Status: 11.11.2023, 21:00 PM
By: Theresa Kuchler
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Joint souvenir photo: Our editor Theresa Kuchler spent about a month with the children of the Ebenezer Orphanage Centre. Also in the picture is George (back right), who runs the orphanage. © Kuchler
Out of affluent Germany, into real life. Editor Theresa Kuchler spent a month in an orphanage in Tanzania. As a volunteer, she lived with around 70 children and was allowed to immerse herself in a parallel world in which people have little but do everything for each other.
Schongau/Ifakara - Shortly after five o'clock, the voices of the children wake me up from my sleep. They enter unfiltered through the windowless windows of my room and I hurry to get out of bed. I quickly put on a cardigan and walk across the dusty floor to the small crowd of people that has formed a few meters behind the guest room. It's cool and not really bright yet, the morning sun is just about to send its orange over the horizon.
A mixture of sung Swahili and English echoes across the grounds. There are a few verses that are repeated over and over again, and they sound much more cheerful than I know from prayers from Catholic churches in Germany. I stand near the group and watch as the children lose themselves in the music for minutes. Always to the beat of the boy drumming on an empty bucket. Many children have their eyes closed while singing, and some press a hand to their chest, as if they could feel the moment even more intensely. A few spot me and give me a grin.
For many, the parents are dead
What faith means to the orphanage children is the first thing I learn when I come to Ifakara as a volunteer at the Ebenezer Orphanage Centre. The orphanage is located on the outskirts of the Tanzanian town, where only the main road is paved and where it is normal for the electricity to go out for several hours a day.
More than 70 boys and girls who would otherwise not have one have found a home here. Many have their parents dead, some have been abused, others have been abandoned or abandoned in the bush as infants. Maybe because it's expensive to raise children. In Tanzania, a lot seems to revolve around money. Possibly because no one there has any. The fact that, in the worst case, this means that parents decide against their child is hard to bear.
More comfort than most homes have
I spend a month with the children. We cook, clean and wash together, and in the afternoon we romp around in the shade on the sandy area. A warm hospitality is firmly rooted in Tanzanian culture, and so during my visit I am not only served hot food three times a day, but also a private room with a small bathroom, fan and tiled terrace. More comfort than most houses in Ifakara have to offer.
Shakira (right) is twelve years old and makes sure that her orphanage siblings have something to eat every day. © Kuchler
The brick buildings that stand between palm trees and mango trees on the bumpy roads are more like what is considered a shell in Europe. Kind of unfinished. It doesn't bother the people who live in them. On the contrary, what they have, they maintain and repair with a natural perseverance. And they would share it with anyone at any time.
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As if it were the most normal thing in the world for children her age to do this, Shakira plucks a few leaves from the large mango tree next to the open kitchen and holds the branches so tightly that she doesn't burn her hands. The pot she wants to lift from the fire is hot and heavy. She stands on the worktop with her legs wide open and pulls the steaming porridge out of the embers. It is a creamy liquid made from light cornmeal, sugar and water that smells sweet and fills you up. The little girls sitting on the floor around their big sister get them for breakfast.
The youngest girl is one and a half years old
Shakira cooks for her siblings at the orphanage almost every morning. Although she has probably only completed the seventh grade, she no longer goes to school. During my time in Ifakara, I spend a lot of time with the tough twelve-year-old. She shows me how to cut vegetables in my hand and get the meat from a coconut. I help her haul pumped buckets from the well, and she helps me wash my clothes in the water trough. Because I don't speak Swahili and she doesn't speak much English, we don't speak much. We communicate anyway. That's how it works with most kids.
The youngest girl I meet at the orphanage is one and a half years old and is just starting to speak. The oldest boy is 20 and studying pharmacy. In between, pretty much every age is represented. George, whom the children call Brother George, is something like the father of this huge blended family. The 34-year-old had to take over the management of the orphanage in the summer after his mother died suddenly. Mama Tekla was a teacher for disabled children in Ifakara and founded the Ebenezer Orphanage Centre almost 20 years ago. The grief of her unexpected death runs deep in every member of the extended family. She is buried in the middle of them on the grounds.
Seven kilos of beans a day
George looks tired as he sits down with me at the breakfast table. In his hand he has a piece of paper with long lists. 30 kilos of rice per day: 75,000 Tanzanian shillings (the equivalent of about 28 euros). Seven kilos of beans a day: 15,000 Tanzanian shillings. 200,000 Tanzanian shillings for the pocket money of the four young people who go to college and have to buy their own food, every week.
With over 70 children, there is a lot of laundry every day. It helps everyone to scrub the clothes clean by hand. © Kuchler
The director of the orphanage has summed up everything that needs to be taken care of the children – if a donor wants the information, he says. According to his calculations, food alone costs more than 53 million Tanzanian shillings a year. Sometimes he doesn't know how to handle it all, says George. "I don't want to disappoint my mother."
All news and stories can also be found on the Facebook page of the Schongauer Nachrichten.
The Ebenzer Orphanage Centre does not have many sources of income. The donations of the association "Tanzania Kids", which was founded by the Dießen teacher Sibylle Schuppe, reach the orphanage on a monthly basis. They are existential. George and the other adults in the orphanage – his wife Theresia and his sister Sadi – use the money to pay for their purchases at the market, from which the children can eat three times a day. But George would prefer to be financially independent.
Almost 50 pigs lie on the bare ground and doze
In addition to a pregnant cow and eight goats, almost 50 pigs lie on the bare ground and doze. George walks with me through the simple stables that were built a few years ago at the back of the orphanage grounds and shows me the animals in which he puts a lot of hope. The 34-year-old studied economics. He wants to build up an independent income with the pigs. "At the moment they are still too small, but in a few months we will be able to sell them," he says, pointing to the piglets and medium-sized sows.
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When the pigs scream for food, it is deafeningly loud in the barn. The boys of the orphanage hurry to fill the troughs with a creamy mass, which they mix with powder and water, to which they add a kind of food supplement. "We've recently lost a lot of pigs to swine flu," says George. Only a few animals survived.
In the afternoons, the children have time off and play. They love to be creative when drawing. © Kuchle
With the agent in the feed, the new pigs are supposed to be better protected against diseases. "When you're starting something new, setbacks are normal," says George. "All you can do is try to do better next time." He wants to make it. Unconditional.
The local newspapers in the district of Weilheim-Schongau are represented under "merkur_wm_sog" on Instagram.
On my last evening at the orphanage, I sit on a plastic chair surrounded by dozens of children and fight back tears. Little hands grab my shoulders, arms and crown of my head and I hear the soothing sound of their voices one last time. This time, the children are praying for me. I think about the many hours I have worked, learned, and played with them, and I feel gratitude that they let me into their world. It won't be my last visit to them, I'm sure.
Donation account: "Tanzania Kids": Sparkasse Landsberg-Dießen TanzaniiaKids eV. Dießen; IBAN DE78 7005 2060 0022 5363 12; BIC BYLADEM1LLD