Unless you are sitting in a Developing World or Native American/First Nations Internet cafe and reading this, you probably have to talk to people born before 1930 or on a Native American reservation to begin to appreciate what life is like in rural Tanzania, especially in the Dodoma region.  Note that this discussion does not apply so much to the City of Dodoma (money, services, transport, water, and education through the university level are readily available there).

In your village, money is very scarce or simply absent.  Many girls and women (mostly) spend hours each day walking 100s of meters or kilometers to fill water containers from sometime suspect sources.  Old water equipment breaks down and requires heroic efforts to keep in repair.

You typically make a living as a subsistence farmer or herder.  If you are a Bantu farmer woman, you likely farm a two to five acre plot by hoe. Your husband may not do much to help you.  If herders, you search endlessly for pasture and water.  Many women have not learned to read.

Life is getting better.  You do have an elementary school in your village.  But your family may have to buy a school uniform and books and supplies. Chances are your village recently had a new, basic building erected, but there is never enough equipment, teachers, books.  All children who go to school (many girls do not) can read and do math.  Few children will go to secondary school (vs. nearly 100 % in the USA) and a handful nationally attend university.  If they do not attend secondary and further education, the result is children well-prepared to live life in 1930.  How do you get ahead in the 21st century? Fortunately, more high schools have been established in nearby Dodoma city, as well as two universities and other forms of post-secondary education. There are more seats for the talented youth and they need not travel so far away for education.

Your village may have a medical dispensary, staffed by often very dedicated and well-prepared people equivalent to what you may find in Cuba.  Sometimes they are less than ideal.  Equipment and supplies may be scarce.  If your village does not have a dispensary, it may be many kilometers to the nearest one capable of handling a difficult childbirth or ruptured appendix.  If you have one, it may not have a radio or vehicle to transport to a hospital.

Life can be really hard.  Spousal and child abuse and unrestricted child labor are common.  Some tribes practice particularly harsh and painful, often debilitating operations on girls.  Men often are not faithful in marriage, and bring home HIV.

The Church, with its message that all are precious in the eyes of Christ, works to change all this through witness, education, political action, and building.  The church (in its various forms) and Christian service groups remain the most active in alleviating poverty and lack of education and medical services in rural central Tanzania. Won't you join us?