Old and fat

After spending six months in North America, which is obsessed with being young and thin, it's kind of refreshing to be back in Tanzania.  It's easy to feel good about yourself here.  Tanzanians respect elders and think having a bit of a bulging belly and bum is a healthy look.  If you're old and/or fat, Tanzania is a great place to live to boost your self-esteem after American culture wears it down.

On Andrew's first day back in the office, he was enthusiastically greeted by the office cleaning lady with the words, "You've gotten fat!  You look wonderful!"  In her mind, he looked like he'd had a great time visiting friends and family in the States and that the aforementioned friends and family had treated him well.  Which is true, but Americans wouldn't ever say it.  In fact, they might think a bit critically about lack of self-control, or wonder if he's going to manage to lose the weight again.  Tanzanians would be appalled if we went to go see our families and came back skinny, like our own parents were too stingy to feed us decently.

One day I was on a walk with two other white friends.  A man happened to be walking along the road at the same time and struck up a conversation.  He said, "You there, the tall one, where do you come from?"  Being as I'm significantly more heighty than the other two, I knew he meant me, so I answered him.  Then he asked, "And you, the fat one, how about you?"  We all knew which one of the three of us he meant, and the larger one among us took it with good grace and answered him.  Finally he said, "And you, the third one?"  We were curious why he didn't describe her, so asked him why not.  He was a little embarrassed and said, "Well, I didn't want to call her, 'The short one,' because that would be kind of rude."  We all found this interesting, and the one he'd called the fat one thought it was particularly hilarious to discover he was trying to be sensitive.

It's nice to be in a place where people don't particularly care what you look like.  If you're fat, skinny, tall, short, dark, light, it doesn't matter much.  Tanzanians prefer women with lighter brown skin and large bums (proof: when we go running, my "fat friend"'s behind gets a lot of attention from males, much to her annoyance and my amusement), but they don't hold it against those who are dark or have bony bums.  It's just how you are and they'll love you anyway.  They have the mindset that God made you like that and why should anyone get worked up about something they can't really change.  It's something I appreciate.