Half Way Observations
Well, it is nearing the four month mark, which means that half of this adventure is already over! I will admit that at times the clock seemed to stand still, but when I think about it time has really has flown! Since it is the half way mark I think it is a good time to give you some random observations about Tanzania and its people.
The one thing that Cara an I are constantly amazed at is the African endurance. This is their strength and also their downfall. Strength, because you need endurance to survive in this country of poverty. And since you are all in it together you share your burdens, you share your space and you share your stuff, making all Africans brothers and sisters, grandfathers and grandmothers. It gives these people an incredible sense of community that is very enduring. But, next to the lack of money, this sense of endurance, we think, keeps Africa as it is– in its poor state. If there is something broken, they just work without it. If something is uncomfortable they just put up with it– unlike other countries and continents where if people see something that needs fixing or something could be made better they attempt to do that. Other people are always striving for something better, something to make a profit, or something to make something look nicer.
Second, Tanzanians have a fondness for noise. They don’t even have to pay attention to the noise, but they love it as a background. They love loud music, their cell phone rings are put to the highest volume and when they watch TV it sounds like you’re supposed to be in a movie theater with surround sound– yet they don’t even watch it. Talking about TV leads to observation number three: their idea of entertainment is really weird. Father and the Sisters rent movies from somewhere in Njombe and they are slap stick comedies with no noticable plot or some aweful romance with everything a regular romance has in it– I usually close my eyes for them. The TV shows that they watch are full of cross-dressing men, and Father and the sisters laugh like crazy! We tried showing them some good movies, like Ice Age, but they were not interested whatsoever.
Africans also have no blood– they wear more clothes than you can fathom and they still look as cool as a cucumber. The usual dress for a woman, especially when traveling, consists of a shirt, a skirt, a sweater, a kanga around the skirt– sometimes 2 and sometimes a another kanga around the shoulders and a headwrap. And they are usually carrying a baby or a chicken.
Having quite a few visitors for the holidays you realize that there is something about this continent that forms community, relationships, and trust in an instant. A recent example is Dino. Now Dino is a man who is about 60 years old and speaks only Italian, yet he has a wife who is Tanzanian. Apparently no Kiswahili has rubbed off. Well, Dino is sort of stuck here until a certain village is ready for his services, so he has been volunteering at the Printing Press with me. So in the Printing Press we have Dino who doesn’t speak Kiswahili or English, me who can’t speak Italian or very good Kiswahili and the workers and the nuns who can’t speak any Italian or very good English– we are quite a working group! But it makes you realize how much you can communicate without words. And only in Africa would you have such a combination of culture and language! I think the most we have ever had in one room is 4 languages: Kiswahili, English, Italian and German– yet Africa combines us together. You see the bond on the buses, in town, everywhere here in Imiliwaha and in Lugrawa. You see something special everyday, witness a strange kind of love that is unfathomable in America.
Now here are some other random observations about Africa that I’ve collected along the way:
· The most important implement on a vehicle besides the brakes is the car horn, which warns that you are coming behind and want to pass or to say hello or to get out of the way. With the lack of road rules the brakes and the horn are all your really need
· Africans don’t know the word “no”. You cannot say you don’t want more food, there is always more room on the buses for people or luggage, sellers understand “no” as “I will follow you until you leave the area or you buy what I’m selling (especially in Dar), if a service is offered it is rude to say “no” and even if you say it they will commence with the service anyway (usually carrying your luggage, which has sometimes only consisted of a small shoulder bag)
· Africans, I think, love climbing over each other, buses or dalas are the best example. People will get off, but the line of people still standing does not shift to spread out throughout the entire bus, but will stay clumped together uncomfortably
· Africans love to chew things. I’ve seen a secondary student take a snack on the corner of a book, toothpicks are present at every table and I’ve seen a grown woman chew a piece of plastic off her water bottle.
· Africans love to be in possession of keys and they horde them. Best examples are Sr. Immakulata, the internet nun, and Mr. Mng’ong’o, who is the keeper of my library key. Sometimes I think he likes to sleep with it under his pillow because it is always at his house.
· All Africans can dance and have wonderful rhythm, which I am very jealous of. There was a group of children dancing in Lugarawa with the beat of a stick and an old drum; they had us mesmerized for a half an hour. And all the sisters can move like you wouldn’t believe.
· The main cure for any ailment is to eat more and if you skip one meal you are going to die or come pretty close. Even if you have a stomach ache, the cure is to eat as much as possible “for energy” and also drink lots of chai or tea.
· Yes, Africans believe white people are loaded with money and that it grows on trees back home. Even some the sisters and the priest here think we have a lot of money, the educated even have this stereotype of white people in their heads
· You do not talk about the toilet or any other “potty talk”, this includes asking for toilet paper at the store by its English name because asking for it in Kiswahili is not proper. You also do say you have to go to the bathroom, but rather say the equivalent of “I have to go do my natural duty” (at least according to Sr. Karina).
Now, these are just observations and I hope you take most of them with a grain of salt. As stated above, Africa is abundant in the most important things: simple joys, friendship, community and faith, and that is why I am falling in love with this continent and when I leave it will whisper my name to return again in the future.
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