The Life of a Tanzanian Woman

Being a woman in Tanzania is hard.  You get up at dawn; you fetch water from the spring; you cook breakfast; you wash the clothes by hand; you hoe the fields; you feed the chickens; you take care of the kids, etc, etc, etc, until you finally go to sleep at night.  Tanzania has very definite gender roles and the role of the woman is never ending.

I was giving a ride into town to a few Tanzanian mine workers and while driving down the road we saw a guy run out of the bushes, across the road and into the bushes on the other side.  A few seconds later he was followed by another guy and then a woman.  She was carrying a bunch of things and tripped trying to get up the hill after she had crossed the road.  She turned around and looked behind her, eyes wide in fear.  I followed her gaze and saw a man with a large dog, obviously chasing them.  I don't know what they had done, probably lived somewhere illegally or perhaps stole something.  The men in my car said "the life of the poor women in Tanzania is hard."  They noticed that she was the one carrying all the things and when she tripped the men she was with didn't even attempt to stop and help her.  They mentioned it was better to be a man here.  I'm not sure what happened to the woman or the men she was with.  I hope whoever was chasing them was merciful.

Life for me in Geita is not the same as for Tanzanians.  As Americans, we obviously come from a different culture and don't do things the way Tanzanians do just because we live here.  Sometimes, though, it can be frustrating because everyone expects that we do and should live that way.  If Brett takes Baylor into town people say, "Where is the Mama?  Why do you have the child?"  A Tanzanian man spent the night at our house last night and in the morning (after I had cleaned for him, cooked for him, and made up his bed) said "why did you sleep so late? (it was 7am) Your child was up, your husband was up; he had to make me tea and take care of the child.  It's not good.  You should not do this."  I just decided to leave the room and start making breakfast.  I don't think he was trying to be rude or insulting. He was just trying in his manly wisdom to point out that I wasn't performing my motherly and wifely duties as I should be and that I should work on that.  And so yes, it can be frustrating living in this society as a female, but I do know that it could be much more difficult and I am grateful for the life that I have.  I don't think that it's necessarily a bad thing to have gender roles; I'm just happy that I have the freedom to move about them some.