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a truly profound martial arts film, Ninja's vs. Mafia A ("You killed my brother! Now we fight!"). The latter is a genre that I hadn't been exposed to in Canada, Swahili but I have witnessed its ability to transcend both Lexicon language barriers and the roar of diesel engines. Some new words from Tanzania 5. On another memorable journey from Dar-es- by Dwein Hodgson Salaam to Moshi, I had the good fortune to watch Volume 2 / Issue 2 / April 2000 Crazy Safari, a poignant tale of a hopping Chinese vampire that attacks everything in site until its www.homestead.com/smilingstickman/lexicon.ht master slaps a magic post-it note on its forehead. The vampire is mistakenly released in the middle of the Kalahari desert where he is welcomed by a tribe of Bushmen who periodically are bombarded by falling Coke bottles…..I don't want to give the ending away in case you want to rent this at your local Blockbuster, but the big climax involved psychically-channeling the spirit of Bruce Lee into one of the local warriors…..Rent it today! 6. Despite these hardships, riding the bus provides a great opportunity to experience life here, since it is how most people travel. Unlike in Canada, bus rides here are a social occasion. Old friends meet, neighbours swap gossip, and small children are passed from lap to lap whenever their mother needs a break. At every stop along the road, crowds of ml hawkers swarm the bus, holding up their goods to basi (bah-see). 1. expression. So, well: that's the windows for perusal by the bus-bound enough. passengers. The sellers make "smooching" sounds to get your attention and yell out the prices for their 2. n. a bus. Usually an inter-city bus. biscuits, cashews, sodas, oranges, boiled eggs, roasted corn, pens, newspapers, pocket combs and 3. About once a month I head up country to Iringa. bottled water…The melee continues until the It's a distance of just over 500 km and between oncoming passengers squeeze by the boys winding roads, construction, police speed traps and standing in the stair-well and the bus rumbles off for Mikumi National Park, it takes about 6.5 hours to get the next town. there. I sometimes take the bus to save diesel and money, and to avoid driving by myself. Buses, like the daladalas (Lexicon 2-1), are now privately owned in Tanzania, but the buses vary in terms of price, leg room and safety. With some companies, the conductors try to fill every available space in the bus. It is not unusual to be squished next to two passengers on the window side (one with a child on her lap), two people in the aisle, and a chicken or two under your seat. With lots of open highway and relatively few cars, the drivers tend to drive at speeds of 140 km/h (although I saw 160 km/h once until I closed my eyes!). Traveling by bus has been a great boost to my prayer life. Closing your eyes also helps you to avoid seeing the remains of the less-fortunate buses that lie along the sides of the road. 4. Any trip by bus is made, well, more interesting by the videos that they play on a TV mounted at the front of the bus. On one journey back from Iringa on the Comfort Video Coach, I watched The Gods Must Be Crazy II, a one-hour collection of Gloria Estefan / Miami Sound Machine (really bad 80s-hairdos) and deni (day-nee). 1. n. debt. 2., Like many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Tanzania's development has been constrained by the burden of unpayable external debt. This debt was accumulated during the 1970s and 1980s, when Northern governments and banks were keen to invest Arab petro-deposits in any Third World country that promised to make a big push for modernization. Many of these projects were administered directly by the World Bank, an international agency responsible for promoting development and making loans. However, as door-neighbour told us, "sending your kids to the Tanzanian economist Christopher Mwakasege told government schools just destroys their minds". CRWRC staff at a recent retreat, most of these They've been able to send their youngest child to a World-Bank-managed projects never produced a better private school, but they can't afford the same positive return on the investment. Yet instead of for their other three kids. having these loans written off or declaring bankruptcy, the people of Tanzania have been 4. The state of the schools is directly linked to the slowly trying to pay them off. debt crisis. As Oxfam International reported in April 1998, "….per capita spending per pupil has fallen by Fair enough, one might argue "if you borrow, you've one third since 1990. In 1997, as debt payments got to pay back". But repayment has been made rose, the budget for school materials was cut by virtually impossible by three complicating factors: almost 20 per cent. This translates into further a. drastic declines in the commodity prices for shortages of text books and other teaching Tanzania's major exports: coffee, sisal, and tea; materials, placing poorer families who are unable to b. a dramatic rise in interest rates in the 1980s that afford such materials, including exercise books, at a multiplied the amount that had to be paid; and special disadvantage." Nationally, enrolment of c. a 1500% devaluation in the Tanzanian currency primary-school-aged kids has fallen from 95% to that increased the amount of hard currency (and less than 75% since the government followed the hence exports) needed to repay. orders of the International Monetary Fund's structural adjustment program in 1993. The situation The result is that Tanzania's owes $8 billion to its is even worse in secondary schools where international creditors -- $266 for every man, woman enrolment rates are less than 5% -- among the and child in the country. Debt repayment now lowest in the world. (For the full report, see demands 35% of the national budget. and the http://www.oxfam.org./advocacy/papers/tanzania.ht government spend 9 times as much on debt m Debt Relief for Tanzania: An Opportunity for a repayment as on basic health care and 4 times as Better Future Oxfam International). Of course, much as on primary education. debt is not the only problem with Tanzania's education system; poor administration, corporal shule (shoo-lay). 1. n. school, primary or punishment, and rote teaching methods are also secondary. issues. But the burden of international debt and the structural adjustment policies that followed are the 2. In the mornings when I walk to work, I pass primary factors; addressing the debt is a necessary hundreds of children in blue and white uniforms first step to addressing the other problems. heading off to Kurasini Primary School. Although they study in Swahili, they seem to all have learned jubelei (joo-beh-leh-ee) 1. cognate, Jubilee. the same English greetings. "Good morning, teacher. How are you. Fine". This salutation is used 2. Inspired by Old Testament "Jubilee" laws on debt in the morning, afternoon or evening. The best relief (e.g., Deuteronomy 15:1-18; Leviticus 25) and response is either "Good morning" or "Mambo vipi?” Jesus' proclamation at the start of his ministry (Luke , the Swahili street-slang for "Yo, what's up!". They 4), pop stars, pontiffs, activists and people of faith all laugh when I say that for some reason. from around the world have been lobbying North American and European governments to forgive the 3. The effects of the debt crisis on Tanzania's debts of the poorest countries. Some of these schools are obvious at Kurasini Primary School efforts have paid off already. Last year the leaders where there are 6,000 students but only 18 of the G8 industrialized countries announced partial classrooms. The kids must go to school in shifts, but debt relief in Cologne Germany. And last month, even then there are 150 kids to a classroom, seven Tanzania received the good news that another $2 to a desk with only 1 textbook for every 4-6 kids -- billion would be forgiven under a International this isn't a good learning environment. As our next- Monetary Fund's debt relief program for Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC). 3. These are excellent results so far, but more needs to be done. One of the best ways that you can support my work here in Tanzania is to encourage the governments in Canada and the USA to fulfill their promises to forgive this debt, and to push multilateral institutions like the IMF and the World Bank to do the same. To find out where to write a letter, please see my website (www.homestead.com/smilingstickman/jubilee.html). 4. Forgiving Tanzania's debts won't solve all of its problems overnight. But debt relief combined with democratic reforms and monitoring by citizens (There's no problem. She only likes to eat bad groups to ensure that the government channels children). these savings to poverty reduction, is needed to provide justice for millions of people. Without this, 4. Other people seemed puzzled as to why you all of our work as NGOs is simply overwhelmed. would ever take a dog with you for a walk, since a dog is strictly another working animal. I started to 5. On a more hopeful note, debt relief works. In explain that "Well, in North America, pets are part of Uganda, for example, the government met with the family and that we walk them once or twice a NGOs, churches, poor people and others to create day and in fact there is a multi-billion-dollar industry a Poverty Eradication Action Plan to use money to cater to their needs: aisles of special-diet foods freed up from debt relief to improve its education in the supermarket, veterinary hospitals with X-ray system, health care, and basic infrastructure.

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