African Friends and Money Matters

At the missions conference in Spain I had a long lunch with a girl who is working at an international school in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.  About 3/4 the way through our conversation, I couldn't resist anymore: "So this is kind of a weird question, but do you have any theories, about, you know, Africa's issues?"  I don't know why it was such an awkward question to pose in the conversation.  Maybe it was because of how she talked about the Tanzanian kids she worked with with such a sense of humanity, and often "Africa's problems" conversations do not.  But, she laughed a little and started telling me stories about long-term relationships with kids in which she had seen moral growth and about "circles of responsibility" and how giving money to beggars wasn't always the best thing to do.  When I still wanted the theoretical side, she suggested this book, African Friends and Money Matters, an ethnography from an African perspective.  Interesting.