Like a winding river wrapping through dense jungle with all it’s subsidiaries, creeks and brooks stemming from it along the way, the washed out mountain roads of dirt and rock here in our village, break into smaller trails of daily swept orange dirt that lead to the simple homes of simple people. Built on the foundations of over a thousand years tradition and local unearthed rock, the walls of many are not more than wet and dried and hardened soil smashed as an almost ancient mortar between a web of skinny, disjointed sticks. Within these walls dwells the workhorse of a continent and the beating hearts of babus and bebes, babas and mamas, dadas and kakas, all whose daily routine revolve around a lifestyle of manual labor necessary for survival. As an American walking on distant and foreign soil, I naturally first see the decay and weathered holes of exposed wood in these walls. I see coca-cola bottle caps pressed into the mud. I see the passed off, old shirts and pants that do not qualify as American rags in our thrift stores as the cherished drapes that block the harsh sun from the inner chambers of these homes. Three weeks immersed and I have been granted vision to see past the American garbage that stuffs these home made walls.
I do not see walls of primitive construction in desperate need of repair by the savior concrete of the western world that were the images my American eyes initially betrayed me with. I see walls that are weathered and cracked but I now see that these walls are as warm and strong as the dark black African hands that fabricated them from the earth. Warmth and beauty grow here, as tall and mighty as the baobab or the acacia trees. Pride and nationalism resonate from the voices that greet each other on the streets here. Although curious and ignorant, the eyes of youth submit with respect. There is sincerity in the welcome of an elder, cordially declaring that you are their grandchild. There is love for family here and love for God. This is a spiritual land with spiritual citizens. It is these ingredients that comprise the walls of every humble home here and that is why they stand today and will continue to tomorrow.
Africa is not without problems as the rest of the world is not either. Africa is not helpless, however because Africans are not helpless. May we never solicit a perception of this place as one in need of a messiah from the West to others, or subscribe to the typical American stereotypes of a poor and wretched African culture that are advertised and sold to us daily. May we see both sides of the schilling and open our eyes to pain paired with happiness and long suffering married to the profound and redemptive strength that saturates the air here. Africa strong and Africa bold, this is the Africa I have come to know.
Popularity: 49% [?]
With my schedule allowing little room to breathe, exhaling was not even an option before I departed on my journey here to Africa. All the anticipation and excitement of a new adventure remained suppressed and tightly bottled inside as I traveled despite all conscious efforts up to that point to unwind and simply let go. My mind sifted through thick stacks of personal worries and the weighty thoughts of disappointment in unfinished business of my own agenda as the engines grew louder and we began speeding down the runway. On a lengthy recovery from an ordinary cold that proved to be more annoying than infectious, I quickly set four colored and glossy pills of generic sinus medication onto my tongue, sipped from my complimentary orange juice, swallowed hard and prayed my anxiety would grow as distant as the continent I was leaving behind.
To my satisfaction, I woke to a dry but crusted nose, another complimentary orange juice and a certain weightlessness that is only granted in that strange sort of post-stress moment when you realize for every mile you have traveled at 30,000 feet you have grown farther from the place you were so recently held hostage by your own situation and are another step closer to your destination. Arriving early enough in Nairobi to make my first breathes of fresh non-re-circulated air crisp and brisk, the fact that I had just traveled half way across the world to film a movie that could potentially affect the way thousands live everyday was a sobering reality that quickly made residence in the foreground of my mental landscape.
The terminals and the escalators, the moving sidewalks and the duty free’s and the foreign accents and unfamiliar buses all blur together in a sort of surreal, spinning carousel ride played in fast forward with only brief moments of real time that seem like they actually play in a distorted slower than life sort of motion. To highlight one of these moments that stand in my memory outside of time and space, I recall a conversation I had with a man I sat next to on the bus ride from Nairobi to Arusha.
As we boarded the bus, the open seats all in a row in the back looked most appealing but the solo traveler right in front of us poached one to my dismay and left me, last to board among the team, searching for another seat elsewhere. As divine intervention would have it, the only open seat was in the middle of the bus in the aisle, a few distant rows from the only people I could adequately communicate with. Feeling isolated and alone, I took my seat with my briefcase at my feet and my camera backpack on my lap, too exhausted to care about any of it. Not having closed my eyes but a minute, the Tanzanian next to me spoke up in a soft and cordial greeting.
Maxwell was born and raised in Tanzania but educated in Oxford so his English made for a wonderfully familiar but uniquely different experience all in one. We talked about politics in America, politics in Tanzania, politics in Kenya and then how he likes to eat Snickers bars. Feeling educated but bored with the conversation, I was still intrigued by this man next me smacking on an intensely potent menthol chewing gum and began to then rack his brain of every Africa question I could think of that I would want answered by a true local. He was joyous to answer and as I was to listen and somewhere in the middle of all of it we found ourselves sharing war stories of a similar kind. Disregarding the typical wisdom of his parents, Maxwell left the potential of a well paying job in the city to pursue the calling of his heart in charity and ministry. His tales of journey, self-realization, mistake, ignorance, trial, blessing and sacrifice echoed through the expanse of my thoughts that day as an unannounced and unexpected voice of encouragement and affirmation, officially marking my welcome to Africa.
Upon arriving it was time for more farewells and good lucks, handshakes and hugs. It was at this point that we boarded another bus from Arusha to Moshi and my fatigue of travel and feeling ill caught up with me all at once, sending me into a deep and peaceful sleep despite the frequent potholes and speed bumps of the two lane poorly paved highway.
Waking again, still half asleep and really just trying not get lost, I followed Megan and the team walking around Moshi to our first contact, who would store our bags for us for the day in his Safari Tour office. Amazed at the immediate friendliness of the locals on the street, I found myself in multiple conversations surrounded by comedic Tanzanians speaking a jumbled English Swahili, all wanting to find out about me and my stay in Africa. Skeptical of their true intentions, it became obvious after a few minutes of conversation that I was a walking dollar sign and assumed to be a European doctor. This meant that I must want to go on a safari here in Africa and that no one could possibly give me a better deal than they could. Unknown to me then, this would be a foreshadowing of how we would be perceived in our village as well as an interesting statement on how European and American cultures have previously interacted with those of Africa.
More to come…I can’t think straight to write anymore today and you probably can’t read anymore either.
Here’s the rest of the random quickies from the last few days…
Here are a bunch of little Oska’s photos that he took on my camera too…He’s a natural.
Popularity: 34% [?]
Tanzania
Located in East Africa on the Indian Ocean. To the north are Uganda and Kenya; to the west, Burundi, Rwanda, and Congo; and to the south, Mozambique, Zambia, and Malawi. Tanzania covers an area roughly twice the size of California. It is home to Mt. Kilimanjaro (the highest point in Africa), Lake Victoria (the second largest lake in the world), and the Great Rift Valley.
People
More than 37.1 million people live in Tanzania. Kiswahili or Swahili (Kiunguju in Zanzibar) and English are the official languages; Arabic and numerous other local languages are spoken as well. Virtually all of Tanzania’s inhabitants speak Bantu languages. There are approximately 130 ethnic groups. Inhabitants of Indian and Arab descent constitute approximately 1% of the population and are concentrated in Zanzibar. The Bantu-speaking peoples include the Sukuma (the republic’s largest ethnic group), Bena, Chagga, Gogo, Ha, Haya, Hehe, Luguru, Makonde, Makua, Ngoni, Nyakyusa, Nyamwezi, and Nyaturu. In addition, the Masai speak a Nilotic language; the Sandawe speak a language akin to Khoikhoi; and the Iraqw speak a Cushitic language.
About 45% of the mainland population is Christian, while 35% is Muslim, and about 20% follow traditional religious beliefs. The population of Zanzibar is almost completely Muslim.
Economy
Tanzania’s primarily agrarian economy is constrained by geography and environmental factors such as low and erratic rainfall, soil erosion and deforestation. Only 8% of Tanzania’s land is under cultivation, although about 80% of its population are employed in agriculture. The principal cash crops of coffee, cotton, sisal and tobacco have been affected by instability in world market demand and rising costs of imported fuel, fertilizers, and equipment.
An infrastructure that is deteriorating due to internal and external causes also affects the country’s economy. Communications and transport have been neglected. Tanzania has 127,000 landline telephones, 115,000 Internet users, and 2.8 televisions per 1000 people. Its 134,000 motor vehicles travel 52,800 miles of highway. The southern third of the country is especially isolated, even from inferior transport services.
Health
Life Expectancy
Men-51 years; Women-53 years
Infant mortality: 77.8 deaths per 1000 live births
51% of the population live in poverty
1 physician per 20,511 people
HIV/AIDS rate in adults: 8.09%
68% of adults are literate
Compulsory education 7 – 14 years
Areas of Concern
HIV/AIDS, with 1.3 million cases in Tanzania, represents a serious health concern. Outside donations have helped fund much of the progress made in human services. For decades, Tanzania has been either at or near the top of the list of African nations in per capita receipt of international aid.
Tanzania still hosts more than a half-million refugees, more than any other African country, mainly from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, despite the international community’s efforts at repatriation; disputes with Malawi over the boundary in Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi) and the meandering Songwe River remain dormant.
History
Arab traders first began to colonize the area in 700. Portuguese explorers reached the coastal regions in 1500 and held some control until the 17th century, when the sultan of Oman took power. With what are now Burundi and Rwanda, Tanganyika became the colony of German East Africa in 1885. After World War I, it was administered by Britain under a League of Nations mandate and later as a UN trust territory.
Tanganyika became independent on Dec. 9, 1961; Zanzibar on Dec. 10, 1963. On April 26, 1964, the two nations merged into the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar. The name was changed to Tanzania six months later.
In Feb., 1967, Nyerere issued the Arusha Declaration, a major policy statement that called for egalitarianism, socialism, and self-reliance. It promised a decentralized government and a program of rural development called ujamaa (“pulling together”) that involved the creation of cooperative farm villages. Factories and plantations were nationalized, and major investments were made in primary schools and health care. While Nyerere put some of the declaration’s principles into practice, it was not clear if power in Tanzania was, in fact, being decentralized.
An invasion by Ugandan troops in Nov. 1978 was followed by a counterattack in Jan. 1979, in which 5,000 Tanzanian troops were joined by 3,000 Ugandan exiles opposed to President Idi Amin. Within a month, full-scale war developed. Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere kept troops in Uganda in open support of former Ugandan president Milton Obote, despite protests from opposition groups, until the national elections in Dec. 1980.
By the 1980s, it was clear that the economic policies set out by the Arusha Declaration had failed. The economy continued to deteriorate with cycles of alternating floods and droughts, which reduced agricultural production and exports. In Nov. 1985, Nyerere stepped down as president. Ali Hassan Mwinyi, his vice president, succeeded him. Running unopposed, Mwinyi was elected president in October. Shortly thereafter plans were announced to study the benefits of instituting a multiparty democracy, and in Oct. 1995 the country’s first multiparty elections since independence took place.
President Benjamin William Mkapa (1995–2005) sought to increase economic productivity while dealing with serious pollution problems and deforestation. With more than one million people infected with HIV, AIDS care and prevention have been major public health issues. On foreign policy, Tanzania has taken a leading diplomatic role in East Africa, hosting peace talks for the factions fighting in neighboring Burundi. The UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is located in the town of Arusha. In Oct. 2000, Mkapa was easily reelected. In 2002, opposition leaders and foreign donors criticized the president’s costly new $21 million personal jet.
In 2005 presidential elections, foreign minister Jakaya Kikwete of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Party won with 80% of the vote.
Prime Minister Lowassa resigned in February 2008 over a scandal involving an American energy company, Richmond Development, which was hired to provide Tanzania with generators to supply electricity to the country during a power shortage. The company never began the operation, yet Lowassa urged the government to renew the contract. Mizengo Pinda replaced Lowassa as prime minister.
Sources
http://www.tanzania.go.tz/statistics.html
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0847817.html
http://www.elca.org/countrypackets/tanzania/desc.html
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tz.html
Popularity: 35% [?]
Keri did a great job finding these facts on AIDS and HIV in Africa… Some really alarming figures…
-Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most affected region in the global AIDS epidemic. Although just over 10% of the world’s population live in this region, more than two out of three (68%) adults and nearly 90% of children infected with HIV live here.
- More than three in four (76%) of global deaths due to an AIDS-related illnesses in 2007, occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. This proportion is stark evidence of the unmet need for antiretroviral treatment in the region.
-In sub-Saharan Africa an estimated 1.7 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2007, bringing to 22.5 million the total number of people living with the virus.
-the majority of people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa (61%) are women.
-AIDS continues to be the single largest cause of mortality in sub-Saharan Africa; of the global total of 2.1 million adult and child deaths due to AIDS in 2007, 1.6 million occurred in this region.
-Children are particularly affected—there are an estimated 11.4 million orphans due to AIDS in this region.
-Currently, 33 million people worldwide are now living with HIV
-the total number of people living with the virus in sub-Saharan Africa is 22.5 million
-Over sixty percent of these are women - mostly young women.
-although two thirds of the people who need treatment are still unable to obtain it.
-Prevention is the key. It is a highly complex issue. But this can be no excuse for inaction.
-And we still have a long, long way to go to make HIV prevention truly effective.
-Despite all the progress we’ve made, for every one person who starts taking anti-retroviral drugs, another five become infected with HIV.
-Instead of getting shorter, the queues for HIV treatment become longer by the day, and the provision of universal access to treatment gets more and more expensive.
-This is a frightening prospect. It highlights the fact that AIDS is going to be with us for a long time to come - not just for years but for generations.
-We are already paying the price of not taking stronger action to prevent the spread of HIV earlier on in the epidemic.
- If we don’t do more to prevent new HIV infections today, prospects for the future are grim and costly.
-Globally speaking, fewer than 10 per cent of women in low and middle-income countries have access to services to prevent mother-to-child transmission As a result, half a million children are born with HIV each year.
-In many cases, the relatively low status of women, and discriminatory attitudes towards them, mean that they feel they can’t take vital steps to keep themselves healthy.
-Ignorance is a major issue. Some women simply don’t know the most basic facts about HIV.
-Others have information, but can’t act on it because they are so dependent on male family members, and so terrified of the stigma that surrounds HIV that even if they know they should get their partners to use condoms or take an HIV test, they don’t dare to do so.
Popularity: 35% [?]
Our main site at GettingWordOut.com is almost finished and currently up in its premature state.
It will feature all of our main information regarding Ravished Hearts and our Getting Word Out campaign. It will include detailed information on our team, our core values, our mission and vision, our past experience and everything else going on.
check it out: gettingwordout.com
Popularity: 18% [?]
As one of the first steps in our pre-production we have launched africa.gettingwordout.com. This is the first leg of the Ravished Hearts awareness vehicle we have live on the web.
This site is dedicated to our efforts in Africa, specifically regarding AIDS. On here you will find posts in a few different categories by a few different authors. We will be posting near daily updates as we are in the pre-production phase right now before we depart for Tanzania in early May. Here we will also post near daily updates regarding AIDS awareness in general as well as updates from our production after we have landed in Africa.
Stay tuned here and stay informed. Feel free to comment and give us feedback on what you think, what you could contribute and what we could improve on. Thanks for lookin, talk to you soon…
Popularity: 46% [?]
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