This is from a few days ago. Today is the 24 day mark! I arrive back in Dallas for the long drive home so soon! I'll be back in Washington after the first of the year. Don't worry...you'll get to see me. After all I'll need help moving into the dorm. :) I'll even take you out for Chinese food afterwards. Let me know if you are on Team Move Shanea In!
Love you all!
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In talking with my friend Sala, the other day, she made the comment that there are parts of Africa you never hear about. She wasn’t talking about forgotten districts or countries, but modern urban centers. Close to my dorm is a Western style shopping complex, Mlimani City, complete with department stores and a movie theater.
We were at Mlilmani City and she made the remark that she would have to bring her camera and take pictures because her family at home wouldn’t believe that this was really in Africa and so close to her.
We can go there, enjoy air conditioning and see the latest block buster. It is not so for most Tanzanians. The prices are beyond their means. There is the section of society though that embraces it as part of their regular lifestyle.
Mlimani City, this shopping center, isn’t far from people and communities where malnutrition and sickness happen more often than not and kids are denied an education because their parents can’t afford uniforms. It is the clash of income strata and cultures. The school I volunteered at is just behind the shopping center. I had students in my class that were told not to come back until they had better uniforms and others who were using pencil nubs because their families cannot or will not buy them pencils for class. A pencil barely costs a few hundred shillings the equivalent of thirty cents. One example, is a lady who does all of my tailoring and dress making. She lives in a one–room house with her niece that she is raising. They share a bed and cook in the alley behind their house. They have very little. Their small home is all she has. The front porch has been turned into her workshop where she sews for the neighborhood. She is a fortunate lady even with the little she has. She makes enough money to send her niece to school and keep a meager diet on the table. The people living further down the street are not so fortunate. The family there has older children who have left school to sell items on the street corner to help supplement the income for the family.
It’s such a contrast of worlds! There are luxury automobiles on the streets in downtown Dar. These weren’t things that I imagined or read about before coming here. The media portrays the image of everyone is starving and sick when it’s not completely true. There is most certainly an affluent minority.
Dar is like any other major city I’ve ever visited. There are very affluent areas and there are slums. It is easy to see the difference when you “cross the tracks.” Some of these areas are just as friendly as the more tourist friendly areas though others…let’s just say I ended up in one such place by accident and ended up fending off a would-be mugger. The worst parts of Dar still have cholera outbreaks because there is one pit toilet shared by four or five families and when it rains they drain it into the street.
The thing I remember here is that urban centers in the States may not have cholera outbreaks though there are entire communities that are modern slums. There are also rural communities that live in abject poverty and are the poorest of the poor. The biggest challenge for this group of impoverished people is that a large portion live in secluded communities and out of sight. They become people who are easy to forget. It’s hard to imagine that people in America still go hungry but they do. There was an article I read on the CNN website recently that highlighted the same issue. We are a wealthy nation yet we forget to care for the poorest of our poor. The challenging part is to help those who need the aid and screen out those who are able of taking care of themselves yet choose not to.
We were at Mlilmani City and she made the remark that she would have to bring her camera and take pictures because her family at home wouldn’t believe that this was really in Africa and so close to her.
We can go there, enjoy air conditioning and see the latest block buster. It is not so for most Tanzanians. The prices are beyond their means. There is the section of society though that embraces it as part of their regular lifestyle.
Mlimani City, this shopping center, isn’t far from people and communities where malnutrition and sickness happen more often than not and kids are denied an education because their parents can’t afford uniforms. It is the clash of income strata and cultures. The school I volunteered at is just behind the shopping center. I had students in my class that were told not to come back until they had better uniforms and others who were using pencil nubs because their families cannot or will not buy them pencils for class. A pencil barely costs a few hundred shillings the equivalent of thirty cents. One example, is a lady who does all of my tailoring and dress making. She lives in a one–room house with her niece that she is raising. They share a bed and cook in the alley behind their house. They have very little. Their small home is all she has. The front porch has been turned into her workshop where she sews for the neighborhood. She is a fortunate lady even with the little she has. She makes enough money to send her niece to school and keep a meager diet on the table. The people living further down the street are not so fortunate. The family there has older children who have left school to sell items on the street corner to help supplement the income for the family.
It’s such a contrast of worlds! There are luxury automobiles on the streets in downtown Dar. These weren’t things that I imagined or read about before coming here. The media portrays the image of everyone is starving and sick when it’s not completely true. There is most certainly an affluent minority.
Dar is like any other major city I’ve ever visited. There are very affluent areas and there are slums. It is easy to see the difference when you “cross the tracks.” Some of these areas are just as friendly as the more tourist friendly areas though others…let’s just say I ended up in one such place by accident and ended up fending off a would-be mugger. The worst parts of Dar still have cholera outbreaks because there is one pit toilet shared by four or five families and when it rains they drain it into the street.
The thing I remember here is that urban centers in the States may not have cholera outbreaks though there are entire communities that are modern slums. There are also rural communities that live in abject poverty and are the poorest of the poor. The biggest challenge for this group of impoverished people is that a large portion live in secluded communities and out of sight. They become people who are easy to forget. It’s hard to imagine that people in America still go hungry but they do. There was an article I read on the CNN website recently that highlighted the same issue. We are a wealthy nation yet we forget to care for the poorest of our poor. The challenging part is to help those who need the aid and screen out those who are able of taking care of themselves yet choose not to.
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