All of the volunteers that are here in Moshi live in two houses and each house has four members of Tanzanian staff; a cook, a cleaner, a gardener and a watchman. When we arrived we noticed that one of the houses was noticably dirtier than the other and our co-ordinator explained to us that this was due to the fact that the cleaner in this house, Scholastica, was very ill with Malaria. For the first three weeks we were here Schola was frequently visiting the doctors and was finally admitted to hospital. It was decided that her 7 year old daughter Eliza would stay living with the other volunteers while her Mum was in hospital as her relatives lived too far away for her to be able to continue going to school.
Tragically however Schola never came out of hospital. On 25th October she died, leaving behind her 7 year old daughter. Although she officially died of Malaria it is widely thought that she was suffering from HIV / AIDS. Apparently there is still such prejudice here associated with HIV that no one ever admits to suffering from the disease. Even to the extent that some people refuse treatment as they will not admit that they have it. Over 1500 people attended her funeral.
Eliza has continued to live in the volunteer house. Her family is having meeting to decide who she should live with and when school finishes in two weeks she will leave the town where she has lived all of her life and her friends and go to live with relatives in a small village.
Last week we popped round to the other volunteer house and found Eliza holding an identity photo (it had been on the wall in the i-to-i house) of her mum. She was just looking at it and crying. It made us realise just how fragile life out here is. Unfortunately Eliza's story is not a rare one.
In an attempt to cheer her up we decided to take Eliza swimming. The cook from our house asked if she could come too so yesterday we all met at the pool and had a great time pushing each other in and trying to teach Eliza to swim. Swimsuits are rare in Tanzania so both Emmy and Eliza came in in just their underwear.
So good to see her smiling and laughing.
Tragically however Schola never came out of hospital. On 25th October she died, leaving behind her 7 year old daughter. Although she officially died of Malaria it is widely thought that she was suffering from HIV / AIDS. Apparently there is still such prejudice here associated with HIV that no one ever admits to suffering from the disease. Even to the extent that some people refuse treatment as they will not admit that they have it. Over 1500 people attended her funeral.
Eliza has continued to live in the volunteer house. Her family is having meeting to decide who she should live with and when school finishes in two weeks she will leave the town where she has lived all of her life and her friends and go to live with relatives in a small village.
Last week we popped round to the other volunteer house and found Eliza holding an identity photo (it had been on the wall in the i-to-i house) of her mum. She was just looking at it and crying. It made us realise just how fragile life out here is. Unfortunately Eliza's story is not a rare one.
In an attempt to cheer her up we decided to take Eliza swimming. The cook from our house asked if she could come too so yesterday we all met at the pool and had a great time pushing each other in and trying to teach Eliza to swim. Swimsuits are rare in Tanzania so both Emmy and Eliza came in in just their underwear.
So good to see her smiling and laughing.
posted by Ellie and Adam at
1:56 AM
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