Thursday
After checking out several internet cafes we discovered there is one here at the hostel!! So much has happened since we arrived. My head and heart is full to overflowing so today was a day of doing practically nothing.
It was very nice having a leisurely morning with Nie talking about the differences and similarities in our cultures and educational systems. She had heard about streets paved with gold in the US. (When I worked with Vietnamese refugees in 1975 I was asked on several occasions where they were located.) The government of Tz has set the minimum wage at 150,000 TSh which is very close to $100/month. However 57% of the population lives on $1USD per day. The average life expectancy is 54. And only 6% of the children go to Secondary school (similar to high school).
Ibra stopped by the office. Lee Ann and I also stayed with him last year. He has started AfriShare which matches volunteers with local NGO’s for volunteer service and he also provides housing. Along with the volunteer opportunities, he offers cultural education trips. He is planning our day hike up Kili for the upcoming weekend and another trip for the following weekend. Ibra is also looking into a visit to a Maasai village as Megan is interested in this. Our guide for the Kili hike will be Mussa who was Lee Ann’s guide when she hiked the whole mountain and also for the day hike we did last year.
Last year when Mussa found out we were coming and Lee Ann wanted me to do a day hike with him, he had a 6 day hike scheduled (complete hike to the top and back) with a large group. These are very expensive and the tips are usually very good. He gave his trip to another guide so that he could do our day hike. This speaks volumes to me about the generosity of these people and also that Lee Ann was a very special person to him.
We met up with Jonas and discussed in more detail the Children’s Center and they gave me a copy of the plans and budget as I said I could make no promises but would look for funding and/or try to get a volunteer group to help build.
The 2 weekends before we arrived, TAFCOM had held 2 workshops on Safe Sex and Birth Control, one for the men and one for the women in Pasua. Obviously this is a very important topic with the high prevalence of AIDS. According to Nie, when young girls get pregnant the father rarely stays around as they too are young and not ready to be a parent. There is no “pressure” of responsibility for the men towards the mother and child. What then comes with this mind set is that using condoms is of no concern. So the emphasis needs to be on the prevention of AIDS and diseases for both the men and women along with empowerment of the women to demand the use of protection. This requires somewhat of a culture shift and is a daunting task. In addition, prenatal care is not free and economic survival takes priority.
[Try this:
I was also told by a person I met to do the following exercise; If you only made $1 per day what would be your first concern, 2nd, 3rd, etc... You will find that preventing AIDS is not a priority when everyday is about survival for some of the people here. It was kind of a jolt and a way to look at life more from the perspective of the people here than the way we think as Westerners which to me includes a lot of "Shoulds".]
Nie and Jonas were pleased with how the workshops went and are hopeful that when their new center is built they can offer much more to the community.
Nie sees education and skills training as the most important factors in alleviating poverty. According to her: Empowerment equals Hope. She is truly an awe inspiring woman with a heart bigger than Mt. Kilimanjaro!
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