Air is Good

The bus was hot - very hot - and the windows in the back wouldn't open. Many people didn't want wind blowing in their faces and so left their windows closed. For whatever reason, one young woman's refusal became the focus of the entire back seat and they began to complain that she would suffocate them all. Finally, they called the conductor to force the teenager to open her window.

After the conductor left, a loud conversation began about exactly why children are so disobedient and selfish nowadays. Some said the problem was a lack of farming. Others complained that is was the abundance of money. One woman could not be dissuaded of the influence of marijuana. The argument got quite heated and I was no longer able to follow.

I may be attaching too much importance to this one conversation, but it does seem that Tanzanians are concerned about finding common ground. I'm not the most argumentative person, but I've still shocked people by directly disagreeing with them. I was interested, but not surprised, when the conversation began to cool down as people found the common ground they'd been looking for since the beginning.

One man said (in Swahili), "If they sold it, it would have a high price". But what was "it"? It seemed consensus was found a bit further a field. Others said similarly vague things that seemed to have nothing to do with the root of disobedience. Finally, a woman summed up the whole conversation with three simple words whose translation have become the title of this entry. With the matter settled, everyone quited down.