Today was great!  I LOVED the content of today’s lectures.  Many people glazed over during the lectures about rural sociology, agriculture and agriculture expansion, mapping patterns of deforestation, forest ecology, and rates and reasons for forest conversion to other land uses at Sokione University.  I am very impressed by the quality of this preparatory period.  I feel as though we all have a good grasp of the issues in our project area.  Tomorrow we will learn more about specific crops in the Morogoro area.

Today was also challenging on a personal level.  Just before lunch, during the rural sociology lecture, female circumcision was mentioned as still being practiced and just after that, we learned of a tribe that communicates affection through beatings.  During the first three months of marriage, a husband must beat his wife to show he loves her.  It is common for women to receive bandages as wedding presents.  If a husband does not beat his wife, the wife thinks that he does not love her and she asks him to do it.  Patric (guide) says that this practice by very few and small tribes and that men actually exchange some sort of tips on beatings (maybe good, maybe bad….?)  This custom is still practiced.  Patric has a male friend in this tribe.  He says that he has told the friend that he does not need to participate in this custom but the said he will.  It is his way of life – his culture.  Does cultural preservation dictate the definition of human rights?  Is the definition of human rights relative to an individual’s culture?

Location: Morogoro, Tanzania