Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Rau Village

Yesterday, the group of volunteers took a day trip to the village of Rau. Villages and towns are very different in Africa. Towns are filled with shops and people and have cars and roads. Villages are the places that you see on the world vision commercials, with huts built from mud and people living in shockingly impoverished communities. Rau was no exception.

It started out as a fun day trip, we all brought cameras, we tasted the local 'banana beer', which has more of a wine taste than a beer taste, and we met the chief of the village. In the chief's living area, there were several chickens, goats, and a bunch of pigs that he kept to sell. He was not dressed in the spectacular clothes one would picture to complement the title of chief. He was wearing dirty, raggity clothing. He was an extremely nice man and encourged us to take pictures of his village. I certainly took this welcome openly, snapping a total of 250 pictures in the 2 hours we were at the village.

We saw poverty unlike anything I have ever seen, but another part of what we saw, something else unlike what is considered normal back home, was extreme happiness. The children, running through the village, between the mud huts, were laughing, smiling, holding our hands, and glowing with excitement. There is a sadness that passes over you when entering a place of such poverty, yet, the children made this adventure one of the happiest I have ever seen. They exemplified the true Tanzanian way of Hakuna Matata. They demonstrated that material things are not what makes happiness, and that as a society, the west is certainly worst off for our greed. Appreciate what you have, because it certainly is far more than you need to be happy.

I have learned so far that one of the best ways to make a child happy in the community is to take a picture of them and show it to them on your digital camera. They love to see themselves in a picture, as it is quite likely that many of them have never clearly seen their own face. Mirrors are a true luxury here. The innocence of the children, the way you can make their day with anything you do, is astounding.

The trip to Rau quickly went from an excursion filled with smiles to one of feeling true hopelessness. At the conclusion of our so called tour, we were invited into one more home. There we saw a teenager lying in bed, unable to move. His mother explained to us that two years ago, he fell out of a tree and hit his head, suffering significant brain damage. He lay there, bed bound, unable to talk... for two years. He would look at you, reach out and grab your hand, acknowledge you with his eyes - you could tell that he was present inside. She explained that he was unable to receive rehabilitation treatment because it was too expensive and the hospitals here did not have the proper resources to deal with such a severe injury. He will likely die in his bed in the not too distant future as a result of the suffering his body deals with because of his immobile situation. If this child were in the West, he would be walking, he would likely be speaking, and he would have a life. Yet, this is Africa.

The trip was concluded with a bus ride of solemn, quiet thought.

Regardless of how my trip started out, I was truly reminded why I am here. I am not here for the tourist attractions. I am here to make a difference. I am here to make a change in someone's life. I only hope that I can be successful at what I have set out to do.

2 comments:

  1. First of all, I love you! That said, I also love your blogging. Not looking to piggy-back, but I recognize your style, Graeme, and I'm proudly pleased and pleasurably proud. Ya dun good! An' ya got bigger wurds than me at that age!

    I'm fascinated by your anecdotes and observations, but moreso by your insights. I think your final comments on March 3rd are truly succinct. You will, and already have, made a change in someone's life - your own! And everyone who has/will read/hear your tail (white as it is)!

    Thanks for the travel advisory - I'll avoid breakfasting in Detroit, but I still doubt the wonderous benefits of vodka as a morning pick-me-up. Keep it real, bud... Dad

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Graeme: so glad to read about the good going on. You amaze me with your observations and maturity. Keep up the wonderful work you are doing. Love Grandma

    ReplyDelete