One Volunteer’s experience.

The following piece was written by Rhea Schmitt. She kindly volunteered to make a documentary film about building the health Centre in Kalalasi.

On August 25th 2007 I set of together with SUDA to visit the village Kalalasi in Western Tanzania.
For months SUDA had been fund-raising and I was very excited to see and experience what I had only heard about in the past, making a film about the journey.

After many hours of travelling and spending a few days on gathering necessities in Dar Es Salam we headed out on our 16 hour bus journey to Kalalasi.
Our arrival in the village could not have been more joyful and colourful. It was great to see how Mbeka was welcomed back by his family and Kitty almost a member of it, warmly remembered from her first visit 3 years prior. Shortly after our welcome we went to our first inspection of the health centre building site. I had expected to see just the foundations but it turned out the walls were already above head height. You could already see what the centre would look like.
It was one of those moments when you realize that caring beyond your own fence does change lives.

Over the course of the next three weeks, whilst the building grew day by day, I met many different people, getting an insight into the villagers’ life and seeing for myself why the health centre and SUDA’s work on it was so important. Many of the experiences caught on camera were given depth, just living with them, e.g. watching Tanzania playing an international game, visiting Mbeka’s sister with her new born or meeting the young girls. Whether it was the mother of twins who lost one of them due to the lack of health care or just the mere fact that children struggle to become older than 5. I was amazed about the excitement of seeing people working together on one project. I mean where in a village in Europe would people give up large amounts of their day to build something for the community, one or two hours a week yes but days?

Of course things never go smoothly all the way along and there were some hurdles to overcome concerning materials for the building site, as well as concerning power for the camera. In the end the generator went up in flames, but even that was not a problem for the local mechanic and got fixed, but it ruined my camera charger and we shot the remaining days with a small handy-cam.

It is hard to put down in writing how going to Tanzania changes the way you think, but despite being made aware that the appreciation for your luxuries in Europe will wear of, I am still, one year later, grateful everyday about what we have and am more passionate than ever about helping the disadvantaged and raising awareness via films. I obviously hope that the film will give some insight into the people there. Watching it should show the compassionate people who funded the centre what change they have accomplished and give some faces to the 2500 people of Kalalasi.

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