A friend from home came to visit recently. She had volunteered for a while in another East African country and hopped over to Tanzania for a few days. Sitting atop a ten storey hotel in downtown Dar, watching the smoke from the shisha pipe spiral into the night air, she told me the story of going to the largest public hospital in the country during her volunteering. The organization was there to ‘choose’ some abandoned new-borns to nurse back to […]
I tapped a cute child in a primary school uniform on the shoulder. He looked up at me with big beautiful eyes and a shy smile, just a bit taller than my hip. I pointed to the vacant seat next to him and me, gesturing that he should sit down. The daladala gave a lurch, almost throwing me off balance. Everyday practice of the art of daladala balancing (read: holding on for life) can’t make up for the creative ways […]
Education as investment. Why do companies not invest more in making education systems work? One of the most common complaints I hear from employers/supervisors/managers where I’ve lived in Uganda and Tanzania is that there aren’t enough competent staff. There aren’t enough people with the basic computer skills, language skills, team work, coordination, and time management skills. Sometimes I hear complaints about a lack of work ethic also, although I tend to think that this is due to a lack of […]
While I generally avoid making this an issue about ethics, let me be slightly controversial for once, and make it about an issue of ethics. My argument: People who grew up with privilege have a duty to help others gain similar basic opportunities. Let’s unpack that. Privilege, in this context, I define as having basic living standards. As having food, water, healthcare, and shelter. As having opportunities for education. As having opportunities for employment to the full extent of our […]
I think I’ve decided what to do with my work confusion situation. Thanks to very good advice from a friend and dad recently. Money really doesn’t matter that much. I can live off what I learn and I will always have a back-up (ha, shamefully, my parents). There is a time in life where you do need to earn enough money, now isn’t the time. There’s no other time in life where I can experiment with different sectors and fields […]
