Tengeru and the volunteer experience

The organization that Laura and I are volunteering with is called the Green Foundation. I believe this foundation was just started in 2005 and has not had many volunteers. The organization was started by a woman (Mama Gladness) who also started the Tengeru Cultural Tourism program. The tourism program provides coffee tours, lake tours, and town tours to tourists. The volunteer organization basically places volunteers with orphanages in the area and provides a home and food for the volunteers. The volunteers stay in a dormitory like home with the son of Mama Gladness, Lema and a friend of the family, Babu. Lema's role is to deal with the volunteers for any needs they may have. Babu's role is to keep the home clean, help volunteers with specific needs like transportation or getting around town, and serving meals.

Laura is working in an orphanage which has kids aged 3 months to 4 years old. There are about 24 kids at the orphanage. There are 10 mamas who do the basic needs like prepare food, wash clothes, etc. The volunteers spend their time playing with the kids and helping the mamas with whatever they need. The orphanage has very basic stuff... clothes for the kids, diapers, rice and beans. That's about it. There are hardly any toys, not many nutritious food, no baby wipes for cleaning up messes, etc. So, you're left to being innovative with your time. Many volunteers have contributed supplies like coloring books, crayons, formula, baby wipes, etc. So, summer time is probably good for these kids because quite a few things are provided by volunteers during this time. Our winter time probably isn't so good. One of the kids that Laura has gotten attached to, Baraka, looks like he is about 6 months old when in fact, he is 1 year old. These kids are getting a rough start to life.

I'm working with a tree nursery started by Mama Gladness. The woman has a beautiful home full of various kinds of trees. It's the place tourists are taken to join their coffee tour or Lake Diluti tour. The tree nursery is located on the main road between Arusha and Tengeru. My mom and Greg would love to take a tour through the nursery. There are a lot of tree species that I haven't seen before as the focus is to pot a number of indigenous tree species. My job is to get up and water the plants every morning and keep the general nursery area clean.

I know for sure that the trees in the nursery are sold to the public. What I'm not sure about is whether or not some of these trees are donated to schools, churches, villages, etc. They've told me that they are but I'm quite skeptical; I get the feeling the organization is set up more for profit that not for profit. That's a big reason why I have been quite disappointed by this volunteer opportunity. I feel more like the people are in it for my $20 per day than they are for doing something great in the community. Hopefully, that feeling changes.

Four more volunteers are joining us this weekend. All of them will be going to one of the two orphanages. Unfortunately, I'm left to fend for myself at the tree nursery. It'd be nice to have somebody join me!!

This weekend, Laura and I are visiting a Maasai boma. The Maasai are a unique tribe that live in the plains around Kilamanjaro and Meru. My next post will give more specific information and have some pictures.