We had our second flat tire in three days as we made our way to the airport for the trip home. Esau, my driver, had a spare handy this time!

Kelly's Tanzania Journal

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On one leg of the long trip, Nairobi (Kenya) to Zurich, a Frenchman sat next to me on the plane.

“Parlez vous Francais?” he asks.

“Non,” I replied, shaking my head sadly. Two years of high school French 30 years ago barely gets me past hello. “Do you speak English?” I ask.

 “No,” he said.

But we manage to communicate other ways…he shows me his itinerary, so I know he is going home to Paris. I show him mine so he knows I had boarded the plane in Tanzania.

“Ahh,” he says, and then, playing charades, he uses his hands to mimic wild animals; he is asking if I had been on a safari, seen any wild animals?

“Non,” I say again. Then he uses his hands to indicate Mt. Kilamanjaro, Africa’s tallest mountain, made famous by Ernest Hemingway and others, located in Tanzania.

“Non,” I say again. He looks puzzled.

So why would someone travel all the way to Tanzania and NOT drive through the Serengeti? NOT see Kilimanjaro? NOT go to exotic Zanzibar, just miles off the coast?

Unfortunately, I don’t have the words to tell this Frenchman I had gone to see something else…something equally impressive and important…I had seen the care and hard work that goes into the early stages of a Heifer International project and I had seen the rewards that care and hard work can produce.

I had seen Samuel and his family, healthy and happy because of a Heifer cow. Almost eight years have passed since Samuel received the gift of a heifer and training; he has since “passed on the gift” and grown his holdings to include four cows and two calves; he is obviously proud of his brick home and the other small storage buildings and pens in the family yard. Samuel tells me, through an interpreter, that because of Heifer, his wife has a good life and his three children go to school. He even owns a small kiosk, selling sundry items to neighbors, often saving them a long walk to town. His income has grown from approximately $10 to $100/month because of Heifer. “Heifer Project, asante sana,” he says (Swahili for thank you very much), and I don’t need an interpreter to understand the warmth I see in his smile or the gratitude I hear in his voice. 

I had seen Michael, a confident entrepreneur, who used to have his native cows (poor milk producers) stolen as they grazed. Through Heifer, he learned zero grazing techniques and animal husbandry skills before receiving his animal. Today, he has the nicest family compound I visited, complete with his own water tap. An expensive project, he says it was the profits from his growing stock of animals that paid for it. (Often, women walk several kilometers for water and then have a lengthy wait for their turn at the well or spring.)  Michael gives Heifer the credit for his success, but he certainly made the most of the opportunity.

Dinner is served on the flight to Zurich (“Bon Appetit,” says my French friend), and then the plane grows quiet and dark. (“Bon nuit,” says my French friend.)

At one point, the pilot comes on the intercom and says we are flying over Rome. My Frenchman and I look out the window and see the lights. “Tres jolie,” said my companion. “Oui,” I reply, and can’t help but think how the places I had just been wouldn’t light up at night like that, but were just as “very pretty.” 

I close my eyes, but can’t sleep, as visions of smiling children and hopeful adults swim in my head. No, I did not see Kilamanjaro or the Serengeti on this trip to Tanzania, but yes, what I did see was equally impressive and important. We’ve done some good work in this faraway place, 32 years worth, but there are still many families to help, many villages to touch.

I can’t tell my Frenchman, but I can tell you.

Kelly Ford
Communications Manager
Heifer Foundation

We skirted the edge of the Serengeti once more, retracing our route from Musoma to Mwanza.

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