Elway on the Daladala

Things at school are keeping me busy enough, I am teaching three different classes so I have three different preps to keep up with, but I am happy to be busy at school it keeps me out of trouble. I have even been having Saturday and Sunday classes for my form four math students because they have regional mock exams at the end of this month. No I am not torturing my students with weekend classes; they asked to have classes on the weekends…not me. My students here at Mzumbe don’t fall into the common mold of Tanzanian students they are some of the best in the country and they know what it takes to do well on the national exams, and the truth is they are at a all boys boarding school and there just isn’t all too much to do around here.

I presented a challenge the other day for my form three students who are taking my Additional Math class. Since I will be teaching them for the next two years and be responsible for teaching them the entire syllabus before their form four exams, our challenge…best scores on the exams in all of Tanzania; I hope by putting this out there it motivates me to play my role.

The rainy season is slowing to an end and I am very thankful for it! I was falling into cabin fever and needing time outdoors, and a chance to walk to the market with out getting covered in mud. My bike here has been great to get out and see the country around me and the other small villages scattered around me. I stop now and then and talk with the villagers and they are always happy to get to talk to a foreigner who knows Swahili and I have even picked up a couple of greetings in the local tribal language Uluguru. I find it quiet calming when I ride through villages other than mine and I here people say “Luka, Luka,” if not much changes around here during my time here at least I know I have penetrated people’s lives.

I have established one truth in my experience so far here in Tanzania, neither I nor any other foreigner is going to be the catalyst for change here in Tanzania …

I want to set it straight that I didn’t have an idealistic notion that I would change the history of Tanzania while I am here. A wise man said to me once “The world doesn’t need more problems it needs more solutions.” It easy to point out problems but it is the solutions that are rear and valuable. I find my self sitting back to think about the problems that are holding back Tanzania from water shortage, food shortage, feeble schooling system, poor info structure, and the 7% prevalence nation wide AIDS pandemic (many argue it’s much greater) just to name a few. From the AIDS problem alone many other problems are fostered like a dieing work force, a huge population of orphans, and I huge financial drain to the economic resources. These problems are very transparent to any one who stays in Tanzania for a significant period. Many good nature Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Governments see the problems and offer support and money to those needy causes. The truth of the mater is that not all of the resources make it into the appropriate hands and corruption runs rampant in all areas of commerce, and it’s the Tanzanian leaders who are slowing progress for their country.

With the thought of so many problems lingering in my head I wonder what the solutions could be. I have come to believe that the best work here in Tanzania needs to be done by Tanzanian’s they have to own their situation and own the idea that the best resources already lie within their country. Tanzanians of all walks of life from government officials to the farmers in the fields need to own up to the ides that the solutions lie in the hands of the people, it’s not going to come by means of foreigners coming in and waving their magic wand and sprinkling it with money.

The people here love their country and their culture; and a great sense of unity exists here in Tanzania and a pride to be Tanzanian above all else. Tribalism has plagued many African countrys’ and it was the first president of Tanazania, Nyerere who was able to unite the people as a proud Swahili speaking East African country. They have growing markets in agriculture, mining, and tourism. The time has come for another great leader to come out of Tanzania and push it forward to a new Tanzania; one who believes that Tanzania has the resources to move forward and one who can persuade the masses to play their role of prosperity with out corruption.

There is a good amount of wealth in Tanzania and people are ready to invest in the future, but the money is distributed to a select few, and the rich keep getting richer. There was an article in one of the Tanzanian papers last week that was pointing out the need for Tanzania to move away from foreign aid and that many developed nations U.S. included where not helping out enough. Reading it made me think the writer to be a spoiled child that believes she is entitled to what ever she desire and if she can’t get it, it is at the fault of somebody else.

This last Saturday I had a man from a neighboring village that I had never met before come to my house, he told me that he heard their was a Peace Corps Volunteer from America at Mzumbe so he wanted to pay me a visit… What he really wanted was money. His story was that his sister was in the hospital diagnosed with AIDS and he needed money for ARVs (Anti-Retroviral) because they ‘lost’ the last prescription and she wouldn’t be able to get a refill for another three weeks from the dispensary. I was first skeptical when he showed me her card for ARVs, the card is distributed to individuals who can benefit from ARVs it has the patient’s name on it the medication their taking, the dispensary they are getting them from and the dates they receive medication and the dates which they are eligible for a refill, I have had a chance to work with these cards before at our PEPFAR workshop. These ARVs are given out for free to people who have been diagnosed with HIV; this program is financed by the money from PEPFAR. The card seemed to be a forgery by all accounts, stats about the recipients CD4 T-cells was missing and it only had one date of doctor visits on it. And that he said they ‘lost’ the ARV’s was not adding up, and knowing that there is a black market for these ARV’s; people who get the ARV’s for free and turn around and sell them for money. After talking with this man for some time and being convinced that he was just looking for a hand out told him I couldn’t help him out. For the rest of the day this bothered me… Could he be telling the truth? He wasn’t asking for a lot of money, I could afford to? Could I start giving hand outs to every person who came to my door? I even thought about going to his village and tell him I changed my mind. But what I couldn’t understand was that he walked out of his village, through another village, through Mzumbe University campus with its health center, passed by my secondary school and all the other teachers home’s, and came straight to my house on top of the hill, and asked the white foreigner for money.

On my way home last week in the daladala which is the public transportation system here best described as clown cars, for the reason that the amount of people and chickens they manage to shove into a daladala is unbelievable. I saw John Elway on my daladala, I couldn’t see his face but he had his Broncos #7 Jersey on with Elway on the back. John Elway in Tanzania riding a daladala! John Elway is black right…?

My encounter with John Elway on the daladala had me thinking on the way home, about how small this world is becoming. With internet, cell phones, and transportation everything and everyone is playing a more integral role in the prosperity of man kind. The relations we have with our neighbors are just as valuable as the relations we have around the world. What many of us are willing to through out others around the world utilize with great pride and resourcefulness, the market has expanded across the globe. So the leaders of tomorrow need to see the value in keeping good relations and a concern of the welfare of all ‘market players.’

The aid coming into Tanzania is a great thing for this up and coming country with so much to offer the world, but Tanzanian’s need to realize this and find leadership with in to push forward through the corruption and own up to the idea that they are the solution for their issues. With out this leadership Tanzania will never get over the hurdle of entitlement, and forever be dependent on foreign aid.