A funeral

I went to my first funeral today and it was an African one. I don't know the man who passed away. He was my colleague's brother. In traditional Tanzanian fashion, money was collected from all of us yesterday to help the family with the expenses of a funeral. The burial is tomorrow in their hometown of Moshi. Today was an opportunity for people to pay their respects. We arrived in the afternoon in a UNDP mini bus. All of us at UNIFEM went to show our support to Salome. It felt like we were together, part of this work family, it was a nice feeling. Women had dress codes, to wrap a kanga around your waist, and the men had none, quite different from the all white attire in Hinduism. There were at least a 100 people if not more. I couldn't understand anything being said, but I didn't need a translator to understand the raw emotions being expressed. Women wailed at the site of the open casket and men shook from crying so hard. I could tell this man was loved tremendously. I too stood in line and paid my respects and saw, for the first time, a dead body. I gave Salome a big hug and said nothing, I had no words, I myself was on the brink of shedding tears from hearing all those women breaking down. One woman fainted and was lucky that a WHO doctor was there to attend to her. After 2 hours of praying and hearing a beautiful choir, the ceremony was over and people stood in line for food. Since we all had had lunch we said our good byes to Salome at which point she insisted on giving last minute work instructions while shes away. : ) Oh and she really wanted me to meet her nephew cause he's doing an internship in India. He had just flown in last night from Pune where a dear friend of mine is right now. It's a small world.

I can't really compare a Tanzanian funeral to say an American or Indian one because I've never been, but all in all it was a sad event even for someone like me who didn't know him. He was taken after 8 years of battling HIV. The family knew it was coming, but that doesn't make it any easier.

May he rest in peace.