Africa: First thoughts...

I arrived Saturday night, and have been here for 4 days. I had so many things I wanted to write about and now that I am actually sitting in the Internet cafe my mind is fuzzy...

Where to begin...? First off, Africa is amazing. It is so much more than I anticipated and expected. I have always heard of the immense beauty, the graciousness of the people, the immense power and love that eminates through the culture, but until one experiences this first hand it is impossible to imagine.
I stepped off the plane and was immediately overwhelmed with the fresh air that smelled sweet and peaceful. Peaceful is a good word; in Swahili they say salama often, which means peace. Peace of the spirit, within this country of poverty and struggle.

Of course not all is so wonderous. I have been here four days and have heard many horror stories. The women cook their food outside on the fire, and sometimes the playing children fall into the fire. A friend of mine volunteers at the hospital and tells of children covered in burns who have no pain medication and little clean bandages. HIV is of course very prevalent here, but not as much as in some Sub-Saharan countries -- Tanzania has about a 10% infection rate. Often the infected boys/men tell the young girls "Don't worry, its not bad, just like the flu..." to get the girls to sleep with them. The stigma of HIV is lessening and several of the volunteers are working in their placements with women affected with HIV. Many of the children at my school do not have parents, as they have lost both of them to HIV. It is part of life here.

About my placement:
I love my school!!! I am at the Kilimahuwea Informal School for boys and girls. Essentially kids are given a test after primary school. If they pass this test they are allowed to continue to the government-run secondary school. If they fail this test they are never allowed to continue with formal education. They are permitted to attend private school but most families cannot afford this. They have one chance to take the test. If they have a bad day, a bad sleep the night before, are sick, whatever, it makes no difference. If they fail the test that essentially cuts off most of their opportunities. Most become street kids, hustlers, beggers and/or get infected with HIV.

Kilimahewa was built 3 years ago to try to offset this terrible fate. The children
are given classes in math, English, communication (conversation), geography, etc. There are three sections: a nursery school where they sing a lot of songs and learn their basic elements; the 'secondary' school which contains boys and girls ages 14-18; and a technical training program that teaches girls to sew. I am currently working with the sewing girls and will do a bit of teaching in the nursery as well. I love it! I love these girls already and I have only been teaching for two days! They are so eager to learn, loving, gentle, kind, witty, and have a hysterical sense of humor! We've been working on practical English language skills, those that relate to sewing, selling products, complex numbers, etc. I also do math with them, again as a practical tool for their trade. Everything is designed to help them go into the work force and make enough money to support themselves and their families. At least these kids are given a fighting chance. English is the key to success -- if they have good language skills they can work for a tour company, in a hotel, in a store, etc. If they cannot speak English their fate is infinitely more grim.

And the little children! So affectionate! They run up to the mzumi (white person) and are astonished at what they see! Today I had a little girl running her hands all over my face laughing and touching me in glee (she also loved the shininess of my earrings I'm sure).

Mama Fortunata is the head of Kilimahewa school and she is fantastic. She makes clothes for all the volunteers, and yesterday took us on a trip to town so we could pick out our own fabric for her to sew. Of course she charges us for this, but she takes the money and puts it back into the school, therefore I am at one of the very privilaged placements; the girls have several sewing machines (run by their feet, no electricity), there are desks and a few books and even a white-erase board. By most Tanzanian standards this is quite rich, and I am privilaged to be here (actually, one of the main woman who runs CCS Kilimanjaro owns the property that the school is on, so this is her pet project -- hence I think this is why I am here... the last volunteer was a principle of a school in LA Unified, so I suspect she handpicks the most experienced volunteers to go to this school so the kids have an extra special education).

In actuality the government schools can be quite horrific. Corporal punishment is very much in use, and yesterday one of my roommates witnessed such abuse that she came home from her placement in tears. TIA.

A word on pictures: we are asked not to take pictures of the children at our placement until we have been there a few weeks and I am abiding by this strictly. On Monday we toured a local (quite poor) village, and I was horrified by the rude behaviour of some of the new volunteers. They were gathering up the African children and sticking their cameras in their faces taking numerous pictures. Granted the little kids LOVE this and giggle and laugh at all the attention, but to me it screams of yet more Western exploitation... "Oh look at the cute little black African kids... let me take some pictures so I can show everyone at home."

Now granted these kids ARE completely adorable and they do love the attention of the mzuli, but does this make it right? They are not zoo animals (not that I support zoos anyways, but you know what I mean). For those of you who know me well, I was fuming and quite upset, and even bitched out one particularly offensive girl (who was also wearing a lowcut tanktop while revealing her bra when we were specifically asked to dress respectfully and modestly, and cover our shoulders). Some people are completely daft and culturally insensitive -- so I was fuming and I ranted to my friend who is on his third volunteer trip, and I got it off my chest.

But I do love it here. There is a sense of peace, a sense of being home. Tanzania is where homo sapiens is believed to have originated, and perhaps this is why everyone who steps foot in this country doesn't want to leave. I am already regretting my mere 4 weeks in this country (shortened from 5 due to the struggles my friend Kim is going through) -- I'd love to be here for 4 months, but there is always next summer to return.

Asante sana. Niwasiliane!