Monday 8 October 2018

Village People



Back in Dar es Salaam we visited a museum of village life where traditional village huts had been reconstructed to show city dwellers what rural life had been like. 

Now we are driving through modern rural villages we can see that those old types of buildings no longer exist. There are some homes still made of mud, stone and straw but they are roughly put together and don't have the elegance of those in the museum. 

Most people live in a mud-brick built house with a tin roof. Some neatly kept with a garden and satellite dush, but most fairly basic. Shops and community buildings are built in the same way. Only schools have more substance to them, perhaps because here you have to pay to get an education. 

And people are willing and able to pay - we see School children everywhere wearing imacculate uniforms - including jumpers, which to us seems mad in such a hot climate. The children are wildly enthusiastic when they see Rhubarb & Custard go past. 

Getting an education here is the route out of a mud-brick building and into the modern world. Sure, the villages here have power and water and schools and some basic healthcare. And there's no shortage of beautiful local produce either. But everyone we see has a smartphone and is connected to the world outside their village. They see what the rest of the world has, and some at least will leave their villages to get it. 

The next generation may look on today's Tanzanian village houses as something for the museum of village life, alongside ancient tribal huts. 

If so that will be a good thing, and it will mean that Tanzanians are building their own future. 

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