Also, in the Caribbean, we did travel off of the resort to the other places on the island. We visited a Cocoa Plantation and we spent some time in a few of the villages. Although I don't remember much, I remember that their lifestyle was very different. Every Friday night (I think...), they had street parties. They didn't have a lot in the towns and villages, but they still made sure that they had time for each other. We rarely do things like that here, and when we do, it certainly isn't an event for the entire town or city (at least I haven't experienced anything like that before).
It was also the first time that I truly saw poverty. Once we traveled away from the resort, we saw people living in make-shift houses made out of left over scrap-metal. Entire families lived in one or two room houses. It was shocking to me. But they were such happy people, and I never felt that they resented their position in life.
During my three weeks in Tanzania, I saw even more poverty. The children didn't have shoes; the children didn't have store bought toys; people sold their extra goods for a few extra Tanzanian Shillings; people didn't have indoor plumbing, or electricity; people worked all day in the fields, more for subsistence than anything else; people don't have good medical care; entire towns were so poor, etc. Yet they were happy. The children were so smart because they had to make their own toys. It kept them busy. I never saw an unhappy Tanzanian. Here, we always seem to want more. There, they are so thankful for what they have. It is such an incredible difference to me.
Tanzanian culture is so incredibly different than our own, and it is hard to put it well into words. Their mindset is more on the community, and generally, for the religious more on God than themselves. They aren't ever focused on themselves. They look to what God would want them to do, which would lead to more of an involvement in the community. I always tell the story of Mama Allen to illustrate this. She makes about $1 per day from the Diocese, when they can afford to pay her. Yet, on one of our last nights there, she had all of us from America (about 8 people) plus three people from the Diocese plus her own family to her house for a dinner. It was a normal meal of chicken and rice, but since she lives in a more urban area, she wouldn't have been able to grow the food or raise the chickens herself. She had to buy all of it. She probably spent nearly her entire monthly salary on us because she believed that is what God would want her to do. She also had the faith that God would provide for her and her family.
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