Patient readers know that after 23 episodes, the Idiots Bahati have not yet gotten to the primary reason for their return to Tanzania in January, 2014. The real reason for the trip was the opportunity to visit Nyamuswa, the small village that is the focus of the work of Project Zawadi.
Every year Brian Singer, the founder of PZ, returns to the village where he spent two years (1993-95) as a Peace Corps volunteer. Each year he returns in January to distribute school materials to the students sponsored by Project Zawadi and to coordinate efforts with Zinduka, PZ’s partner organization in Nyamuswa. This year he invited PZ sponsors to go with him, and Michelle and the two Idiots took him up on the offer.
Before heading to Nyamuswa, the group made a stop at the Seronera airport to take care of some paperwork, then took a leisurely game drive all the way through the western corridor of Serengeti National Park to the Ndabaka Gate near Lake Victoria. At the airport, the Tanzanian flag waved over the tingatinga painted tail of an airplane – the best bird sighting of the day!
There will be lots of pictures in the following episodes, but the Idiots hope loyal readers will stick with them through some “expository prose” – lots of words. Understanding the pictures and events requires some basic background information.
By now, probably all of the Idiots’ readers (note: not “idiot readers”… but “Idiots’ readers”) have heard the dictum “Never assume – it just makes an ass out of u and me.” Of course, that was an assumption… but now that everybody has read this it has become a fact!
The Idiots have coined the term AC for an all too common occurrence. An Assumption Correction occurs when an assumption – usually based on too little or inaccurate information and unconsidered preconceptions – comes into direct contact with reality. The resulting collision requires changes in thinking and attitudes and feelings.
Sometimes an AC can be minor… like discovering after 10 years that nobody in your family actually likes the almond extract you’ve been adding in increasing amounts to your piecrust because you thought everybody really liked it… and sometimes they can be major, when you are forced to consider and change fundamental long-held misconceptions.
If everyday life provides the Idiots a steady flow of ACs, their visit to Africa inundated them with a firehose-like torrent. At every turn, a lifetime of beliefs, prejudices, preconceptions, and ignorance kept coming smack up against reality. Some of the ACs were immediate and obvious… but even weeks after their most recent trip and years after their first visit, the Idiots continue to discover thoughts and feelings requiring ACs.
It is not surprising that the ACs were major and frequent. The Idiots are relatively well-educated, but like most Americans, they know little about Africa. The Idiots learned their history and geography from people who knew little about Africa and cared less. The textbooks largely ignored Africa as a poor, unimportant,t European-colonial backwater. One could pretty much get a “Gentleman’s C” by knowing that “The Dark Continent” has pyramids and sand in the north, jungle in the middle, and a civilized white-dominated government in South Africa.
Their poor education was supplemented by books and movies that planted images that were, at best, inaccurate and often stunningly stupid, and at worst, overwhelmingly racist. Tarzan shared his jungle with a tiger – there are no tigers in Africa. A white man of noble birth, he always got the best of the primitive savages whose home he had invaded. Great White Hunters would bravely face mighty animals while the natives carried all their gear and ran away in fear when danger approached. Good natives were friendly, funny, and stupid. Bad natives were evil, homicidal, and stupid.
Africa and its people were worthy of scorn, or worthy of pity, depending on the teacher or author… but they were never worthy of serious interest and study.
With that baseline, it’s no wonder they were constantly chasing understanding. They named their first visit to Tanzania (in 2011) Idiots Walijaza… literally, Bewildered Idiots. They loved their experiences but were constantly bewildered. No matter how hard they tried, they never really figured out how things worked until long after the events had passed.
Older, wiser, and better informed, they approached this trip convinced they were prepared - and were once again thrown into a constant state of bewilderment. The Idiots believe that Assumption Corrections are good things… so the trip was full of good things! They learned a great deal and, as usual, the biggest thing they learned is how much they still don’t know or understand.
One AC occurred immediately after their exit from the Serengeti. For years the Idiots have described to friends how to get to Nyamuswa… “Drive to the end of the tarmac… then drive the rough roads of the NCO and Serengeti NP… then when you feel like you have arrived at “nowhere” - go a couple hours farther down a dirt track.” Sort of “Go to the ends of the earth, then take a right!”
Nyamuswa is in the Mara Region. The region is remote. It is virtually cut off from the rest of Tanzania by Serengeti NP on its south and east, Lake Victoria on the west, and Kenya to the north. And Nyamuswa is “off the beaten track” even for this remote region.
From the Ndabaka Gate, a hundred yards of miserable rutted mud lead to – the finest paved road the Idiots have encountered in Kenya and Tanzania! AC! A newly paved highway connects Tanzania’s second largest city, Mwanza (pop 700,000), on the south shore of Lake Victoria, with the Mara Region. Nyamuswa isn’t on that highway… there are still plenty of dirt tracks to traverse to “the village”… but once they hit the highway, local folks have a good ride south to Mwanza and will eventually also have this good surface north, passing near the largest city in the Mara, Musoma (135,000) on the eastern shore of “The Lake”. Improved roads make the transport of goods possible, so this may prove a long term benefit to the people of the Mara.
One might be tempted to think this road a testament to the concern of the politicians and government agencies in far off Dodoma and Dar Es Salaam for the needs of the residents in distant agricultural areas. The reality is usually quite different in developing countries. Usually roadbuilding is related more to the coming together of the interests of powerful politicians with the interests of powerful financial sources. Corruption, graft, and influence peddling are not scandals in most developing countries. In fact, the opposite is true - people are likely to be astounded when a politician is shown to be honest, altruistic, and dedicated to the needs of the people he/she represents.
The Idiots won’t make an assumption as to why this highway was paved. They’d have to ask a lot of questions that would be hard to get truthful answers to. Might this have anything to do with the commitment of the Chinese government to make Africa their “second continent”? Might this have anything to do with the fact that the Chinese seem to be central to every major road project in Tanzania? Might this have anything to do with the development of Chinese-owned gold mines in the Mara Region that, though they are killing workers and residents with dangerous conditions and devastating pollution, are highly lucrative for China and for Tanzanian politicians who support them?
They may be Idiots… but they aren’t fools. They loved the road but had no illusions it was built out of concern for the local people.
A big AC occurred when the Idiots realized how many people they were seeing. They knew the Mara Region is remote… and they knew it was agricultural. Based on their experiences, rural agricultural areas have low population density. The whole state of Wyoming has only 5 people per square mile. Most of Minnesota has 50 or fewer people per square mile.
So it was a surprise to find that, though remote and agricultural, the population density of the Mara Region is really quite high. Sources differ, but the density estimates seem to range from 140 to over 200 people per square mile. No large cities… mostly just small farms and villages… but almost 2 million people live in the region.
The difference is explained by the vastly different agricultural practices of the US versus subsistence-farming area in a developing country. In the US, farms are large… and getting consistently larger. The population of people actually living on farms shrinks each year as mechanization and corporate agriculture drive small farms out of business. The majority of Americans now live in cities and suburban areas. Those left in rural areas are spread pretty thinly.
In the Mara Region, roughly 80% of the people practice agriculture. Though the Idiots saw some large cornfields and rice paddies along the highway, most of the agriculture is dry farming, done by hand on small plots of land. For 70% or more of the farmers, the size of the fields and production is limited to what a family can cultivate with a large hoe called a “jembe”. Perhaps 20% of the farmers have access to plows and the cattle to pull them, bringing their potential production, if they’ve got good soil and water, up to the level of a typical Nebraska farmer – in 1880. There are a few tractors… strictly the province of the wealthy or corporate farms.
So… the land is dotted with small mud-brick houses on small plots of land supporting large families. Like many parts of Africa, the region has been devastated by AIDS and there are many widows responsible for raising large families on their own. Life is often hand-to-mouth. When the crops are coming in, everybody eats… when not, people often go without. Malnutrition is too common to be a topic of discussion.
Another AC… a rather melancholy one. The Idiots have worked with people of all ages and assumed they could estimate a person’s age pretty well based on appearance. Not in rural Tanzania. A child of 10 who has experienced chronic malnutrition and starvation may look 6 or 7. An adult mother of 7 children might be 25 years old and look like a young 15 year-old in America. The converse is also true – the struggles of a 50 year long life might well leave an individual looking 70. The people tend to be small in stature, not driven by genetics but by nutrition.
Among the small farms are thousands of small villages consisting of a few shops and a market space and sometimes a fuel station. People walk a lot, so it is not unusual for a homestead to be many miles from the nearest village or school.
The previous descriptions paint a pretty dark picture of life in the Mara region… and by extension, in much of developing Africa. While all that was said is true – it is not “the whole truth.” As they have found in so many places in the world where people struggle for existence, along with the ugliness of poverty and the dearth of opportunities, the Idiots found great beauty, strength and optimism… and nobility in the people.
As these episodes proceed, it is important for readers to keep in mind that the Idiots loved their time in Nyamuswa. Though they won’t sugar-coat the sometimes truly awful conditions, they also want to be sure they communicate the beauty of the land and their affection and respect for the people they met. There is great need – but great efforts are being made. The Idiots are proud to support, even in their small way, the tireless work of the good people of Nyamuswa.
And now for some pictures!
The plains along the highway north toward Bukoba have sufficient water and fertile soil to support large fields and rice paddies.
Idiot She snapped two photos that deftly illustrate most of the life of a typical rural Tanzanian woman. One woman carries water on her head. She has a woven ring that makes it more stable and comfortable. Atop the bucket is a package. Over her shoulder is a jembe – the tool used to break and cultivate the hard soil. The other woman carries a bundle of firewood on her head and a baby on her back.
The primary concerns of life for a rural Tanzanian woman are getting enough water to the home, finding firewood for cooking, raising crops to feed the family, marketing – and having babies. It’s all there in the first picture.
The second picture may seem redundant – but check out the flowers. There is an old American labor motto that was adopted especially by women unionists: Bread and Roses. It was drawn from a line from a 1911 poem: “Hearts starve as well as bodies; Give us bread, but give us roses.” The sentiment refers to the need to struggle to providethe basics in life… food, clothing, shelter… to all people - but the struggle can become unbearable if there isn’t some beauty in life as well. This too is a reality of rural life. People seek to surround themselves with beauty, even under the most trying circumstances.
A small business in Nyamuswa. A woman prepares a traditional unleavened flatbread called Chapati on a charcoal fire. She sells these hot, delicious treats to passers-by for the equivalent of about seven cents each. Her son was fascinated by the Wazungu… especially by Idiot She. She got the mother’s permission, then took pictures and showed them to the mother and son. The boy had probably never seen a white person before, so when he did get a grip on She’s hand, he was reluctant to ever let go.
A note about the terms Mzungu (singular) and Wazungu (plural). They are Bantu words and have been widely adopted across East Africa for white people. The origin is a “fun fact.” The base word originally referred to people who wander aimlessly or who spin in one place until dizzy. The belief is that it was originally a reference to the first white explorers in the area who seemed to frequently get themselves lost. So… “dizzy people” became equivalent with “white people.”
The first small businesses in most villages in the developing world are vegetable stalls. When the crops come in, the family eats. If there is some extra, they will try to sell or barter for other necessities. Among the next businesses to develop are butchers. The poorest of the poor will only have meat in their diets if they raise livestock – most likely chickens. But people who can have meat will have it, at least occasionally… and with no electricity or refrigeration, a central source for meat on a regular basis is a good business opportunity for someone with skills and some resources.
Another common small business – with some skills and the cost of a sewing machine, one can set up in business as a tailor. This very slender Nyamuswa tailor has just taken Idiot He’s measurements – and the prospect of making a shirt with those dimensions clearly amuses him!
Another AC – and another indication of the “Bread and Roses” aspect of life. In America, there is a long tradition, stretching back to just after the end of slavery, of African-American men gathering in barber shops and African-American women gathering at hair salons. The Idiots didn’t expect to see hair salons in very poor communities, but they have found they are common in many countries around the world. The practice of shaving heads is common in Tanzania, and the poorest people can’t pay for a haircut when they are having difficulty feeding their families. Still – when people get just a little bit ahead – hair salons appear. The Idiots didn’t learn if they only provide hair services, or if they also serve a social purpose for gathering and sharing gossip.
A couple of other things of note in the picture. Trees have been planted – and surrounded by fences to prevent their being crushed or eaten by wayward animals and traffic. The woman in the picture is playing with a ring from a five gallon bucket. Since these are the most common household implement… the all purpose container for hauling and storing water and other liquids… the plastic strips and lids are often repurposed as toys. Nostalgic pictures of the early 1900s in the US often include running children rolling metal rings from wheels, guiding them with sticks to keep them on edge and rolling. Tanzanian children make similar rings by cutting the center out of a plastic lid. The Idiots saw the kids rolling these rings, but when kids received very similar open frisbee-like toys from America they seemed bewildered. It appears they haven’t discovered the aerodynamic opportunities those lids provide.
More beauty amidst the rubble. It isn’t clear to the Idiots if these are the ruins of a building, or, as they suspect, the results of an overoptimistic builder running out of resources mid-project. In any case, the insides and outsides are surrounded by flowers… too many, and in too many varieties and combinations, for the Idiots to believe they all just happened to grow there. They like to think people have played a role in developing this “garden.”
Before departing on their self-drive, Idiot He got a lesson on the use of an essential tool - the long-arm jack. Tires driven over rough roads develop flats – frequently. Safari vehicles always carry two spares and repair any flats as soon as possible. The long-arm is designed to lift the heavy vehicles to allow roadside repairs.
The Idiots grew up in a sleepy farm town. They are familiar with how little novelty it takes to entertain kids. Idiot He remembers his “gang” getting great delight watching a delivery truck sending crates and boxes careening down a curved series of rollers into a basement grocery store… they crashed and banged and the rollers spun and sang like bells. It was like watching a giant pinball machine (note: they also watched older kids playing the pinball machine at the bowling alley… for hours!) – at least until the workers got irritated and sent the bunch packing. And on those summer nights when the volunteer fire department pulled the trucks out and washed them… first one kid… then five.. then 10… then every kid within shouting distance… would gather to watch the pageant of water and shiny red enamel and chrome and guys in fireman equipment. And right behind the kids… lots of men smoking and making suggestions… and a group of mothers “watching the kids.” It doesn’t take much to be an “event” in an area where not much new happens.
The tire went flat on a stretch of rural road… no village nearby. A few kids came to watch… then a few more… then some adults joined them. Eventually Mussa had about 40 people watching him change the tire. They got twenty minutes of free entertainment. (Idiot He was one of the crowd watching intently… He hasn’t grown up much since watching them wash the fire trucks.)
Rural life has a quality that is often missing from more sheltered urban lives - immediacy. People living in good housing with reliable water and electricity and an abundance of food products on the shelves of the store a few minutes’ drive away can lose track of the basics of work, life, and death that are always present for a farmer.
Mama goat had just given birth to these two healthy kids. She hadn’t yet passed the afterbirth, so the umbilical cords were still hanging. She immediately started eating the grass to provide milk for the babies… and they immediately took advantage of Mama’s Milk Buffet.
The young goatherd doesn’t have a degree in animal husbandry – but he’s experienced enough to know those two youngsters were too weak to walk all the way to their new home before dark… so he gave them a boost.
Life in the Mara is often difficult… and painful… and challenging… and sad… but it can also be quite beautiful!
h
Specially in Brittanie. For generations it was a fact. People had little or none school education and the ones who had, got it from the churches until around 120 years ago here DK - then people thought the Earth was flat as a pancake 
