A Different Point of View

A Different Point of View

           

Here in Tanzania everything is different: the language, the climate, the customs, and the skin color are just a few examples. Even the way the children are taught at LOAMO and the discipline they receive is very different than in the US. Our way of life seems full of ease and luxury compared to the way of life here. I realized this firsthand when we went to visit the Save Africa Orphanage.

            At first, all the children were shy and we couldn’t get them to talk to us. But with a soccer ball and some smiles, we changed that. While at the orphanage, I went to look around the boys’ and girls’ rooms. There were 18 girls and 23 boys in total, but when I looked around, I didn’t find 41 beds. I only found 13, which meant three to four kids slept in one bed. When I looked outside, all the water was from a small spicket. Even seeing how dirty the children’s living conditions and clothing were made me reconsider what “dirty” was. Yet they continued to be happy and live every moment that they had with us to the fullest.

 Seeing the people’s “way of life” here in Tanzania reminded me of Cambodia – they shared similar struggles and it never gets easier to see. From what I have experienced, the people didn’t worry about what they could have or what they might need to survive the next week, month, or year, they thought about the present, and, especially here in Tanzania, they care for one another. All of the things we take for granted everyday in the US make our lives so much easier and we don’t even realize it. For example, at home I can turn on the faucet and instantly get clean water that doesn’t make my eyes or teeth yellow. But here, you need to boil the water. In order to boil the water, you need heat, and in order to get heat you need to buy electricity or propane, and in order to buy things you need money, which, here in Tanzania, is hard to make. Life is luxurious for most people in the US, especially in the Vail Valley. We are in this bubble that doesn’t allow us to see the true harshness of life, unless we pop the bubble and go to beautiful countries like Cambodia, Tanzania or Nicaragua. Life is entirely different for people all over the world, yet the people can just as happy, if not happier, than the people I know back home. I am still trying to figure out how the people’s happiness here is so contagious; it just seems to overflow into every person. It amazes me that the students at LOAMO can be so happy, even after hearing a few of their sad stories. One student told me about his mother dying when he was baby. Another told me she had to watch her 3 other siblings at 11 years old while her mother and father worked. Not many kids in the Vail Valley have stories like this, and if they do they usually have family or extra support and help. Yet they don’t seem to have the same kind of happiness that the children at LOAMO or Save Africa do. It is really difficult to explain how a certain kind of happiness can be different from another; it’s something someone would need to experience themselves, and I’m so glad I have experienced it here in Tanzania.