This entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Africa, General, Tanzania. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
Differences
(Anna in Tanzania. Visit her website at: http://www.lostinafrica.org.uk/)
I’ve occasionally been in contact with a missionary (see picture) from the UK now living in Mbeya, Tanzania. One time I asked her what she found herself missing from her “old life”. Her answer? Nothing really.
Nothing?! How is that? Does she have in Africa everything she had in the UK? Certainly not. Did she just not have much in England in the first place? Doubtful.
As I’ve pondered this phenomenon I’ve thought that maybe her contentment comes for various reasons.
First, there’s a natural adjustment to changing circumstances. We all experience this in life. Things change around us and we just adapt. Our minds leave the past and just get used to life as we now know it. This also happens when there’s a big change such as a new job, the death of a loved one, or moving to a different town. Looking ahead we don’t know how we’d ever get through such big changes but somehow we do. With passing time we move forward.
The second thing I think helps is the attitude we take to these events. How long and tight do we hold onto how we think things should be? The sooner we let go of our preconceived notions and grasp onto reality, the easier the adjustment.
I know for sure that my new friend doesn’t have a mall and in fact shopping for clothes is quite different in many ways. Clothes are hard to find and more often made than purchased – and the clothes she does find are not her familiar, comfortable clothes. She had to adjust. She doesn’t focus on what she had in the UK. She just accepts reality and adapts to that difference.
I just hope I can do as well as she has. Doing without long, hot showers, malls, hazelnut creamer… and whatever else… Is it the end of the world? Nah. There doesn’t end up being a void where the things of America aren’t found. It just gets filled in with the things of Africa. Seeing that though takes a sense of adventure and discovery – not resistance.
This reminds me of when we moved into the RV. There were many things we began living without – but we gained a lot too. And we made it just fine through such an adjustment.
I hope one day when someone asks me what I miss when living in Tanzania I can honestly say, “nothing really”.