My Tanzanian Family - Day 13
training, beer, training beer.
today is sunday. i spent the day off, at our house, learning a bit from mama, laying in bed, reading, watching tele. mama showed me how to hand wash my clothes, light a charcoal stove and a kerosene lamp. whoa, cool.
i love observing mama and the family. watching her scrub the clothes. she has a system down pat. she is really cut, too, i noticed. just strong. lots of manual labor in her daily routine.
this evening, baba took the family for a drive. i rode in the passenger seat, arm out the window, inviting stares at the mzungu, observing and observing, soaking it all in, looking at africa and feeling dirty and missing home and tonite i felt like it isn’t my job to be here. i am helping myself more than helping them, but isn’t that always the case? on the other hand, i am helping myself so that i can help others understand.
why is africa the way it is? better yet, how can africa not be the way it is? the answer lies within. its country, culture, ideals, goals, values. billions of dollars won’t solve africa. africans will solve africa. and they are doing so.
we went out to dinner. what an amazing thing. i am sitting with a husband and wife, granddaughter, nephew, and son, in a morogoro hotelini, drinking sarengeti with a muslim mama while the others are sipping sodas from those devilish 1st world countries, and me, the white boy, silently stares at the world around him like a naive newborn, cooing over the kiswahili language, fumbling towards sentence structures, unwrapping the gift that is africa and the peace corps, watching and observing even more yet, i will never understand.
but i will make inferences.
mama and the females are quieter than the males. they address him. he speaks for all of us, and it surprises me when he confers with mama on the order. maybe a bit more progressive than others in the country? mama drinks? are they content? that is the only question i want answered. this education training is not challenging me. therefore, i am restless. i need challenge. mental challenge. language learning helps that cause.
i still am very happy that i am here. there are moments that still shock me. the people and culture are a learning experience. i am living in tanzania.
