Experiencing Tanzania!!!

Hola,
I am sorry for taking so long to write this post. I had very hectic days in the office and then with Christmas preparations and the trip to Colombia I didn't have time for anything else.

Well...Tanzania was just amazing. During 10 days I learned a lot from their culture and enjoyed their way of living. The workshop was held in Dar Es Salaam and I arrived with my boss almost four days before the workshop actually started. We had time to prepare with the other facilitators and get ready with materials for the sessions. The workshop lasted for three days and after that we had almost other three days to debrief, have some meetings and do some shopping and sightseeing.

Let me divide this post into three parts: 1) The experience itself, 2) The "bad" and the "ugly" and 3) The most amazing things about Tanzania.

The experience itself
It was the fifth of a series of workshops we have developed around the world to test the toolkit on ethics education that we are preparing. The testing was very good because it allowed us to see how the material could be used in the East African context and it also helped us to collect inputs that will be used to improve the toolkit.

The workshop aimed at enhancing children's ethical values and nurture their spirituality. I believe we helped them to learn how to be more open towards people who are different, think differently and act in different ways . I also believe we cultivated seeds in them to act in peaceful ways and to transform the world.

We had a "Journey for Peace", where we visited different religious places. We went to a mosque, a Catholic church, a Hindu temple, a Buddhist temple and a Baha'í center. The idea was to learn how to put themselves in others' shoes and to enhance their ability to see things from a different perspective, leaving behind their prejudices.

The experience was really powerful, especially considering that Tanzania is mostly a Muslim/Christian country. Almost one third of the population practices Islam, another third Christianity and the rest are Hindus or practice traditional religions. One of the participants, during a discussion before going to the religious places, asked me: "how come you are saying that there are more than two religions in the world?" For him there were only Islam and Christianity. I am sure after this Journey for Peace he discovered the beauty of other religions and the diversity of God before the humans' eyes.

Some of the participants were children who live in the streets, or who actually are now attending a Center for street children, called Dogo Dogo Center. In there, children have the opportunity to have a place to sleep, to have food, technical trainings and support. They are allocated to a school and receive help in all areas of their lives. However, some of them still go back to the streets and only return to the Center when they want. I had the opportunity to be with some of them, and they were very lovely kids, full of energy and very intelligent.

The first person in the picture below is Emanuel. He is a member of the Interfaith Council on Ethics Education for Children and he was a street child. He is a real role model and an example of sacrifice and inner power. In another post I will tell you the story of Emanuel. In the meantime you can go to the Arigatou website and read it by yourself.

The other two kids below are Deus and Isaac. Both of them live in the Dogo Dogo Center and were the best participants I had in the workshop. Isaac actually wants to be the Prime Minister of Tanzania one day and I have not doubts that he will be.

The workshop finished with a bonfire at night. Participants were sitting around a drumming circle and we listened to different traditional stories, poems and songs. This experience was really powerful. The time passed so fast under the relentless beat of the drums and the wisdom of their stories.

The "bad" and the "ugly"

Definetely the worst things I experienced in Tanzania were the marked footprints of colonialism, reflected in some of the behaviors of people and embedded in the culture itself. Having being a German colony from 1880s to 1919 and then a British mandate from 1919 to 1961, Tanzania suffers from what I would call the syndrome of the "ugly kid", who considers himself ugly and less worthy than his friends, has a low self-esteem, looks up to others as idols and lacks self-confidence. I experienced something similar in Sri Lanka and with some communities in Colombia. I really believe Tanzanians are amazing people but need to be empowered with skills and attitudes to develop themselves.

The most amazing things about Tanzania

1. People smiling in every corner

2. Sea food, especially prawns

3. Zanzibar. A beautiful Island which is part of Tanzania and comprises the islands of Unguja and Pemba. Zanzibar is famous for its spices, the Stone Town (World heritage site) and the Zanzibar International Film Festival

4. Clean streets

5. East African rhythms

6. Hospitality of people

I also met four colombian women who are nuns working in Tanzania for many years. They were staying in the same center where I had the workshop. What a surprise. It was amazing to meet four beautiful women, working for the poor and to enhance values in children in this place far from Colombia.

I also got the opportunity to learn a little bit about the Massai. The Massai are an indigenous African ethnic group. In the picture below you can see how they dress and how friendly they look. I also got a Henna drawing in my hand and went to a spice trip in Zanzibar.

This was a really amazing experience and I hope I will have the chance to experience Tanzania and other African countries more frequently.

One of the things I learned from this experience was the importance of the community for the people in Tanzania. This country is based on relationships and gives little importance to individualism. Like in Sub-Saharan Africa they consider a person a person because of other persons. Isn't it beautiful? This is called ubuntu in Swahili and also in the language of southern Africa. Rev. Desmond Tutu defines ubuntu in the following way:

"A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed".

Don't we all need ubuntu? Don't we all have something to learn from the African culture?

Hugs,

Malu

Africa Here I go!!!

Hello,

I am sorry for my long silence. I have been really busy doing my French course, working, doing church activities, my theology class and my marriage life!!! However, last week I finished my French course and now I am preparing myself to experience Africa. I will go to Tanzania on Monday, 4 December for a workshop on ethics education. Yes, it is a very similar workshop to the ones I have attended during the previous months in Sweden, Colombia, here in Geneva, India and Spain.

The idea of the workshop is to test the toolkit on ethics education we are developing and get inputs for its implementation and further development. I will be facilitating the workshop together with two persons more from Tanzania. There will be 30 young participants hailing from Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. The workshop will be held in Dar Es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania.

This is a very interesting experience not only because of the testing of the material we are developing but because I have always wanted to visit Africa and experience its culture, people, nature, beauty and somehow break the stupid paradigms people have about Africa. Most of the times you hear news about Africa because of HIV/AIDS, foreign debt, conflicts, corruption, poverty, under development, etc. Most of the times Africans are categorized as carriers of diseases or as third class world citizens. I want to see in Tanzania and what media doesn't tell. I want to see in Tanzania what a newspaper doesn't show and what few people know about these countries.

I will be back on 14 December and I promise I will update my blog with a lot of pictures and descriptive information about this awesome experience.

Hugs,

Malu