African Time

Finally! A posting! But where are the pictures?? Before we leave B-mulo we'll get some posted. They really will tell the story better than words. Obviously, we have had a LOT of trouble with e-mail and electricity. And in between outages we've been busy carting, chlorinating, filtering and boiling water. The guy who invented running water should be everybody's hero! So far we have not gotten really sick. But, of course, we don't know about worms yet. Third world living takes a lot of work. Not too much time for anything else...except maybe church. Church is really big here, and that's a good thing for these people. Gatherings of any kind are very important. Students I've met don't seem to understand the question about what they do for "fun" and have not heard of the Olympics. Biharamulo has only had electricity for two years! Imagine that! Most people still don't have it and most people still cook all their food outside over charcoal. Garbage is buried or burned, including ours! (We have 60 empty Desani bottles. I've gotten really creative at re-using them.) Contrary to what we were told before we came, the people don't speak English. The language of the people is Kaswahili. The only place where English is spoken is at the secondary school. The students take English in primary school, then go to secondary school where they are taught in English. They all take  national exams in  subject areas, and these are in English!  This is definitely a problem for the population and, I think, for the country.

The path we've been on, learning the ways of the area, the marketplace, money and language, have all been "challenging" at times, but now we are fairly comfortable with all the extra efforts required. When we finally get to a place with running water (and mvinyo) we won't know what to do with our time! And we're really looking forward to that!

Now, the people. People are poor here. Incredibly poor. Dirt poor actually. Saturday we went for an "explore" of the surrounding countryside near our house. We just followed a red dirt path as it narrowed, dropped into a small ravine and then climbed again. The ravines hold the water source for the poorest folks. They are green and lush in this dry season. The red dirt paths winding through make for a very beautiful and colorful scene. But at these water holes the children, mostly, some incredibly young, collect water for their families, bathe and wash clothes. They lay the clothes out to dry on the grass and bushes. All of this is at once beautiful and also distressing. The water is surely full of various parasites and I know they are not boiling it. Few children wear shoes. I worry about hookworm. And the people live in one room mud huts with grass roofs. They are sometimes built in the middle of the path. I can only imagine how food is prepared and eaten. Water has to run right through the huts during the rains. Never mind a mosquito net! (Most of the children in the hospital have severe malaria.) There is so much room for improvement. It is a bigger problem than I can even wrap my mind around. The poorest don't, can't, go to church or school. Clothes and school cost money.  What do they have? Do they even have a future?