A Legacy of Hope: Three Generations on a Journey of Discovery, Hope and Love

 

Sometimes our world can seem a place of intractable problems.  And sometimes, unexpectedly, we are given the gift of hope.

 

My daughter Laura called me late in 2023 and said she and her 12-year-old daughter Farley were planning to visit Tanzania with Karimu the following year.  When she asked if I wanted to join them, I said yes immediately. 

 

When I received the call from Laura back in 2023, I was not surprised.  Laura had traveled to Tanzania with Karimu once before on the very first trip Don and Marianne organized. 

 

My wife and I were thrilled Laura accepted the challenge of traveling with an organization committed to improving the health, education and standard of living in a remote region of Tanzania. 

 

I love to travel, especially to places off the tourist circuit.  The thought of traveling with Laura and Farley was especially appealing.  And I was familiar with Karimu and had the pleasure of meeting founders Don and Marianne previously and was awed by what they had accomplished with Karimu.

 

What I was perhaps not expecting to find was a profound vision of hope delivered by a 12-year-old with an open heart and a sense of wonder.  Farley’s joy and excitement provided me and all who made this journey with a confidence there remains in this world generations who will continue to seek and find solutions to the troubles that confront us.

 

 

Laura’s return to Tanzania and Ayalagaya this summer was a great deal more than a second visit.  Seeing what had become of the modest projects she witnessed in 2008 was astonishing to her.  Karimu’s growth and success in the region left her awed and occasionally speechless.

 

Laura also was pleasantly surprised at the improvements in the accommodations Karimu provided on the trip some 16 years after her first.  Our cozy two-bedroom cottage and showers warmed by a small solar heater were a significant improvement from her first visit.  Meals that were lovingly prepared and beautifully served in the dining hall were also a significant upgrade. And Karimu’s wonderful in-country staff gave so generously of their time and knowledge of the region we felt welcomed wherever we went.

 

But for Laura, myself and the other travelers to Tanzania, the real gift was seeing the world through Farley’s eyes and experiencing her joy and wonder.  Everywhere Farley went, she drew a crowd of children who wanted to be near her.  Together they would form a happy mob of noise and energy. 

 

 

 

Farley helped us judge a competition among actors, musicians, dancers and more that was a huge and fun part of our two-week visit.  She was a key part of activities in elementary schools that used puppets to introduce new and innovative ways of learning in a region where books are in short supply.  And she helped organize a series of board and card games in the secondary schools designed to broaden the players’ imaginations and creativity.

 

And of course, like all of us, she was a vessel for the warmth and love that Karimu inspires.  That warmth was evident the moment our small van of volunteers arrived at our destination and we were greeted by several hundred of the region’s residents. The heartfelt greetings, hugs, singing and dancing lasted not minutes, but hours.

 

 

“I’ve never been anywhere where so many people were so happy to see me,” Farley said afterward.

 

One of the most pleasant surprises for me were the lovely walks we would take first thing in the morning and then late in the afternoon.  These walks between the agricultural institute where we stayed and Karimu’s office in the small village of Dareda Kati took us through small clusters of homes, past groves of banana trees and fields of corn and grazing animals. 

 

Farley never faltered or tired.  She was often at the front of our small group, chatting with the staff member who escorted us and always a cheerful magnet for the children we would pass along the way. 

 

Karimu’s trips are extremely well planned and carefully managed.  But they are not luxury vacations.  Ayalagaya and Arri, the two regions where Karimu operates, are far away from Tanzania’s safari-oriented tourist attractions. As volunteers we were assigned tasks and given duties every day.  We spent many hours meeting with local leaders and everyday Tanzanians, learning about their hopes and expectations and about Karimu’s role in meeting them.

 

I came away from the experience impressed at what a focused, organized and carefully managed organization like Karimu can accomplish with its limited resources. 

 

Laura, I suspect, came away from the experience amazed at the growth and success of the effort she was part of at its beginning.

 

And Farley, I am confident, came away from the experience with an abiding understanding the world we inhabit is really just one large and diverse family that shares so many of the same goals, hopes and dreams.

 

When Laura first called me with the offer to join her and Farley on this journey, I will admit I was gratified we had somehow passed on to her our own notions of responsibility to do what we can to make the world a better place.

 

Knowing now that Laura has passed on to Farley a similar open-minded desire to learn about the world and how she can help make it a better place gives me hope.  Hope my generation is leaving behind generations that will never abandon hope, will continue to look for and find solutions to the problems that can seem so unsolvable.

 

I thank Karimu for giving me the opportunity to renew my hope.  And above all, I thank Farley for providing me proof positive that hope is real and will never die.