As I was busy finishing the ten thousand things before I
needed to leave, I was looking around for my right hand man Mwenda to help me
with the growing list. I met him behind the house along the road where he was
spotting the soon to be falling tree that Babu instructed the fundi to cut down
for timber. It was becoming clear that despite the extraordinary effort of
shirtless Mwakioma up in the tree with a machete, it was going to take a whole
lot more to get this huge tree down.
The ‘house men’ took the big sailing rope from the shed and
wrapped it around the tree. Fabian in his church gear took the end and led the
five others to take their stance. I watched from the side as they gave all
their might at the rope to keep the tree from falling onto the road and
neighboring house. The tree swayed too much for comfort and their footing
looked less than sturdy. Albert was nearly horizontal when I thought it couldn't hurt if I stepped in; who doesn't want to try out their 4th
grade tug of war skills in real life? We tugged and tugged for what felt like
forever as we all feared the tree would teeter to the wrong side. The tree
seemed bigger than life and my hands weaker than ever before. Despite my fear,
I couldn't help but laugh that Fabian was wearing his church clothes to do such
a dirty job. One the count of ‘tatu’ we gave it our all and finally it seemed
the tree was coming down our way. Before I knew it, we all dropped the rope and
picked a route hoping it was the way out. I’ll never forget Albert’s face of
shear panic, in slow mo “ruuuuun!”
We all made it out safely and managed to get ten sheets of
lumber out of it. Every day in Tanzania my skills and knowledge are used in
ways I never expect. Whipping out my tug of war skills seems to put a perfect
bow on the last three months. It is this moment I’ll remember when I even think
to doubt my contribution to this family.
-Cassie
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