Karah Waters
Karah Waters
Tanzania 2017
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Mambo! I am a recent nursing graduate seeking to experience healthcare and African culture in Tanzania. I will be working in a hospital in Dar es Salaam as well as a clinic in the Kidodi village. Join me as I embark on this escapade of being engulfed in healthcare abroad. Read More About Karah →

Nane Nane Day

Nane Nane Day is a holiday in Tanzania known as Farmers Day. Nane in Swahili means 8. They call it Nane Nane because it the 8th of August. And August is the 8th month. This was last Tuesday and we got the day off at the hospital. I chose to spend the day going to the local, public beach which is walking distance from my house. It’s called Coco Beach. I went with my two guy friends and upon our arrival we were greeted by this lifeguard.

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His name is Daniel

He was so kind and showed us around the entire beach. It was absolutely breathtaking. The tide was extremely low and where we’re sitting was filled with water within 2 hours of the photo. Something Daniel kept mentioning was to be true to your heart. He explained how he’s a ‘survivor’. He came to Dar with just the clothes on his back and no money nor place to live. However, he now has an apartment where he can call home and enjoys his life greatly just by living simply. Daniel was a huge example to me of what it means to be humble and to be a hard worker. He would like fun of me and just find laughter in the smallest of things.

After going to the beach a group of us from the Work the World house had made an appointment to go to the local orphanage. I had brought a few things from America to give the children like playdough, pencils, crayons, glow in the dark stars, etc. But I collected a few more items at the local market like coloring books, clay, food, water, candy, etc.

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This is the outside of the orphanage

Going to the orphanage was so hard. I just kept thinking what would happen to the children in the future? They were so precious and so happy to see us. I felt uncomfortable about the orphanage home and how it was run. A lot of the supplies we brought the children would go in the backroom and just give it to the owners. We had heard that the owners take most of the things we bring and give it to their own children. There were two children who really stood out to me. One was this little girl on my shoulders and the boy in the middle. IMG_5226

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A lot of the children have never seen a phone before and are SO amazed at taking photos

Some of the children just didn’t seem like children to me if that even makes sense. You could tell they had not been properly loved or shown affection. There was a little boy who was no older than 3 years old and all he did was sit and cry. His face looked so sad and he seemed so despondent. It was heartbreaking. You could also tell they have had to fight for everything their entire lives. When I opened my backpack to hand out goodies they were pushing and fighting and trying to rip apart my backpack. I had a hard time getting them to calm down and then once they’d get a pack of crayons or pieces of candies they’d just hide them in their hands and pockets and not really even use or eat them. There were some children who had never even seen coloring books before and didn’t know how to use crayons.

After leaving the orphanage I was so sad and didn’t really know what to think of what I had experienced. A lot of the orphans are there because their mother died during childbirth and the father couldn’t stay home to take care of the baby because he had to work to provide food for the family so the family had no other option but to put them in an orphanage so they could be properly seen to.

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