host

It’s Tuesday. Same day of the week it was this time 6 years ago. It is hard—being here and having few feel any connection to what happened that day in Manhattan. Just 5 blocks from where I spent my seven years of elementary school. Just four blocks from where my best friend lived with his parents. Flashbacks of the first bombing, in the basement of the World Trade Center come to mind as well. The school bus didn’t get us home that day till after dark. None of us understood what was happening. And of course, we still don’t. Others are able to laugh about it, not fully aware of what happened on that date: 9/11.
“What happened on November 9th anyway?”
Funny, no? haha. Anyways. Most of my readers are in the US—and I’m sure today there will be enough reflections, reminders and prayers. Just know that halfway across the world, there are some who are remembering with you.

But it seems the world has changed a lot since then.
2001 was just one year after the MGDs were written. Now, thank God, there is talk of them everywhere. Just two decades late. Or should I say over a century late.

It has been both a challenge and a blessing to teach about Colonialism, (and other reasons for underdevelopment in Africa)—in Africa. It’s hard to stand before a class and compare “More Economically Developed Countries” like the US and the UK to, well, the entirety of Sub-Saharan Africa. Tanzania is a “Less Economically Developed Country.” Yes. Quite true.

But Tanzanians have a lot to be proud of: not only peace, but also unity. Tanzania has been surrounded by warring and unstable countries for years. Only once, in 1981, in an attempt to overthrow Uganda’s racist dictator, Idi Amin, did Tanzania ever get involved in the warfare. Burundi, Rwanda, Mozambique, The Democratic Republic of Congo. All of these countries have had civil war, and are somewhat still in unrest.

And did Tanzania get involved? Well, Not exactly. In 2003 the country of just 37 million was hosting an estimated 650,000 people from nearly every nation that borders Tanzania. According to the UNHCR one out of 66 people in Tanzania are refugees. Considering the complete lack of wealth and resources in this nation, Tanzania is quite gracious to its guests.

And of course there are other things to be proud of. The gorgeous and vast national parks, the highest peak on the continent, a gem that can only be found in Northern Tanzania, a diverse, yet unified population, a country with gorgeous beaches and peace between Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Maasai and others.

And I am grateful to be a part of it. It is truly a blessing to be living in another country where most days, (ahem, uh, notice the most) I feel like I am just like everyone else. It is quite easy to allow myself to feel that I can fit in with the crowd. Yeah, my Swahili isn’t great, and yeah I wear sunglasses on occasion, and definitely walk too fast, and I guess the blonde hair is a bit out of place—but it isn’t till someone yells out, “Mzungu! Mambo!” that I am slammed back into reality—this is not my home. I am from somewhere else. My family, the bulk of my friends, they are somewhere else. But I am okay with it. It is worth it. Those moments of my feeling included, of feeling quite welcome and at home in this place—they are the memories I will keep. I was never good at storing those other less lovely memories for too long.
But there is a difference between not remembering, and never, never forgetting.