Dear family and friends,
Today is our last day here, very sad. It will be hard to leave these wonderful people and this beautiful country. It got cooler today and rained quite a bit, which is wonderful for their plants and produce. It has been wonderfully warm, in the 80s and sunny all the time, so the cooling off today will make it a little easier for us to go home to the cold Chicago winter!
We went back to Uru East this morning to see Florentina's house where she grew up and meet some of her family. The red clay roads were very wet, slippery and muddy from the rain. It gave us a small idea of how difficult it is to live in these villages. Even though they welcome the rain, it makes it even more of a hardship to get through the roads to get their water or sell their vegetables. You can not comprehend living this way until you've seen it.
We came here to find more information about the water situation and possibly digging wells. This has turned into a much bigger scope than we could imagine. How could you choose one small area over another? We realized within the first few days after we arrived that would be impossible. What an amazing experience this has been. We have much information to review and lots of work to do when we return.
It Can and Will Be Done!!!!!
Our deep gratitude goes out to everyone for their prayers and support.
Love to all,
Margie, Barbara, Chris, Jeremy and Matt
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Dear family and friends,
Today Barbara and Jeremy wanted to go to the town market to get some last minute shots of the local people living their everyday lives. Saturday is a very busy day there. Hundreds of people set up stalls or blankets to sell everything-fruits and vegetables, hand-made shoes, cloth and cloths, jewelry, trinkets, you name it. It looks much like our giant flea markets. They were trying to film and all of the sudden 2 police motorcycles with 2 men on each pulled up around our vehicle and they thought they were going to be arrested for filming. After much talk in Swahili, it turned out that our driver, Efrem, explained they told him he was illegally parked. Efrem pretended that he was not parking but just driving through, badly albeit, while Jeremy and Barb hid the camera and were shaking in their boots. It was an exciting start to the day!
We interviewed Florentina for the film today. She is an amazing woman. A brief bio: she was born here in the village of Uru East, educated in Sweden with scholarship help, married her husband there and raised 2 biological and 2 adopted children. She was a social worker in Sweden for 27 years. After her children were adults, she returned to her homeland to care for her aging mother (who lived to 106!) By the time her mother died, Florentina had started her own travel agency business, supporting the local tourism and employing many guides, porters and drivers for climbing and safari. She then decided she had to stay here to help the people. It was truly a calling. She is a woman's advocate, a very respected elder in the community and has recently started her own volunteer organization. We have so much love and admiration for her. We could not have accomplished anything here without her cooperation, connections and complete support in our project.
We finished our afternoon with shopping at a few small stores. Then tonight there was a big surprise. The whole time we have been here, Florentina has had workers building a beautiful covered deck on the side of the house. (By the way, everything was done by hand- sawing, planing and sanding all the wood!) The ladies surprised all of us by moving the dining room furniture out to the finished deck along with lit candles, a wonderful dinner and Amarula to toast with! A final feast together to celebrate our friendship and all that we have accomplished.
Until tomorrow...
Margie, Chris, Barb, Jeremy and Matt
Today Barbara and Jeremy wanted to go to the town market to get some last minute shots of the local people living their everyday lives. Saturday is a very busy day there. Hundreds of people set up stalls or blankets to sell everything-fruits and vegetables, hand-made shoes, cloth and cloths, jewelry, trinkets, you name it. It looks much like our giant flea markets. They were trying to film and all of the sudden 2 police motorcycles with 2 men on each pulled up around our vehicle and they thought they were going to be arrested for filming. After much talk in Swahili, it turned out that our driver, Efrem, explained they told him he was illegally parked. Efrem pretended that he was not parking but just driving through, badly albeit, while Jeremy and Barb hid the camera and were shaking in their boots. It was an exciting start to the day!
We interviewed Florentina for the film today. She is an amazing woman. A brief bio: she was born here in the village of Uru East, educated in Sweden with scholarship help, married her husband there and raised 2 biological and 2 adopted children. She was a social worker in Sweden for 27 years. After her children were adults, she returned to her homeland to care for her aging mother (who lived to 106!) By the time her mother died, Florentina had started her own travel agency business, supporting the local tourism and employing many guides, porters and drivers for climbing and safari. She then decided she had to stay here to help the people. It was truly a calling. She is a woman's advocate, a very respected elder in the community and has recently started her own volunteer organization. We have so much love and admiration for her. We could not have accomplished anything here without her cooperation, connections and complete support in our project.
We finished our afternoon with shopping at a few small stores. Then tonight there was a big surprise. The whole time we have been here, Florentina has had workers building a beautiful covered deck on the side of the house. (By the way, everything was done by hand- sawing, planing and sanding all the wood!) The ladies surprised all of us by moving the dining room furniture out to the finished deck along with lit candles, a wonderful dinner and Amarula to toast with! A final feast together to celebrate our friendship and all that we have accomplished.
Until tomorrow...
Margie, Chris, Barb, Jeremy and Matt
Friday, January 18, 2008
Dear family and friends,
Now that things have slowed down a little, we thought we would tell you a few cultural tidbits
about these warm and appreciative people.
The Tanzanian people learn their native or tribal language when they are small. In the case of the people we're visiting, their tribe and language is Chagua. When they start Primary school, they learn their national language of Swahili. And then when they start Secondary school at 13 years old, everything is taught in English. So by the time they are 16 they know 3 languages.
We were very impressed by this since we know only one!
Another interesting thing is that everyone keeps asking us about Hilary Clinton and the other
candidates. We are amazed how knowledgable they are about our politics. It makes us feel we are not very globally educated. If our primarys were here, Hilary Clinton would definitely win! They really liked and admired Bill Clinton and are excited for us at the prospect of having a woman president.
Today a truck drove by the house playing music and making announcements over a loud speaker. When we asked Florentina, our host, what they were saying she said they were reminding the households to pay their water bill! We were hysterical over that. They don't use mail and send bills as we do. Can you imagine a truck reminding you to pay your bills - with music!?
Every time we go anywhere we can never get a direct answer about the distance or timing. Five minutes always turns into 20 minutes. Everytime we trek up the mountain, we ask how far it is and the 3 kilometers turns into about 10 miles, which of course we were never prepared for, dress or supplies. It's become a standard joke with Jeremy and Matt that we (the moms) didn't bring the water. We'll be getting all this down just as we're about to leave!
Finally, a really funny moment. When we were on safari, we had the top of the truck open and a couple of babboons were fighting within the family. All of the sudden, one ran over the top of the car and we all screamed our heads off. A hysterical moment and a great thing to get on film!
Love to all.
Now that things have slowed down a little, we thought we would tell you a few cultural tidbits
about these warm and appreciative people.
The Tanzanian people learn their native or tribal language when they are small. In the case of the people we're visiting, their tribe and language is Chagua. When they start Primary school, they learn their national language of Swahili. And then when they start Secondary school at 13 years old, everything is taught in English. So by the time they are 16 they know 3 languages.
We were very impressed by this since we know only one!
Another interesting thing is that everyone keeps asking us about Hilary Clinton and the other
candidates. We are amazed how knowledgable they are about our politics. It makes us feel we are not very globally educated. If our primarys were here, Hilary Clinton would definitely win! They really liked and admired Bill Clinton and are excited for us at the prospect of having a woman president.
Today a truck drove by the house playing music and making announcements over a loud speaker. When we asked Florentina, our host, what they were saying she said they were reminding the households to pay their water bill! We were hysterical over that. They don't use mail and send bills as we do. Can you imagine a truck reminding you to pay your bills - with music!?
Every time we go anywhere we can never get a direct answer about the distance or timing. Five minutes always turns into 20 minutes. Everytime we trek up the mountain, we ask how far it is and the 3 kilometers turns into about 10 miles, which of course we were never prepared for, dress or supplies. It's become a standard joke with Jeremy and Matt that we (the moms) didn't bring the water. We'll be getting all this down just as we're about to leave!
Finally, a really funny moment. When we were on safari, we had the top of the truck open and a couple of babboons were fighting within the family. All of the sudden, one ran over the top of the car and we all screamed our heads off. A hysterical moment and a great thing to get on film!
Love to all.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Dear family and friends,
We spent the most amazing 2 days on a safari, first in Lake Manyara, and then in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which is the sixth largest collapsed crater in the world.
The scenery was so awesome. Ever time we think we have seen the most beautiful sight in the world, we see one even better.
We saw what they call here the Big Five. Lions, elephants, rhino, hippo and cheetah. We were told we were so lucky to see all five in one trip. We saw so many other animals-giraffes, gazelles,
impalas and so many babies! This is the time of year for births and we even saw a baby rhino.
The highlight of the trip was 2 cheetahs on a hunt for the impalas and we actually saw them break and go after the impalas across the plains AND got it on film! And so many beautiful varieties of birds, it just takes your breath away.
This morning, we returned to the village of Uru East to visit their dispensary and secondary school. Everywhere we go, we receive such a warm welcome. The people even seem very comfortable with the camera and we have done some great interviews.
We also had a meeting with the Water Engineer department that covers this area. They have been researching plans for various phases of the same project-clean water. There is always the issue of not enough funds. They will be giving us an estimate for a survey to be done on the Uru villages.
A very productive and very fun last few days.
Love to all,
Margie, Chris, Barbara, Jeremy and Matt
We spent the most amazing 2 days on a safari, first in Lake Manyara, and then in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which is the sixth largest collapsed crater in the world.
The scenery was so awesome. Ever time we think we have seen the most beautiful sight in the world, we see one even better.
We saw what they call here the Big Five. Lions, elephants, rhino, hippo and cheetah. We were told we were so lucky to see all five in one trip. We saw so many other animals-giraffes, gazelles,
impalas and so many babies! This is the time of year for births and we even saw a baby rhino.
The highlight of the trip was 2 cheetahs on a hunt for the impalas and we actually saw them break and go after the impalas across the plains AND got it on film! And so many beautiful varieties of birds, it just takes your breath away.
This morning, we returned to the village of Uru East to visit their dispensary and secondary school. Everywhere we go, we receive such a warm welcome. The people even seem very comfortable with the camera and we have done some great interviews.
We also had a meeting with the Water Engineer department that covers this area. They have been researching plans for various phases of the same project-clean water. There is always the issue of not enough funds. They will be giving us an estimate for a survey to be done on the Uru villages.
A very productive and very fun last few days.
Love to all,
Margie, Chris, Barbara, Jeremy and Matt
Monday, January 14, 2008
Dear family and friends,
Today we returned to the village of Uru West to tour the secondary school and their dispensary.
We met the Headmaster at the school which is similar to our high school, but ages 12-16. They have 210 children and 2 new buildings thanks to donations and the parents help in building it.
Many of the students are orphans from AIDS. We learned that the cost to educate one student is only $121.00 per year. It sounds like nothing to us but a fortune to them.
This site also has no clean water and no access to it. The students go to fetch buckets of water, which is a half kilometer away during their break. Although they have such hardships, they are very happy to be there studying and understand the importance of education. When we visited one of the classes, they sang the all-American song to us - Old McDonald Had a Farm. It was really funny!
The dispensary is a small hospital with only 25 beds where they can treat everything from
diahrea to cholera and deliver babies. They also have no running water. They do have a storage tank but have to boil it. We learned that after boiling the water for an hour over an open fire,
they still have to wait 24 hours before using it.
At the end of the day, we had a final meeting with the Counselors and decided the next step is to schedule a meeting with the District Engineer in charge of water. We will meet with him on Thursday and find out about getting a survey done and discuss the possibilities.
We are very hopeful and excited about how much we have accomplished.
Tomorrow we go on a quick 24 hour safari to connect the ecology and animals with our water project, which will be very exciting for our film.
Love to all.
Today we returned to the village of Uru West to tour the secondary school and their dispensary.
We met the Headmaster at the school which is similar to our high school, but ages 12-16. They have 210 children and 2 new buildings thanks to donations and the parents help in building it.
Many of the students are orphans from AIDS. We learned that the cost to educate one student is only $121.00 per year. It sounds like nothing to us but a fortune to them.
This site also has no clean water and no access to it. The students go to fetch buckets of water, which is a half kilometer away during their break. Although they have such hardships, they are very happy to be there studying and understand the importance of education. When we visited one of the classes, they sang the all-American song to us - Old McDonald Had a Farm. It was really funny!
The dispensary is a small hospital with only 25 beds where they can treat everything from
diahrea to cholera and deliver babies. They also have no running water. They do have a storage tank but have to boil it. We learned that after boiling the water for an hour over an open fire,
they still have to wait 24 hours before using it.
At the end of the day, we had a final meeting with the Counselors and decided the next step is to schedule a meeting with the District Engineer in charge of water. We will meet with him on Thursday and find out about getting a survey done and discuss the possibilities.
We are very hopeful and excited about how much we have accomplished.
Tomorrow we go on a quick 24 hour safari to connect the ecology and animals with our water project, which will be very exciting for our film.
Love to all.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Sunday, January 13th
Dear friends and family,
Today was another phenomenal day.
We visited the village called Uru East, which has a population of 13,000. This village had clean water 30 years ago when a newly built hospital redirected the flow of water from the mountain source. Then the hospital moved and no one was able to maintain the small dam and pipes due to a lack of money. For thirty years, the women and children have been going to a higher source carrying buckets of water on their head to get the clean water. With fertilizing their crops and run off, the water has become very polluted. They drink it anyway because although this causes much illness, it is their only source.
After our meeting, we climbed up to the top of their area to see the water intake so we could understand the situation better. This put a couple of us over the edge in the fitness area, but well worth it! The rain forest is just too much for words, stories-high canopies of ferns and umbrella type plants for as far as you could see and deep cliffs of unknown beautiful plants.
We kept saying this looked exactly like the setting for Jurassic Park.
When we returned, they had prepared a feast for us to share with them at the school house.
On top of it, it is Sunday and they had their best dress on from church and they all looked so beautiful. The people welcomed us with open arms and such warmth and love. Everyone is so ready for their water problems to be fixed. They mentioned several times that they felt they have been forgotten. They committed to doing all that it takes, whether it's digging the trenches or laying pipes, to get the job done.
At the end of our visit, Margie shared a song she knows about calling the mother of the river and then they shared a song with us. We are so connected to these Tanzanian people and their hearts. It was the most wonderful day so far. But we may have said that before!
Love to all!
Margie, Barbara, Chris, Jeremy and Matt
Dear friends and family,
Today was another phenomenal day.
We visited the village called Uru East, which has a population of 13,000. This village had clean water 30 years ago when a newly built hospital redirected the flow of water from the mountain source. Then the hospital moved and no one was able to maintain the small dam and pipes due to a lack of money. For thirty years, the women and children have been going to a higher source carrying buckets of water on their head to get the clean water. With fertilizing their crops and run off, the water has become very polluted. They drink it anyway because although this causes much illness, it is their only source.
After our meeting, we climbed up to the top of their area to see the water intake so we could understand the situation better. This put a couple of us over the edge in the fitness area, but well worth it! The rain forest is just too much for words, stories-high canopies of ferns and umbrella type plants for as far as you could see and deep cliffs of unknown beautiful plants.
We kept saying this looked exactly like the setting for Jurassic Park.
When we returned, they had prepared a feast for us to share with them at the school house.
On top of it, it is Sunday and they had their best dress on from church and they all looked so beautiful. The people welcomed us with open arms and such warmth and love. Everyone is so ready for their water problems to be fixed. They mentioned several times that they felt they have been forgotten. They committed to doing all that it takes, whether it's digging the trenches or laying pipes, to get the job done.
At the end of our visit, Margie shared a song she knows about calling the mother of the river and then they shared a song with us. We are so connected to these Tanzanian people and their hearts. It was the most wonderful day so far. But we may have said that before!
Love to all!
Margie, Barbara, Chris, Jeremy and Matt
Saturday, January 12, 2008
January 12, 2008
Saturday, January 12th
Well, we've had trouble getting our blog entries done in Africa, which is why we've only had one. We thank Margie's daughter, Kimberly, for volunteering to do this now. Hopefully this will work!
We've had the most amazing last 3 days. It's almost impossible to describe. We have met so many wonderful people who are open and receptive to us. We've had meetings with the Mayor of Moshi, counselors which are area leaders, school headmasters and a newspaper journalist who was interested in our story. We have been so busy we can hardly breathe!
All of the trip has been amazing so far, but the highlight was definitely today! We went to a village called Uru West which sits at the base of the mountain. We took a van up a very bumpy, rocky, long path where we parked and then hiked up through the rain forest!!! We never expected this just as so many other wonderful things that have happened to us! At the top of the rain forest was the most amazing waterfall with rock formations that had people's faces in them. It was just too awesome for words. The waterfall is called an 'intake' because this is where they could tap into the source. It is frustrating to see all this beautiful clean water and know that they cannot get access to it. This was truly an inspiration for our project.
We then had a meeting with the leaders of the village and many men and women came to see what we were offering. The people were so open, friendly and loving, we were truly humbled and heart-filled.
The filming is going so well. We have so much wonderful footage, Jeremy and Matt will have a very tough time deciding and editing.
The trip so far has been beyond any expectations we had. Chris and Barb are even very surprised at the lack of mosquitos which everyone warned us about. And we're getting fat on homemade delicious food.
We are awestruck, excited and exhausted!
Well, we've had trouble getting our blog entries done in Africa, which is why we've only had one. We thank Margie's daughter, Kimberly, for volunteering to do this now. Hopefully this will work!
We've had the most amazing last 3 days. It's almost impossible to describe. We have met so many wonderful people who are open and receptive to us. We've had meetings with the Mayor of Moshi, counselors which are area leaders, school headmasters and a newspaper journalist who was interested in our story. We have been so busy we can hardly breathe!
All of the trip has been amazing so far, but the highlight was definitely today! We went to a village called Uru West which sits at the base of the mountain. We took a van up a very bumpy, rocky, long path where we parked and then hiked up through the rain forest!!! We never expected this just as so many other wonderful things that have happened to us! At the top of the rain forest was the most amazing waterfall with rock formations that had people's faces in them. It was just too awesome for words. The waterfall is called an 'intake' because this is where they could tap into the source. It is frustrating to see all this beautiful clean water and know that they cannot get access to it. This was truly an inspiration for our project.
We then had a meeting with the leaders of the village and many men and women came to see what we were offering. The people were so open, friendly and loving, we were truly humbled and heart-filled.
The filming is going so well. We have so much wonderful footage, Jeremy and Matt will have a very tough time deciding and editing.
The trip so far has been beyond any expectations we had. Chris and Barb are even very surprised at the lack of mosquitos which everyone warned us about. And we're getting fat on homemade delicious food.
We are awestruck, excited and exhausted!
January 10, 2008
Thursday, January 10th
Dear friends,
We arrived here last night and received such a warm welcome from Florentina. She is a travel agent
whose home we are staying at. She also has many great connections for us here in order to meet the people we need to speak with. We had a wonderful dinner and conversation and fell into bed after our 20 hours of travel.
Today was a busy and amazing day. We started by meeting and interviewing the guides who take the climbers up on Mt. Kilimanjaro. They live in a comfortable village where a clean working water system has been in place for 20 years. They will be our 'model' of what we hope to accomplish. They were so kind and cooperative and had much needed information. They were even comfortable on camera.
This afternoon we took a very long ride up the mountain to visit the native villages that have water 'intakes', sources that exist from streams and waterfalls on the mountain. This was a great opportunity
to see how the people live and how they access water. It is such a difficult way to live, something
we can not even comprehend. Women climbing uneven rocky red dirt paths, sticky bushes, up and down the hill 3 to 4 times per day, carrying jugs of water on their heads.
We won't talk about the drive itself where Chris thought the van was going off the edge of the mountain and hung onto Barb's arm the whole time!
The first day was so exciting and hopeful!
Dear friends,
We arrived here last night and received such a warm welcome from Florentina. She is a travel agent
whose home we are staying at. She also has many great connections for us here in order to meet the people we need to speak with. We had a wonderful dinner and conversation and fell into bed after our 20 hours of travel.
Today was a busy and amazing day. We started by meeting and interviewing the guides who take the climbers up on Mt. Kilimanjaro. They live in a comfortable village where a clean working water system has been in place for 20 years. They will be our 'model' of what we hope to accomplish. They were so kind and cooperative and had much needed information. They were even comfortable on camera.
This afternoon we took a very long ride up the mountain to visit the native villages that have water 'intakes', sources that exist from streams and waterfalls on the mountain. This was a great opportunity
to see how the people live and how they access water. It is such a difficult way to live, something
we can not even comprehend. Women climbing uneven rocky red dirt paths, sticky bushes, up and down the hill 3 to 4 times per day, carrying jugs of water on their heads.
We won't talk about the drive itself where Chris thought the van was going off the edge of the mountain and hung onto Barb's arm the whole time!
The first day was so exciting and hopeful!
Monday, January 7, 2008
Ready To Go!
Dear friends,
We are leaving tomorrow, January 8th. We can't believe after all the research and planning over the last year, the time is finally here. Our team consists of 5 people and although our roles are ever-changing, this is our current focus: Margie Braband-our fearless leader, holding the roles of project developer and travel arrangements; Barbara Joye, film writer and vision holder, Jeremy Vranich and Matt Solida, our outstanding student filmmakers, and Chris Moses, research and record keeping.
We will be visiting the villages of Arusha and Moshi in Tanzania. This is the area at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro where although they rely heavily on tourism from the climbers, there are many poor people whose every day goal is to just put food on the table. Our mission on this trip is to meet and talk with many officials as well as every day citizens to find out more about their water needs and issues and then create a documentary for raising awareness and inspiration.
We have already made many connections here and with the Tanzanian people and have a very full itinerary. This visit has been completely guided by God and spirit, all the way down to the last week. The fact that Margie was able to re-route all our travel- 5 people to a completely different destination, through a different lay-over city -only 7 days before leaving, in order to avoid the sad but scary violence going on in Kenya was a miracle in itself!
We are so excited to be taking our first big step toward our mission and are looking forward to
connecting with and supporting our global community. Thanks for your thoughtful messages
and support. We will post again after our arrival.
It Can Be Done! 0ne step at a time...
We are leaving tomorrow, January 8th. We can't believe after all the research and planning over the last year, the time is finally here. Our team consists of 5 people and although our roles are ever-changing, this is our current focus: Margie Braband-our fearless leader, holding the roles of project developer and travel arrangements; Barbara Joye, film writer and vision holder, Jeremy Vranich and Matt Solida, our outstanding student filmmakers, and Chris Moses, research and record keeping.
We will be visiting the villages of Arusha and Moshi in Tanzania. This is the area at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro where although they rely heavily on tourism from the climbers, there are many poor people whose every day goal is to just put food on the table. Our mission on this trip is to meet and talk with many officials as well as every day citizens to find out more about their water needs and issues and then create a documentary for raising awareness and inspiration.
We have already made many connections here and with the Tanzanian people and have a very full itinerary. This visit has been completely guided by God and spirit, all the way down to the last week. The fact that Margie was able to re-route all our travel- 5 people to a completely different destination, through a different lay-over city -only 7 days before leaving, in order to avoid the sad but scary violence going on in Kenya was a miracle in itself!
We are so excited to be taking our first big step toward our mission and are looking forward to
connecting with and supporting our global community. Thanks for your thoughtful messages
and support. We will post again after our arrival.
It Can Be Done! 0ne step at a time...
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