Provision

I wanted to share with you an excellent blog I've just read from some of our colleagues in Tanzania (they are based in the north in another cluster project). I think we can fully empathise with them about one of the most difficult things about living in Tanzania being 'the mixture of friendship and money'. This certainly was one of the biggest 'stress' points during our time in Mbeya.

This paragraph sums up the issue very nicely:

I have no problem refusing a total stranger who asks me for money; that's easy. But when it's a translator I supervise and consider a friend, our neighbors, or a Christian stranger who is clearly in dire need, it's much more difficult to know what to do. What do you say when someone whom you know well asks you for a loan/gift to pay for their child's school fees? If I say "no", there is a good chance that child will not go to school. But if I say "yes", I'm continuing this pattern of living beyond one's means and putting them in debt.

To read the whole blog, and it certainly is well worth a read, just click here.