Thursday Thought

¨You carry the seeds of learning....In order for it [the environment, endangered species] to survive, it needs me and you.¨

Mama Maggie Duncan Simbeye, Founder of Dare Women's Foundation and Awesome Safari Guide

¨People are happy, people are good. Life goes on...Life is all about happiness. It doesn't mean you have a lot.¨

Mama Maggie

¨I hope I never forget... Mama Maggie¨

group reflection sheet from our time at Ailanga, a sentiment repeated over multiple days by nearly the entire group

¨I hear that Maggie is really good. She was the guide for my sister and dad's safari and they said if she's the guide to make sure you're in her vehicle,¨ Julia, the recent college graduate on the journey shared quietly. When the time came to divide up into the two safari vehicles, she, along with three of the girls and I bolted to the line for Maggie's.

As we began the two hour drive from Usa River to Tarangire National Park, we learned more about Maggie's life - her commitment both to conservation and to women's issues and she urged us not to let our new knowledge end silently with us. Her call to action - carry the seeds of knowledge to our friends and family at home.

She shared facts about some of the most commonly poached animals: antelope, rhino, elephant, zebra and giraffe. Often when poachers take an elephant, they kill the largest, which is usually the matriarch of the family, leaving the others at a loss and making it more difficult for the young animals to learn what they need to be a part of the family. She showed us the broken land on the way to the park, barren without the trees that once lined the road - five minutes to cut down and then gone for a lifetime. She told a folk tale of the baobab tree, how the reason it looks as though it is upside down is that God threw it that way because of his anger at the baobab's conceit (but that since then, the tree has shown itself to be resilient and helpful to people and animals).

Maggie herself is an inspiration. She is one of five female safari guides in Tanzania. She is fierce and seemingly fearless. One of her stories features herself as a young student, who disobeys her teacher's orders to stand up because she is menstruating and afraid to do so because her underpants might leak (a common problem in a country with low access to pads and tampons, leading some girls to skip school altogether). He beat her and she still carries the scars today - but when she went to the school office to stand up against this, she told them she would not tell her father (an important political figure in the town) if they agreed to make sure no girl had to undergo the same pain and humiliation. ¨We need one person to stand. Complaining doesn't help. One person needs to stand.¨ And her stand continues today, through the work of her non-profit foundation which teaches women how to make their own reusable, leak-proof sanitary pads.

After that first ride with Maggie, I moved to the other driver's vehicle (Alex, a strong, silent Masaai who worked diligently to position our vehicle in the best spot for wildlife viewing), to give the others a chance to learn and grow from Maggie. I missed Maggie, but will try to take what I've learned from her and share it with the world. 

Nitakumbuka Maggie (translation of my probably poor Swahili grammar - I will miss or I will remember Maggie).