Can you believe that I’m looking for something to wrap around my shoulders today! It’s chilly after a rain last night and because we’re moving closer toward June and July when it’s usually the coldest months here. I hope that just the opposite is happening in the northern hemisphere and that you all are finally getting some spring weather.
I just returned across the hedge from Emusoi Centre, where there are a bunch of girls studying English, maths, history, Swahili in order to prepare them to enter Secondary School next year. I was reminded again of the different customs practiced by the different ethnic groups here in Tanzania. There are over 120 tribes who live here, most of them Bantu but a few others are Nilotic or Cushitic . Each has a different language and somewhat different customs. These days there is a lot of intermarriage so some of the cultural expressions are becoming national expressions or are not practiced as much as they used to be. One that I find with fascinating differences is how a youngster greets an older person. At Emusoi the students are mostly Maasai, and so when I pass a student in the hall there, she greets me and bows her head, expecting me to lay my hand on her head and return the greeting. Where I lived in Singida, it’s just the opposite: the child raises her hand to me and I’m supposed to bow down so she can lay her hand on my head and greet me. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know how the differences came about?
Yesterday I went to visit another friend from the early 90’s. He was a young man in those days and got married around that time. He now has five children, two of them already in secondary school. I like the names they have named their children: Bahati (Good Fortune), Baraka (Blessing), Faraja (Comfort), Fadhila (Kindness), and Wema (Goodness). Of course they also have saints’ names but these “Majina ya nyumbani” (Home names) are wonderful, don’t you think? This man wanted to be a priest when he was a young man but his father refused to give him permission to go to the seminary. And so he started work, got married, has those very nice children, and is quite involved in the religious and church life of the community. He is the Vice-Chairman of the parish council, his wife the Chairperson of the Catholic Women’s Group and sings in the choir. They showed me pictures of two of their children who received First Communion this year -- two of 200 in the group ! He is also the leader of the Small Christian Community in the neighborhood where they live. When I asked him about this group, he said that they get together for prayer and discussion of the needs of the community every Saturday. I assumed it would be in the late afternoon or evening but he told me that they meet at 5.30 a.m., before they go off to their shops or fields or wherever! He said that there are about 40 adults in the group, and there are usually at least 25 who attend these meetings. He has a job as an Agricultural Extension Worker and his wife has a couple knitting and sewing machines so she has a business of knitting sweaters and sews and embroiders cloth. The house that they started building in 2003 isn’t finished yet because they, like so many others, build slowly as money becomes available. Right now all their extra income goes into paying school fees for the children so the house, although they live in it, can wait for the finishing touches.
Hope everyone who reads this is well.
Darlene,
ReplyDeleteAs a western woman, are you expected to know, understand and participate in the local customs, such as greeting the elders? In my studies and experience, as a foreigner, I always had an excuse and the locas did not expect me to know and understand everything.
Robert