Jul

31

Field Notes from East Africa – Putting Our Woes into Perspective

Filed Under Commentary |

My husband and I recently returned from a photo safari in Kenya and Tanzania. It’s been a decade since I was in East Africa. In 1998, I enjoyed one of the most exhilarating and empowering experiences of my life; I climbed the world’s tallest freestanding mountain, Kilimanjaro. This trip, however, was quite different. We spent most of our time driving in national parks and looking at the abundant wildlife. The game viewing was tremendous.

Now that I am home, I keep thinking about what we saw outside of the national parks. Every village had an orphanage…or two or three. Many children have lost their parents to AIDS, alcoholism, or a combination of the two. Our driver explained that some people just feel hopeless about their future, and they don’t think twice about engaging in reckless behavior, despite the potentially fatal consequences. I don’t know if the situation has deteriorated in the last decade or if I saw it differently now that I am a parent, but the challenges they face are beyond my comprehension.

We spent an hour visiting an orphanage near Lake Manyara, Tanzania - one of three in a small village about the size of two city blocks. We had collected extra food from our lunch boxes, along with pens, paper, a first aid kit, and anything else we could find in our luggage that might be helpful. The children inhaled the food and drinks that we provided in a matter of minutes. I peeled a hardboiled egg for one of the younger boys. After he ate the egg, he went back and ate the tiny pieces of egg white that were stuck to the shell. When they were finished eating, they sang and showed us what they were studying. My teenage niece befriended a four-year-old girl who was one of three children in the orphanage that is HIV positive.

The caregivers were very friendly, welcomed our group and gave us a tour of their facilities. For perspective, consider this: if the habitable space were added together, it is probably no larger than the size of my basement. The kitchen consisted of a shed with an open fire and two shelves for cookware. There were no appliances and definitely no food pantry. The bath was an outhouse with only a hole in the ground. These facilities were shared by twenty-eight children who lived in triple-stacked bunk beds in two tiny bedrooms. I don’t know how many adults lived there or where they stayed. In addition to the bedrooms, there was a covered porch, a classroom, an office, and two half-built (abandoned) small rooms overgrown with weeds. The orphanage ran out of money before they had the opportunity to build a roof over those last two rooms.

We did not see as many orphanages in Kenya as in Tanzania, but the living conditions there are as bad if not worse. One of our drivers (an elderly gentleman) was raising 25 grandchildren on his own. His children all died of AIDS. Tourism in Kenya has all but dried up due to the political unrest that occurred there earlier this year, which has caused a major contraction in their economy. People who were barely getting by now have less or nothing at all.

The experience of this trip put the challenges of today’s economy into perspective. Yes, food and gas prices are up and home values are flat to down depending on where you live. For families who are engaged in the selling the process (including my own), these can be frustrating times. Nonetheless, the discomfort from our current market correction will never approach what is being experienced in countries like Kenya and Tanzania. A few points of inflation here can mean twenty extra bucks at the grocery counter or the gas pump. In Africa, it can be the difference between life and death. No matter where you’re caught in this current credit and housing “crisis”, you still have much to be thankful for.

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