I locked eyes with a young mother coddling a baby, sitting outside a small mud hut on the hot May afternoon as our African ecology class walked through Usa, Tanzania.  As we stared at one another, we realized there was something that we shared; an understanding between one another.  We had no idea what it was, who the other was, where we were from, how we came to the same area, but we had an indescribable connection.  She calmly lipped to me, “Salama,” meaning “peace” in Swahili and I lipped the same back to her.  The moment probably lasted about 45 seconds, but it’s a moment I will never forget. 

The African ecology class included 14 students of all different majors and two professors, Dr. John Nosek, assistant professor of biology, and Dr. Cathy Nosek, associate professor of nursing.  We left Winona State University on May 19, 2005, for an unexpected life-changing experience.  We arrived in Tanzania after about 25 hours of traveling to Mount Meru Game Lodge in Arusha; adrenaline was at an all time high.  This was my first time out of the country, and I had to stop to realize that I was actually in Africa half way around the world from Winona. 

On our second day in Tanzania, we met with a tour guide named Frankie who had lived in the area for more than 30 years.  He was leading the tour of the game lodge grounds; little did we know we would be visiting our first village.  We started out learning about the types of plants in the area then slowly made our way to Usa.  None of us were prepared for what we were about to experience.          

While in Usa, several children excitedly followed us and in choppy English told us it was a happy day because we were visiting.  The homes we saw in Usa were similar to other houses we would see on the trip.  They were made out of mud, wood/sticks, scraps of metal and rocks.  This was very shocking to me.  I looked down into the polluted Usa River and witnessed many people washing themselves, doing their laundry and brushing their teeth. 

After the visit, we sat down at a round table discussion lead by Dr. John Nosek, a.k.a. Doc, to find out our reactions to our first village experience.  Many of us didn’t know how to take in that type of culture.  We had no time to prepare ourselves, which, I believe, is what made it one of the most memorable experiences.  We were thrown into a different culture; we had to accept it and take it all in at once.  If we had time to prepare for the experience, it wouldn’t have been the same.

Days later, with the help of our three guides, Godfrey, Shaba and Dennis, we loaded up the tan Predator Safari Club vans for a bumpy ride to Iambi Hospital.  The ride was between six and eight hours long, although I’m not quite sure since I lost count every time I hit my head on the window or the ceiling of the van as we made our own road to Iambi.  When we arrived, we were greeted by David West, a supervisor at Iambi, who was also from the United States. 

We introduced ourselves to him and were shown to a dormitory where the women would be staying.  The dorm was a large, unfinished building that was separated into two sides; four old hospital beds on one side and five on the other. Each bed came with its own mosquito netting, which was a life saver due to the falling cockroaches and spiders which looked as if they were on steroids!  The men and the professors would stay in a house up the road. 

We toured the hospital which consisted of a nursing school, operating rooms, a leper ward, OB GYN and many similar areas like we have in the United States.  The rooms were not as well equipped or as up-to-date as the U.S., but they were clean.

One of the more shocking details of Iambi was the fact that they only have electricity two nights of the week, Wednesday and Sunday.  Since we were visiting, they decided to use the two nights we were staying for the nights they had electricity.  I thought that was an amazing gesture and sacrifice.

We washed up for dinner in the sinks, since the showers weren’t working.  We were all thankful for running water.  We had dinner with Mary Ellen Kitundu, a former professor at WSU and medical director and president of the Iambi Project; Paula Loftstrom, LPN and secretary of the Iambi Project; and Dr. Dennis Loftstrom, Family Practice and vice president of the Iambi Project.  After dinner, Mary Ellen spoke to us about Iambi and how they have progressed, as well as giving us the history of the area. 

hen she was finished, Doc and Cathy Nosek thought it would be a good time to present the Loftstrom’s, David and Mary Ellen with the gifts and donations we had raised.  We donated several bags of aspirin, toothbrushes, toothpaste, bandages and other medical supplies, as well as African ecology t-shirts for each of them, a skeleton for the nursing school, posters of human anatomy, money donations and many other items to help out the hospital.

It was a great moment for each of us to see how WSU truly is “a community of learners dedicated to improving our world.”  The project we would be completing at Iambi was to paint their community building.  David explained to us that the building was visible from almost every angle in the village and to have their community building painted would make the people who lived there proud. 

I woke up the next day, in my mosquito netting of course, by a rooster– a first-time experience I must say– and got ready to paint.  Each of us seemed ready to do something to help improve Iambi.  When we arrived at the community building, there were other people from the village waiting to paint with us.  It took a while to start, but when we did, we just kept going. 

The next day, when we finished painting, I felt as if I hadn’t done much, that I wanted to do more, as did many of my other classmates.  I didn’t feel as if I worked my hardest.  When we were all feeling a bit down about this, Paula Loftstrom said, “These people thought as if the world had forgotten about them.  But because you came almost half way around the world you have given them hope and pride.  You’ve created hope through a paint brush.” 

Those words stuck in my mind like nothing else. I thought the world was such an awful place; no one was helping anybody and there was so much hate and pain. After soaking up the words that Paula said, I felt as if hope was recreated on both sides of the paint brush. 

When it came time to leave Iambi, I thought I would be ready to go.  I felt a sense of guilt leaving.  We shared an emotional goodbye with the staff members and sadly got into the vans.  Each of us had made a connection with at least one person who lived at Iambi, which made it even harder to leave. 

On our way out of the village, many of us noticed that a lot of people from the neighboring villages were excitedly waving to us.  It was almost as if the word had spread about why we were at Iambi; the guilt left me and a sense of pride filled that void.  I know that will not be the last time I see the white cross sign which says Iambi outside the old gates of the hospital. 

Without Winona State University helping put together this African ecology class, I would not have been able to experience this life-changing trip.  While writing this, I must have started over a dozen times and stopped to try and figure out how to put my experience and its affect on me into words. 

There’s a secret to Tanzania and you can only partly understand that secret if you visit.  Matt Hayes, now a second year student, put a lot of that secret into perspective by saying, “You just have to take it for what it is.”  We took it and will keep the way it is in our hearts forever. 

At our last roundtable discussion in Arusha, each WSU participant said what we thought of the trip.  Many people said, it was a trip they will never forget.

As I wrote this, I continued to wonder, “Who is better off?”  The people who live in Tanzania in a mud hut with minimal electricity; taking nothing for granted? Or us; who live in the United States; in homes often too big for those who live in it; with anything we want; whenever we want it; with no time for anything?  I may never know the answer. One thing I do know is that I will go back to Tanzania and I will remember this trip.  I will never be the same person I was before I left. 

Without Winona State University I don’t know who I would be or where, for that matter.  This truly is a “community of learners dedicated to improving our world.”

Learning in the First-Person

Drs. John and Cathy Nosek, faculty members at Winona State University, led a group of 14 WSU students on a 21-day trip to Tanzania, Africa, this past summer. The trip was part of a class on African ecology and combined the opportunity to learn first-hand in Africa, as well as to bring gifts, supplies and help to the people of the area.

While in Africa, the class visited and studied villages, schools and national parks. In each school and village, members of the WSU group presented supplies consisting of pens, pencils, chalk, aspirin, toothbrushes, toothpaste and many other goods. 

The class donated supplies and provided volunteer help at Iambi Hospital in Tanzania, and were met there by Mary Ellen Kitundu, a former WSU nursing faculty member. She is the hospital's medical director and is in charge of the related dispensaries in the region, a nursing school and the HIV/AIDS project.

John Nosek, an assistant professor of biology, and Cathy Nosek, an associate professor of nursing, lead the class through several areas of Tanzania including Arusha, Usa, Ngorongoro National Park, the Serengeti, Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara, Ndutu, Seronera and Lake Victoria as well as Mount Kilimanjaro.

The trip was very much in line with the thinking behind WSU's Winona Experience – or new university – planning which places a premium on experiential learning that combines hands-on, real-world experience with the opportunity for students to work on and help solve real problems to make the world a better place.

The Winona Experience aims to greatly expand opportunities like this in the Winona area, across Minnesota, throughout the U.S. and around the world.

"I would certainly consider another trip in the future, but I can’t say when exactly," John Nosek said. "In two or three years maybe? When I do, I will advertise it across campus in plenty of time.”

Last Modified: Thursday, November 17, 2005 14:48 by Rhone Richard