Yesterday morning, Ayesha and I went to visit our driver, Sijiona, and his family. Sijiona drives us every week to the district health facilities. For the past month, he’s been showing us pictures of his 7 children, and inviting us to visit his home.
When we arrived, the entire family came out to meet us. After a few rounds of greetings in both Swahilli and English, we sat in their living room + bedroom; this family of 9 lives in a house with 2 rooms in total.
At one corner was a TV playing modern Tanzanian music videos. Another corner had a bed, while a third corner contained a stack of dishes. We sat on sofas in the middle of the room. The walls were bare apart from two calendars and two portraits of Sijiona.
His younger children were shy, which is understandable since they probably hadn’t interacted so closely with foreigners before. We were able to chat with the older children who were very polite. After asking them questions about school, the children brought their school workbooks for us to see.
This was the first time I visited the home of a Tanzanian colleague. We hope to continue building good relationships at the work place, especially as BIPAI begins to hire more Tanzanians when the clinic opens.
No comments:
Post a Comment