People Will Always Be People.

I was sitting outside today when a girl from the secondary school was walking around – I greeted her with ‘Mambo’ (kind of like ‘what’s up?’) and she came over and we got to talking. She had been out looking for roses to flatten and dry. Her name was Elizabeth and she 19 years old. She has two old brothers and two older sisters. We talked about all sorts of different things – primarily comparing and contrasting things from here to things in the States. It was interesting to hear how people think of the States here. Elizabeth told me that one of her friends, Nancy went to university in the States. She said that in Tanzania if you get the opportunity to leave and go study in the States, you take the opportunity. We talked about life here in Tanzania. She told me that things are so difficult here in comparison to life in the States. It was really interesting to hear her interpretation of life in the States and hear how she explained life here. I didn’t expect to hear people talk about how difficult life is – I guess I anticipated hearing that life is life and you get what you get. And that sort of what she said. She told me that life is so difficult here and education is very important and very difficult too. She explained to me that education in government-run schools is much worse than that in privately-run schools – and to top it off, LJS is one of the top schools. Right now there is a two day national holiday – today is Id al Had and tomorrow is the national independence day – so the students get two days of a break then they will have one day of studying and then the next day is examination day before they all go home for Christmas.
We got on the topic of religion and she explained that she feels like people in the States worship with their soul but people here just worship to go through the actions. It was really interesting because I feel like in the States people just go through the actions and people here genuinely put their heart and soul into it. But then again, her image of American worship comes from televised evangelical worship services, so that probably makes a big difference in her opinion. Then her friends came and told her she had a task to do over in the secondary school.
Our conversation cemented in my mind that people are people no matter where you go. Cultural differences will occur but generally, people are the same across the world.
I can’t explain how nice it was to have someone just to talk to who is a woman and who is around my age. I have gotten so used to sitting in the background to the boys. I have noticed that (in the villages especially) it is a lot easier for them to relate to the men who are a lot more outspoken than it tends to be for me to relate to the women who are usually busy cooking or off taking care of the children. I have come to fully understand that life here is very much gender-based. Earlier in the trip it was explained to me better than I can put into words… “Although there were female teachers at my school, most were also mothers and wives. The fact was, I was very much an anomaly – independent young female, no children, no family there, college-educated, and yet in a ‘man’s world.’” I have developed a friendship with the male teachers here (though it has taken almost three months) but I definitely noticed that the boys had an easier time developing friendships with the boys. But even that makes sense with my ‘people are people’ realization – it is human nature to stick to people that you have things in common with. Back in the States, men and women tend to have more in common at my age so it is easier to integrate. Here it is just that there is a little less in common.
I have learned a lot so far in the past three months and I plan on that not changing in the next week. I want to make the most of my last week here and I want to keep learning and keep experiencing.
Peace.