In February of 2005 I led an ecotour to Tanzania for National Association for Interpretation with about a dozen friends and colleagues from all over the United States. Most work as interpreters of nature and history and parks, zoos, museums and nature center. Two on the trip were friends from the days when I directed the Greenway and Nature Center of Pueblo, Colorado. Joe and Jill Wodiuk live in Pueblo and he has been a contractor for three decades while Jill has taught grade school.

The trip was incredible. Arusha National Park, Ngorogoro Crater National Park, Serengeti National Park and Tarangire National Park were our destinations. Black rhinos at Ngorogoro, oceans of wildebeest and zebras at Serengeti, and the baobab trees at Tarangire were highlights for me. Along the way we stopped at a community school to donate books Lisa Brochu had provided, though she could not go on the trip. We also visited a Maasai village and its tiny school made of woven branches where children learned the alphabet and numbers in three languages.

Eight months later I was enjoying a surprise 60th birthday party with many friends and was pleased to find Joe and Jill had driven three and a half hours north to be with us. After the food and drink, I walked them to their car and Joe explained he had been back to Tanzania a second time already. In late summer he explained, he and eight blind climbers took the hike up Mount Kilimanjaro. Five of the blind climbers, including Erik Weihenmayer, the only blind person to climb Mount Everest, made the summit, as did Joe. Joe said, “This changed my life, Tim.” He tells the story well in an article in Sixth Sense News.

The next time we talked, he had been back to Tanzania a third time to build an 8,000 square foot wing on an orphanage in remote country with local labor. For $1.75 a square foot they had created a place for children with no families to sleep in safety. He had raised the funds for the building from friends. He was worn out from the month long trip, but said he was quitting his home building business. He wants to spend time on more productive projects that help children. His journeys had changed his life for sure and the lives of many others he will help through his work.

Joe is planning another building project in Uganda soon with help from the Anglican Church. The trips are not vacations. They are challenging experiences away from home in a village with few amenities. The rewards might be hard to describe. Eighteen million children live in orphanages in sub-Saharan Africa. Many are HIV positive and lost their parents to AIDS. Malaria is ever more deadly for the night feeding mosquitoes that carry the disease prey on children sleeping in the open. A bed in a screened dorm or under a mosquito net can be life saving for a child in these countries.

Twice I’ve had the privilege of visiting Africa with friends on ecotours. I have done nothing as thoughtful or amazing as Joe Wodiuk. I admire his courage and determination in what he has already done and I know he’s planning to do more. Like many others who have taken this trip, Joe commented that the kids amaze him. They live with immense challenge, but do not complain to strangers. They seem hopeful very often in the face of dangers few of us in the United States will face. Dee Flower, another friend from a Kenya ecotour, said, “I went to see the wildlife, but fell in love with the people.” I feel like that as well.

Judith Stone, an author, wrote “Travel is not only broadening, I’ve realized, but burdening too. I carry these lives and places with me. But I’m grateful for the ballast; it’s keeping me from tipping into total complacency.”

Tim Merriman
November 2007