Home Visits: As of February 10th, 2017
Note: You must take off your shoes before entering anyone’s home.
The thing about home visits is you really don’t know what to expect.
Having gone to my first one on the first Friday last week, I had an idea on what to compare it to – that was my mistake, comparing.
They were beyond compare.
Mery, a student in Group One, was my first home visit. She lives just a short walk from school, towards town. Off the beaten path, we walked up to a house built on to what looked like the brick foundation that never finished. The interesting thing about her house was that it was sort of just there, there was no transition from the other foundation. Her steps, lined with fresh white tile, just dropped off into the dirt; there was no landing below. As we walked up the decorative tile lined stairs, we came to the front door made of sturdy (beautiful) wood, which was open. Inside, tile lined the floors met cement built walls in this large room. This room was by far the larger one of the three; Mery also had a kitchen and a separate smaller room for sleeping. Rhiannon, Ben, Lucy and I sat on plastic chairs, along side one table set against the wall in the large room, while Mery and Fraha (one of our wonderful translators) sat on construction barrels. Mery is 43 years old. She is a current student of the organization, who manages her own business (where she makes delicious chapatti!). Mery is a single mother of five children; the youngest, Abigail, is five years old. Deborah, her next daughter is eighteen years old, does not work and lives at home. Mery, works full time, manages her own business, takes care of her children and still manages to come to GHTA. Inspiring.
Jescer, is one of our younger students, she is 22 years old and is studying in Group Two. Jescer lives with her mother, father, her sister, Rose (20 years old), and her little brother, Clayton (7 years old).
Jescer’s home visit was far away from home.
After a 13 minute walk down to the Keys Hotel, a ride on the dala-dala, a walk through the market, cross the railroad tracks, turn right, walk down a long road past industrial factories, down another long road with no shade, around a bend on the edge of the forest, and past the dump-
We came up to a very run-down building, set on a mound of dirt, at the end of the road. This building, made of crumbling concrete and a zinc-plated roof, had only one hardly working bathroom and more than a dozen rooms, rooms where families live.
… One that Jescer and her family live in.
The thing about Jescer’s family that is hard to grasp is what they had – they previously owned a home in Arusha, where they lived comfortably with many rooms. But after losing it to the bank, they had to pick up all their belongings (sold what they could) and moved here, to this one room. Jescer’s father currently sells onions in the market in Moshi Town (a 40 minute walk), transporting them back and forth each day. While Jescer’s mother stays at home to take care of the youngest, Clayton.
One room.
How they managed to fit two wooden loveseats and a chair (from their previous home) along with an assortment of other pieces to sit on, in that room is unbelievable. It was tight courters.
To divide the rooms hung a bright pink sheet with red velvet roses on it. As we sat there, talking, it barely moved (no air circulation)– on the other side were buckets of their kitchen supplies stacked on top of each other alongside a bed. It was believed that Jescer and her sister, Rose slept on the couches where we sat. Just outside, was their ‘stove’, a coal fire with one pot propped on top.
Though they might not have a lot, they will give what they can.
Jescer had made us a delicious dish combination of rice and seasoned beans from their little stove just outside the door.
Jescer wants to be a tailor when she graduates from GHTA.
It is inspiring. It is a lot coming from a family with little to nothing, where they have to hang their laundry on the electrical wires outside the room. Where they live with no lights, in a small room with cracked cement floors with no ventilation. Where someone is rationing how much water they use with a padlock on their water stout. Where they share a bathroom with at least a dozen other families. Where she walks an hour to come to Give A Heart To Africa to get an education.
