Maki High School
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Today’s Run:
Maki High School
In my exhaustion last night, I neglected to mention the main activity of yesterday. Emanuel took me to visit my old translator Masudi in high school. (My grandma and mom sponsored Masoud to go back to school after reading about him in the blog.)
Ema and I drove out to Rombo, a beautiful district on the east side of Kilimanjaro. Masudi greeted us in his school uniform smiling ear to ear. This Masoud with leather shoes and a digital watch was a far cry from the underfed kid I met fighting on the streets in sandals in Muheza. He and I embraced. We high-fived over and over and over. He glowed and told me he is happy. The students are smart and challenging him to study hard. His knee is healed from running with me. He eats well. He already has a best friend named Reginald.
Emanuel spoke to Masoud about lying. He made his hand slither like a snake, “Don’t be like this.” Then he made is hand straight like an arrow, “You need to be like this.” He reminded Masudi this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Masudi heard the message loud and clear.
I was elated to be with Masoud. I forgot how much I missed him. It hit me that we really Jack Kerouac’ed across Tanzania together. Masudi ran an off-the-bench marathon with me. We crossed the desert and ran out of water. I met Masoud’s mother (all four of them actually). He pulled a thorn out of my foot. We danced on the highway at 6 am before the sun rose. He comforted me through miserable pain. I’m glad he made me promise to come back to Tanzania even though, as a rule, I don’t make commitments like that. We will see each other again.
Ema talked to Masudi’s teachers to explain how to get in touch with him. We cleared his balance for school supplies and health insurance. And we took a walk around the campus. Almost all high schools in Tanzania are boarding schools if I understand correctly. This one has a view overlooking the valley below Kilimanjaro. There a garden with leafy greens and also banana, mango, papaya, and avocado trees. The classrooms are not overcrowded, each student has their own desk.
I’m so grateful the school worked out and that Emanuel took me to see it with my own eyes. I felt overjoyed there. Helping facilitate my mom and grandma’s sponsorship of Masudi’s education has been one of the more meaningful experiences of my life.
On that note, I introduced my two new friends, Living and Habib, to Emanuel. Living and Habib have a dream of starting an organization to help the orphans and widows in their villages. I asked them to join Ema and I for dinner because Ema helps feed impoverished elderly and children in the villages around Arusha.
At dinner, Emanuel explained his personal philosophy on charity vs business. Giving is his passion. It’s a hobby. It’s “like my religion.” (He made this analogy with no apparent trace of irony). “When I receive $100 in donations to sponsor a child’s education, over 95% goes to the child.” What enables him to pass donations directly to the children is the fact that he has a successful business to support himself financially. He advised Living and Habib, “Be successful in business. It’s okay. It’s not a sin to be successful.”
At Living’s house, I learned he has already started many businesses. Living’s first business was a stationary (print, laminate, etc). Then he got into trading currencies. A Canadian man on the Internet who goes by Rock Z taught him everything. They met on Instagram. Living turned $1m ($400) into $7m Tsh ($2800).
Then in 2021, Living got into a bad motorcycle crash. For a year he couldn’t bend his knee. Finally a friend from university connected him with a German doctor who did an operation to restore mobility to the knee. However, Living still cannot flex his ankle. After telling me, I noticed he walks with a slight limp. The ankle will be paralyzed for the rest of his life.
Living stopped working for two years after the crash. He lost his confidence in trading and spent most of his money on medical bills. He went back to work as a boda boda driver in June 2023 just over a year ago.
He asked about my work. I told him that I write everyday and sometimes people in the US pay a subscription to support my writing. He asked me very seriously if he could do that. I told him of course. He confirmed, “So I will write a blog and people will pay money?” I paused and said, Yes, though it takes some time. He asked if I make as much as I did when I was a software engineer. I laughed and said, No way. But it’s more fun. “You love it?” he asked. I nodded.
Living walked away and came back with a notebook. Inside I found a beautifully handwritten manuscript for a book titled, “Master the Market with Confidence, Discipline, and a Winning Attitude.” It is eleven chapters long and well-written in technical English. In the first chapter, Living writes that the trader gains their edge, not through superior knowledge, but with confidence. He explained that models fail to take into account the emotions of traders when they predict the price. But on a day-to-day basis, price swings are impacted by human behavior. He writes, “Most traders don’t believe that their trading problems are the results of the way they are thinking while they are trading. Attitude and state of mind will determine the results of the trader.“
I don’t know anything about trading, but I loved the psychology. On the spot, I asked Living if he would join me to Kenya when I run again after Kilimanjaro. He’s interested. Hopefully it will work out.
P.S.
“When you put land over people, you get a graveyard.” My new friend Michelle told me this. She is a pastor in Tanzania, originally from the UK. She went to Israel and heard a sermon where a man said this.