In kindness there is goodness, and in goodness there is magic

Hello friends and family! I want to use this blog post as an opportunity to talk about some small but important events and things that are part of my life here in Tanzania. Universal kindness is something I have witnessed overwhelmingly on this trip and here in Tanzania it has been no different. I believe that people are inherently good and that given the opportunity, most people and animals just want to show love and affection and want to receive it in return.

First of all I would like to introduce everyone to Mama and Baby. Baby and Mama are two female dogs that live on the street outside of the Positive Love lot. I met them in my second weekend in Arusha; Mama was heavily pregnant and Baby was very timid and had a horrible skin problem. The ladies at Positive Love always shooed the dogs away when they came near to us and told us that they were bad dogs. I couldn’t believe it, they seemed like such sweet dogs and almost all of the street dogs I’ve met on my world journey have just wanted to love and be loved. After our first weekend had come and gone, we came to Positive Love on Monday to find that Mama was no longer pregnant and that there were seven brand new puppies living in the bushes on the side of the road. I couldn’t just watch a new mama dog and a sick dog live out their sad street lives, so the next day I bought a big bag of dog food and started what would become a daily ritual of feeding the dogs and giving them water and lots of affection. As it turns out, they are two of the sweetest dogs ever! Sometimes they fight with each other for my attention and they are always waiting outside the door of Positive Love for when I will next come out and see them. Now its seven weeks later and there is only one puppy left with Mama, we hope and assume that the others were taken into people’s homes and have seen no evidence to suggest otherwise. The ladies at PL at first thought I was crazy to be feeding street dogs, in Africa many people have a fear of dogs which leads them to treat them poorly which leads the dogs to defensive behavior and just keeps going in a circle. Now the PL ladies help feed the dogs when I am not there and always make sure to save lunch scraps for them. A few have even come out with me and tentatively pet the dogs and been surprised at how sweet they are. The locals who walk by are also baffled by my behavior since they usually avoid and shoo away street dogs they come upon. They love to watch me feeding and playing and always want to why I’m feeding street dogs and why I’m not afraid of them. Baby’s skin condition has much improved with her regular dog food meal and Mama is gaining weight now that she doesn’t have seven puppies to constantly feed. They know who I am and they get so excited when I walk down the street, sometimes they can’t contain themselves and they start howling and barking. I know that they will be sad when I leave and that I can only feed them while I’m still here but it seems to me like feeding and loving dogs who have never been fed or loved is better than doing nothing, even if it is only temporary. I have considered bringing Baby home with me since we have developed a special relationship, but I’m afraid that the journey would be extremely traumatizing for her and there are no pet transport agencies anywhere in Tanzania to help me with the logistics. I can only hope that the PL ladies will continue to give the doggies food scraps and water once I leave. These dogs are a very important and very special part of my time in Tanzania and it makes the pain of missing my dogs a little bit less and brightens my day.

Secondly, I would like to introduce you all to the group of boys in our neighborhood who have become wonderful friends. There are an ever increasing number of neighborhood children who come to our house to play but the main group of boys are Freeman, Benedict, Baraka, Abdi, and Asumani. The boys come over every day after school and do ‘class’ with the volunteers here. Some teach English, some teach math, some color, and some just play and interact. A couple of Saturdays ago, the boys came into our compound uninvited and very secretive, when we came out to see what was happening, we found that they had set up a party for us! They brought tablecloths and dishes from their homes and filled them with candies and snacks and fruit that they had bought with money that they had been saving for weeks in order to do this for us. Many of the volunteers, myself included, were almost brought to tears. These boys, who live in poverty and have next to nothing, saved their money for WEEKS to throw a party for the volunteers who teach them and play with them. We had an amazing day with all of the neighborhood children, making origami, coloring pictures, playing football, doing cushion gymnastics and enjoying the snacks. It was probably one of the most touching and amazing days I have had on this journey and possibly in my lifetime. These boys are truly something special.

Finally, last weekend I had a wonderful experience at a local organization here in Arusha. The organization is called Shanga and it is an organization that employs Tanzanians that have disabilities and are therefore unable to find work anywhere else. They learn different craft making skills and using as much recycled material as possible they make beaded jewelry, they weave throw rugs and blankets, they blow amazing glass products, they recycle metal and make metal crafts, and some learn to tailor and sew and make amazing clothing and pillowcases to name a few. The location in Arusha is both a factory and a shop. When we arrived, we got a free tour of the factory and got to see all of the different people working and making the crafts. Some of them are deaf, some are paralyzed, some have lost appendages but all of them are smiling and waving and working hard to create the most beautiful products! Then we were taken to the shop where we could buy all of the products, everything in there is so amazing, I almost bought out the whole store! It is a beautiful location and such a wonderful organization. Not only are they saving people by employing those with disabilities, but they are also contributing to saving the planet by using recycled material whenever possible and on top of that, a portion of some of their products also goes to wildlife conservation efforts. Talk about inspiring. One of my dreams is to start my own nonprofit or NGO, maybe something like this is in my future! Can you imagine if every city had a place like that!?

Things like these are what make traveling so far and for so long worth it. There are some amazing people in this world and to see that kindness can be found everywhere, in even the most unlikely of places, is such an uplifting and inspiring thing. I hope that all of you try to find kindness in your everyday lives, I’m sure it is there but it is often easy to overlook. I tend to let negative things take up more of my energy and my thoughts, but I’m trying to change that and overlook the negative and find the positive in everything I do, in everyone I meet, and in every place I go and I hope that you do too! My positive outlook has definitely been put to the test this past week, its been a hard week just dealing with the logistics of living in Africa and I also recieved the very disappointing news that I did not get the internship with Compassion. It came down to me and another candidate and they went with the other person. I'm pretty upset about it and now I'm a bit lost as to what my next steps will be when I get home. Prayers and good thoughts are VERY appreciated at this point. If the Broncos can come back after two losses, so can I! Thanks for reading everyone!!

LP