Home Visits

Usually volunteers visit a couple students' homes every Friday. The point of the home visits is to learn more about the students' lives outside of school, and to see who needs the most help. This Friday we visited two students, Fausta and Erica.

The first visit was to Fausta. After a 30 minute walk into town, a 30 minute dala dala ride (a local bus where 30 people are crammed into about 15 seats) and a 30 minute walk from the dala dala stop into her village, we arrived at her house. She lives in a room in a building with about 8 rooms all attached to a central walkway, sharing that room with her husband, and 3 of her 5 children. The other 2 live in a room across the hall. Upon entering the room, I was very impressed with how prettily it was decorated. There was a bed, three couches and a couple chairs against the wall, along with a coffee table and some storage space. No washroom, but there was electricity. Fausta obviously took great pride in her home and was very excited to have us there. Tanzanians are quite hospitable and she had prepared a huge thermos of chai tea and bowls of roasted peanuts for us. We had brought our translator Herman with us and with his help we discussed how she was liking school, and what her goals for the future were. She explained that she wanted to expand her peanut business and also start to sell clothing. Her children popped in throughout our conversation and even her husband joined us. We had attracted a lot of attention during the walk through her village and apparently the news had spread to him that he had visitors, so he left work to come and join us. It was a lovely visit with a lovely women (constantly smiling, hugging us, and thanking us for coming), and a nice way to ease into the home visits.

Erica's house was close by so we were able to walk after saying goodbye to Fausta. Her living conditions were a stark contrast to Fausta's. She lives in a small dark room with a metal roof without any electricity. Erica lives with her Uncle and cousins so that she can get to school more easily (even so it is a 2 hour journey to school every day). Her son Victor stays in another village with her other family members. Once we had settled in, Erica started crying as she explained that she had nothing to offer us to eat or drink. We tried to console her and explain that we had come to see and talk to her, and that nothing else mattered. It was heartbreaking to see how upset she was. She said that once she graduates she would like to embroider fabric.

I was astonished at how much effort the students have to put in to get to school every day (and I know that some of the other students have it much worse). It is amazing that they are able to balance their studies with all of their other responsibilities. I also don't know how Monika will pick who gets to start their businesses at the co-op (every term a couple students get the start up capital from GHTA and run their businesses out of the organization's space in town). So many of them of try so hard, and it's very difficult to see all of the challenges they have simply because of the position they were born into.