Arusha

In between Moshi and Dar es Salaam we headed back to Arusha our base camp at the UACC where we had a week before the crazy life of traffic and havoc in the city. So we enjoyed the company of the orphans, the other volunteers at the UACC and a large group of high school students that came to spend a week at the center. It is never a dull place around the center but instead is always filled with joy and excitement. We were taught how to make batiks by Max, the art teacher at the center and some of us got the pure joy of sitting in on the english classes at the center and help teach english to the local swahili teenagers. We also got to have more play time with the orphans, making stronger relationships with the kids and got to help volunteer at a local organization called Food, Water, Shelter. The NGO was started by two australian women who were determined to raise money for widowed and abandoned mothers in Tanzania in 2007 and by 2009 the women had raised enough money to come to Arusha to start their own business and have been successful ever since. They are currently housing seven widowed mothers and their children, have a school for children from ages in pre-school to primary schooling and are responsible for a great amount of the produce that comes from the local area. They built all eco-friendly housing for the mama's (as they refer them to) with solar panels on the roofs and wind turbines. They don't use any source of oil in their energy use and have hired an environmental coordinator to be in charge of their environmental aspects.

We got the pure pleasure of working on their farm that day by helping them with small things like watering and digging. Some were in charge of digging pig manure from one side of the farm and moving it with a wheel barrow to another part of the farm and filling in some trenches with the manure. While some were in charge of watering the newly planted mango and lemon trees with water from the organizations own hand made pond. After we all helped water the vegetable, fruit and plant farm by a foot pump that pumped water from the pond. It was a successful day filled with enjoyment working in the dirt under the hot African sun. It was a great way day to spend Valentines Day, a day dedicated to love. But instead we spread our love to the African land and to the widowed mama's and the children.