East York High School Volleyball

Walking around Africa, it’s always really interesting observing the different kinds of clothes you see. The more traditional clothing that many older women wear is very colorful and pretty. Many of us have seen pictures of the Masai tribe, and the colorful clothing and sandals made from old tires that they wear. Here, in Arusha, there are many Masai people, and several of the kids at the center are Masai.

I especially enjoy reading the t-shirts that I see. Here in Africa you see all sorts of random shirts that are obviously from the states. Like ones that mention specific middle schools and then have a map of Wisconsin on the back, with a star showing the location of that school. Or ones from different sports teams, including indoor soccer, minor league baseball, or even the professional sports teams.

I always get excited when I see shirts from my favorite sports teams. I saw an Orioles shirt the other day, and I have seen many old Steelers jerseys (ones of Kordell Stewart and Levon Kirkland). Just a couple of days ago I saw a Maryland shirt, and that got me so excited that I greeted the person wearing it. He was probably startled, but he didn’t speak English, though.

The obscure shirts especially got me thinking. At first, it seemed kind of ridiculous that someone here in Africa would be wearing an East York High School Volleyball t-shirt. I mean, they had no idea where East York was, and they certainly had never been there, and possibly they didn’t even know what volleyball was (these are my assumptions). Imagine seeing kids walk around the states with shirts in Swahili saying something like “Kwamref Cricket”.

Another natural thing to assume is that people in the states donated these clothing items, and the people here, as the level of poverty is higher, are in greater need for donated clothing. For the most part, I think that this is true.

But as I continued thinking, I started to wonder, maybe the people like wearing these shirts, even though they don’t know what they say. Or maybe, they could care less about what their shirt says, as long as they have a shirt to wear. I also wondered that, if by wearing one of the shirts, their peers would know that they are poor and had accepted donated clothing. Would this even matter to them?

I also thought about us, in the states. If we do give away clothing, we (including myself) only give away old clothing that we don’t want to wear anymore. I would never give away my favorite t-shirts. I would wait until that shirt is worn, or rips, and then when I do a spring cleaning of my dresser, I would throw it with the other shirts I hadn’t worn for over a year in a pile for Goodwill. What does this say about us and our culture, if we only give away the stuff that we don’t want, that we would just as well throw away? Why do I have so many t-shirts anyway?