My Family

Baba Patrick Mshana: My host father is a veterinary professor at the Livestock Institute of Tengeru. Our house is located on the college’s campus in Tengeru. University is taught in English, so he is fluent. We have had many interesting and lively discussions about religion, community health, and American English among many other things. He likes to lecture people around him on a wide range of topics, and whoever is closest must stop their activity and listen to be polite. His household is more progressive than many, with the boys washing their own clothes and helping in the kitchen. He is clearly, however, the head of the household. For example, he still sits at the head of the table and is served first.

Mama Anna Mshana: Mama is a kindergarten teacher in Namballa, the village to the south of us. She, like all Tanzanian mamas, is very welcoming, friendly, and tries to make me happy and comfortable. Bibi (grandmother) fractured her hip about a month ago, and the Meru district hospital does not serve adequate or reliable food to their patients. This is where Bush visited when he came to the region. Therefore, my mama has been very tired cooking and carrying three meals a day to the hospital located across the Arusha-Moshi road from Tengeru (30 min walk). When I eat breakfast around eight, she is already tired and has been up for several hours. This has made it harder to help me get a dress made or buy good material – things she would otherwise want to do. However, it also makes her more willing to accept my help around the house.

Kaka Baraka: The eldest boy and middle child is 25 and is majoring in Community Development and Gender at a college in Tengeru. It is unusual for young men to study gender and it gives me interesting insights into cultural differences as he is thinking about these issues in an academic setting. There are many challenges that come with trying to change certain customs but maintain culture and identity of different peoples and tribes. Many gender issues are also closely connected with health, safety and AIDS, which complicates the situation. The education process takes much longer here, and people are quite old by the time they graduate university. He is even hoping to pursue a master’s degree in the US in community development. He is currently on a break from school working to educate Maasai on AIDS awareness and testing. He is home on weekends and staying with the Maasai during the week.

Kaka Ima: Ima is the baby of the family and is 19 years old. He is finishing secondary school in Moshi and is currently home on vacation. He is focusing on geography and history in school. At home, kids do a lot of work, so he is often at the farm or out cutting grass or caring for the animals. Many mornings he also goes to Arusha to study and get tutoring. He loves music, especially American rap and hip-hop, and many mornings I wake up to “Rising to the Top” or “Sorry Mrs. Jackson,” which are played over and over again throughout the day with heavy bass and high volume. He also has taken possession of a few DVDs I bought and recently we’ve been watching movies after dinner. I may have to take them back as Baba wants him to be studying instead.

Amon: An orphan taken in by Mama, Amon is 20 and is studying mining at technical college in Dar. He was here for my first month in Tengeru. Orphans here receive very different treatment than in the United States. They are not equal to other siblings and as everything they have is given to them, they are always in debt. While at home, he was more like a house boy, doing all the chores and working around the house, or staying at the farm and working with the boys there. He is very genuine in his desire to become educated and become self sustainable. He’s encountered many misfortunes in his life, which is hard to see for someone who works so hard. Most recently, his spending money for the semester was stolen when arriving to Dar at night! His English is a bit shaky. In the beginning I wasn’t sure if he spoke any at all, but as he grew more comfortable, we could communicate about most things while occasionally searching for a word.

Catherine: We call her Kulwa which means the first born of twins. She is our house girl and was managing things at the farm in Namballa. I think she’s probably about 20 years old. With Bibi’s fractured hip, she is staying with us almost all the time to help mama. She speaks about as much English as I speak Swahili, which makes for good practice. I wish we could communicate more as she is the only girl my age around the house! Despite the communication barrier, we are quite friendly with each other and I recently borrowed a dress from her to wear to Easter lunch at one of my teacher’s house. I believe she might be related to my host family in some way, but it is difficult to understand how people are related here as a very wide extended family system exists.

As we enter the rainy season temperatures are dropping and dust is turning to mud. The climates here and in VT are actually probably growing more similar as winter at home turns to spring. When it is 70 here, people pull out jackets and I actually feel cold too! I guess I’d adjusted to the heat! It is also quite damp which may make it feel colder (and is making it hard to dry anything).

Happy Easter, Happy Spring,

Tai