Tanzania: Seeing the Invisible

After a beautiful week in Zanzibar soaking up the sun, I was ready to move on. My flight out took me from Dar Es Salaam (the capital of Tanzania) through Nairobi (the capital of Kenya) to Antananarivo (the capital of Madagascar). My flight left Dar at 5:10 am, so I was at the airport at the very early hour of 3.

While waiting for my flight I noticed there were people lining the hallway to the bathroom. They were lying on the floor, heads hidden under shirts or blankets. Beside them lay upturned hats with a few coins in them. I realized these were the homeless of the Dar airport.

Those of you from Grade 4/5 at W.O. last year will appreciate the significance of this observation. It made me wonder if there are more people in Dar who suffer from homelessness, if it is just that they are allowed in Tanzanian airports, or if they are just more visible than the ones in Canada. Regardless, to me, they were not invisible.

On that note, I'll let you know the plan Mr. Elder and I have. Once we return to Calgary and begin working again, we have decided to donate to one charity for each country we have visited (and we are also going to choose one from Canada). We have seen a lot of people who could use our help and environmental organizations that we want to support. It's tough when people, mainly children, come up to us when we walk by and beg for money. You want to help them, but it's not a good idea to give to children like that. Can you think of a reason why?

We've been told that if they make money for their families that way, begging on the street, then some families may actually keep their kids from going to school, and send them out on the street to beg. That is something that we definitely don't want to encourage! So with our plan, we are able to help and know the money is going to the right place.

Some of our ideas include supporting education for girls in Kenya, and the Jane Goodall Institute for Tanzania, since it holds special meaning for both of us. If you have other suggestions, I'd love to hear them!