Home visit

Already for some time I was moaning to the staff that I wanted to go on home visit, as I wanted to see this part of the work. Well they finally let me go during the school holidays, to bring one child home. Boy was I taught a lesson. I have developed a new found respect for the social workers/counsellors and staff.

We took a boy, let’s call him Juma Kurwa, home for the holidays. It was the first time in 3 years that he was going to his family (a bit of background, he used to live in Mwanza with his parents, his mother died and his father got really sick and could not look after him. The father’s family did not want to have anything to do with them as they were afraid of the illness. He was brought to Upendo Daima. The staff of UD kept in contact with the father on the streets during all this time. When the father suddenly was not to be found anymore, they came into contact with him again through one of his friends. It turned out that he had gotten better and returned to his family. When we contacted them there they were happy to hear about Juma and were looking forward to seeing him).

So we left one morning at 6am in the bus to Bukoba. We were joined in the bus by a preacher with a speaking impairment. He shouted for over an hour about “Jesu Kwisto” and “Hallelusja” (both not words in Swahili). I sat with my fingers in my ears (did not help) while thinking, how much do I have to pay to make him stop.

After 7 hours we were in Maleba where we changed to a daladala to reach the village we were going to. We took one into the mountains and then changed to another one, even further into the mountains. We finally reached the village where the family was supposed to live. We contacted some village elders, talked to the family on the phone and were finally giving instructions on how to get to their house. This involved taking a pikipiki (a motor taxi) for another 25 minutes through banana plantations.

 

The family was very glad to see him. We met the father, a brother, an uncle, an aunt, grandparents and a number of children. The reception was very welcoming. They showed us the land they were cultivating, their small houses, we got some dinner and we had a good conversation. It felt very good to leave him there for the holidays.

Then we left for Bukoba, it was about 5pm. According to the family we could walk to the road where we could get a daladala. But after 20 minutes, still no road in sight, but we spotted a pikipiki. We decided to take this one to the main road. So the two of us got on the back of the pikipiki and after 15 minutes we finally reached the road. There we took a daladala to Bukoba, or so we thought. After about 20 minutes it stopped in a village and told us this was the end, if we wanted to continue we had to take a pikipiki. So again on the back of one. This time 20 minutes down the hills on gravel roads. But also they turned out not to go to Bukoba. We had to take a car. We waited and when one came we got in the trunk and set on a crate of soda. After about 20 minutes I saw a sign indicating Bukoba to the left, but the car went to the right. It turned out we had to change again. The daladala we got into this time did actually take us to Bukoba where we arrived around 7pm. Then we still had to find a place to sleep and the next day travel back to Mwanza (a journey of 10 hours)

And just think, we were the lucky ones as we actually found the family. It sometimes happens that the family cannot be found because they moved or because the child does not remember correctly.