The gift of education

It has really been on my heart and mind recently just how differently the meaning of the word opportunity is between Tanzania and the United States, especially in relation to education. I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to attend an excellent high school and college and also to now study in a foreign country. These I consider to be opportunities, the quality of the education given and resources at the places I have been fortunate to attend. Had I not gone to PRHS or Luther, I would have found myself someplace else that I undoubtedly also would have considered opportunities to attend, just different opportunities. At Luther specifically, I have been given countless opportunities thanks to the guidance and support of faculty and staff members, not to mention the impromptu opportunities that arise from student initiatives.

But selfishly, I guess you could say, I have never considered the very basic act of receiving a formal education any sort of opportunity. To not only have a government that both supports and mandates students' education and parents who encourage and help me along the way but also more than qualified teachers and professors, adequate facilities and a surplus of available resources – all of it just seems and always has been part of the package of growing up.

Being here has shown me firsthand how very much an opportunity my circumstances are, which any child here would give whatever they could to have chance at experiencing. Visiting with students and professors at UDSM, my teachers and colleagues on campus have truly struggled against all odds in order to reach the positions they now hold, especially the young ladies. Paying school fees and purchasing expensive uniforms with precious food money, being discouraged by realistic fathers who insist their daughters receiving an education is a waste of time, sharing workbooks that hold the valuable key to any kind of employment success with six other children in a class with over sixty children for one teacher, being taught by underpaid, unmotivated and, occasionally, brutal teachers, walking miles one way just to learn despite these conditions – given the circumstances, it is humbling to pause and consider how blessed I really have been throughout my educational journey.

*Previous entry's picture is of Stacey, Wendy, Isaac and I in a daladala on our way to the Village Museum downtown. This entry's picture is of what I am told a plumeria blossoms; there are trees loaded with these beautiful flowers all over campus!