Imagine buying a plane ticket, packing your bags and leaving for a developing country that you know nothing about. Now, imagine doing all of this alone. This was junior Betsy Ezell’s reality. She completed her month-long second solo trip to Tanzania over Christmas break. Betsy Ezell first traveled to Tanzania in October 2013 to work with a Christian orphanage, Neema House, after taking a semester off of school.
“Going alone was not something that I did intentionally,” Betsy Ezell said. “But I heard they needed help and I felt called to go.”
Betsy Ezell began her journey after spending the summer in Waco, Texas, as a youth group intern. During her time in Waco, she met the family that began the orphanage in Arusha, Tanzania and became interested in their ministry.
According to the Neema House website, the orphanage is a nonprofit organization as well as a registered nongovernmental organization in Tanzania. The orphanage cares for babies, from newborn to three years old. The babies are oftentimes either abandoned or given to Neema House from single fathers whose wives have died. The poverty situation in some areas of Tanzania is so dire that abandonment can seem like the best option for young mothers.
According to Betsy Ezell’s grandfather, Petty Ezell, it was natural that she felt the need to go to these children.
“Betsy has always loved children and they love her,” Petty Ezell said. “She’s also always been adventurous, so I was not surprised one bit when she told me she was leaving.”
Her grandfather was just one of Betsy Ezell’s major supporters.
“My family had a hard time at first and they were obviously worried about my health and safety, but by the time I left I had their blessing,” Betsy Ezell said.
Petty Ezell explained that the biggest fear he had with his granddaughter being so far away alone was the uncertainty of what might happen. Betsy Ezell had fears of her own, including not knowing the language and falling in love with a place that she could never be a permanent part of. On her first visit in 2013, she found herself bed-ridden for two and a half weeks of her first visit after contracting a virus and a parasite.
However, on her second trip, she was able to spend her days taking care of and playing with the babies as well as visiting those that had been adopted and schools for some of the older children to attend.
“The second trip had different fears; I was afraid that it was going to be too hard to leave,” Betsy Ezell said. “It was hard, but I left this time knowing that I will go back.”
Reflecting on her time there, Betsy Ezell says that the biggest lesson she learned was love.
“I learned so much about loving those that are hard to love: the destitute, the poor, I just had to constantly pour out,” Betsy Ezell said, “Tanzania is not a place where there is no hope or life or goodness. There is joy and heartache and pain and beauty. The people are still people and they still matter. Neema is doing a beautiful thing. I’m thankful I got to be a part of it.”
