Near Kiberege in the Morogoro region Bibi Kalembwana
herbalist trust fund is to be found. Kalembwana is the grandmother, bibi in
Swahili. She founded the herbalist hospital in 1912. When she felt she would
only have a few years more to exercise, she transmitted all her knowledge to
her grandson, Shaibu. Today, he is a renowned doctor and people come as far as
from Morogoro to receive his treatments.
Kalembwana is also an organic farm with rice, bananas,
papayas, coconuts to mention only a few, and an orphanage. In total 9 children
live and go to school from here, 17 others are supported by the organization,
but they still live with a family member in the nearby villages of Mkasu or
Kiberege. To send one child to school costs about 30 dollars a month, school
fees, uniforms and books included.
Shaibu and his wife Digna are the “mother” and “father” of
all these children. They love them as if they were their own, care for them and
teach them about responsibilities and duties. The children participate in the
daily life of the household by cooking, cleaning, carrying water from the
river, watering the plants…
Every morning I wake up at 7 and I start the day with
sweeping the floor in the house and mopping if necessary. After that I assist
the women in their daily chores in the kitchen. We make chapatti in the
morning, and for lunch and dinner rice or chips. There are many chickens around
and every day one ends up in the pot, together with coconut milk, ginger,
garlic and some tomato. They don’t use the milk inside the coconut. We use a
special chair that has a metal handle with a blade to scrape away the coconut. This
is then mixed with water and that’s the milk they use for cooking. It is also
put into the green vegetables that we eat almost every day: pumpkin leaves.
Delicious! Some days we go down to the river to wash our clothes or even our
bodies, other days we go to the village to say hello to relatives or friends.
When the children come back from school and they have
finished their chores and eaten, I teach them English, and then we play games
until the darkness sets in and we move closer to the house to eat the evening
meal and talk about our day. The life here is good. The men work on the farm
and rice fields and the women prepare the rice and take care of the house and
the food. The kitchen area is huge and has many little fires where different
preparations are cooking all day long, filling the air with delicious smells.
Anu is my friend. She is 21 years old and she introduces me
to many aspects of the African way of life. We wash our bodies in the river, we
talk about the differences between us and our cultures, and we prepare food
together. Her family is from Kiberege and we visit them several times. Her
mother even gives me two Kangas (matching pieces of fabric) as a present.
Kangas are very appreciated here in Tanzania . Not only are they
beautifully colorful, but they also have inscriptions sending messages to those
who read them. Mine say “if talking is silver, silence is gold”. I like it.
One day the women redo their hair. First they take out the
previous plaits, and then they do it again, in a different pattern. African
hair is different; it is easier to make it hold. I am fascinated by the speed
with which the new hairstyle is created. Another day the children and I go for
a walk on the property. We even see a snake and many banana trees and
jackfruit.
There are so many things happening around here. The former
Tanzanian minister of natural resources is a close friend of Shaibu. He visits
him for lunch on his way to somewhere else. I am lucky I get to meet him and we
even take a picture with him and the children. There are many dogs around, and
cats too. They wait for us to finish eating, then they get the rests and lick
the plates. One of the dogs has puppies! She has hidden them under a bush. They
are so small they look like rats.
I am so lucky! Digna is part of a women’s group and it is
her turn to host the party. 30 women arrive, dressed in their most beautiful
clothes. They have brought food and the whole day goes by with cooking and
laughing. After, they bring gifts to the hostess, usually money, and then they
dance. When I start to dance as well they all start laughing. It must look
really funny, a msungu moving to African rythms! The children join us and we
dance until the sun sets and even longer… Such beautiful three weeks. I wish
everyone could experience this.
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