Kids helping kids and the Mzungu

One of the more touching things we have seen here is how willing these kids are to help and how they look out for each other. For example, Mary, a child found by Mama Lynn locked in a closet by her parents as she was stricken with cerebral palsy (disabilities are seen as curses here and children with ailments are generally abandoned and the mothers who birthed them punished due to old witch doctor beliefs), who lives in Laughter house is so cared by the other children, that when we give out cookies, they always make sure she gets one, not keeping the extras for themselves. Grace, another girl in that house was so sick that she was burning up all over. The other girls took my hands and made me touch her, so I knew that she was not well and would pay special attention.

Another touching example came on our first Saturday when loads of school children from Moshi came to visit Tudor Village – where we live and there are 4 homes. Together with a past volunteer named Matt, who was visiting with the international health organization Bupa for the day, we went to Boma to get cookies and juice for the visiting children. Before receiving their treats, the visiting children were asked to leave something for the children here at Tudor. They brought anything from soap to lollipops to school books. This was incredibly heartwarming – here where kids, who have little according to our standards themselves (no iPod, no cell phone, most likely no new clothes), giving kids with even less little gifts.

Bused on vehicles older than any bus you would see in operation in the U.S. and sitting at 3-4 to a seat (just think of the liability issues there) they packed into their buses. One yelled out the window – “Hey mzungu, take my picture” – to me, which was unfortunately heard by Mama Lynn, who went on the bus asking the children to treat us with the same respect as they do any other elders. You see, Mzungu means white or of European descent. We hear this all the time on the streets, like we are spectacles. Mama Lynn and her son, Marcus, get quite upset at this, saying that we don’t go around calling them blacks. I am not quite sure how I feel about this, and unfortunately don’t understand the culture enough to know if it is derogatory. Many cultures have this, and most likely, we of European descent were sure to make this distinction, if we don’t keep doing so today.
--Abby