The Villages.

The villages were beautiful. Not because they were built beautifully or were always in fantastic locations (even though most of them were) but because the people in the villages were so friendly and welcoming.

Ive seen villages in India too and i often compared what i saw in my country with what I saw in tanzania. The stark difference was the genuine warmth without motive. They welcomed us without any motive of making money or gaining anything from us. Everyone waved out and greeted us with "mambo, vipi" or "habari", "habari gain" etc….and the children came running to greet. This didn't happen in India. People always seem suspicious and aloof in India. And the children never begged. Sometimes they asked for candy. The warmth and welcoming spirit of the villagers was really exudative.

Most houses were made from mud and grass and had an earth-pit toilet detached from the main structure. Some of the richer households had brick structures, flowering shrubs and an outhouse for the livestock. Each village had a village office where the "chairman" of the village, usually a man with some kind of political and social standing, presided over issues pertaining to the village. I once overheard a committee travailing over a personal matter. The husband was complaining that his wife (I forget for what reason) was hurling all sorts of verbal abuses and it was obvious that it had caused much hurt to his ego. The matter was settled when the committee decided that she pay a fine of 6000 or perhaps 4000 shillings (3/4 USD) to her husband. Some villages had a dedicated bar which served cold beer and Fantas and Cokes and even served food made by other village mamas like beans, rice, chips and andazi and chapati.

village office

Little dukas (shops) sold everything from Coca-cola to condoms. Condoms are heavily advertised in this part of the world. And sex, its implications, importance and ignorance of, is rampantly discussed, dissected and distributed (as advice and acts). I was surprised to understand what a promiscuous society it is. Multiple partners is the norm.

One day a villager asked me if I had a boyfriend and then asked me if i was married. When i said I wasn't married she asked me if i had children. I though she was joking or didn't understand that i wasn't married, so i asked Rowland, our guide and driver to clear up the confusion. He told me that she knew i wasn't married but that was inconsequential. She then told me she had 2 children from 2 different men and she wasn't married and was only 21. This was commonplace. Her parents didn't mind and they supported the children but told her that if she had anymore without a man promising to support them they would probably throw her out to fend for herself.

This was in stark contrast to the amount of advertising I had seen for contraception. Sex is far from being taboo! Its is on the surface and you see it everywhere. African women, i found were very comfortable with their sexuality. It was apparent in their dressing and behavior. The men too, were always teasing the girls and for them to be married and have multiple partners is nothing exceptional.

An ad by Salama condoms even had a tagline which translates into " if you really love her, you will protect her". Aaaaaahhhhhh, alas!! . No wonder there are so many children everywhere. EVERYWHERE. And of course life expectancy must be quite low as you hardly see any old people. They are a rarity.

Felisto, our project translator and a friend, told me how AIDS was rampant in most villages and he said that sometimes 30-50% of the village had HIV!!!! I found that hard to believe but even if not, im guessing the percentage must still be quite high.

Felisto also provided us with a ghastly story of a village sorcerer who killed little children and was eventually brutally murdered by one of the parents whose children he had murdered. He spoke of cults where ill, old people believed that killing young people would cure them of their illness and hence when the word was out that any of such people, rumored to be a pat of the cult, were ill, no one went to visit for fear of being turned into some kind of voodoo sacrifice. The gory details of the story kept Sondra up at night but I was kept awake by a cute mouse who was nibbling on something right above my head. Much more disturbing than the Makifu child killer!

One time, I was in a village doing interviews and while I was still finishing my last few villagers I noticed a young boy very intrigued hanging around the village office door. He was peering in trying to see what the commotion was all about. He was perhaps 12 or 13. He was also very eager to get his picture taken with my camera that Rowland had. Once we were done, I asked Rowland what was going on and he told me he was a Barabaig boy who wanted his picture taken. When we were sitting in the car to leave he came to my side and just smiled, I was wondering how old he was and I asked Rowland to ask him. When Rowland asked him, he pasued for a moment to think and then said "2 years". While it sounded really funny, he looked really serious. What hit me was how simple life was, there was no concept of time because life was what it should be, filled with acts that define it, not measured in hours, minutes and seconds. He probably grazed his cattle in the bush all day and came back and helped with chores. He definitely did not go to school. That was life for him. What did time have anything to do with it? Why was there need to know what day it was, what hour it was, and how many of these made a year….. The sun rose and the sun set and there were things to do, thats all that mattered. How simple, how wild, how beautiful…………………..

barabaig boy below

Another very interesting fact is that when two people want to marry (and now-a-days the choice of partner is made by the youngsters themselves) the man must collect dowry to pay the wife's parents. If he cannot collect it, he cannot marry her. This was in contrast to what is apparent in my society. I also understand the social/cultural implications of this and why it exists. Either way, both are archaic and should be abolished. However, that cannot happen until a psychological and conscientious evolution occurs.