This is the fourth of a four part series on
Team Tanzania Development Support’s 2016 trek to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro
and its delivery of charitable donations to the Village of Nyegina in
Tanzania’s Mara region. For other parts of this series, please use the term
“Kilimanjaro” in this site’s search function.
Our long journey is coming to a close. We leave our Musoma hostel and head to nearby Nyegina to deliver the funds we have raised. We approach the village on the one lane
dirt road into town. Thousands of school children and villagers line the road
and crowd around our vehicles. We can no longer move so we exit and walk the
remaining way. We are mobbed by the people. Drums and bongos are thrumming at a
steady beat. People are singing and clapping. Leis are placed around our necks.
Hands are shook and backs are patted. We are being treated like returning
heroes after conquering faraway lands.
Schoolmates of Nicodemus's and Christina's, our student climbers, are in
awe of what their classmates have accomplished. They receive the loudest and
most heartfelt welcome. The rest of us get a lot of attention, but not like the
attention they are getting. The admiration they receive will last a lifetime.
They will always be remembered in their village as the "ones that climbed
Kilimanjaro."
The scope and size of this reception is overwhelming. It is entirely
unanticipated. Many of my fellow climbers are as overwhelmed and emotional as I
am. I wipe away the tears in my eyes with one hand while trying to video the
proceedings with the other.
This continues for another 10 to 15 minutes. The village is genuinely
thankful for our efforts in climbing Kilimanjaro and raising funds to further
the educational standards of their community.
We are led to a courtyard area where dignitaries and village
leaders are waiting. Little kids, dressed in their blue and tan school
uniforms, some with shoes, some without, circle around me, wanting to hold my
hands, which I oblige. I make sure I switch from one kid to another so as to
not leave any one of them out of the uniqueness of holding a large mzungu's
hands, something they giggle and whisper about to other nearby friends after
they scamper off.
After we are all seated, the school children perform various songs and
dance routines as their thanks to us. The gathering applauds loudly when we
present a check to the village in the amount of 110,000,000 Tanzanian
shillings.
So, it has come to end. The trip has come full circle. We gather later
in the evening over beer to debrief and go over our accomplishments. Everything
we've experienced over the past couple of weeks is a blur. We have done so much
and packed so many things into each day.
We have been rewarded in the way that we have tested ourselves and
passed the self-imposed exam of scaling one of the world's highest mountains.
But, more importantly, we have been rewarded with the knowledge that we
have made a difference, largely due to our donors who have so generously given.
What we and our donors have done will have real and tangible meaning for the
people of Nyegina and northwest Tanzania.
A video of the arrival and ceremony is at:
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