Different Worlds

Remember these scenes? This is a village called Mto wa Mbu--if you visited Lake Manyara or Ngorongoro Crater you passed through this village. As far as villages go, it's actually very nice. The main road is American-quality and very good drainage ditches line each side of the road. It's generally pretty clean, really. If you ever visited our house or passed through other places in Arusha, you know that the trash is everywhere. Ev

erything is dusty. The dukas (the small shacks for shops) are made from rough boards. There are lots of people, especially kids (50% of Tanzania's population is under the age of 15), and dogs and chickens run everywhere. Wooden carts line the roads and fight with bicycles piled high with crates of bottles, bread, or furniture for the right of way.

This is the village we ride our bikes through on the way to school. I think it is slightly unique in that it's paved. The village sold the school the land to build on and in thanks for their support of the school, ISB gave funds to the village, and the village decided to use the money to pave the roads and run electricity throughout.

In addition to the paving, there are so many differences. First, electricity. There are taps outside buildings, so people don't have running water inside, but there is working power everywhere. The paving keeps the streets less dusty, of course, but there is also garbage service. Any trash was swept into piles and at one end of the village were a number of large garbage cans, which I assume get emptied.

There are a few dogs and chickens, but nothing on the scale that I am used to seeing. There are little dukas and food shops, but all the buildings are cement and brick and are in much better condition. There are some people hanging out, but mostly old men playing games or chatting together. There are a lot of bike carts--3 wheeled bikes with carts attached--and often they are electric. The cars that are seen are in much much better condition than in TZ.

Because China is so large and has a centralized government, it's inevitable, I suppose, that there are aspects that are not efficient, but they are good at keeping track of things and watching for any trouble. There is a small police post at each end of the village to watch for trouble. In many places I see security guards taking their jobs much more seriously than I did in TZ. Our safety and security talks at school emphasized being polite and respectful to police (which should be the rule everywhere) but that we would be treated well and fairly if we ever had to interact with them, most likely to happen in a car accident (that's another post--imagine Tanzania driving on American-style roads at almost American speeds--in a city of 18 million plus!)

Last night we went downtown to the Olympic venues and most of that part of the city looks very very modern and Western--maybe a little more heavy on the neon signage (businesses really do like neon lighting), but attractive buildings, lots of greenery, great roads, very organized looking. This village clearly reflects the some of the less developed aspects, but still we were all struck by how clean it was. Not just because of the paving--Tanzania can't help the dust, of course--but the lack of trash just tossed everywhere. I can't help but (cynically) imagine what would happen to a monetary gift in Tanzania. I think a large amount of that money would be kept and distributed among a very few and the village would not have much, if anything, to show for it.

I really loved Tanzania, and if I took one lesson away from my time there, it was that there are simply no easy explanations or solutions for the conditions that exist there. It was so hard to understand sometimes. I am looking forward to learning more about Chinese culture and development and how people view life and opportunities, etc. here. So far, people are very polite, very industrious, very helpful!