As I sat on one of my final days in Tanzania sipping from a glass bottle of Coca Cola, I remembered just how difficult its journey may have been to my mouth.  I’d seen just that morning a man pedaling his delivery bike piled high with what I think were 4 crates full of soda bottles.  Um, yes…pedaled his bike.  It’s unlikely that a delivery truck passed by the barbeque where I ate lunch.  Perhaps it passed, but it didn’t stop. 

I can barely maintain balance on my bike with a 2-year-old passenger, let alone with a hundred pounds or more of breakable containers with liquid contents.

So much in Arusha is so difficult.  Roads are all but impassable.  On the way to school, the bumpy dirt path takes over 20 minutes to traverse just 2.6 kilometers.  The driver turns off the vehicle and steers in neutral down the hill to conserve fuel.  Internet connections are most often slower than dial-up.  As textbooks are rare and expensive, teachers meticulously copy assignments using chalk, and children copy again by hand the materials to their notebooks.  Often, they’ll have to visit a neighboring classroom just to borrow pens or pencils. Report cards, grade books and the receipts and accounts of over 200 students are tracked on paper; there are no pre-printed forms or templates.  Friday was the 1st of the month, and the line for a local ATM stretched nearly a city block.  I’ve never been to the bank here to conduct a transaction that’s taken less than half an hour.  Water must be boiled, and, for many, fetched from a distance.  Electricity and even water outages are frequent.  Everything is pole, pole (an all-too-oft used Swahili phrase that means slowly, slowly).

I am not complaining, just stating the facts. Some of it, of course, is a refreshing departure from the harried American way of life and I think this context makes what Mama Lucy is accomplishing here all the more impressive.  I can’t fathom what she could do if she enjoyed all of the conveniences and privileges made possible in my own country.

Speaking of which, I’ll be back in the US soon.  No longer in Tanzania but not quite yet home, I’m in Europe en route and will finally see my dog and my family tomorrow.  I miss them.  Already, I miss Mama Lucy too and the boisterous laughter of hundreds of children at play.  Of course, the kids are now on break from school for a month, and when I left Lucy promised to rest for at least a week as well.  While you’d never know from the overwhelming energy you sense in her presence, the last year of nearly losing the school and working endlessly to ensure its survival have surely taken a toll.

Mama Lucy makes it look easy though, a swan, I suppose, gracefully floating on the surface, but swimming furiously beneath.  I truly hope she enjoys a hard-earned respite during the school break. 

Like Michael Phelps who’ll be resting tonight to get ready for another great feat, Mama’s only just begun.