Abstract
Omari was at the bus stop in Dar es Salaam and planned to go north to Arusha. He had no money and tried to sneak onto a bus, hoping his slender 12-year-old body would go unnoticed amid the larger, luggage-bearing adults. He had barely reached the second step of the bus when he was spotted and kicked off. Years living on the street had taught him to be wily and intrepid, and he was undeterred. Omari resolved to try again, and arrived at the bus station the following morning before the sun did. He wriggled his way underneath a bus heading to Arusha, tucking himself into the vehicle’s mechanical underbelly. After some time, the concrete began to move beneath him. Omari clutched tightly to the bowels of the vehicle as it barreled down the road. The bus’s wheels failed to dodge a pothole, then flew over a speed bump. He winced as the uneven cement abraded his back.
There is no method but to be very intelligent.
—T.S. Elliot
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Wagner, C.M., Lyimo, E.D., Lwendo, S. (2012). Matches But No Fire: Street Children in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. In: Ensor, M.O. (eds) African Childhoods. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137024701_3
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