Water is Life

Water is Life. And it seems especially precious in dry, hot Africa. Much of the more affluent parts of the cities has ready access to fresh water that can be pumped directly into their homes ... if you can afford it.

Not so in the villages. The government supplies most villages with community water to a single source. Tanzanians carry or drive their motorbikes and bicycles laden with water jugs to the village faucets between 6:00 and 8:00 in the morning and draw their water for the day. We saw many school children on the roads too walking to school in the morning carrying jugs of water for the day. We even saw people drawing water from the rivers and streams, I hope, for washing and bathing.

As we drove from Moshi to Arusha to drop off our rented 4X4 after our two week safari in Tanzania, we realized we still had several liters of bottled water in the truck cooler. Rather than leave it in the truck, we decided to donate it to a school or an orphanage along the way. Just then we saw a sign for the Amani Centre for Street Children. Perfect!

We turned down the pot-holed dirt road and found the large Centre building. We rang the outside wall doorbell and gave the gate guard the water and asked him to give it to the children. Next thing you know, one of the Orphanage staff directors came out to thank us and invite us in for a tour of the facility.

We would have loved to have taken her up on her offer, but unfortunately we were already late getting the truck back to Arusha.

I did look them up on the internet though when we got home to South Africa. The place looks awesome!

To donate to the Amani Centre too, check out their website.