An African Impact.

This time around Africa was different. Seeing life at eye level is so different from being there as a tourist. I remember feeling quite low when i first got there and it surprised me! There is nothing i wanted more than to be in Africa. Africa had the ability to keep me away from the world and now the world was keeping me from being with Africa. I, surprisingly, felt lonely and anxious.

The project was fairly easy. It was a socio-environmental study, but part of a Human-Elephant Conflict project. 11 villages surrounding Ruaha National Park are chosen as a part of this study. Each month 10 villagers from each of these villages gets a chance to visit the park. A full day game drive with lunch and breakfast, replete with cameras to take pictures for each visitor. In exchange for this outing and day of fun, they furnish us with answers to a questionnaire. A pre and post interview. And these questions probe into their attitudes regarding wildlife and the national park. (do you see any direct benefits, How do you feel living close to the park, how do you feel about protecting wildlife etc). A way to assess attitudes and any change in their attitude before and after the park visit.

While this was fairly easy, living in Africa especially rural Africa is not, unless you're rich. (to say the least).

I have lived a fairly sheltered life in Mumbai. Lived and still live with the family, they paid for my education, we went on holiday's, I had parties. When i was sick i was tended to, when i was bored in the city i could take a break, when i needed a new dress I could have it. If my hair was not the way i liked it any longer i changed it. I had a car to drive and I ate at restaurants, went to the movies, partied on weekends…….Basically life was a luxury.

And then there was Africa.

I was always interested in the environment and wildlife. Social welfare less. Anyone would tell you that i'd show more compassion to an animal than a human being.

And then there was Africa.

I was always conscious of my spending and put it in relativity to what was around me. But i did not think it was wrong to spend the way i was, it was MY money, MY parents didnt oppose, so why should someone else. Besides I was always doing my bit of giving back to the society.

And then there was Africa.

I realized that the people who live there are sometimes so immersed in the problem they cannot even see that they have drowned and sunk far too deep and then it ceased to be a problem. They lived with it. It became a way of life.

What touched me most is what I discovered about the people and the way they live. Their customs and simplicity, how close they are to calm and beauty yet on the verge of breaking and entering into the world of globalisation and chaos. They are trapped in this limbo between the past and the future. Holding onto their culture and norms and yet wanting so desperately to embrace western ideals and living. And ofcourse living in Africa is tough unless youre rich. If youre rich youre mostly corrupt too. And if youre not corrupt youre poor. The middle class is so slim, it holds no power. Very soon into my time there I realized how deep seated corruption is. And then the more you listen and talk to people, Africa's endless cycle of wars, poverty and disease seem obvious. Power is so concentrated in the hands of a few and so focused on one singular purpose. And that purpose is not the people or the land. Its the instrument of preference to get richer.

Sell the minerals, traffic the drugs, buy arms and ammunition, test the pharmaceuticals, compromise safety. Africa is a conglomerate run by businessmen who feign ingnorance towards social and environmental issues until they turn into catastrophes. Because it does not benefit those who own her. And nobody saves Africa because it does not benefit them. War perpetuates the existence of the Africa that we know. Very sad but true. And the result of years of political unrest, war and unstable governments is no more, more apparent than at the grass roots. In the interiors, the villages. I mean ofcourse, its apparent everywhere, in the cities too. Everybody warns you of being robbed, of not walking alone after sunset, of not venturing into certain areas by yourself. In Africa if you're simple, you're safer.

But after spending 2 months in this land of bewildering juxtapositions what comes to my mind when I think about Africa is an Africa I discovered beyond my fears and conditioning. The people who i met, the land i feel in love with even deeper, the sights and smells that intoxicated me and the spirit of this beautiful nation so alive, through it's happiness and sadness, through its joys and pains, through its peace and turmoil, through its euphoria and anguish, that it possessed me.

I knew it would be an amazing experience. But never in my wildest dreams did I imagine it to make an impact on me so profoundly. An impact that weaves itself into the micro-fibres of your philosophy and understanding of life and living, of morals and ethics. And then how can perception exist independently of these things?

My following posts relate to incidents or observations that really made an impact on me in those 2 months.