Mothers Love

Dearest friends and family of the Tanzanian Education Project,

How nice to see you once again. I hope you are well. I have come down with malaria again (second time in a year!), and my body has decided that even water is too “spicy” to retain for the past couple days. So it is from a supine position which I address you today. However, don’t fret about me, for today I have uncurled from a fetal position and plan to be back on my feet by tomorrow!

As far as events concerning the Tanzanian Education Project, and particularly Fanaka go, we are plugging along as usual. We have been busy implementing a survey to the students of Fanaka and the surrounding Bunju A area. The goal of the survey is to assess the education and health needs of the families of Bunju. This will also assist us in the grant writing process. While the process is quite tedious, especially when one needs a translator with the majority of the participants, the results are quite fascinating. We are learning a great deal about the structures of families around here, as well as getting an idea of demographics like family size, how many people live in one home, what businesses people are involved in, what religion is most prevalent, and how much the families have to eat and drink on a daily basis. We have been assisted by our friend Erenaus (or Iwe, as we Americans call him, which just means “you”, because we can’t handle the rolling “r”s), the patron of the boys’ dormitory.

Although Iwe has always been instrumental and helpful to volunteers of the Tanzanian Education Project, I would like to mention what a hard and dedicated employee of Fanaka he is. Though we frequently get frustrated with the teachers, students, and administrative staff of Fanaka, people like Iwe help to remind us why we have come to Tanzania and Fanaka in the first place. He is generous and considerate, and truly cares about the students. He is an avid student of history, and is studying hard so he can re-take his Form IV exams and eventually go back to school. However, he has told me that this will be very difficult as school fees are expensive and he sends the majority of his paychecks home to his family. I hope that he does find a way to complete Form V and VI because I think he would be a wonderful teacher, and Tanzania needs more like him!

On a completely unrelated note, this coming Sunday is Mothers’ Day, and I would like to especially dedicate this blog to mothers: the mothers who have adopted me here, the mothers at home, and particularly my mother. I know that if it were not for the encouragement and support of my mother (her name is Christine, she’s very tall and beautiful and teaches 6th grade), I would never have been able to come to Tanzania in the first place. She is of the wonderful breed of parents who wholeheartedly supports every new and unrealistic goal I propose to her, without the slightest hint of irony (usually). Though I do not bring home macaroni-art anymore, I still flash every passing thought under her gaze as if it were that Elmer’s-glue-and-construction-paper creation of my formative years, and without even blinking, she still accepts every crazy new idea without even a blink. Sometimes she even will put them on the refrigerator.

So when it came to becoming involved with the Tanzanian Education Project, and taking not one but two trips to East Africa, my mother never quailed. Though I know my safaris have at time caused her worry and fret (I’m sure the description of my most recent encounter with malaria will not allay her fears in the slightest), she nonetheless gives me her encouragement and support, laughs and my banal stories and horrid jokes, and saves an Easter basket for me for when I get home.

I would be lying to myself and you, O captive audience, if I feigned to act as if my being who I am in this wonderful place were the result of any of my own actions or bravery. I have a sense of humor because my mother fed me Mel Brooks and Monty Python as a child; I am adventurous because she let me try art lessons, piano lessons, ballet (that lasted only for two days), horseback riding (I KNOW, Cassie, I am that weird “horse girl”), and a multitude of other passing interests, always with the condition that I must stick with something for a while before giving up... well, except for ballet. I am responsible because she was fair and logical when it came to punishments and rewards, and because School Always Comes First. I work hard because I have watched her nurture and dedicate her life to countless other children who still stay in contact with her today. I am a good friend because I have watched her give of herself when it was not asked, bite her tongue when others irritated her, and always remembered that sometimes it is better to be happy than to be right. My Mommie is the reason I care so deeply for people on the other side of the world, and the reason why I know doing so is important.

So, this Mothers’ Day, I would like to thank my Mommie. Thanks for letting me be here, for letting me be crazy and for letting me drive you crazy, and for loving me even though I’ve eaten goats’ meat (and liked it). Nashukuru sana, sana, Mama yangu. Napenda wewe daima. (Many, many thanks, my mother. I love you always.)

Ok, well I hope that was a nice tear jerker and you’ve all had a good cry. My bowels are playing some sort of unsavory game of Tetris and can’t seem to get all the blocks to fit properly, so I think its about time to go. I hope everyone has a good Mothers’ Day, and don’t forget that mothers come in all forms, whether its your birth mother, or your mamas in Tanzania. They are all wonderful women. To sum up, I would like to relay a folk tale Babu told me the other day:

There was once a lion who wanted to prove he was the most powerful animal in the world. So he killed a wildebeest, and felt very strong. But then he saw the elephant, and saw that the elephant looked very big and very strong. The lion decided to fight the elephant, but because elephants are brave and strong and have think skins, the elephant won. The lion decided that the elephant must be the strongest animal in the world, so he must stay with the elephant for protection. For some time the lion and the elephant lived together, the lion always staying protected by the elephant. Then one day, a new creature approached. This creature walked on two legs, wore a fancy hat and carried a stick that spouted fire. This creature used his stick to kill the elephant. The lion decided that this new creature (for he was a human, as you may have guessed) must be the most powerful animal in the world. From then on, the lion decided, he would stick close to the man for protection, because surely the man who can kill and elephant is the strongest creature in the world. The lion followed the man until the man returned to his home. There, the lion witnessed the strangest thing. Upon arriving home, the man handed his stick of fire (which had made him so powerful) and his fancy hat to a woman. She took the stick and put it away, and hung up the man’s hat. Surely, thought the lion, the creature who can take these things so easily from a man who killed an elephant, surely she must be the most powerful animal in the world. From then on, until now, the lion and his descendants (for they have grown smaller in the passing years), always stay in the kitchen with the women. For truly, they are the most powerful creatures in the world.

Wasn’t that nice? Now, I think its time for a nap before I have to call Sigourney Weaver to tame whatever alien bursts out of my stomach. Cheerio!


xoxoxox,
Eileen