Coco Beach | Lumos Student Travel Award Program

8/19/2017
I met these lovely ladies when I was back on the mental health ward. They just welcomed me with open arms at Muhimbili. They’re second year nursing students about to go into their third year! The day I went to the methadone clinic they were there as well. We talked for hours and hours and they invited me over to their student hostel after placement.

They made me feel at home and introduced me to all of their friends. We had dance parties and they did my hair. They showed my their rooms and we talked about our family and just life in general. How Africa differs to America. The various tribes they’re in. Even though we come from two different parts of the world we’re still so similar. They made me dinner as well. They invited me back another time and waited for me to get off of work. They made me even more food like maandazi, pilau, and tambi na maharage. Different ladies would make me various things and bring everything together for me to eat. I really love trying Swahili feed and eating it like they do, with your hands. They even bought me sugar cane juice from their mini store downstairs that’s for students.

This is Beatrice with dinner she made me in her room!

This dish in particular that Beatrice made was very interesting! It was sweet spaghetti noodles with beans.

I definitely have gone out of my comfort zone so many times here when it comes to food! Luckily, I haven’t gotten sick or anything from things yet!

During our various conversations I learned that they had never had a burger nor pizza. They explained to me that very few people in Tanzania have actually had “white people food.” They said that if you eat “white people food” then you’re doing very good in life and you have a happy life. I tried to explain to them that in America you can get burgers for very cheap. Like on the Dollar Menu. However, they asked how much is $1 USD compared to Tanzanian shillings. $1 USD equated to 3,000 Tanzanian shillings. They said that they could eat three meals with that much money in one day. This kind of took me back and really opened my eyes. I insisted that they let me take them out for burgers, my treat. I just had to introduce them to their first burger experience!

We met up on a Saturday at Salt which is this Western restaurant near Oyster Bay and Coco Beach. It’s the only Western restaurant around and one of the few places that sells burgers. They were in awe at the restaurant! I have never really been put in the position where I’ve had to explain what everyday typical things are. For instance, they’d ask me questions about the menu like what ketchup was or what macaroni and cheese was. It was kind of funny because typically they’re the ones telling me what all of the different things in Tanzania are but now I was able to share a little bit of home with them even though we weren’t in America.

There’s a lot of different and unique types of burgers on the menu. Of course your regular beef burger, chicken burger, salmon burger, etc. They would ask me to explain what each one was and what everything on the menu meant. I ended up asking each of them what they like in Swahili food like if they prefer spicy over sweet, etc. and made my assumptions that way and based that off of how I ordered for them. It was such a fun meal!

We made a toast for them almost being done with the semester. The school year is switched here. They’re about to have summer whereas in America summer is ending.

After lunch we went to Coco Beach and strolled along the shore and I took them to the cliffs. My friend there, who’s a lifeguard, walked with us to the cliffs. It was just so much fun relaxing with them. It was also nice having them there because they were able to translate what everyone was saying to me.

This is definitely an experience that made me very honored and humbled and a memory that I’ll always cherish.

Nane Nane Day is a holiday in Tanzania known as Farmers Day. Nane in Swahili means 8. They call it Nane Nane because it the 8th of August. And August is the 8th month. This was last Tuesday and we got the day off at the hospital. I chose to spend the day going to the local, public beach which is walking distance from my house. It’s called Coco Beach. I went with my two guy friends and upon our arrival we were greeted by this lifeguard.

His name is Daniel

He was so kind and showed us around the entire beach. It was absolutely breathtaking. The tide was extremely low and where we’re sitting was filled with water within 2 hours of the photo. Something Daniel kept mentioning was to be true to your heart. He explained how he’s a ‘survivor’. He came to Dar with just the clothes on his back and no money nor place to live. However, he now has an apartment where he can call home and enjoys his life greatly just by living simply. Daniel was a huge example to me of what it means to be humble and to be a hard worker. He would like fun of me and just find laughter in the smallest of things.

After going to the beach a group of us from the Work the World house had made an appointment to go to the local orphanage. I had brought a few things from America to give the children like playdough, pencils, crayons, glow in the dark stars, etc. But I collected a few more items at the local market like coloring books, clay, food, water, candy, etc.

This is the outside of the orphanage

Going to the orphanage was so hard. I just kept thinking what would happen to the children in the future? They were so precious and so happy to see us. I felt uncomfortable about the orphanage home and how it was run. A lot of the supplies we brought the children would go in the backroom and just give it to the owners. We had heard that the owners take most of the things we bring and give it to their own children. There were two children who really stood out to me. One was this little girl on my shoulders and the boy in the middle.

A lot of the children have never seen a phone before and are SO amazed at taking photos

Some of the children just didn’t seem like children to me if that even makes sense. You could tell they had not been properly loved or shown affection. There was a little boy who was no older than 3 years old and all he did was sit and cry. His face looked so sad and he seemed so despondent. It was heartbreaking. You could also tell they have had to fight for everything their entire lives. When I opened my backpack to hand out goodies they were pushing and fighting and trying to rip apart my backpack. I had a hard time getting them to calm down and then once they’d get a pack of crayons or pieces of candies they’d just hide them in their hands and pockets and not really even use or eat them. There were some children who had never even seen coloring books before and didn’t know how to use crayons.

After leaving the orphanage I was so sad and didn’t really know what to think of what I had experienced. A lot of the orphans are there because their mother died during childbirth and the father couldn’t stay home to take care of the baby because he had to work to provide food for the family so the family had no other option but to put them in an orphanage so they could be properly seen to.

Lumos Student Travel Award Program – Belmont University

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