Three In The Infirmary

Greetings once more, faithful friends, followers, foes and families!

Eileen here, again, to tell you our tales of joy and woe from Bunju A, Tanzania. We have had another eventful week, and still the days are flying by. However, we have some excellent news:

THE LIBRARY AT FANAKA IS FINISHED!!

We have finally sorted, alphabetized, and properly placed all of the books in the new Fanaka library! Both students and teachers alike are excited to have all of these excellent resources now at their fingertips. Since we began loading the books into the library, there are constantly students in the room, eagerly paging through encyclopedias, dictionaries, science and literature books. Even those students who have difficulty with English do not let their language barriers cool their interest in the new books. It fills me with such joy to see students, at whom I would otherwise be shouting, murmuring with admiration at the photography inside of an issue of National Geographic. Not only do they now have a good reason to want to improve their English and writing skills, but they will have the ability to rub away the fog blurring the window to the outside world.

This task was completed just today, and as I loaded the last of the fiction books (authored by “Z” writers) onto the last shelf, the air almost felt magical. In a picturesque version of what education really should be, the library of Fanaka was arranged. I slumped into a chair in the corner of the room; all about me, lining the tables along the walls and standing in between the shelves were students (some looking disheveled, despite all the lectures they have gotten recently about wearing their uniforms properly) exclaiming over one marvel or another, furrowing their brows over a physics book, or simply flipping through the pages of a novel, debating whether or not it looked interesting. I could not help but grin.

So there’s that.

In other news, I finally got malaria. I know, I know. I thought I would escape scot-free too, but it seems that we volunteers, or the “TZ3”, as some have christened us, do nothing half-way. Not only that, but we like to go above and beyond what is normally required of us as far as work, so we decided not to stop there. So Teresa got malaria a second time. You’re welcome, Africa.

Other than that, our week has been relatively uneventful in that our work has been consistent. We have been incredibly busy, but it has all been work and teaching at Fanaka and finishing up the library. We have two new teachers, and one is the English teacher who will be taking over my classes once I depart. Introducing the new teacher to my classes was both relieving and nerve-wracking, not to mention a good way to make me feel incredibly guilty. All of my students, in every form, seemed to be pretty upset that I will be leaving in a week. Also, I feel that it is very unfair to introduce me as a new teacher, and then for me to have to leave after only a few short months and disrupt their already tenuous grip on the learning process. However, now that I am not teaching, I have more time during and after school to talk with the students, help them with their work, and further organize the library.

Also this week, Cassie and Teresa had a chance to return to ELA and finish up the painting process, which meant writing “ELA Nursery” on the side of the building and the contact information for the school. Already, the painting at ELA has successfully brought in three new students, which is excellent news for the school.

As far as our bouts of malaria go, I am pretty sure mine is almost gone, as I have felt top-notch once more for the past two days, and Teresa is feeling better as well. Cassie is still a bit under the weather, but most of the time, I can’t tell, as she still functions a full speed. (I’m pretty sure she is a robot, but please don’t let that deter anyone from donating to her organization. Robots can be very nice. I think...)

This coming week will be my last full week in Tanzania, and I am absolutely heartbroken about it. This will be my last blog update, and I am sorry to bid our internet friends farewell, though not as sorry as I am to bid farewell to my friends here in Tanzania (sorry, but I must be honest). I had no idea when I came to Tanzania how much my life would be change by the people and environment here. I have found another family, another home, and I cannot begin to express in words how much my students mean to me. Even those who initially aggravated me, as noisemakers and lazy students, have found a special place in my heart, and are now some of my most treasured friends. Each student has his or her own unique story to tell, of working against hunger to stay awake in class, or walking miles every day in the bleak morning light just to set foot in this compound. Some are orphans, faces in grim determination as they pore over their notes daily, heavy with the knowledge that their time here may be their only chance to escape poverty and starvation.

Yet what a miracle to see those same children, who, in one year, experience more hardship than most of us (in the US) will know in our entire lifetimes, run shrieking and giggling away from me as I chase them out of the canteen after break, or sprint to the football field to shout and play for hours, heedless of the brutal sun or their lack of shoes. In a country sometimes rent with religious tensions, Muslim and Christian students work peacefully side by side, boys and girls are treated as equals academically in a culture that still sometimes undervalues women. Those kids, who may put up a punkish front to their teachers when asked to speak English, care for each other and speak in deep, serious tones when they believe no one is watching. They play, write, create, draw, laugh, scream, discuss, eat, run and learn in a more ferocious and vivacious way than I could have ever expected, and in a way that makes me feel, with every fiber of my being, that this is home. This is a wonderful place.

As for my adoptive family, well, there is no good way of describing them unless you have the opportunity to meet them. And what lucky person I am to have had such an opportunity. I am so grateful to Cassie and the Tanzanian Education Project for allowing me to come to this wonderful country to live and work with so many amazing people. For Bibi and Babu, to open a school, which the pay for out of their own pockets, in the remembrance of three deceased children shows an incredible amount of strength and fortitude. Yet somehow, despite health or money or family troubles, they are still welcoming and hospitable. Bibi and Babu do everything they can to accommodate us and make us comfortable. This goes for the rest of the family as well... and this is no small feat; their family is huge. Even my mother, who worried daily when I was four hours away in Minnesota, worries little about the fact that I am in Africa because I have not one adoptive mama here, but about six or seven. And every person in this household, from little Maria, to her Mama, to the other house girls, the mechanic, shepherd, to Jamesi, the somewhat hapless and entirely carefree goon brother I never had, to the countless in-laws, cousins and friends of the family, to Bibi and Babu themselves, have found an unique and special place in my heart.

While I am excited to come home and see my own friends and family again, I will leave here with no little reluctance. And of course it will be weird to see so many white people again.

Well, with that, it is time to stop writing about how much I am going to miss these people and instead go spend some real time with them before I depart. Thanks again to the donors who have made this organization possible, my family, Cassie and the Tanzanian Education Project for getting me here to Bunju A, Tanzania for an amazing experience. See you on the other side!