How Things Change

My first short term mission trip to the Yulansoni valley was in 2001.  A lot of things are still the same in the Singida and Yulansoni area, but a lot are different. I thought I would spend a blog exploring some of those items and some of the things that surprised me that are the same.

• The first item to discuss are the three items most treated at our hospital.  In 2001 and 2006 the items were dysentery, malaria, worms.  Today after the event of new roads and a lot more exposure to the rest of the world the items are dysentery, malaria and sexually transmitted diseases.  I also understand pregnancies out of marriage and teenage pregnancies have increased in the Singida and rural areas in the last 4 years.
• Women's clothing has vastly changed.  It was rare even as late as 2010 to see women wearing pants in town or a tight skirt or a skirt above their knees.  In fact normally they would wrap one of the printed clothes to cover themselves if they had pants on.  Today, tight blue jeans, short skirts and low cut blouses are everywhere.  Even the Muslim single ladies have their dresses form fitted.  This has all happened in just the last two years.
• Power Outages still happen on a frequent basis.  Normally 2 to 3 a week across the whole town at one time.  
• Cell phones started to show up somewhere between 2006 and 2009.  Singida now has 3 phone carrier shops and 8 phone stores not to mention the 40 something Mpesa stores (refer to the Banking and Communication blog)  Now everyone has one.  In fact about 50% have a phone nicer than any I have ever had (being a person who never owned a smart phone).  Cell phone towers normally last about an hour after a power outage before they go down.  
• TV Stations:  When I first came here there were two channels and occasionally one of them would have something other than soccer or news on it.  Today there are dish systems for sale throughout town.  My hotel gets about 15 channels, my room gets 6 channels.  One station is National Geographic which only seems to show things about snakes-not my favorite topic.  Occasionally they show a blockbuster action movie like Kung Fu Hustle (let's see how many of the bro pack are reading)
• The internet and computer cafes.  In the beginning there were computer cafe stores that did not actually serve any cafe but occasionally had computers very similar to the ones I learned to program on.  You know those first home computers that had basic language and no hard drives.  They connected these wonderful machines to 300 baud external modems and the one and only phone line in town.  Now everyone walks around looking at their smart phones that are connected to a 2/3 G system.  You still have to go to a shop to print anything though.  And they will ask which document to print on your thumb-drive despite you saying or someone who speaks Swahili saying all of them.  Then you will have to point at each document and say print that one.  If it is a spreadsheet forget about getting it re-sized to print on one sheet, they charge per print and just will not do it.
• When I first came here, the kids were all very scared of us.  It was difficult to get them to play or interact in anyway.  Even in Singida they often hid behind their mother's skirt (maybe that was why they wore the long ones).  I remember Mark trying to get the kids to play frisbee and they would not even touch it while we were around.  Now they cling to me.  As I walk through town the run up to try out their one English phrase or yell muzungu from a 1/4 mile away.
• Since the 2001 trip, every time we came over they were paving the roads.  They have now paved all the major highway roads and are now engaged in repairing them.  The town of Singida is turning into a major transportation hub.  Speed humps are the main method of trying to control speed however they don't work because everyone just uses them to catch some air.
• However the roads outside the major highways are slightly better than they were in 2001 but have not changed much since 2006 trip.  They are rough, rocky and ever changing due to soil erosion problems.
• With the paved roads and increased traffic has come other changes.  It used to be there were a small number of cars  used as taxis.  Now they have increased in number but the mototaxi (three wheel motorcycle with bench seat) and piki piki taxis have exploded in numbers with about 20 visible from anywhere in the city at one time.  
• The number of stores and multi-story buildings are increasing everyday.  During my walk there are at least 15 mult-story buildings under construction.  There was one government building in 2001.  The downtown market area has gone from around 5 stores to close to 100.
• The one thing that has stayed the same over the years is the first hotel we stayed at, the Stanley in downtown Singida.  Everything about it including the broken window, drapes all of it is the same.  The only changes are the employees who go out of their way to watch tv instead of getting you a soda or your meal and the fact they are now surrounded by three very loud bars instead of just the one.
• The other thing that has stayed the same is the need.  Even after 13 years, the need for Christians to come and be in real partnership WITH the people of Tanzania is greater than ever.  It is unfortunate that so many view this as chance to force values from the cultures that are materially rich but spiritually poor on those that are materially poor but spiritually rich (This is from the teaching of "When Helping Hurts" by Steve Corbett, Brian Fikkert and John Perkins)