Tanzania, Central-Eastern Africa. A place of sharp contrasts, stunning people, wild
animals, and harsh realities. While spending two weeks in this beautiful country, I got to
see and experience a place that some people may only dream of or see in pictures. And
while I went over to Tanzania with my own expectations of what Africa is, I soon
discovered that there is a lot more to it than we can ever see on TV or in photos.
First, I must talk about the many contrasts between the rich and poor; the haves and the
have nots. I stayed in a fancy hotel room complete with a mini-fridge, room service, bath
tub, plasma screen TVs, and the list goes on. And yet I knew that just down the street
from the hotel, two young children were playing soccer with a homemade ball outside a
house made of bamboo poles, mud, rusty sheets of tin, and a thatched roof of dried palm
braches. No toilet either (only 10% of the capital city Dar-es-Salaam has real plumbing).
After traveling around the country and seeing so much poverty, though usually confined
within the walls of a Land Cruiser, it was easy to feel disconnected from the people as
they flashed by outside the dusty window. But every now and then, a thought would hit
me, and it still chills me to the bone to think of it:
I could have been one of those people.
I could have been that mother with a sick baby waiting hours in line at a clinic to get
medication. I could have been that man carrying a heavy load of firewood atop his head. I
could have been one of those young children playing soccer with a homemade ball.
But I'm not.
In Tanzania, I am the visible minority. As I drive by a group of people at the bus stop,
each turns to stare as I pass. Some wave. Some yell, or ask for money. I am the rich,
white girl who comes from a place that most will never see and a life they will never
know.
I'm sure by now some of you are wondering: "why should I care about poverty in
Tanzania? Why should I care about Africa at all? I'm never going to get there in my
lifetime." Well, I'm not going to tell you that you do have to care. But just for a minute,
stop and think about what I am saying.
Yes, it's true that some of you will not be as fortunate to experience Africa as I did. But
Africa is still a part of our world. Its people feel and have desires, just like us. Parents
there want the best for their children and work hard to support them the best they can.
Children go to school so they can get jobs when they're older. And any one of those
children could have been one of us. Any one of us could have been one of them. Just
pause and consider that for a minute or two.
Africa is so much more to me now than just pictures of villages in National Geographic
or children's faces on the Discovery Channel. It is a real place for me; a place that I am in
love with. Traveling to Tanzania changed my perception of not only Africa, but of myself
as well; where I come from, and where I am going to be someday. Will I return to Africa?
I hope so. But the memories lessons that this continent have already given me will always
be with me. I hope that each one of you reading this gets a chance to alter your
perspective some day too, as I did.
