Africa, Africa, Africa

So, I'm back from this interesting, colorful, unbelievable, friendly, beautiful, welcoming, gorgeous, perfect country. But also from a poor, sad, sick, dry and lost country...This country is called Tanzania.
The contrasts that we saw there are huge, it's so sad and almost unbelievable. There were big and beautiful houses surrounded by big, solid fences or walls to make sure that no one could enter without the permission of the owner. On the other side of these big fences, there were small sheds made out of whatever the owner could find on the streets; cardboard paper, blankets, plastic and tin plates. It hurts to see that there are people having so extremely little living next to people having so extremely much! I wanna cry when I look around me, because I AM that person that have so extremely much. I know that me sitting here crying wont help anyone, but still, I can't help it...














One of the days we spent in a small village called Usangi, we visited a primary school there. As we got closer to the school we could here singing and people clapping their hands. And suddenly we could see kids standing on each side of the road singing for us "welcome, welcome how do you do? Happy to meet you, happy too great you! Welcome, welcome, how do you do?" The girls on one side of the road and the boys on the other smiling, clapping and singing! Someone came and took our sacks and carried it for us up to the school. As we passed the kids they gathered behind us and continued singing and welcoming us. If that doesn't touch a person, that person must have a heart of stone!!!! All 6 of us walked towards the school not knowing whether to smile or cry. It's a feeling that can't be described with words, I don't even know if it exist a word that could fit to describe it...
We brought one pen for each student on Karambacha primary school, and that made them so happy. The principal couldn't thank us enough. He said that if someone comes with one pen in their pocket, they come with one pen too many...We felt that we had done so little, we wanted to do so much more for these kids cus we know we can! But their gratitude they showed us was owerwhelming...

The thing that surprised me the most and that overwhelmed me the most with the people that we met, was that they were so extremely friendly, welcoming and even if they had nothing, they gave us all they could. Being invited to a family, the least that they would give you is a glass of water even though they don't have enough clean water for themselves...

We did so many things while we were there, I'm not gonna tell about all of it because then I would have to sit here for days writing. We've had good experiences, but also not so good ones. We've seen poverty in the big slum areas in Nairobi, school buildings that were falling apart, small kids begging on the street, dessert spreading in the north of Tanzania, dried out areas cus it hasn't really rained for 3 years, chattels that were so thin that there can't possibly be any food on them, failing crops because of lack of rain, met a population where 57 % has got HIV, seen people living on the streets, kids with nothing to eat...I could continue on and on with the horrible things we have seen, but the things that are going to stick to my memory is the people we've met. Their kindness, goodness and their hospitality! We were given the key to Usangi, we were given a family each there. So now I belong to the Maeda clan in Tanzania!!! In the end it's the good things that stick to your memory and that you will take with you as your life goes on. This trip has been filled with good things and experiences, and I'm going to keep them forever and ever in the part of my heart that I've lost to this great continent called Africa...

You can't tell someone about Africa if they haven't been there because they wouldn't understand. As a friend of mine once said: Africa can't be told about and explained, it has to be experienced!