Two weeks ago Tanzania celebrated
Zanzibar Revolution Day. Taking
advantage of the opportunity to leave town, I joined a friend for a road trip
to a tiny village about an hour outside of Mafinga, in the Southern Highlands. I had little to no idea what to expect – just
try to Google it and see what I mean.
Up, up, up we went, shedding the
sweltering heat of Dar as we wound our way up the Rift Valley escarpment. Through Baobab Valley – where ancient trees have
stood watch over centuries, silently observing parties like ours, coming and
going. And then a burst of green – rows
of tea plantations against a darkening sky.
The fertility of the soil on display in fruit laden vines, masses of
pine forests and indigenous trees and the cool damp of the earth.
Here I met a couple who are among
the most inspirational people I’ve met since setting foot in the ochre hued
dust of sub Saharan Africa. A former
peace corps volunteer and teacher in the highlands outside of Mafinga, her and
her husband run the NGO started by Geoff Fox, founder of Fox Farms. Our ‘tour’ of their work took us from a
daycare centre for villagers working for the NGO, to the dorm rooms of young
adolescents in the ‘children’s village’, the construction site of a future
school and community health centre, vast and lush fruit and vegetable gardens
(coined the garden of Eden), to a
mediation to find a home in the village for an AIDS infected young woman with
nowhere to stay (who incidentally was taken in by a woman who once cast out of
her home for her positive status had
used her considerable talent as a basket weaver to build a small home for
herself) and a check-up on a child reported not to be attending school. Fluent in KiSwahili and the local KiHeHe, the
couple’s house is a beehive of activity, with community members and their young
toddlers filtering in and out in a steady flow.
Quite honestly, I could go on and
on about the work that they are doing, but the truth is, I could barely keep up
with all the initiatives they are involved in. What struck me even beyond this is how much
love emanated from their home. To see so
much hurt and sadness and transform it into opportunity and empowerment is not
something many people can accomplish.
There is work instead of handouts and with it, a chance for something
better. Whether it is childcare or
basket weaving or rocket science, isn’t it all a chance to taste the
fulfillment that comes with sharing our gifts with others? An image I can’t shake from my mind is that
of a young mentally disabled woman, pregnant with the child of her attacker and
HIV positive as a result, sitting and cutting grass for 2500 shilling ($1.50) a
day. Arguably, this might not be an
illustration of fulfillment. But then,
at its most basic, isn’t an opportunity to become self sufficient satisfying in
itself?
I’ve had a lot of conflicting
thoughts about the development industry this past year, few of which I’ve resolved
with any certainty. But this experience
brought home to me a truth: these are people.
Actual flesh and blood people- with disappointments, struggles and hopes
for the future. Sure, the current overriding
model of development is not sustainable.
Yes, there is waste and ways to do things better. But while we figure that out, what do we tell
that woman cutting the grass? To me it
has to be something like this: ‘you are worth something, let me help you’.
