Jonathan’s Blog

Hey, why not ask for more?

4/11 There is no clinic on Sunday so I was able to sleep in until about 9 o’clock. It was also the first evening in several days where was no rain, and so I slept throughout the night. Church once again started promptly at 10. This time however, there were more than a few people there. I also noticed that the pastor had conspicuously placed a clock on the wall behind him on the pulpit. This Sunday he was wearing a collar (despite this being a non-denominational protestant church) with a purple shirt and a grey suit coat. After sitting through 2 hours of incomprehensible praying I went home for lunch and spent most of the rest of the day reading. I have probably read more during this trip than I have at any other time in my life. During my idle time I have also become adept at singling out the many birds on the island and their distinct calls: The whistle of the black kite, the insect-like call of the red-collared widowbird, the chirps of the pin-tailed whydah, the two toned laugh of the pied crow, and those tantalizing explosions from the grey parrots who always fly over but never stop by. At about 5 o’clock Bob and I decided to do some exploring on the island. We first descended into the banana forest below us stopping to talk with the people as we passed their homes along the way. More than once we were solicited for money or other more extravagant requests. I think there is a cultural divide between America and Tanzania when it comes to charity. In America soliciting strangers for money is often seen as an annoyance and has certain connotations as being a shameful act. Here however, such requests are commonplace and done with nonchalance. The requests are also on a much grander scale. Rather than asking for spare change we were asked by a man to “pay for his children’s school tuition”. We had never met this person.  Upon taking a picture you might hear a stranger ask you in a completely non-threatening way if they could have your camera.”No, sorry. I need it”.”Okay”. ”You’re going to Mwanza? They have motorcycles there. Will you bring me one?”.Another: “You’re from America? My grandfather lived in Europe. Will you help me get there”.The request is always cordial and there isn’t the sting of rejection. It’s as if they’re thinking” “well, you can always say ‘no’, but maybe, just maybe, you’ll say ‘yes’. So what’s the harm in me asking.”In one of the villages in the valley we ran into a throng of children playing soccer with a makeshift ball. Slowly the group of children snowballed to about 30 as they crept out of the woods to surround us. They were quiet until their precocious leader asked us for a new soccer ball. The rest of them laughed. I took their picture, which was enough to satisfy most of them and Bob and I continued on. About 10 of the children, their leader at the front, followed us for a quarter mile or so. I have noticed Tanzania has a very young population. There are children everywhere. Whereas the U.S. is growing older, TZ seems to be growing younger. Much of it I’m sure is due a shorter life expectancy and an absence of birth control. The procession came to an end when we climbed up the hill on the other side of the island. At the top was a narrow strip of tall grass and boulders on which from either side we could see Lake Victoria. Just north of us was Uganda and less than 100 miles to the West was Rwanda. The sun was beginning to set and it was quite a spectacle. We descended back into the jungle so we would could get back before it got dark. We got lost along the way (we made a right at the cassava farm where we should have made a left). With some help from a local we got back just in time to see the lanterns light up on the Lake for the night catch.