I helped out at a day workshop for girls not long ago. The topic was relationships and dowries came up during the question time. After I’d sorted out the language (the word for ‘dowry’ sounds remarkably similar to the word for ‘place’, especially in an echo-y lecture theatre!) I was […]
One thing I love about living in Tanzania is the fashion and recently I’ve begun noticing some other great things about it, including… SCRUNCHIES!! Most Tanzanian women don’t have enough of their own hair to warrant wearing them but many have hair extensions. In my class at uni, I’d say […]
In the changeable world of the university/town, many students are making things up as they go along. Where are the resources to do life well? Here are four needs according to Mbele, a student leader.
We don’t really have Tanzanian friends. There, I said it. One of the most common questions we get asked by our Australian friends is whether we are making friends here in Tanzania. The answer is ‘no’. We’ve been here for 15 months and we don’t feel like we have friends. […]
We’ve begun to explore the place of ‘the village‘ and ‘the city‘ in the self identities and national identities of Tanzanians, and one thing that prompted this was a sermon Arthur gave last semester at the university chapel about wealth and money. A criticism he received was that he was […]
“Tanzania is more urbanised than it perceives itself to be. Urban Tanzanians feel emotionally rooted in their villages of origin, rather than in the cities and towns where they live.” This is one of the reasons we are undertaking to understand more of village life in Tanzania. However, like Australians […]
As we continue learning about life in Tanzania, one huge area that we haven’t explored much is ‘the village’. Something like 75% of Tanzanians live in villages. While we are working in an urban context, many students come to university from a village. Additionally, ‘village Tanzania’ seems to contribute significantly […]
Meet Jesus at uni 