2018 WGA Team Vista Trip: The First 3 Days

Written by: Joel Brown

WGA Structural Engineer

​Day 1 – Monday 22 October
 
Today was arrival day for Caroline, Richard, Imani and myself.  We landed at around 6pm and breezed through customs.  That is where the simple life ended… Ally (Tanzania Co-ordinator) forgot to pick us up and left us stranded at the airport.  It was fine, we took a taxi to the middle of no-where to meet him.  Once we met up and loaded the Mosha’s 700kg of luggage into the car, we were on our way to paradise… or so we thought.  We tried to start the car but even though it was running fine literally seconds earlier, it decided it wouldn’t play ball.  Thankfully our taxi driver had some jumper leads in the car… and by jumper leads I mean two frayed wires barely covered in any insulation.  Because it was pouring rain, we decided a Take 5 wasn’t necessary… what could possibly go wrong?  Eventually the car started and we were on our way to paradise!!!  Turns out paradise is about 2km down the bumpiest dirt track which only Wongy (Alex Wong) could be proud of designing.  Finally, once we bounced our way to the house, we realised that paradise was in the midst of a blackout.  It was at this point that I started to think about changing my flights to return home early.  Nevertheless, I bravely charged on and began to help unloading the 700kg of luggage which was all deemed necessary by the Moshas.  Thankfully Richard’s mum had prepared us a lovely dinner (at her place where there was working electricity) and saved the day from complete disaster.
 
Highlight of the day:
 
Coming in a close second was the long haul flights we all just took (this gives you an idea of how highly I rated this day).  But after much discussion, the Moshas and I decided that the highlight of the day was not having to put up with Michael yet!!
 
Lowlight of the day:
 
When I realised that Richard’s 16 year old brother had bigger biceps than me.
 
Day 2 – Tuesday 23 October
 
Michael arrived at about 6am in the morning… ‘I’m getting in only a few minutes after you’ he told us.  Someone obviously didn’t take much notice when they taught the difference between am and pm in pre-primary.  I was stoked because at least we had power now!!  Today was a fairly basic day since we were all pretty tired and needed to stock up on general supplies and get our phones working.  We took our first trip into town and got to see what Tanzania really looked like.  Think unsealed roads, people walking everywhere (no matter the time of day), fresh fruit and small markets as far as you could see.  Welcome to Moshi!!  The people are all so friendly and greet you as if they are your life long friends.  It is very easy to feel a part of the place!!

​Highlight of the day:
 
Showering for the first time after about 48 hours.
 
Lowlight of the day:
 
Waiting approximately 13 hours (probably only 1.5 in reality) to get 4 sim cards setup. How hard can it be to get a prepaid sim card you ask?  Talk to Richard who had to sign documents, provide 3 forms of ID and have identification photos taken for each of them.  And don’t for one second think that they would expedite this system by filling out all the paperwork at one time… no, each form was started and finished individually.  But hey, that credit lasted all of 6 minutes so it was worth it right?
 
Day 3 – Wednesday 24 October
 
Today was earmarked for a planning and organising day.  In true Tanzanian fashion, we said we would meet the others at 9am and didn’t turn up until about 10am… we are learning very quickly that everyone is later than they say they will be (including us).  By the time we finished discussing our plan for the day, the day was almost over.  Luckily we had time to fit in a trip to both a secondary and primary school.  It became evident very quickly that schooling is one of the most important things for children here, which is not quite what I expected given everyone is so chilled and relaxed.  You get kicked out of school if you don’t pass certain exams (thankfully my university didn’t do that)!!!  Our first main project while we are here is to fix up the toilets at the primary school and boy do these need fixing up.  The kids literally just poop through a hole in the floor and there is shit everywhere.  Because of this I decided it would be best to let Michael take the lead on this project and he took to it like a duck to water, coming up with a great plan to install safe toilets and running water into the toilet block. Despite what Nathan and Damien say, I think he is becoming a great civil engineer.

Let’s take a trip back in time to last night when we were all sitting in the lounge room chatting.  Michael was sitting near the fireplace (this house must be the only place in East Africa to have a fire place) and we just saw a flash of black.  No one knew what this was and we brushed it off without another thought.  Well tonight we discovered what it was… Once again we were sitting in the lounge room and then all of a sudden a bat flies over our heads and circles the room before darting into the back of the house.  Caroline took Imani to their bedroom whilst us “men” were left to deal with the bat.  Richard and Michael were hunting the bat whilst I cowered in the corner with a pillow for a weapon.  It was a long 15 minutes of the bat hunting us, but thankfully it decided it had traumatised us enough and flew back up the chimney.  We then proceeded to block up the chimney to make sure it couldn’t return.  But is this the end of the bat saga?...
 
Highlight of the day:
 
The highlight of the day had to be seeing all the kids at the primary school today.  They just flocked towards us and wanted high fives and hugs.  They were all chanting “Muzungu, Muzungu.”  Muzungu means white person.  At first Michael started lecturing the children about how racist this was until we realised that this was just their way of life.  Who would have thought that you could acknowledge someone’s colour without it being racist or suggesting they are inferior in some way.
 
Lowlight of the day:
 
Although I am calling this lowlight of the day, it is not because it was a bad experience, it is just because this was the first time on the trip that it really hit home the level of poverty in some areas of the country and tugged on the heart strings.  We visited a lady’s house, Mrs Ramadhani .  She is a sweet little old lady who takes in children off the street and feeds them.  All this while living in a small ‘shack’ approximately 5m x 5m, with one small bedroom for several people to sleep in, a lounge room and a cooking area.  She has so little and is well passed working age but yet she still finds the time and money to take care of several children who she has no relation to.  Team Vista have been supporting Mrs Ramadhani for 9 years now, since she used to work for them as a cook.  She now has Type 2 diabetes and Team Vista cover her medical expenses which are approximately $100 per month in medication. This sense of responsibility and community was inspiring and the world would be a better place with many more Mrs Ramadhanis.