Romanticising poverty

for the gram.

As travelers, we have a way to romanticize poverty. It’s called “living the simple life”. Or we do things “for the experience.” I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with living simple or doing things for experience, but we have to make sure we understand the lives of the people living such a life without choice.

While riding from Singida to Shinyanga on our bike (we had a really cool bike adventure! Do check out my Instagram for all the lovely scenes), we took a detour to see Lake Kitangiri. The roads towards it were gorgeous and the small villages leading to it looked lovely. People sitting under the mango tree playing board games or eating in a mgahawa (local restaurant). I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be so cool to sit under the tree on a bench for our lunch at a local place? We should do that on our way back. That would make such a nice pic for Instagram! Further in, we saw these beautiful rows of trees with green grass under it. Like a perfect spot for picnic… or we should stop to take pictures there! I thought of a lot of scenarios of how I would take pics for the gram.

But life has a way of humbling us really fast. Slightly further ahead, we came across a lot of villagers with jerry cans or buckets of water. Some on the bicycles, some on foot, some on motorbikes and some on the wheelbarrows being pulled uphill. We wondered why until we saw many people gathered around a well. One person pulling buckets of water from inside the well and filling up for the others. Ahead were terrible roads and yet we continued to see people with water cans. Thus the journey for them got harder.

This was when I realised how hard they have it there. How every ounce of water must be needed to be saved because that long tiring walk to the well and back is not easy at all! How much hard work they have to do not because that’s their daily life but because they have no choice! People in the villages work every day whether it’s a holiday or a Sunday. The cows need to be fed, the farms need to be tended, water needs to be brought home. For travel experience, I have volunteered in a farm fully romanticising that life. And while it was hard work, I still had off days. While it was so so tiring, I knew it was only for a few days and then I’d go back to my own life. But they don’t!

This hit me so hard and when I realised I just couldn’t unsee it. While it was lovely seeing the little happiness in their lives, like kids playing in the mud after the rain, or just taking a nap under the tree while the cows graze, I also saw women hard at work with children on their backs, old men cycling uphill with a whole load on his bicycle, children as young as 4 or 5 shepherding the cows and goats, people knee deep in rice fields for hours a day, people walking long long distances in the sun, a sick person being taken on a motorbike to the nearest hospital with three other people holding her tight.

A few days earlier I asked what did you see in the above picture, you know what I saw when I took it? The privilege difference. One person on the motorbike going around Tanzania as a holiday and the other on a bicycle pedalling uphill to probably reach some work.

This end of the year reflection and travel has brought me so much gratitude and humility, and I hope I can be a little more aware of my surroundings and their lives before romanticising them for the gram. As they say, travel is an amazing teacher!

Share with me your humbling moments from travel in the comments below. Also, do check out some of the pictures I took on the way.