Being a Recipient

Going to Tumamoyo was a really great experience. I look forward to going again. We splint the kids into two groups for tutoring. I took the girls and Chris took the boys. My little ladies, Rose, Esther, Happy, and Farajhe were eager to get into their lessons. The thing I discovered first is that they are excellent listeners and are able to repeat nearly verbatim the things I would read aloud. It gives the appearance of the ability to read when in fact they cannot decipher the words. When I asked them to read the questions out loud, they could not. When they answer questions in their workbooks individually, they match the words from the questions with the words in the story and answer the next line because it is usually the answer to the question. When the next line wasn’t the answer, I discovered what was going on. These girls have a long way to go to be able to pass their exams. I know they can do it; it’s going to take a lot of work.

During their lessons the group from Citi Bank came. They were very late but we were happy they made it. The biggest gift they brought was a pick-up truck full of food – rice, beans, sugar, salt, milk, and cooking oil – to be distributed to the children’s families.

Watching the volunteers unload the food, I felt like and insider for the first time in a really long time. I knew what was going on. I wasn’t the one staring wide-eyes trying to understand the meaning of what I saw and figure it out. For a split second, I felt role reversal. I could see the situation with perspective of the people being helped, not the one coming to help. I felt so grateful because I had an understanding of that those bags of beans meant to those kids. It means one more decent meal to keep them healthier one more day. It is one more chance to take in important vitamins to keep bones and eyes strong.

I’ve seen a system that works at Tumamoyo. Those kids are eager to learn and get something more out of life for themselves. They want to learn and the Mama Mkubwas are committing to seeing them through.

This is not a system that would work at home. It relies too much on people knowing their neighbors and having a sense of community in a neighborhood. In Tanzania, and other places the Salvation Army has piloted, the curriculum, it works. Tumamoyo is one of those non-governmental organizations that work and is really effective. The board has found what works and is culturally appropriate and is applying it to get results. The cookie cutter approach of foreigners coming in with a plan didn’t happen. This group has grown into its own and decided to work within the boundaries of the culture it serves not make the people conform to a different set of values. From seeing the sometimes disastrous results of well meaning organizations I think that it would serve many of them well to step back and evaluate what works in the community versus what makes people feel good about their involvement in other places. Ultimately, humanitarian work isn’t about making workers and donors feel good it is about getting results to help the people the projects are intended for.