Marion gives you the opportunity to give the most important Christmas gift!

As the owner of the blog has gone home to freeze in cold Norway, take his exams and enjoy meatballs, I (Marion) have taken over ownership of this blog and his laptop. And I will take this opportunity to tell you more about what I’m doing here in Tanzania.

So far, you have only seen what I do on weekends, but it is, after all, what I do every day during the week that really matters. So now’s the time for us to take a sneak peek at what my week consist of.

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During the first four weeks that I was here, I volunteered at an orphanage. But I soon realized that I couldn’t be here for up to eight months, and while playing with cute little kids was fun, I was not making any difference.

I wanted to make a difference! Not only here and now but also in the long term. Am I too ambitious? Possibly. But this is a chance I’m willing to take.

So now, I’m making good progress with a project that is totally different from what the others here at Hostel Hoff are doing.

My new project stands pretty much on it’s own. I am part of a women’s group called “Minjeni Women Group”. The group works for the benefit of women and children in a small and very poor village called Shimbwe. Minjeni aims to promote health and education, and reduce poverty among the villagers.

My first encounter with Minjeni Women Group was on their weekly “business meeting” a couple of months ago. And I soon realized that here, I’m not going to get tasks handed to me in my lap, as we often are used to on a new job back home in Norway. It was all very different.

The organization and administration was rather scattered, and no matter what I proposed they would always reply with excitement, “oh Mariam, you are very good! God bless you. Three bigi claps!” (*claps three times in unison*)

With not much guidance, the question was, what should I do?

What can I do to actually be of help to these poor villagers? I had many ideas: taking HIV / AIDS tests, diabetic tests, malaria test etc. But these are things that involved blood, which is not exactly my strength. I eventually decided to do something for the kids.

And the only way to reach all the children, was simply to visit every single home in Shimbwe with children between the ages of 0-18. I created a questionnaire to survey the families on matters concerning health, home, school and family, and was ready to visit the approximately 1,200 children living in Shimbwe.

Over the past three weeks on the project, I’ve visited 163 families and just under 500 children.

Just riding the ‘dala dala’ (Tanzania’s public transport) to this village is a story in itself. And after a long, long time, hiking up steeper than steep slops, we arrive at the village of Shimbwe, located in the lush rainforest at the foot of Kilimanjaro.

The conditions up here are so primitive that I don’t even know where to begin. They have only one road on which they can drive, and the majority of the village houses are situated along narrow paths that wind their way back and forth, up and down the dense rainforest.

Their houses are made of sticks and mud, with no floors. Many of them do not have beds, and the roofs are made of metal sheets filled with holes. This means that they often sleep on wet and sticky mud during the rainy season.

Their kitchen consists of an open fire and most families have only one or two meals each day. Many of the families have a separate building that is a combination of a kitchen and barn. However, in some cases the families and the animals are all under one roof with the smoke from the fire.

 I wonder how they cook the Christmas turkey in this kitchen?

The locals laugh and find it very embarrassing to let the mzungu (tanzanian term for white person) use their toilet.

A very rare sight - this family is very lucky to have a separate place to shower.

To conduct these surveys, I have with me the head of the village. He, like most others here, does not speak much English, which is why I also have with me a translator. This translator of mine is a grown man who goes by the nickname “Masai” - he is the village’s tallest man. With his long, thin legs, worn dress pants, and the gait of a lanky man, he reminds me of my grandfather, Kåre. His English language abilities are perhaps similar to that of a 6-grader. That, combined with my rusty Norwegian-English is often the cause of much frustration, at which point I usually either count to ten or swear in Norwegian, and then resign to the reality that I’m never going to get all the details I need.

Masai impresses me with his fast pace, uncharacteristic of an African!

Despite suffering extreme poverty, these villagers are incredibly hospitable. And it’s often heartbreaking and difficult for me to accept their warm hospitality knowing that they often have to go to bed hungry. But it’s also incredibly rude for me to say no, so I don’t quite have a choice.

I also used to be rather picky with food. And I say “used to” because I now eat almost anything (the bulk of which is of course still a typical Norwegian diet).

I have questioned my motives to travel the world and gain new perspectives when they serve me something that resembles a cross between a rotten potato and a stale pickle, and I have to swallow it down with the home-made sour milk that carries an odor that can put an elephant into a coma.

But I think it is exactly in these moments that you begin to see things in new perspectives.

So while you are at home in Norway fussing over half-naked football wives, insanely expensive designer clothes for kids, advent calendars worth thousands of dollars and I’m sitting in Shimbwe squirming over what I get served, there are many in this impoverished village worrying about how they can scrape together enough money for this year’s only meat meal - Christmas dinner.

So what can I do for these children when the surveys are done and the study is completed? That’s a very good question for which I have difficulties answering.

It’s tough having to decide who to help. Preferably, I would like to help everyone. I would like that all the children in Shimbwe had beds to sleep in and didn’t have to go hungry to bed. Ideally, I would like all the families to at least have a proper foundation for their houses, so they don’t have to swim in mud when it rains. But these are all big projects that I have neither the time nor the money to implement.

What I can possibly work on are:

-  Buying glasses for the 10 year old girl who can barely see anything

-  Taking the little boy with umbilical hernia to the hospital to see if he needs to be operated on

-  Taking the girl with cerebral palsy to a clinic with qualified staff so that she can maybe get a wheelchair to move around on, instead of being stuck in a poorly-lit house all day

-  Repairing a sewing machine for the young seamstress so that she has a job to live on

-  Building houses for those who are homeless, or have a house that is crumbling

(Note: These are just examples of things that I’ve seen and can possibly do something about. I have not visited all the families so there will probably be more issues surfacing where I feel something must be done about it. And these may even rank higher on the “priorities list” than those mentioned above.)

The cost of building a house is somewhere between 5,000 - 10,000 Norwegian kroner (€550 - €1,100 / USD 800 - 1,200). I have already encountered 10 families who do not have their own house to live in; they either live with their parents or rent from a neighbor, who may at any time claim back their houses.

Umbilical hernia

The girl with cerebral palsy

A grandmother, her grandchildren and a cow live in this house. A house that provides rather scant shelter during the rainy season.

 A homeless family of four

There are two criteria that will determine what and how much I can do here. One is that I will simply have to rank all the situations that I am touched by in order of what I believe is most pressing. And the other is how much money I have.

And this is where all of you back home in Norway and around the world can help! Nothing is too small, and nothing is too much. The more money I collect, the more I can help.

Visit this website if you want to support my project!
http://www.youcaring.com/other/give-the-most-important-christmas-gift-of-the-year-/112210

My goal is to build at least five houses, in addition to making various other smaller contributions (e.g. glasses, wheelchair, hospital visit). And this means I will need at least 50,000 Norwegian kroner (€5,500 /USD 6,000).

I’m prepared to do all the ground work, however I will need your support so that the job can be completed!

The advantage of giving money to this project instead of the thousands of other charities screaming for help is that you know your contributions will go directly to what they are supposed to, and I promise you will see the results through photographs in a few months!

11/29/2013

Marion