Returning to old friends; witnessing change; comfort in Kayanga

As the Arizona State-Amizade Community Development course begins, the red-dirt streets of Kayanga are familiar. I’ve spent more summertime here over the past five years than any other place except Pittsburgh. It’s been a joy to return and reconnect. Peter Lazaro has a wife and baby. Juma Massisi is doing very well. Joseph Sekiku’s son Simeon has grown into a young man and his young daughter Anna is now away at boarding school in Uganda. The originally-imagined Amizade-ELCT orphanage project has morphed into a much-needed nurses training center (as reviews of orphanages have steadily grown more critical). This year’s students are rapidly meeting and connecting with Amizade’s network of friends in the area. We’ve noticed that more people seem to know how to say uh-ma-za-gee correctly in Kayanga than in most cities in the United States. 

Amizade’s presence and partnership here has contributed to the development of at least one small business, one nonprofit organization, seven family water harvesting systems and tanks (supporting some 40 people), one USAID grant supporting WOMEDA and renewable through later years, further dialogue and awareness about women’s rights, English tutoring in schools, the expansion of FADECO radio, the creation of a tree and plant nursery at Mavuno, the completion of a village-scale water harvesting system in Chonyonyo, the completion of one-going-on-two water tanks at Mavuno for a girls boarding school that is currently under construction, and the development of water access and wind-generated electricity at the Eden Center, where computer training classes for women currently take place. We are here now with fourteen students; yesterday was the first day of service.

One group is supporting WOMEDA’s most recent data-gathering project, working to provide data for a future grant application that will help address teen pregnancy. Another group is supporting English language learning in the schools, and the third group is advancing the construction of a water harvesting tank that will support the Mavuno girls’ boarding school. The groups will spend several days on each project, cycling through with steady leadership at each location. Along the way, the students are wrestling with development issues, learning a great deal about the reality of regular electricity service, steady and sometimes hot water, travel, and dust. They’re experiencing international borders in East Africa and getting a glimpse of what education systems often look like in rural communities. Most of all, they’re eating an awful lot of matoke (mashed banana).

I find myself at comfort here; the systems of support for the program continue to improve and I’m increasingly familiar with each bend in the road and trail through the banana trees that cover the valley. My main concern as always is how we could do more as an organization and group of service-learners. Organizations like Amizade serve many missions, providing students with educationally challenging and personally rewarding study abroad programs that encourage global ethics while also taking seriously the substantial challenges involved in community-driven development across cultures. I think Amizade does a good job of balancing the pressures at play here: neither focusing too much on students at the expense of community concerns nor jeopardizing students’ experiences, learning, and safety in order to give more attention and resources to the community. How this is achieved will be the subject of future posts. For now: we are all healthy, happy, and pleased to be serving and learning in Kayanga.