Tuesday in Bagamoyo, Tanzania. How wonderful children are! We continue to walk the streets and the kids come running out yelling and giggling in Swahili, White people, white people!. Oh how they laugh at us, all in good fun. The days at work have settled down. The twins seem to be getting better. We visit Mama and Baba and they show us how the babes are learning to crawl. They toss items on the floor for their boys to go after. It is strange that the items are a pack of condoms and a pack of matches, but my first reaction is, Thank God Dad is using condoms! as the mama is HIV positive. i guess i have been in Africa long enough to measure progress differently. Sunday i attended a Catholic Mass with one of my friends from the NGO i work with. i oversleep and she waits an hour and 15 minutes for me at our gate. i apologize profusely and she continues to say, Hakuna Matata, i tell her no American would wait that long. I take her out for tea and biscuits and at the local Art Market she buys me a gift to thank me. We have gatekeepers at home base and they tell my friend they are not permitted to disturb me. I am so embarrassed. The men guard us at night, slightly built Emmanuel could not hurt a fly and goes around our home base singing songs about Jesus with an everlasting smile. Tumba, equally as gentle, makes rosary beads while on watch. He tells me he is killing two birds with one stone. He gets paid for his work while he makes rosary beads. Today we make batik cloths under the instruction of two local artists. After working about 5 hours we return to home base to take part in Cultural immersion. Thus the Batik making. Mama Sophia teaches us about gender roles and the educational system. She also tells her story of getting pregnant before she was married. The family believes such a thing will cause the men in the house to die. Her father tells her to leave. She yells with her father and says you can kill me, you can kill my baby, but i will not leave! She goes on to raise a healthy baby girl who develops Aids and almost wastes away but under Mamas guidance, meds and herbal remedies her daughter grows well. I have become good friends with her and was invited to her home. She introduces me to all of the neighborhood women who together form a co-operative. Women are allowed to borrow money at no interest to build a home or start a business. Most of it revolves around agriculture. so i see goats and chickens and vegetable gardens that are look after with great care. If a woman gets sick her payments are suspended for awhile until she is healthy again. Each member gives back 10% of their earnings to allow other women opportunities. i was invited to a party at her house next week where a young man will come to ask the Uncles for her daughters hand in marriage. i am incredible honored. We take Swahili lessons, a local Doctor visits us and we visit a polygamous family of musicians. We are going to meet Masai tribesmen some time next week. i wander through the Monday market where literally we squeeze past each other to see fruits and vegetables, plastic ware and chickens, deodorant and smelt, and anything the local villagers might need. The doctor comes to talk with us about Malaria, (the number one killer in Tanzania), cholera, elephantitus, dengue fever, and HIV Aids. i ask him about stories i have heard from the African women. Birth control causes cancer?. Yes, he says, it is a common belief. Difficult choices for these women. But then a member of the Ministry of Education tells me that many Africans believe Aids was imported to Africa from American doctors because they wanted to lessen the population of these people that keep asking for help. The look of horror on my face when i say No, Never!, causes him to sigh and he admits to me, He believed it himself. So i go to the village well with the children as they draw water and put the pill in to disinfect it into their water jug and i take their picture and i pray to all that is good and holy to give these people strength.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 13:36:08 +0000
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