you've probably noticed something missing from my blog. if not, let me tell you what you won't see. me, a white girl, surrounded by a group of over exploited black children.
yes, it seems on the list of everyone visiting africa that they post a photo of themselves, usually in an 'orphanage', 'helping' the children of africa by stopping in for a day to teach english, play games or some other nonsense that makes them feel good about themselves.
in Asia this it is a huge taboo to allow tourists to visit orphanages [because of the pedophile trade] so at first i was shocked but then i began to understand what was going on. here it is an industry.
the women in the villages were watching as tourists flocked to the orphanages and left money donations to support the organizations. being willing [most but not all] to exploit the western tourists for their money they opened 'orphanages' in their villages. however, in their case it's more like day care, at the end of the day the children go home to a family with money in their pocket collected from the tourists that day. one orphanage here was painted three times in the last year so volunteer tourists could feel good about 'helping' africa.
so think about that when your tour guide says, 'would you like to visit an orphanage?' it's probably a red flag that you picked the wrong tour company but you will get your photo surrounded by exploited african children that you can post on facebook.
i have plenty of photos of me interacting with locals so don't think i only have western friends here. i just don't want to exploit them the way i see other people doing it.
where i live in northern Tanzania is a hotbed of NGOs so getting a volunteer position here is easier than getting a job at mcdonalds. it's hard to differentiate what i do. creating jobs, empowering the people through sustainable economic development vs. this cycle of dependence on foreign aid. ugh... enough for this week. fun stuff next post i promise!
we spent a lot of time together while i was in country and we had a few crazy experiences together. like the time we were in Arusha and we were looking for a the only place where you could buy plastic containers for retail. i needed to see what they had for the vanilla sugar i wanted to bring to market. there wasn't a sign advertising the business and when we called for directions the clerk shouted and abused Mageni to the point i was cringing. i didn't even understand what she was saying but whatever it was she wasn't saying it nicely. i told Mageni afterwards we would never need to go there again. with his help i learned a few more swahili words and then immediately forgot them.
amid the going aways [that's when you get together to say goodbye to the people who you are leaving behind] the office put together a luncheon which moved me to tears as i sat through the english, then a swhili translation, of staff stories about me. the cake was good.
about a month ago a notice went out that anyone with a work permit or a resident visa must go to immigration to validate their paperwork. what they didn't say is that when you do this you will be given an id card which you have to carry at all times.
it's a short and very worthwhile trip out juani island to see the kua ruins. it's another world heritage site that i'm glad to take the time to see. i'm absolutely fascinated by the history and the how well developed their structures and society were that the remnants are still standing thousands of years later. 
other than a few fishermen we find at the access point to the island ruins we don't see any humans. monkeys and birds and assorted reptiles, yes. maybe that's why i like it more than the touristy and exploited dark slave history of Zanzibar. we timed the return from the island for sunset over mafia and it was the perfect end to a relaxing day on the island.
after an exhausting 5 days in Dar for customer meetings and the farmers market to train the new sales girl i am getting on another ridiculously small plane to fly to Mafia Island for a week holiday which is supposed to be deserted with fabulous diving. 
still as i board the plane find myself wondering which seat is best if the plane crashes? will the plane break apart if if crashes in the water? do I really need to wear a safety belt? wouldn't that make it harder to escape during a water landing?
the guy sitting next to me is from Bulgaria and says he works with fastjet on the Bulgarian planes which makes no sense to me because i didn't know Bulgaria was making planes and since i find myself on fastjet a lot now i can add that to my mental checklist every time i board one of those flights.
i also meet a Canadian based in South Sudan working for MSF and she makes me feel grateful for Moshi when she talks about the hours and conditions in which she works. god bless them.
