I was playing some silly singing game with the class outside last week, when I heard a howling cry coming towards me from the path towards the school. Seconds later, one of the little girls in my class came crying hysterically out of the field with her father behind her, whipping her with a stick. Once she reached the road, she collapsed and continued sobbing and he continued to beat her with the narrow stick. I went over to him tried to keep calm as I asked him what was going on.
"She don't want to come to school because her shoes are too big. stupid girl, " he said, in broken English. I asked him if the shoes hurt her feet and tried to act out 'pain' at my feet so he would understand. He nodded. I took a deep breath. I called over one of the other teachers to see what they could do about it, but she just asked the same questions in Kiswahili and shrugged her shoulders. I don't think either of us knew what to do with the man. I bent down to the level of the little girl who was still lying on the dirt road and sobbing, and told her it would be okay, then led her over to the group of waiting children. Her father promptly turned around and walked home with his stick. It took some time for this 5 year old little girl to calm down and stop crying, and I noticed later on, once she had joined in the games, that indeed she could not run well in her too-big shoes.
But what can I do? I could easily cough up a bit of money to buy this little girl a pair of shoes from the market and give them to her to wear. If I did get her the shoes, however, her father would not learn the importance of taking proper care of his children, nor would he learn the importance of saving money to buy the appropriate things for his family. He would simply come to depend on the school or charity to take care of his daughter. How can I teach him - and every other parent here - to find a way to earn money to support their family to the best of their ability? Plus, corporal punishment is still accepted in Tanzanian schools and who am I, as a foreigner, to try to change the traditions of another country? I have been witness to some pretty horrible things here so far, and the hardest thing about this experience so far, has been to simply stand by and try to accept that I can't help everyone.
1 comment:
i don't know if you ever read your comments, but most of us norwegian nursing students witnessed the hitting of children in schools in the villages. we tried to get the tanz nursing students to help us do something about it, explained that this is what we call child abuse and that you would serve time on bread and water being the bitch of some huge tattooed guy named Doo-Rag (we just said prison, but you get the idea) for a long time if you tried doing that in norway. most of them just laughed at us, and asked "if the teacher can't hit them, how is he then going to get respect?"
of course, it's not a very shocking thing to find that they hit children. after all, it's only 30-40years since they stopping doing that in norwegian schools. but in case you didnt know: it's not allowed in Tanzania any more either! and hasn't been since 1995, i think! the principal of the NTC Nursing School was very hard on this - it is illegal and wrong. but of course, it's not easy to change a tradition
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