Tourists sometimes come to me for treatment. They usually have stomach problems, headaches or difficulty breathing. Some later send photographs, which I enjoy receiving. Others leave money or buy medicine.
I also receive a contact fee of one thousand Tanzanian shillings for each group, a little over one dollar. The amount is small, but tourism does provide me with some income.
Visitors are generally friendly and tell me about their own cultures. One thing I have learned is how strongly many of them value punctuality.
I treat a visitor’s headache or stomach problem, and in return I receive a little income and a window into another way of life.
I do not always wear traditional clothes because Western clothing is more practical when I work on the land. Women continue to dress traditionally, while Christians in the community follow different customs and generally do not wear traditional dress.
Attitudes toward photography have changed. People once believed visitors were taking pictures to sell them, which created suspicion. Now we understand that most tourists keep photographs as memories or show them to family and friends.
Family expectations have changed much less. The government encourages households to have no more than three children, yet having a son remains extremely important.
Overtime things change, but how that works is complex. A photograph became easier to accept once we understood its purpose, but the pressure to have a son remains much harder to change.
Sons are expected to support parents in old age. If a man has no son with his first wife, he may take a second wife in the hope of having one. This is connected to social security, inheritance and ideas about family duty, not to tourism.
I welcome the strangers who come with illnesses, questions, coins and photographs, while knowing that some of the strongest pressures in our lives are older and deeper than tourism.