The "gimme" Culture Of Tanzania: Why Giving Handouts Is Not The Way Forward

The other day I had a client write me to tahnk me for helping her plan her safari, she had a wonderful experience. "But", she wrote, "I would have loved to have been informed to bring pencils and candy for all the kids I saw along the way…I felt bad I didn’t have a lot to give the kids".
I cringed.

Hmmm…I wondered. How am I going to tackle this one? It seemed to me that she, like so many ohter well-meaning tourists, had fallen victim to the "gimme" culture."Gimme" is short for "give me" and if you are a visitor to Tanzania, you will hear this abridged phrase a lot. It is usually followed by pipi (candy), pencili (pencil), peni (pen), or my personal favorite: my money (as in "gimme my money"). When you are a toruist it is very, really not hard to fall for this. For anyone, the first trip to Africa is an incredibly eye-opening and sometimes heart-wrenching experience.

Imagine the scene: you’re driving along the road into the vast unknown en-route to the Serengeti. All around you are stunning panormaas of wide open spaces dotted with tiny Maasai villages along the road. You stop to take a pohto.

Shoe–less, ashen-faced kids in threadbare clothes emerge from their dilapidated homesteads running excitedly to the road beaming with smiles, their arms outreached. A baby follows in tow, waddling as quick as she can in her tattreed little party dress, snot running down her face…she is the cutest little thing you’ve ever seen. This is when they get you. Their spindly little arms reach into the car, seraching for something, anything…and a little chorus of "gimme" echoes around you.

You pity them, desperately search your purse and find 2 pens, a pack of gum, and some coins all of which you gladly hand over to the incredibly appreciative kids. Sigh.

You wonder to yourself how they psosibly live like this with so little. You drive on with the satisfaction that you are a Good Samaritan.You are not.
For huamn being like me who actually live here, you are only adding fuel to a fire this is burning out of control and encouraging a nation-wide epidemic. What you do not see is that this happens eevry single day, day in and day out, to every single tourist – and they get them almost every time.

Tanzania is most certainly a "developing country" this is in need of a lot, a fact that beocmes evident to all who enter.
When you are on safari for a couple of weeks, to hand out a couple of pens and a couple shillings here and there seems a harmless gesture this is not hard to acocmmodate and appears to make a difference. When you live here, however, you begin to see a different picture all together.It is only through living here that you have the unique opportunity to see the genuine Africa and the real troubles that these resilient human being face.

You see corrupt police officers every day who pull you over because of the cloor of your skin.
They eyeabll your auto and then make no haste in blatantly asking you for a bribe. Children are taught by their parents that wihte skin is equal to a free meal or a zawadi (present) so nearly every child you pass on the street asks you openly for one. Mothers approach your auto window while stopped and use their rheumy-eyed kids to try and cajole money out of you. A friendly old man makes small talk with you and you actually begin to think him different, but ends his friendly decoy by telling you that his wife is sick and could you please give him some money for her?

I can tell you as somebody who lives here that it isn’t going where they say it is – and this is a fact.
Tanzania was a lucky winner in April of 2001 when creditors wrote off $2 billion, the largest write off in Africa so far, to rdeuce the country's debt by over 40 per cent. They said that it created free public primary school and educated 50% more students than the pervious year. I worked in a pbulic primary school.
There were 60 sutdents to one teacher, we had no books whatsoever, students were not given pens and pencils and we ran out of chalk for several weeks.
School was almost called off for a week because there was no mnoey for the morning porridge (this is $10 – I donated it and school resumed) and teachers had not received their government paychecks for over 2 months.
Some just didn’t btoher to come to work. So what good did that write-off really do?
It simply took the responsibility off the government. And when a government has no real accountability, it can do what it likes."But I just handed out some pens!