Pauline and Victoria in Tanzania

In February 2004 Victoria Smurfit and Pauline McLynn travelled to Tanzania to visit their sponsored children.

By Pauline McLynn

Africa confounds. That's what it's there for. A vast, stunning continent sitting, like a giant conscience, on the globe. When our little World Vision Ireland group set out for Tanzania I expected to be reduced to tears at every hand's turn and left dismayed by the plight of the people. Well, I was only half-right, and for all the wrong reasons. Africa, being Africa, turned us upside down and inside out and sent us home with a spring in our, previously tired, Western step and a vigour for life that money alone could never buy. Oh and, rather than losing weight, I put on half a stone.

We arrive in Arusha and go in the opposite direction, to the dusty navel of Tanzania, and places only on the most local of maps. Even when the road is described as 'excellent' you can be sure it'll be just a wider version of a sandy track. First stop is Kwamtoro, the main town in the region. The main song goes 'Welcome, welcome, our guesti.' Now, here's a peculiarity of Tanzanian English - the adding on of an 'i' at the ends of words. Thus we are known as Worldi Vision. A class we attend has children stand on one side of a blackboard to give the present tense of the verb 'to wash' and the other for past tense, hence the phrase 'yesterday, I washedi myself.' It's great stuff and breathes fresh air into the language for us all.

Each village we visited has community groups demonstrating the correct use of mosquito nets to guard against malaria, still the biggest killer. They stage routines extolling the virtues of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV, and the right of children to a decent education, food and the removal of forced labour. We see bee-keeping projects and visit a café that local women have set up to supplement their income. We meet a local farmer who is a glittering example of what can be achieved. Using his ox-ploughs, he runs a domestic bio-gas plant which converts cow dung into energy to run house lights and stove. We visit water pumps, delivering safe, clean water and hand-dug wells full of milky water that needs boiling and sieving before use.

The visits to the children we sponsor are very moving. Victoria is up first. Her Veronica is a very serious little girl and not easily bowled over. The visit goes well, though, and Vic leaves with two chickens and lots of eggs (which are graciously returned for family use). I sponsor a boy called Matano. Matano's people live in a remote spot and dance a quarter of a mile down the track to collect me, and we dance all the way back for a chat. It is humbling to see how simply the people live and with what sophisticated dignity they go about their daily life of providing for their family. And it is life-altering to see how a very small thing we do can have such an impact on these lives.

And so, to the tears. Strangely, the happiest times are usually when we lose it - the welcomes, the delight and sheer pride of the communities at their success. But there are other times too. We visit an ancient grandmother left to raise two of her, many, grandchildren orphaned by the deaths of her daughters and their husbands through AIDS. And in our local village school the children sing about female mutilation. The translation is 'please don't beat us, please don't circumcise us, please don't rape us, don't hurt us.' When it's explained that some of the girls dancing will have been circumcised, but are making sure none of their younger siblings will be, we crumble.

I am totally impressed by the work of World Vision. They work in partnership with the community and will move on when self-sufficiency is achieved. Before I leave, the husband admits he's worried I'll come home and want to sell all and give away the proceeds. I explain that this would make no real difference to anyone but us. What's important is sustainability and long term planning. I see these at work in Tanzania via World(i) Vision Ireland. Since my return, I'm waging a war against waste of any sort in the house, so the tap is turned off during teeth brushing, all food is eaten during a meal and only the lights we need are on at night.

We don't want to leave, with myself and Vic declaring that we have friends we can stay with now. It is, we agree, the besti. But Africa has the last say. We pass a monument to two men who devoted their lives to the conservation of wildlife. It is placed above the most beautiful landscape imaginable. The inscription reads 'Better to light a candle that to curse the darkness.'

We will return.

And Pauline McLynn did return this time to Gakungu in Kenya. See just how she got a Taste for Kenya here!