Families of the World – India

its Waters support the plant life of the tropical climate through the wet and dry season and its fish are a source of food for the villagers there is no regular contact with the outside world for the members of the BBA tribe who live on the island when a boat comes into the village Harbor it is enthusiastically greeted by the children of the village the Waters of Lake bangu U also provide the tropical playground for The Island children and their Elders she see there are no policemen on the island but there are no thieves and there is no electricity or public water system there are no motor accidents on the SE because there are no trucks or cars to cause them the most modern vehicle is a battered bicycle that belongs to the mop family here in a rented store which is part of the warehouse where the village oil and salt are stored the richest man on the island conducts his business father mopy is a tailor and with the help of his oldfashioned hand sewing machine he practices what is considered to be the most modern profession in the village he earns about $20 a month which is twice that of most of his neighbors father mopi is not sure of his exact age but he is certain that he has 11 children ranging from a three-year-old baby to his oldest son in the early 20 he enjoys working with his outdated machine especially when the work is supplemented now and then with a thirst quenching drink from his bottle while her husband works in his store mother mop digs Taro a kind of potato which he will use is the family staple food she and her daughter will peel dry and make a kind of flower out of the tarle the mly sons provide an important source of food for the family by catching fish from like bangu U since a refrigerator is unheard of in chishi the boys simply go out in a canoe and catch as many fish as they need just before dinner the 18-year-old eldest son suffered a disease called tracom when he was young and lost the sight of one eye the second son is 14 and both are in the same class in school now that you've seen how the mopy family works and lives do you think that their way of life and the Island's culture can survive and in an industrial World 7-year-old Evo comes to tell's Father dinner is almost ready the very nature of Father M's work made possible because of a machine small and crude though it is shows that change has already come to the Island's life but what would happen to father mopley and his family if a Trader were to find that he could profitably sell readymade clothes on the island the use of Chi's only bicycle a great treat for little evil already represents an assimilation of Western ideas and there have been other changes the people of chishi no longer live a communal tribal existence and today the family units like the mopes have become very important they use a sewing machine and a bicycle and as you continue to watch them what are some other changes you can see being made in the mops Life by outside influences at home the mother and daughters are pounding Taro with wooden paddle it has already been peeled and left dry before it is made into flour in the traditional manner the girl working alongside her mother is Cornelia the 22-year-old second daughter all the food required by the family is prepared in this simple self-sufficient way the M's bicycle suffers a flat tire on the way home and has to be pushed the rest to the way on reaching Home Father mop is greeted by his 10th [Music] daughter the three-year-old toddling after her is the 11th child and the youngest of the family even though the mopes raise a few chickens eggs are rarely added to the [Music] diet hot water is poured over the Taro which is needed into a kind of starch cake before it is served [Music] [Music] homemade cups carved from Gs are used for drinking water mother mop prepares the food for her large family and a simple meal is quite an undertaking even with the help of a very young daughter few households on the island use soap [Music] why is this custom of the mole family considered strange finally the meal is ready but according to custom the family does not eat together the women and children eat alone on the ground in front of the house every family on the island has the same menu of Taro cooked beans and fish repeated day after day how can you account for this lack of variety in [Applause] meals inside in a room decorated with an old calendar father M and his eldest son dying alone you'll notice that they sit very properly in chairs at a table and eat with forks according to tradition grown men do not eat with women and children and this custom seems perfectly natural to all the members of the mle family what do these two separate facts tell us about zombiie and culture today [Music] but even the isolated island of shii is part of the new independent Africa however and the role of women is changing a Zambia newspaper poll indicated that most men disapproved of the practice of striking their wives finally another day is over in the life of the mop family you can see what a simple house they live in there are gourds for storing water and the younger children sleep in the same bed remember this is the house of the richest man on the island what does that tell us about the people of zomia living on chii during the night a heavy Windstorm lashes the island since it's the dry season there is no rain and the villages are used to the pounding waves that are the result of these Violet men the next morning the Windstorm has died down and the Waters of Lake bangu U are calm once more the mopy children are getting ready to go to school and as usual they wash and scrub their teeth on the shore of Lake bangu Olu you can see how important the lake is to the Villager well-being and the children are accustomed to scrubbing their teeth each morning is this the way you brush your teeth if of course you do each [Music] morning an old break drum serves as the school bell and children from the island Village come running as the school day begins When the Children arrive there is great excitement when they learn that much of the school's thatch roof has been blown down by last night's high winds now this doesn't mean that the students will enjoy a holiday on the contr although there are no workmen available chii is an island where even the children learn to be [Music] self-sufficient the pupils seem to welcome the chance to repair the school roof under the direction of their teachers and will the teacher of this mathematics class is Tina the oldest daughter of Father M upon graduation from Junior High School she became a substitute teacher father mle can be proud of of his daughter for she is one of the best educated villagers on the island a new emphasis on education has come to the remote island of shishi for children must now go to school in Zambia at ag7 and continue for at least 7 years the actual rate of School attendance despite the official law is about 70% but this is rather high for the newly independent African countes in addition to such sub subjects as mathematics the children of shishi study English from the fourth grade unlike their parents who speak only the tribal bmba dialect the children of shishi are learning the language of the larger World beyond the shores of Lake bangu can you think of reasons why the people of shishi should learn English in the country of Zambia there are some 60 different tribes in The Villages of shishi belong to the bmba one of the three largest the old tribal communities have broken down with the coming of political nationalism compulsory education and a higher economic level yet the custom of communal farming is still practiced by the women of chishi as part of their traditional tribal Duty [Music] father mop works at his trade of Taylor on the island but the new economic development of the country has caused many of the younger men to leave their families and seek employment in the copper mines Zambia's principal industri for those villagers left on shishi some kind of shared communal life may closely resemble the old tribal Community now what does all this tell us about the changing nature of Zambian [Music] culture every Sunday the mop go to the only church on the island wearing their Sunday V since father mopley is a tailor it is relatively easy for him to provide his family with nice clothes [Music] The Village School teachers who could also be called Community leaders are active in the church activities on the island the missionary priest who has been active for the past 10 years in the lake bangu ULU area comes in a motorboat from the other side of the lake every every [Music] Sunday mass is conducted in a mixture of the BBA language and church Latin the missionaries teaching has had a great effect upon the Islanders for example the custom of buying a wife as a matter of course and the practice of having more than one wife cross cabin cruiser a kind of mobile Outpatient Clinic appears in the village Harbor of all the craft that comes to shishi the arrival of the Red Cross boat is perhaps one of the most welcome a young Dutch nurse is in charge of the boat's medical team [Music] [Applause] to the Islanders who have no full-time doctor the visit of this nurse in the Red Cross boat represent the coming of modern medicine to [Music] shishi such mobile health clinics take part in the Zambian governments under five Clinic plan [Music] have you ever been weighed this way are you [Music] [Music] sure with the departure of the Red Cross boat the island returns to its former quiet peace [Music] the young girls knit intricate patterns under the African banana tree soon they will have to find shelter indoors with the coming of the rainy [Music] season for the present shishi and its families live in a sort of isolated Tranquility but new ideas and a new world are surely coming across the Waters of Lake bangu ulu