“You may say that I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one.”
(Photo courtesy of google image)
Do you know that song, written by John Lennon in the 70’s? He had such a huge vision and tried to empower us through his music. Since that time a lot of young people listened to his songs and have probably been inspired to think about their own life expectations. It is especially a struggle when one turns into adolescent hood when you are not only supposed to be dealing with your body changes but also about the kind of life you want to live.
It is the most important thing in life to always listen to your inner voice. We understand that you can easily struggle with the question of who am I and who do I want to be. What do I want to do for a living? Am I good in learning or am I more an active and outgoing person? Do I want to work in an office day by day or is my priority skilled craftsmanship, farming or handcraft work.
These key questions probably give you an idea what kind of career you strive for. Furthermore your surrounding can also be a good source of inspiration, because you can easily talk to your parents, teachers and friends who are already working about the personal experience and how they dealt with these far-reaching decisions. They can also provide you with pro and cons of their jobs and in what way they can recommend their career.
Most of teenage girls identify themselves with the idea of finishing school, marrying a handsome guy who they hopefully love and who treats them well, have children and build a home. Of course, you can choose that path but what about your own dream, everyone has one! We, from Tai, want to empower and encourage you, our readers to follow you’re chosen path. Girls especially, should not underestimate the development opportunities they have nowadays. (Image courtesy of Tai studio)
There are a lot of famous people some of us adore who went further than there social surrounding ever expected. These stories hopefully inspire you and help create an opinion about your own life and your society and family status.
This is a true story of woman known as Mjomba Hussein also Uncle Pili Hussein, she is Tanzania’s first woman miner who disguised herself as a man to access the Tanzanite mines in Mererani in Arusha region.
Pili Hussein grew as one of the 38 children in her family daughter of a livestock keeper who had many large farms, six wives. Although she was well looked after, in many ways, she doesn't look back on her upbringing fondly.
She did not have the possibility to attend school; therefore her career options were small. One day she decided to leave her home in search of independence. That’s when she met her husband but her marriage was shortly ended when at the age of 31 Pili ran away from her abusive husband.
In search of work she found herself in the small mining town of Mererani the only place in the world where the rare violet-blue gemstone called tanzanite is done. The problem was that women were not allowed to enter the mines therefore she decided to disguise herself and changed her name to Mjomba Hussein (Uncle Hussein).(Photo courtesy of google image)
In the tight confines of the hot, dirty tunnels - some of which extend hundreds of meters below the ground – Pili worked 10-12 hours a day, digging and sieving, hoping to uncover gemstones in the veins of the graphite rock without any suspicion from her male co-workers.
After almost a year, she found two clusters of Tanzanite stones 1000 grams and 800 grams each a rare, violet-blue gemstone. With the money that she made from selling the stones, she built new homes for her father, mother and twin sister, bought herself more tools, and began employing miners to work for her. (Photo courtesy of google image).
Fifteen years later, her true identity finally was revealed after a local woman had reported being raped by some of the miners and Pili was arrested as a suspect. She asked the police to find a woman to physically examine her, to prove that she couldn't be responsible, and was soon released.
Today, she has 70 employees working for her, 150 acres of land, 100 cows and a tractor. She has managed to pay for the education of more than 30 of her nieces, nephews and grandchildren. She now focuses on working with young women to teach them how to do business in the mining sector and encourage them to follow in her footsteps.
Let Mjomba Hussein be a nice example to follow up your dreams and a source of inspiration as you think about your own life.
