The past week has flown by. It seems that the longer I stay here the faster time goes. The students are beginning to get the hang of volley ball. It is very good to see that there is some healthy competition going on at the school rather than all the fighting that usually happens.
I had a conversation with some of the teachers the other day and they thought it very different that in Canada we do not require a dowry to get married. They also were astonished to learn that it is the man and the women’s choice when they get married and the family does not have much influence on the decision. In Tanzania it is very common that a dowry is required in order for a couple to get married. If the family cannot supply the dowry in an animal form then they have to pay the money value that the animals would be. Also the women does not have much say in the whole situation. If a man wants to marry the family of the man goes to the women’s family and they discuss if the match was a good one. I know this because I taught the grade 6 civics class this week on the culture of Tanzania. I got the class to teach me about their culture and I taught them mine. Now the students know that things do happen differently on the other side of the world. I think it was hard for some of them to grasp but they seemed to enjoy the class and I got good feedback from the teachers.
Polygamy is also allowed here. Especially in the Maasai villages polygamy is very common. Many of the children are deformed in these villages because marrying of cousins is also very common. Although the culture of the Maasai is very unique and interesting it does have its downfalls. Some men have over fifty wives. We have a Maasai warrior working at the house we stay at and hope to visit his village soon. I will update you when this happens. We saw many of these villages on safari. You can read more about the Maasai here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maasai




Here is a story of a boy I met on one of my walks home this past week,
Shadrack,
On my way home from my placement today I met a young boy. He was ten years old. He was on his way home as well. Although his English was limited, together with hand signals we carried on a decent conversation. Shadrack did not go to school. I was not surprised at this comment as many kids are deprived of School in this country. Although I could not grasp fully what Shadrack was suffering of he informed me that he was sick and that his leg hurt. He also had sore teeth. I decided to ask him about his family. “Where is your baba (father)?” I asked. Shadrack replied, “Father is dead, mother is dead”. Realizing that often other family members will take a child in if they are orphans I asked where is your bebe (grandmother)? He replied “dead”. He also had no brothers or sisters. Although a story like this is common in Arusha the reality of it really hit me. I told him I would be his mzungu (white) brother; I did not know what else to say. But soon we had to go separate ways, he to his home, wherever that was, and me to mine. I hope to see him again sometime.

And here are the pictures of the Lions