Do you know where most parents take their kids during summer vacation? Well, this question may have lots of different answers that if I were to list here, I could easily lose focus on what I would like to say. Anyways, my parents have been sending me to Africa, the continent in which they were born. Tanzania and Uganda to be specific.
It is me again, Angelous, born to an East-African couple. My dad was born and raised in Uganda, and my mom was born and raised in Tanzania, while I was born here in Canada. I have lived here ever since.
When I was nine years old, my dad and mom thought it was a good idea for me to go see and experience life on the other side of the world. At first, I did not understand why they were doing this to me, but after visiting Africa several times, I now realize what their intentions were, and I have come to appreciate the way of life in Canada and in North America and the developed world in general.
Overall, I must admit that people in the part of Africa I visited, have a different lifestyle. People appear to be carefree, which makes you wonder, when you compare with our lifestyle here in Canada. For example, the roads are full of cars and people, some walking, some doing businesses selling items on the roadside, and some just standing doing nothing or minding their own business. There are traffic jams on almost all roads, and most roads appear to be under construction or have potholes that cars have to dodge to get to their destinations.
There are no big shopping malls like here in Canada, businesses are conducted in small stores and along the streets; items on sale include edible and non-edible items like nuts, clothing, shoes, and cellphones. I was even surprised to see some Chinese selling items in some stores and on the streets, and at that moment, I felt like I was in Canada. Of course, except there were many more African people than the Chinese people.
I also noticed that children play outside all day, without worrying that somebody may come and snatch them and every small space around the houses and in the compounds are like playing parks. I saw that most schools have simple buildings with desks that are not as fancy as the ones we have here in Canada, but the students and some of my cousins I spoke to seem to know almost everything we are taught here in Canada and even more.
Running water and electricity is another thing that I noticed were a real problem, as in most places I visited, the two could not be found together. Where there was running water, there was no electricity, and where there was electricity, running water could not be found. Families have to buy water and store it in big tanks. This seems to be normal in many households.
Despite all this, I could also see that the people were happy with whatever little they had, even though I thought they did not have much; there was that general feeling of happiness. This made me think of Canada where we have a lot and even waste much of it, and yet people do not seem to be satisfied and content with the plenty they have.
All the times I have visited Africa, I have come across so many very sick or injured civilians. That is when I realized that an insect bite or heat rash is nothing to complain about. Before I left for Uganda or Tanzania, my parents would take me to a doctor who vaccinated me with different vaccines and also prescribed for me daily Malaria tablets to take while we were there, so I was somehow protected from some of the common diseases.
Many people in Africa live very impoverished lives that result to poor health. Small things like mosquito bites which Canadians dread because they itch actually kill people in Africa. Africa has over a dozen big major diseases that are deadly that most Canadians have probably never heard of like Syphilis, Meningitis, Tetanus, Whooping cough, Measles, TB, Diarrhea, Malaria, HIV/AIDS, and Pneumonia. Let’s not forget Ebola that has just recently been added on the big list.
Not only are sicknesses killing Africans, but also the poverty there. There is a huge difference between the rich and poor. The poor live in houses made of scrap metal and wood. Government schools which are available only to those with not enough money for private schools teach hardly anything. The teachers are poor and not even fully trained in most cases. I have visited many schools in East Africa and even the fairly good schools are not as well stocked as some older schools in Canada. The desks, chairs, writing material, textbooks, and classrooms in most African schools are either old or are not made with the best material used in Canada.
Drivers just drive anywhere on the road even if the community is lucky enough to afford painted lines on roads showing you where to drive. Many deaths happen on the road due to traffic accidents. Poor families cannot afford basic necessities all the time for their children to live like clothing, healthy food, and pure clean water that will not spread any diseases. The rich families have everything they want and need while their brothers and sisters rot in their poorly built structures they call their home.
I feel for Africa, being a very poor continent, having many sick people, and having a very poor economy. I remember I had a surgery on my toe three years ago, and it took my parents and me several trips to our family doctor, a dermatologist, and another pediatric dermatologist before I reached the surgeon who operated on me. I was mad that time as I missed several sport trips let alone time out of classes, but now I think the so many visits were meant to properly understand my problem before I could be operated.
I only wish that all ailing citizens of Africa can have the privilege of going to many appointments to get their diseases solved which are definitely more important than my toe problem. I wish the difference between the rich and poor can decrease over time so Africa and all its strong traditions do not fade away. I wish education can be free for the young ones, and I wish it to be good education that can help make them be somebody when they grow. They deserve as much a chance at living a healthy, clean, fair life as Canadians are receiving.
I hope that one day, instead of kids always going to Disney World or resorts for summer vacation, they can help make a new Africa that is not poverty-stricken by visiting it and helping by doing an act as small as building a well to something as big as building a school. And one day, when poverty isn’t so much a problem in Africa, when everyone can afford to live a proper life, Africans too can visit Canada too!
Angelous