Wedding: ¬ sub-post

It has been suggested from certain quarters that the final paragraph of my previous post was a bit 'raw'. Fair enough :) Rather than retract it, I thought I would expand a bit.

It is a factor of life here that, as 'wazungu' we have a distinct social status - or to be more precise, we have a social status that doesn't fit into the hierachy (I maybe be repeating earlier posts here - bear with me). It is partly our financial independence, partly our educational status and partly the fact that we 'come and go, and we can come and go, whereas Tanzanian's are here forever.

Whatever the cause, the fact is that we are different, we feel different and to a certain extent we are made to feel different by the way we are treated.

With regard to education, the Tanzanian education system is inferior to the Western systems. That sounds really elitist and colonial and lots of other negative things. But it is actually an unfortunate fact. Almost all learning is by rote; classes are huge, and the teachers are limited in the own education. It is not really something that I had appreciated while in the UK, but the education system there provides a very broad base before we specialise. This means that whatever we do in later life, we have some (maybe hazy!) grounding in most areas. In Tanzania, it seems very much that basic education is strictly the 3 Rs. Talking to many 'professional' Tanzanians (if you understand what I mean!) it is clear that although they are skilled specialists, outside of their specialism their knowledge is limited. Things like basic medicine - which in the West we are probably not even aware that we know - is something that is only for 'doctors'. This is why some of our National staff find it difficult when some of the International Staff - who's specialisms are in something different - 'interfere' in their work activity. E.g. to a Tanzanian it is an alien concept that a Pilot (for example) would know anything about how to mend a car, or fix plumbing or electrics. In Tanzania these are things that are carried out exclusively by 'fundis' in that area. ('Fundi' is one of those useful Swahili words that covers a multitude of English words - think craftsman/artisan/expert/professional/specialist).

The upshot is that, although I am not trying to excuse it at all, as a wazungu here it is very easy to slip into a 'superior' mindset, and think that a better education means 'I am a better person'. Of course this is not the case, but coming from a Western meritocratic culture, it is an ingrained mindset that I constantly need to fight to redress. This is something that my Tanzanian colleagues call 'underrating' (I assume this is a direct translation from Swahili - it doesn't translate well but I hope you get the picture).

I hope that clarifies a bit what I was thinking when I wrote the offending paragraph! It is something that I would be grateful for prayer for, as it makes relationships quite hard. Although friendship doesn't have to be based on equality on every level - it does make it a lot easier!