This article is from page 25 of the 2008-01-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 25 JPG
AS OUR year on Pemba Island, Tanzania, draws to a close we look back and marvel at the vast range of places, people, activities and emotions that have filled our lives in 2007. For us, it has been a privilege and the opportunity of a lifetime to live among the people here. They have taught us much.
This year, we learned that poverty sets a lot of limits for people but it doesn’t crush their spirit. Despite the daily struggle to put food on the table, our neighbours greet each other with a big smile every morning and children play happily all day long with a burst ball or the sand on the roadside.
This year, we learned that people of
the Muslim faith are not all terrorists despite their bad press in the West. The most popular greeting on the is- land is ‘Salama’ which means peace.
We have never seen violence on the street or even on the sports field and bad language doesn’t feature here. We have discovered that they are a polite, disciplined, prayerful people and they have much to teach us.
We learned that sport is universal and unites people throughout the world. The Premiership has reached Pemba, with shopfronts sporting such names as Highbury Fashions and Everton Café.
When the young men train for the local soccer club the older men sit for hours watching them and, as they walk home from training in their bare feet, they are escorted by troops
of youngsters who feel privileged to accompany their heroes.
This year, we learned that we are all brothers and sisters on this planet and more alike than different. Whether black or white, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, Muslim or Christian, we all share a common life experience.
Emotionally, we are exactly alike. The same things make us laugh and cry. We love and hate and get angry about the same things. We all worry when our children are sick but there is delight when Man Utd win.
But we have also learned that things are not as simple as they seem and everyone has their own story. Behind the large, open-eyed smile of a hand- some brown child there lie layers of little victories over hunger, poverty,
hardship and failure. We have also learned that a toasted cheese sand- wich can taste good anywhere, it is possible to be understood in Swa- hili with a very small vocabulary and water is a greater necessity than electricity. We have learned that the Irish people are incredibly generous, we still wonder at the magic of email and texts, that a juicy pineapple can put many problems in perspective and friends are a precious gift.