THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 5, 1994 TAG: 9410040122
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JODY R. SNIDER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ISLE OF WIGHT LENGTH: Long : 115 lines
IMAGINE TRAVELING 9,000 miles to Africa to build a concrete footbridge and put a tin roof on an elementary school.
The terms are spelled out before you leave: Home will be a cinder block building. Most of your meals consist of rice, beans, grits-like ugali, cabbage and potatoes. There's no electricity. No hot or running water. Bathroom facilities consist of a hole in the ground.
And, oh yes, the cost for this excursion is a hefty $3,500? You pick up the tab.
Still want to go?
Isle of Wight resident Katie Speirs did.
And despite the discomforts and the distance, Speirs is anxious to go back.
``I was very proud and pleased with my time spent there,'' the 21-year-old senior at the College of William and Mary said recently. ``It wasn't missionary work. And it wasn't studying abroad. It was working with people and seeing results.
``The school children will have a roof over their heads during the rainy season this year. It was that kind of thing,'' she said.
Speirs, and some six other volunteers from Operation Crossroads Africa, an organization started 37 years ago to strengthen relations among the people of Africa, the Caribbean and North America, spent about eight weeks in the village of Dareda in Tanzania.
The private, nonprofit group was a forerunner of the Peace Corps and has sent about 10,000 young people to Africa to help with community projects and to foster a mutual understanding between the cultures.
Speirs said she learned about Operation Crossroads Africa when she found a posting for volunteers to travel with the organization at the Center for International Studies at William and Mary.
While each person paid $3,500 to go, Benn's United Methodist Church gave Speirs $500 toward her trip.
Tanzania, which is twice the size of California, is on the east African coast south of Kenya and near Somalia. There are 200 huts scattered in the village of Dareda. And each family has about eight children, so the children can help herd cows with the parents, Speirs said.
``I've always wanted to go to Africa,'' she said. ``It seemed so different from the life we live here - much less complicated, and the people are very honest,'' she said.
Speirs' preconceptions were right on target.
A day in Africa begins at sunrise. A breakfast of oatmeal and tea is eaten slowly, as though not to rush the day. And then it's on to work or to visit people.
``They are so interested in you,'' she said. ``They ask a lot about our weather. They want to know that because everyone there is a farmer. They grow corn, tobacco, rice, coffee and beans. They have so many kinds of beans there.''
Speirs said farmers also have large herds of cows.
``There're cows everywhere,'' she said. ``We were washing our clothes in a ditch, and here comes this herd of cows right through our clothes. The women in the village were laughing at us. They said we were washing in bad water,'' she said.
But Speirs said the overriding concern of the Africans was whether she was happy.
``The people are friendly. They're very proud of their land and very concerned that you're happy while you're there visiting,'' Speirs said.
She said she kept waiting for the lions to show up in the village, but she learned that all the animals are kept in parks. If the animals leave the parks, they become fair game for any hunter, she said.
During her stay, Speirs said she learned she has limits.
``I learned that it's good to accept people, but it's also good to respect differences. I knew when I got over there that I would accept and reject certain things.
``For example, one of the coffee plantation owners there offered to make me his second wife. That wasn't in my value system but we ended up being very good friends,'' she said with an embarrassed laugh.
Speirs said the lack of bathroom facilities also got to all those in the group.
And she said she also got homesick for family and some of the amenities of home.
``I missed McDonald's,'' she admitted. ``I missed Kentucky Fried Chicken. After my fourth week of beans, I got punchy.
``You learn to appreciate the things about America. We have paper and pens to write with. There are libraries I can go to when I want a book. And I missed the support of my family and friends.''
But Speirs said that even the discomforts and longings for home were overshadowed by a calmer way of life and a people who truly wanted to please her.
``The people I know who have been to Africa, go the first time because of the animals. The next time, it's because of the people,'' she said.
Building a bridge was rewarding, Speirs said, but building a bridge between people of different continents and cultures was just as rewarding. ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
OUT OF AFRICA
[Color] Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Katie Spiers, a senior at the College of William and Mary, spent two
months working in the village of Dareda in Tanzania.
Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Katie Speirs helped put this tin roof on an elementary school in the
village of Dareda in Tanzania.
Katie Speirs, six other volunteers and villagers built this concrete
footbridge.
A pair of lions ignores a truck roaring along on a dirt track
nearby.
At Ngorongoro Crater, Katie Speirs is pictured with hippos floating
lazily in the background.
by CNB