A woman from Vorchdorf in the land of the Maasai

When Alice Lugstein left her hometown of Vorchdorf to get involved in a social project in Tanzania, she didn’t know that she would find a new home there. She has now been living in the East African country for several years – and can no longer imagine any other life.

At the age of 20, the Vorchdorf native wanted to see the world. When she had the opportunity to help out in a monastery with friends in the East African state of Tanzania, she didn’t have to think twice. She wanted to spend a month there to look after children, help in the garden and help build accommodation. At the time, she didn’t know that the country wouldn’t let her go.

After her time in the monastery ended, she spent another month on the island group of Zanzibar off the coast – where she met her current husband, Koira. He was working next to her hotel, the two started talking and hit it off straight away. She visited his village, met his family and fell in love with the man, who belongs to the East African Masai ethnic group. This makes up around three percent of Tanzania’s population and is primarily located in the north of the country.

Family follows her to Tanzania

After a long long-distance relationship and the wedding in 2015, she decided to emigrate to Tanzania two years later. To this day she doesn’t regret this step. “Emigrating was very easy for me. I was received very well, his family liked me straight away,” says Lugstein, who initially only struggled with the language: “At first the problem was that I hardly understood anything couldn’t talk to people.” She now speaks the national language Swahili and at least has some greeting phrases in Maa – the language of the Maasai. “But you can get very far with Swahili, anyone can do it,” says Lugstein.

Her family reacted to her emigration with a lot of understanding and felt so comfortable during visits that she is now moving to Tanzania herself. “My father has lived here for a year, and my mother will probably do the same in the future,” says the former Upper Austrian.

What the 32-year-old particularly appreciates about her new home, a small settlement in the Tanzanian bush, is the way people interact with each other. “The village community is great. Everyone knows everyone, and when help is needed, they help each other. Everyone sticks together,” says Lugstein, who lives in a newly built house with her husband and two children. “The solidarity and general friendliness is what I like best here. The people have little, but they are still happy,” she says.

For love, Lugstein had to give up her western standard of living. Instead of the tap, the village gets its water from a well and tanks that store rainwater. The internet works, but performance and speed are inconsistent. There is no food selection like in Austrian supermarkets in her home. Animals are not a problem for her, only tarantulas, snakes and scorpions occasionally cross her path. “At night you often hear a hyena,” she says.

Your everyday life in Tanzania does not follow a regulated structure. Most of the time she takes care of the household and her two children, but occasionally she meets other mothers and spends her time with them. The family’s older daughter is now in her second year of school, which for most children begins between the ages of three and four. Lugstein’s children grow up speaking four languages, learning German and English in addition to Swahili and Maa.

When asked what she misses most about Austria, the Vorchdorf resident has a clear answer. “The extensive food,” she says. “That’s why I’m always happy when guests bring me food like bacon or cheese,” she adds. She was last in her former home with her younger daughter last summer, but such visits could become more difficult in the future. “Because of school, this won’t be possible for as long,” she says. There will be a move in the near future. “The government is planning to build a highway through the bush and our settlement, which is why we will probably have to move away from here,” says Lugstein, who lets friends and acquaintances share her life on her social media channels.