Tales around the table

One of the highlights of each day is coming home from work and reconnecting with my fellow volunteers.  Here we share tales of our experiences of the day,  These stories we share make us laugh, and they make us cry.  They draw us closer and closer as we experience the joys and sorrows of Africa, be it stories of harrowing DalaDala rides, to experiences with the African people in each of our own volunteer assignments.

We are staying at a volunteer house here in Arusha.  Now this house is very simple.  Basic would be a kind word.  We do have a few modern conveniences, well, when they are working anyway.  The electricity often goes off.  When that happens we also don’t have water.  But then sometimes the water still goes off and the electricity remains!  Go figure?  Most the time we don’t have hot water.  We have learned if we have the magic three: electricity, water, and hot water! Wow!  The stars have aligned and grab a shower, quick!

We don’t really have a kitchen either, no stove, no sink, just the aforementioned table we gather around.  There is an elderly refrigerator that beeps, 11 times on the minute.  We have timed it!  It either doesn’t keep things cold, or it freezes thing solid.  We now have a cucumber we can use as a hammer!  

The biggest challenge is the very spotty internet.  We grab it also when we can.

The propane “stove” used for cooking all meals.

What we do have, is each other.  As we leave each morning, we each take a big breath, bid a farewell, and head off our on our different ways, each catching our own different DalaDalas, going on our separate pathways to take on our day.  We then, after a long, and often difficult day, greet each other as we return.  We share our lives, and our stories.

Let me tell you about my fellow volunteers:

First of all there is Mary Ann.   Mary Ann is from Australia, sounds like she is some big muckity muck at one of the biggest hospitals in Melbourne.  A very educated, experienced, talented woman.  Her heart was touched years back in Zambia and she travels there every year to volunteer.  This year the program is Zambia was not available so she came here to Arusha instead.  I’m so glad she did!

Mary Ann is working at St. Lucias’s.  It is an orphanage that houses 20 children, ages 3 years old to 14 years old.  All these children do not have parents.  What they do have is HIV.  HIV is the shadow that looms over every subject here in Africa.   You cannot get away from it.

These are some of the stories she tells:

The first week Mary Ann volunteered at St. Lucia’s, they had her scrubbing floors, washing shoes, and doing the laundry.  Mind you, there is no running water or electricity at this home.  She was doing all this in an old fashioned wash-tub with scrubbing board.  I imagined in my head, this highly respected, highly ranked nurse in Australia society “reduced” to scrubbing floors and dirty orphan children.

She would come home each day covered in mud, and regale us with tales of these experiences, having us roll with laughter.  She approached all this with grace, humor, and acceptance.   She felt this was “the gauntlet” she needed to go through to gain the trust of the caregivers who ran this orphanage.  And she really didn’t mind, because she was serving the children, and that is what she came here to do.

Well, how could anyone go too long without understanding and knowing  Mary Ann’s pure heart?  The next week they “elevated” her to the actual care of the children.  She now plays with the children, reads books to the children, take them to school and their doctor’s appointment.   Each day she comes home, and tells us stories about these children, some humorous, some heartbreaking.  She names each child by name as if they are her own.  There is Jackie and Patrick, the two 3 year old twins,  Emanual, Nicholas, and and Peter.  There is Margaret, who she calls “bossy boots”.  And on and on the names go.  Last night, she told us about Jennifer.

Jennifer is a child who Mary Ann says she has not been able to reach.  Mary Ann thinks she is about 13 years old.  She always hangs back and will not interact.  Whereas all the other children are always climbing all over her, and begging for any attention they can get, Jennifer always keeps a distrustful distance.   However, yesterday, that changed.

This is the story Mary Ann told us.

“Today, after I had got done giving the little ones their baths,  (in a tin tub outside), I  sat down for one second to rest on a bench.   Jennifer then came and sat down on the bench also, but as far away from me as she could get.  I just played it cool, and just hummed quietly to myself and stared ahead.  Jennifer then began to scoot slowly closer and closer to me.  When she was quite close, Jennifer asked in a very quiet voice, “Mama MaryAnn?  Do you every get tired?”.  I answered, “Yes, Jennifer, I do.”  Jennifer then laid down on the bench and put her head in my lap.  I began to gently stroke her shaved head as it lay in my lap.  Every time I stopped, her little hand would reach up, and cover mine, and have it keep stroking.”

Ben is another Aussie.  He is an EMT, going to Med School in the fall.    He works at St. Elizabeth’s with me.  He works in what is equivalent to our ER.  We often ride to work together on the DalaDala.  It is a real experience to see him try to fold his 6’4″ frame into the van and squeeze in with all the other people.  He laughs, they laugh.  It really is quite a hoot!

Ben sees many heartrending things in his department.  Yesterday he told us the story of a 5 month old baby that came in with seizures.  They suspected cerebral malaria.  The baby died after a few hours.

All they have to give anybody when they come to St. Elizabeth’s for pain is acetaminophen.  Nothing else.  And even that supply is running low.

Ben also told us about Joseph.  Joseph is a 7 year old burn victim.  He has burns from his chin, down his neck, into his chest and belly,  He has to come in each day for debridement.  What debridement is; when a burn is healing, the old dying tissue must be removed so the new tissue can grow.  This “old tissue” is literally scrapped and picked off.  You can imagine the extreme pain that this will cause.  Ben’s job is to hold Joseph down while this is done.  The child screams and writhes each time with all the strength his little body can manage.   I asked Ben, “You do pre-medicate him, don’t you?”   Ben just shook his head at me and asked, “with, what?”

Ione is our newest volunteer.  She hails from England.  She just got here a few days ago.  She is working as a volunteer at a woman’s shelter.  This shelter is for women who have been rescued from the sex traffic trade.  Yes, that really does exist!  These women have been rescued and are now being taught trades so they can support themselves and their families.  Each woman is allowed to stay in the house for one year to complete their training.

Ione is to work in the day care for the children of the women.  Today was her first day.  She came home tonight so shocked she could barely speak.  She said it is her job to care for 30 children in one room with 4 mattresses on the floor.  No water, no toilet.  The children are aged 3 months to 3 years.  One other caregiver.

Ione is really just a young girl herself.  So sweet, so giving.  This will be a huge challenge.

We have a new volunteer arriving tomorrow.  She comes from the Netherlands.  It will be fun getting to know her, and hearing about her day.

The closeness I feel with my comrades-in-arms is unbelievable.  I guess it’s true what they say about soldiers who fight together.  You form ties in such unique ways.   Only my fellow volunteers know exactly what it feels like, only they can really grasp the scope of the joy, the fear, the love we each feel each day.   It’s a sharing that goes beyond words.

It’s as Mary Ann says after telling us about Jennifer, “To have that sweet little girl place her trust and her head in my lap.  It was forever more worth all the floor and shoe scrubbing ever.   Nothing, nothing, is worth more than that.”  We just all looked at each other and nodded.  Her words exactly.