The places we go

One of the things you learn really fast in Tanzania is that nothing happens quickly: time is a rather flexible concept. Yesterday Joseph asked us if we wanted to take a 'quick walk' in the afternoon to do some home visits. When he can, Joseph arranges for older children to be adopted into the community with their families or other guardians, that way he can take in more children at the orphanage and keep more kids off the streets. The home visits are to check on the children and make sure they are in a safe and good environment, this particular visit was to check on one of the children that had been placed with his grandparents a few years ago.

We asked a few times how long the walk would be when we diembarked from the dalla-dalla, and Joseph assured us it would only be about 15 minutes. A very scenic and rigorous hour later we arrived at a tiny mudhut and met the family. A very elderly couple welcomed us warmly, and struggled to find places for us all to sit. They borrowed wooden chairs from neighbours and eventually brought their 'bed' - a very used and thin sack stuff with straw - out for us to sit on so we would be comfortable. It was really painful to watch them trying to comfort us as much as possible when they clearly had nothing. You might think from my description of seats that not many people lived in the hut, but the couple were looking after four grandchildren from their own children who had died, and another four grandchildren and wife of their son who had run off.


the family with Joseph (2nd from the left)


The husband had been a business man but had long since retired and now had to make sisal ropes in order to support the family. He showed us the 'machine' he used to shred the plants - a mere scrap of metal - and demonstrated how long it took to carefully twist the strands together. We could see that it would take him at least half an hour of twisting to make a rope that could fetch about 300 TSh (30 cents) at market, and he was supporting 11 people by doing this. The boy we had come to visit wasn't there, as the family had absolutely nothing and the children had gone to town to beg for dinner. Joseph told us that the situation was common and that was why he had to monitor the families children were placed with often to make sure the children weren't starving to death. He told us it was likely the boy would have to return to the orphanage as it was clear the family was unable to support him.