Caroline Castle
@ccastlecourant
“I traveled with Putney, an international community service program, to Tanzania over the summer. It’s located in Eastern Africa, right below Kenya. We stayed for five weeks in the small agricultural village of Maji Moto. There, we built a house, repainted the school, and helped the people with their harvest.
Initially, I decided to embark on the trip solely for the community service aspect, however it became so much more. The place where we were staying was a completely different universe, and I experienced a completely different lifestyle than what I was accustomed to.
I think the biggest misconception I had prior to going on this trip was the idea that these people were miserable, suffering, and distressed, yet I couldn’t have been more wrong. The locals were the most inspiring, supportive, and loving people
I have ever met. The dynamic of their society was really unbelievable. The perseverance of their community is a result of their cohesion with one another. It is incredible how strong they all were when they were acting together. Whether if it were during church ceremonies, harvesting crops, or doing simple housework, everyone always contributed to everything.
Our group built this incredible relationship with a woman named Matumaini, meaning “Hope” in English. She has had two stomach surgeries in the past year, both completed at the biggest, most well-known hospital in Tanzania. In the first surgery, the doctors accidentally left gauze in her stomach after they completed the procedure. This resulted in an extreme infection and, four months later, another surgery to remove the gauze. Due to the fault in Hope’s previous surgery, she requested that her second would be completed by the head doctor of the hospital.
During this procedure, he accidentally slit her ovaries. Because of this, Hope can no longer have children. My group and I asked her, “Hope, why didn’t you sue him?!” She responded by saying something like, “If I sued him I would only be benefitting myself. If I sued him I would hurt him, his whole family, the whole hospital, and all of the sick in Tanzania requiring medical help. We must learn to love and forgive others even if they did us wrong. Everyone’s goal in life is to be happy. Why would we ever try to take someone else’s happiness in life just to fulfill the vengeance of our own?”
I am starting up a club called the Pamoja Project at the school. Stemming from the Swahili phrase, Na Tuka Pamoja, meaning, We Are Together, our club will strive to raise awareness about similar communities like Maji Moto. It is a super easy and fun way to get involved and promote small change.”
