To raise a child, as the phrase usually goes.
And also to gut, remodel, repair and prepare a building in Tanzania
to be acceptable for living in just two months’ time.
In the first few months of this year, Teddy learned that the
abandoned building next door to Stella Maris, which has been an eye sore for several years, was available to
rent. Teddy met with the family that
owned the building and with her savvy business skills, she negotiated the
acquisition of the building for the next TWENTY years. She really is remarkable, I tell ya.
The vision for the new building is as follows: it would
become the ‘little sister’ to the Stella Maris Lodge AND it would serve as a
community center. The first floor would
be renovated and used for community-identified needs, such as a library, adult
education center, computer lab, etc and the second floor would be cut into
thirteen additional rooms for Stella Maris guests. The rooms would be of the
same quality as the lodge, but would be geared towards a slightly different
clientele: long term volunteers,
volunteer groups, larger groups coming for safari or climbing Kilimanjaro or
individuals that are looking for a little more cost efficient accommodation.
The price of staying in one of the Annex rooms would be about $15 - $20 less
than The Lodge and would have a few minor differences: no air-conditioning,
smaller hot water heater and no balconies off of rooms.
Recently, the new building has been named Stella Pointe
Annex. The name is very fitting as the ‘Stella’
in the new building’s name connects it to Stella Maris Lodge, BUT the separate
name also demonstrates a clear distinction between The Lodge and The Annex. Since Stella Pointe Annex is geared more
towards groups, the name is also appropriate because many groups of the groups
we host come to climb Mount Kilimanjaro – and there is a location called Stella
Pointe during the climb right before you reach the top of the mountain, Uhuru
Peak.
Acquiring this additional building means many great things
for Stella Maris. Firstly, it means that
we are able to host more guests daily (with the additional thirteen additional
rooms – many of which are suite style and thus can hold four people). More guests = more revenue = more money for
the school. J Secondly,
it means that large service groups that stay with us, which happens a handful
of times a year, can have their own space
at Stella Pointe Annex– as opposed to the current situation where volunteer groups
and regular clients of The Lodge share the same building, which can, at times,
be less than ideal. Thirdly, Stella
Maris would be better able to serve the Mailisita community, particularly the
adults, through the resources, businesses, etc that will exist on the first
floor of the Annex and be available to the community.
This all sounds dandy, however, the previous state of the
building was an absolute mess.
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| View of the building from the road. |
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| Building before the roof had been added. |
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| What the first floor common area began as. |
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| Building the stairs and the hallway to the second floor. |
A former long-term volunteer, Adam, has been planning to bring
a large group (27 people) from the States to Stella Maris to visit and to help
assist in the building of the school’s new kitchen. His
group was scheduled to arrive mid-July, which meant that Teddy had two months
to turn Stella Pointe into an inviting, clean, safe space for Adam’s group during
their time in Tanzania.
Now, before I continue, I must explain how
construction usually goes in Tanzania
to give some context for what an immense task Teddy had at hand. Usually, workers are paid based upon how long
the project takes to finish – not the amount of work produced. As you can imagine, with this sort of system,
workers take their sweeettt time
finishing a project and thus, it has become the norm that building anything
takes an extremely long time. There was
a building about half of the size of Stella Pointe that was ‘under
construction’ for the ENTIRE time I was here last time (seven months). I was pleasantly surprised to see that the
construction of that building had finished when I returned. Conversely, though, there is another building
not too far down the same road that simply had the frame of the building
completed when I left two years ago and is currently still in the exact condition.
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| Finishing up the roof! |
When I arrived in early June, the workers had just begun. There was a great deal of remodeling that
needed to happen first: many walls had to be taken down and likewise put up to
create the needed floor plan for the second floor and to ensure that the
building had enough support to remain standing (it was a little questionable before) J. Oh, and an entire new plumbing system and a
roof had to be installed. All of this work
was finished with one week left in June.
That left the workers about three weeks to turn what was now
a safe and functional building into an actual living space. All electrical wiring needed to be
completed. Tiling, painting,
installment of light fixtures, toilets, water heaters, sinks, etc had to be
taken care of. Then there were the
smaller items that each room and bathroom would need: wardrobes, mirrors, towel
racks, toilet paper holders, curtains, curtain holders and on and on. So much work and so little time. But, Teddy transitioned into ‘boss mode’ and
made it happen. Walls began to be
painted, electrical wiring came together and fixtures were placed to cover the
dangerous wires. Tiles began to cover
the concrete ground and toilets, sinks, and shower heads were installed.
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| Tiling beginning. |
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| First room completely tiled. |
With about ten days left before Adam’s group arrived, the
thirteen bedrooms were complete – except for those final decorations like
curtain hangers, curtains, wardrobes and all of the bathroom decorative
items. It was now time to clean those
rooms and move onto the tiling, painting, electrical work, etc of the two,
larger common spaces and the massive balcony that surrounds the common
space. Even with all of the incredible
work that had been – and so quickly – it seems like the work was never
ending. And, Adam’s group was arriving
in just a few shorts days.
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| Amazing what tiles and fresh paint can do to a room. |
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| Can't beat that natural light. |
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| And, we have toilets! |
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| Satellite is up and the gate has arrived! |
About a week before the group arrived, Teddy learned that
some of the tasks she was planning to take care of after Adam’s group had come
and gone – exterior gate, outdoor lights, generator, wifi, etc – needed to be
available for Adam’s group. With all of
the other work that was going on, it was difficult for Teddy to add these items
to her plate, but like always, she made it happen. She worked nonstop. She hired more workers to build the
foundation for the gate and got it installed.
She hired more electricians to get strong, outdoor lights placed on the
exterior of the building as well as the pathway from The Lodge to The
Annex. She bought a generator and had a
room built around it to decrease the noise guests could hear from it when in
use. And, she got pneumonia.
L
But, she kept working.
And so did the workers –25 of which were at the building at any given
time. With just a handful of days left
before Adam’s group arrived, Dave, one of the Board of Directors of the
Mailisita Foundation arrived for his annual visit. Tiles were still being laid for the outdoor
balcony and on the stairway from the second floors where guests would stay to the
first floor entrance of the building.
All electrical wiring had not yet been finished in the common rooms. Beds were being assembled in each of the
rooms. The fundi (mason) who was going to build the wardrobes had just visited to take measurements to begin building the wardrobes. Understandably so, Dave was concerned that
all of these final tasks would not get finished in time. For a moment, based upon the amount of progress
that still had to be made in a short period of time, there was a question of
whether the group should move to a different location for their visit. However, as someone who has lived in Tanzania
for an extended period of time, I’ve seen crazier things happen and expected
that this was how things would go. We
would work down to the wire – to the absolute,
very last second. But, Teddy said it would
be ready, and I would happily bet all of my money in favor of Teddy any day. J
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| Beginning to assemble the beds. |
With two days left, Teddy’s housekeeping staff went into
massive cleaning mode. I helped hang the
curtains in the rooms while the women cleaned all around me. The final tiles were placed on the second floor
and the men started tiling the stairs to the entrance. The gate was secured along the fence that ran
along the perimeter of the land. The
outdoor lights were installed and shone brightly. A TV was installed in the
common area. The man who was installing the mirrors, towel
racks and toilet paper holders was working hard to get those items assembled in
every bathroom.
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| Finishing touches on one of the common areas. |
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| All of the rooms were cleaned about four times. |
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| TV installed and floor complete in one of the common rooms - now time to clean! |
The group was scheduled to arrive on Sunday. Naturally, it was a madhouse over at Stella
Pointe for all of Saturday. Teddy never
sat down and she still had pneumonia. Dave and I painted the staircase from the
second floor to the first floor for the ENTIRE day – 10 hours. Women continued
to clean. At 6pm on Saturday night, the waiters from The Lodge started moving
extra furniture from The Lodge over to the Annex for the common areas. Also,
right around 6pm, the fundi who made the wardrobes delivered the thirteen
wardrobes for each room. Teddy told the
men that they were not going home that night until all of the wardrobes were
assembled in each room – no matter what time it was. So Saturday night was a
family affair: all staff of the Lodge and I swept, washed, arranged furniture
and did all of the final preparations into the early hours of Sunday morning. A
long day for sure, but it also was a very rewarding one being surrounded by my
Tanzanian family and seeing all of the hard work of two months come
together.
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| Before. |
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| 10 hours later. |
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| Covered in paint and thankful to be finished! |
Sunday finally arrived! Adam’s group would arrive in a few
hours. The women washed one final time.
A final coat of paint was applied to the stairwell from the first floor
to the second floor. I brought some smaller
items I had in my room, deck of cards, a
few books, etc to The Annex to give the common area a home-y feel. We brought over a few pots of plants from The
Lodge as well to liven up the place. We
placed name tags on the doors of the rooms.
Teddy and I anxiously awaited their arrival.
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| The curtains and accent wall really bring the rooms to life. |
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| Wardrobe that appears in each guest room. |
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| Common area! |
Adam’s group has been staying at Stella Pointe Annex for
exactly a week now. Things have gone
well. We worked out a few kinks – one day
there was a minor problem with the water and one day the electricity was acting
weird – but such things are expected with a new building. The rooms are spacious, bright and
inviting. The wardrobes are unique and
add a bit of character to the rooms. The
group has an entire building to call their own, which, as expected, is a
definite advantage for a large group.
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| June 1st, 2016. |
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| July 10th, 2017. |
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| Before. |
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| The same room - after! |
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| The woman, the myth, the legend! |
The hard work of the last two months came together and like
always, I am so proud and impressed with Teddy.
It was really quite fun to be here to watch (and assist with) the
progress of The Stella Pointe Annex. Good
things continue to come for the Mailisita Foundation and most importantly, the
children!
