Connectedness

“Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.” Albert Camus

As people, we all want to feel connected. This is something we’ve become more aware of throughout our experiences here in Tanzania. The moments we’ve had here are hard to express through words or even pictures. We’ve come to realize that this experience is something you just need to do to truly understand. We’ve seen so much and have felt an overwhelming range of emotion. We’ve seen extreme poverty, debilitating illness, economic struggle but also so much JOY radiating from people faced with these situations.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit the Amani Orphanage in Mbigili. Our house mom, Irene, volunteers here and wanted to show us this orphanage. It was wonderful to see how well the children were taken care of! The accommodations were very clean from where they slept to where they ate. They had their own vegetable garden and farm where they sold some of the animals and ate some of the food but sold the rest so they can use this money to help fund the operations of the orphanage. The kids welcomed us with dance and song!

While at the orphanage we visited a girl, Upendo (in Swahili this means “Love”). Upendo was born with a rare form of skin cancer – she had sores all over her body and just three months ago the hospital in Dar Es Saalam, where she was receiving treatment, told her there is nothing else they can do. Despite all of this, she sang songs for us about God’s love, chatted with us and even got up to say good-bye.

Through all these moments with women in the villages, children in the schools, children in the orphanages and time spent with our EPIC team and family, we really can see how everyone wants to feel connected in some way. We all want to feel like we have a friend—not someone who is “greater” or “below” us. Our challenge to each of you as you continue your week is to be aware of this. In any of your encounters—treat the people you meet as a friend and create that connectedness that we all want to feel!

With Love,

Ty + Michelle

This is a photo from the food market in Iringa. The market is filled with many vegetables, beans (as you can see!), rice and fruit. Not sure either of us have ever seen so much rice and beans under one roof :) 

Many of you ask what we eat here. Here is a picture of a typical lunch (rice is a bit more typical than noodles). We had noodles, spinach, sweet potatoes, veggies, beans and pineapple. There's always chai (aka tea) to drink. 

We had a laundry day on Monday. This is the view from our backyard-- breathtaking! 

This is a dance that the children at Amani Orphanage did for us. We love their moves and energy.

Some of the little kids watching the dancing-- those faces!

Michelle and Jenny-- immediate connection with this sweet girl. 

Loving the blonde hair :)

The view from the orphanage.