful for my family always being so supportive of me.
Max: I’m immensely grateful for all the experiences that I have around the world that have led me to and prepared me for this amazing trip. On top of that, I am especially grateful for my amazing parents who have supported me at all times- both easy and difficult- and for always assuring me that I can do whatever I wish, no matter what others have said and may say to me. Mom and Dad- thanks for putting up with everything and continuing to strive forward with me- I love you!
Mary: I’m grateful for the learning and growth this badass group has shared with me.
At the beginning of our trip Mufundi seemed so far away, yet here we are with the realization setting in that our adventure is quickly coming to an end, as we prepare to embark on the final stretch of our journey to Zanzibar.
That’s all for now folks! We all wish our families and friends back home a happy thanksgiving!
–Jada and Brent
