As I write the date it seems to say to me that the U.S. celebrates Columbus Day today. Right? At least the New York Italians always have a big parade, I recall!
And here on Wednesday we will have a day off, observance of the 10th anniversary of the death of the Father of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere. He is still sorely missed and remains a very admired and revered person for Tanzanians. The other night I was listening to an interview on the radio and the person being interviewed was the retired Bishop of Dodoma. He was reminiscing about Nyerere and his contributions to the country, especially in light of the elections which we are beginning to prepare for in 2010. There has been some controversy and a lot of discussion after the Tanzanian bishops issued a pamphlet with some guidelines about the kind of leaders that Tanzania needs. The controversy has to do with the role of the church and whether it’s getting into politics. The response to that goes like this: The church is not saying that leaders need to be Christian or Catholic but whoever the leaders are, they need to love the people of Tanzania and work for them and not for themselves. Anyway, it’s a great topic of conversation among folks. Politics all over the world is a great subject to discuss.
Every morning when I walk to school I need to walk along the main highway (leading to Morogoro and Dar es Salaam) for about one kilometer. And it is during that time that I see how another group of people make a living. There is a steady stream of bicycles, the majority driven by men, going into the city from the outlying villages, and they are all carrying something that will be sold in the city. Many carry sacks of charcoal on the back of their bicycles, filled to the brim and overflowing and sticking out on either side a couple of feet. There is a great market for charcoal since that is the intermediate cooking fuel. By that I mean that the fuel used by women in the villages is mostly firewood, the fuel used by women living in towns and with a considerably higher income is electricity or gas, but the fuel used by that middle group is charcoal. Anyone making charcoal is supposed to have a license in an effort to decrease deforestation but there is really a vast market for it so the trees continue to be cut down to make it. Hopefully there is a lot of replanting going on as well.
Another thing I see on the back of bicycles are containers of milk. Some have only a gallon jug, but many bicycles are carrying one or two twenty litre containers on the back. These folks probably have a distribution place in town where they take the milk and someone sells it from there. Or they may be taking it to a restaurant for use in making tea, etc. And the third thing I see on the bicycles are chickens: large baskets tied to the back filled with live chickens. These may be going to the market, where one can buy a live chicken and have it butchered for a few extra shillings, or they may be going to a restaurant getting ready to be served for lunch.
One other thing I noticed the other day when I went to town was that there are more beggars on the streets these days. As the dry season gets longer I suppose that the food supplies are finishing for some people, so that may be one reason. But most of the people who are begging are either quite old or blind or lepers, so they have some problem that prevents them from getting their needs. Of course, there are government agencies that are supposed to take care of them but as in any society some folks fall through the cracks. A lot of the churches or mosques or temples also have charitable outreach for people in need, so there is help available. I usually try to avoid going to town on a Friday because there are always more beggars on Fridays. Why? Because Friday is the Muslim holy day, and since giving alms is one of the pillars of Islam, so they are usually very generous on Fridays.
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