Arrival In Tanzania - Journey to Mufindi

 

After 29 hours of travel from Seattle via Wash DC and Addis Ababa,  the contingent planning to visit the Mufindi Children's Project in the southern central highlands of Tanzania finally arrived in Arusha-JRO airport before continuing on to the Mufindi District.

 

There we were met by Lucas, a driver for Nature Discovery, our Kilimanjaro trekking outfitter, and taken to the places we would overnight before continuing on to Mufindi by charter aircraft the following day.  Once in Mufindi, we will enjoy a 4-day visit with the children and those serving them.  Our objective is to get caught up on all the progress that has been made since out last visit and to get well grounded in the current projects and initiatives that need funding.

 

Rich Wortley and Jennifer Lindwall were lodged at the Meru House on the outskirts of Arusha while David Still and Gary Drobnack were hosted overnight by Thomas Holden and India Ellis in the same country neighborhood.  Thomas and India are family friends and he is General Manager for Nature Discovery in Tanzania.  His organization is the in-country outfitter for most of the Tanzanian treks offered by Thomson Safaris which is headquartered in the USA. 

 

Attractions where we spent the night included lots of flowering trees and shrubs and a near constant serenade of birds, crickets, frogs, and  various domestic animals.  We ate well and rested up for the charter flight to Mufindi the next day. The sounds of civilization were blissfully absent.

 

Early the next morning, after a delicious breakfast and after 8-year-old Olivia Holden-Ellis shot off to school, India Ellis collected the four of us and brought us to the small airport in Arusha that handles in-country flights and charter flights. 

 

In the process of waiting for our charter plane we learned that recent weather had been unseasonably wet and cool.  In fact, we heard reports that Kilimanjaro was getting some snow on top and rain at lower elevations.  We couldn't see Mt Kilimanjaro on the 14th or the 15th for all the clouds in the sky.

 

Farewell to India Ellis' cows.

David Still & Jennifer Lindwall displaying our Safari Airlink boarding passes.

David Still signals we are ready to fly to Mufindi.

We made it!  L-R Rich, Gary, Jennifer, and David.

Safely on the ground, we are met by Jeanie Fox of the Mufindi Highlands Lodge and taken through many villages and small towns, passing by beautiful tea plantations, forest plantations, some coffee, and large areas where subsistence agriculture is practiced.  Finally we arrive at the Foxes's Maganga Farm where we ultimately get to meet and greet Geoff and Vicky Fox, residents in Tanzania since the late 1950's and early 1960's.  They established the Mufindi Children's Project in 2005 when the devastation brought by unchecked HIV-AIDs infection in local communities began to overwhelm local residents and all living in the area.

Geoff Fox described the places and programs we would be seeing over the next 4 days, starting with the Counseling and Treatment Center (CTC) that was established in 2009 with funds from the Rosaria Haugland Foundation of Oregon.  The first Mufindi Mountaineers Challenge in 2009 was dedicated to get the CTC properly fitted out so it could begin to operate, to test and monitor HIV+ patients, to educate local communities about HIV-AIDs, and to start to turn around the growth of this disease in local communities.  At the CTC, people come to be tested, and if positive, to be monitored and receive ARV meds that allow them to lead more normal lives.  This means better care and conditions for orphans, other vulnerable children, and the elderly.  Slowly the tide is being turned and prospects of better lives for the local people is now  becoming a reality.

Geoff Fox will also help us understand where the next round of Mufindi Mountaineers funding will best be applied.  It will involve fitting out the old Mdabulo Dispensary, now a Clinic, so that it can achieve the classification of a Hospital, and thereby attract more government support in the form of medical staffing and supplies and strengthen the engagement with programs like the US-AIDS PEPFAR program that supplies anti-retroviral drugs.  There is a community of 45,000 people in this part of the Mufindi District which does not have access to such a facility at the present time.

More to follow in the next posting.