The Adventurous Renee

by Renee Owen | Nov 4, 2013 | Director's Blog

Jambo!  I had an amazing trip to Africa! My parents from Minnesota, who are in their 70’s, and my sister and I traveled with an organization called VOSH (Volunteer Optometric Services for Humanity) to Marangu, Tanzania – a village at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro, to provide eye care and eye glasses to people in need.  We served over 3,000 people from the age of 3 to 103 – some of whom could barely see at all until receiving their first pair of glasses.  You can imagine how emotional this experience was.  Besides the 30 of us from America, 20 translators—mostly young college students from the Marangu area, worked with us.  It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to bond with people from a different culture.  At the end of each work day, the translators were enthusiastic about bringing us into the village to shop, meet people, see a waterfall, eat, etc.  Beautiful, welcoming people; beautiful place!  I can’t tell you how many times we were asked when we are coming back!

After our work was complete, our group enjoyed a four day safari to the Ngorongoro Crater, Munyari National Park, and Tarangire National Park.  When people ask me which animals I saw, I say, “All of them!”  It was breathtaking.  As much as I loved the animals, the fact that I am a people-person was evident.  During safari, I was captivated with the Maasai people as much as the lions, giraffes, and elephants.  It turned out our land-rover driver’s ethnicity was Maasai, so we learned a great deal from him about their fascinating culture.  We had the pleasure of visiting a Maasai boma (village), and the privilege of taking pictures, meeting them, asking lots of questions, and even getting to go inside a few of the homes.  It is remarkable how this tribe integrates with “civilization,” yet maintains their culture and traditional way of life.  The Tanzanian government makes sure their nomadic lifestyle can be preserved through protection laws.  Now when the first grade does their awesome Africa unit, I may know almost as much as they do about Africa!  It will be an honor to work with first grade this year, and I brought back some cool artifacts for them to handle.  I also brought back many intangibles to share – the best one being a little bit of the vibrant spirit of the African people and the beauty of the circle of life, which is so powerfully felt there.

While I was over on the distant hemisphere, I took advantage of the opportunity for a side-trip to visit my oldest daughter, Mesa, who is attending college in Grenada, Spain, this year.  With that plane transfer, came a one-day visit to Amsterdam as well.  In both places, I was struck by how wonderful it is to live in a large city when life isn’t overrun by the noise pollution, air pollution, and general disruption caused by automobiles!  Few people own cars, so everyone walked or biked everywhere, and many streets had little automobile traffic at all – mostly just occasional delivery trucks.  When people aren’t living their lives behind the windshield of a car, they have rich community.  Despite the fact that European cities are more tightly populated than American cities, I realized that due to the pedestrian lifestyle, the quality of life is so much higher, in my opinion!  I hope we can convince Asheville to move toward the pedestrian model as much as possible. There is always so much to learn from travel.

Of course, the best part about travel, is always coming home; but coming home to leaf season in Asheville and, in particular, to my beloved Rainbow Community, was a joy.  I can’t fully describe the elation and gratitude I felt to see everyone again, especially the children.  I love you all so much!