Hello from Team Marurani!

We wake up to the alarms of our smart phones, or more likely, to the domestic noises that have undoubtedly started with a punctuality and intensity I could not imagine for such an hour of the day. Tea and coffee is on the table with sweet smelling, oily tasting simple donuts, called mandazi. We bow our heads as our house father, or baba, mutters thanks in Swahili to God. We dress ourselves as the locals do, long traditional skirts and blouses for women, t-shirts, jeans, and sneakers for men. We try to fit into this foreign world. We lives in the same kind of houses, use the same blankets for showers, and walk the same dirty roads. We try, at least, to live the same kind of life as those who we are teaching. We dot it to create solidarity and empathy. By living in the field away form familiar amenities, we can say that we have at least tasted the difficulty of life here. By playing with the children, dressing in the village appropriate way, and greeting every person we see as part of our daily routine with rudimentary Swahili, we act as a real part of the community. We are approachable, accountable, and trustworthy in our familiarity. But if familiarity is all that is needed in as teacher, why doesn’t SIC just use Tanzanian teachers? They have our same energy, same knowledge, in addition to advanced ability in Swahili. What do we westerns bring that is so valuable as to counteract our handicaps? It’s our skin. As we ride our bikes into town… People notice us and we notic...
Source: Support for International Change : HIV AIDS - Category: Global & Universal Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news