The Great Modern Divide

As with everywhere in the world, times are changing.  They just seem to be changing slower here.  I think it's important that all people have access to education, good health care, nutritious food, adequate shelter.  I don't think it's a bad thing when people move from huts to houses.  I do think it's sad when people lose what makes them unique.  I've traveled a lot and it seems to me that while every place is indeed different, countries and cultures seem to be rapidly melding together.  There's a McDonald's on every corner in China.  Clothing styles in Peru look much the same as in Virginia.  I can buy all the seasons of Friends at a gas station in Dar Es Salaam.  It's nice to feel comfortable no matter where you go and have something in common with people on the other side of the world, but I imagine traveling the world a hundred years ago, or even fifty, was a much more eye-opening experience than it is now.  All that to say technology and modernization come with great advantages, but I hope the world's cultures hold on to what makes them special.

Tanzania is a country where for the vast majority of it's people, life has not changed drastically for centuries.  Most people still live in mud huts with thatch roofs.  Most walk to the local stream or well or river every day multiple times to fetch water.  Most people don't have electricity or running water.  They often wear the same style clothes their great grandparents wore, especially the women.  Life changes slowly in Africa.  Traditions are held onto; sometimes for the love of them, sometimes for the lack of ability to change them.

Yet there are quite a few who currently straddle the modern and the traditional here.  I could talk about the struggles that come between the younger generations with their elders or the difficulties of getting ahead for anyone who actually makes any amount of money, but I feel this post has been serious enough, so instead I'll amuse you with images (or rather descriptions) of a couple people I've seen recently mixing the old with the new.

Not many people here can afford to fly.  So you know anyone who steps off a plane is someone with great resources, probably from a larger city with access to malls and movie theaters.  The other day while dropping someone off at the airport I saw a Tanzanian girl in jeans, high heels, makeup, the works.  When she got her luggage, she picked up the suitcase, firmly put it on her head and made her way to the taxi.  I wanted to ask her if she noticed the suitcase had wheels.  Girls are taught to carry things on their heads here at an early age.  Yesterday we were driving down the street and I saw a women walking in a business suit, carrying a briefcase.  This seems to be indicative that this women has been well-educated, accepted in her career and is probably successful.  Not easy in this society.  Strapped to her back in a Kanga (the traditional cloth of choice) was a little baby, sleeping away.  Some things are just ingrained forever.