Wow...what an incredible place to wake up to this morning! We are all feeling better with finally some sleep under our belt.
Our rooms have no walls, only mosquito netting between ourselves and nature. During the night hearing the sounds of the Galago (aka Bush Baby, due to the baby crying sound this animal makes) and the monkeys at play. Our view outside our any which way we look of miles of Africa rain forest and flat lands.
Developing World Connections has found an incredible sanctuary for our stay. We are all adapting so fast to live without electricity and running water especially after our visit to the village today meeting the community where we are about to build a home.
Kisampa was found mistakenly by the founder Rob Barbour when his plane en route to Dar was diverted by a thunderstorm and he noticed this large inhabited piece of land so close to Dar with no access roads. 7 years later this land has been transformed with hand made roads and Bandas (our rooms). Kisampa is an amazing sanctuary while ensuring the integrity of the conservation land it sits on.
Today en route to the village Matipwilli (name translation is man going out to work) we saw an amazing tree called Baobab Tree. This tree is commonly called the Whistling Thorns. In order to protect itself, pods grow on the thorns and nectar which attracts ants. Both the ants and the thorns protect the trees from the live animals.
Matipwilli is a village of 1000 people living by minimalist means. Majority without electricity, running water and shelter that is basically four walls and a roof.
Once we left the vehicle and started to walk through the village the young children converged on us with smiling faces. They grabbed for our hands. Many of them fighting to hang onto one finger. I had the same two children on each side of me the entire walk with many other coming and going. Even with a language barrier we still communicated with one another by tickling them and making them smile. Still with the desire to play with the children, I decided spontaneously to teach them how to do a cartwheel. The children had so much fun learning.
Before we arrived in the village I was sitting beside a new friend Mark who cautioned me on not getting too close to the children or our last day will be very hard and filled with many tears. I thought to myself how did Mark know I have this huge soft spot for children especially children living in these conditions. Knowing our visit today was coming to an end, I immediate turned to our guide to ask him to translate to the children we would be back tomorrow.
The village leaders gathered to together to welcome Developing World Connections (represented by our volunteer Team Leader Rick Kurzac) to their village and showed their appreciation to our Team for our support to their community.
Heading back to camp was a great ride with us all on reflecting our experience of the day. We are all eager to start the home tomorrow and we are determined to work as hard as possible to have this home completed in our short stay.
Will update you on our day 1 of construction...
Marianne
DWC Participant
Tanzania 2010
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