Best of Tanzania

I have a lot to say about this semester, and it is a bit overwhelming to try to encapsulate my experiences and reflections in one blog post. However, I’ll give it a go! I have gone through many ups and downs over the past four months, and now I can finally say that I feel comfortable in a place where I never thought I’d be at-ease. I have learned so much from the Tanzanian people and culture, but there are still many things that are baffling, frustrating, and go over my head. Our program director gave us a packet concerning how to deal with reverse culture shock, and one of the exercises is called “The Best of Tanzania”. I thought that answering some of those prompts might be a good way to cover the bases, and to give specific examples instead of broad generalizations…

Biggest success or proudest moment: sneaking into and out of Zanzibar without a residency permit by using my low-level Swahili skills.

Most embarrassing moment or mistake: buying a candy bar in Olasiti, and absent-mindedly opening it before I got back to the campsite. Almost immediately a hoard of children came out of nowhere screaming: “HELLO HELLO HELLO GIVE ME CHOCOLATE!” and I hid the candy bar from them and walked away as quickly as I could. Not my proudest moment.

Most humbling experience: This entire semester has been a humbling experience, but the most poignant moments were probably during the field portion in Olasiti. One evening I was helping cook in the kitchen at the field site, and I was chatting with Stevie, who is the youngest member of the safari staff. He was telling me about his life ambitions and how he really hopes to go to school, and it really struck a chord. Stevie is my age, and he is just as deserving of an education as I am. I am in Tanzania as part of my education, and sometimes I forget just how privileged I am. Stevie wouldn’t be able to come to the United States as part of his education if he wanted to, and it has nothing to do with a discrepancy in our intelligence.

Funniest moment: there are so many…probably one of the most absurd moments occurred during one of our evening Jillian Michaels sessions at the campsite. There was one particular evening when we were jumping around and looking like idiots (as usual), and we had our regular audience of five or six children, and of course babu. One of our drivers, Walter, was doing the video with us, but his main objective was to poke fun at us and he was not doing the moves even remotely correctly. About half way through, a giant truck passed by that had probably 20 Tanzanian men in the truck bed and of course they were intrigued by what was going on. There is a speed-bump right next to the campsite, so the truck slowed down to go over the bump, and then stopped to watch us for a while. I couldn’t continue to do the video because I was laughing so hard. I also thought that smashing a giraffe piñata with a zebra femur was pretty ridiculous.

Worst experience in Tanzania: the lowest period of the semester was the week before break. There had been a series of assaults and robberies involving people in our group and other international students, and multiple people had malaria and other health ailments like scabies. I have never felt so targeted and aware of my personal security before, and it was highly unpleasant. Our altercation with the Russian men also sucked.

Most unique experience: some of the most unique experiences I had were in Engerkerat, the first Maasai village we visited. I had never witnessed a goat sacrifice, and the night dance we participated in was insane. It is difficult to describe, but I have never been part of a ritual like that before.

Most useful thing I learned: that not everybody in the world is obsessed with/possessive of time. I am accustomed to a very schedule-oriented culture, and it has been both infuriating and liberating to be a part of a society that, excuse my French, doesn’t give a shit about time. People take the time to greet and acknowledge each other, even if they have somewhere to go, and there seem to be few consequences for tardiness. One of my favorite examples was when some members of our group had scheduled to go cattle herding with Maasai warriors at 7 am, which was facilitated by one of our translators, Leboy. They didn’t leave the campsite until 7:45, and when they asked Leboy if the warriors would be upset that they were late, he replied: “But it is still the hour of 7!”

Most bizarre/crazy experience: maybe being cursed by a Maasai bibi for not buying her jewelry. I’m not really sure what happened, but she pretended to spit on and slap me, and then waved her nipple around at me while screaming in Maa. It was really weird. 

Most difficult thing I did: climb that mother-effing volcano. I have never had to push myself mentally/emotionally like that before. I really thought I might fall off the side of the volcano and die.

You know you’ve lived in Tanzania when: you suggest to your roommate that she should try to trade her camera for a woodcarving at the market. (By the way she tried this and it worked beautifully). 

Okay I'd better hurry up and post this, because there is a guy sitting next to me who hasn't stopped talking even though I don't think I've responded to him in the past fifteen minutes. Oh and just now he invited himself to go back to America with me. He also just told me that when I am old enough to marry I should find him.  It is really time to go. Thanks for reading this! 

Countdown

20 ACM students

19 people who have scabies 

18 interviews with the Maasai 

17 weeks of the program

16 cents to ride the bus 

15 minutes to take a bucket shower 

14 speed bumps on one street  

13 minutes waiting for change 

12 hours hiking a volcano 

11 days on safari 

10 goats in our campsite

9 Nipe kids 

8 standard greetings for every interaction 

7 cases of malaria 

6 people who got locked in bathrooms 

5 Maasai translators 

4 national game parks 

3 marriage proposals 

2 baboons in our back yard 

1 awesome semester 

Well, this is it – my final week in Tanzania. My only responsibilities are to finish my research paper and prepare for our presentations on Friday. I have already written a draft of my paper…but it definitely needs a lot of work. Last week we had our Ecology and Human Evolution finals, which I thought went well. Seeing as how you only need a 70% to get an A I don't think I will bad-fail. We were tested primarily on things that we learned in the field.

            I have spent the majority of my time hanging out in my bed this past week – working on my paper or vegging out. The director of ACM came to visit for a few days so we had a group discussion about what worked and didn’t work about the program, and we went out to dinner to a wonderful Ethiopian restaurant. Other than that…yeah I didn’t do much.

This weekend I went on a couple of excursions, and it was a blast. On Friday our Baba and Mama were out of town again, so my home-stay sister and I took the opportunity to go out on the town. We were invited to a barbecue in Oyster Bay, and it was a bizarre experience. The barbecue was on the patio of an apartment owned by a South African guy who we met a bar last weekend. The apartment was…woah. First of all, we used an ELEVATOR to get to the fourth floor, and I realized that it has been a long time since I’ve been inside an elevator. The apartment was air conditioned, and was equipped with a really big fridge and a flat screen TV. There were only about ten guests, and we met an interesting crowd. Most of the people there were ex-pats from South Africa, Kenya, or various European countries who are now living and working in Dar. I was with two other girls who are both vegetarian, so in the context of a barbecue the issue of our diet was brought up more than once. As a life-long vegetarian, I am used to people being curious and/or critical about my decision not to eat meat. It was particularly interesting in this scenerio, however, because we were surrounded by a crowd of game hunters. Most of the people at this dinner were either hunters themselves, and/or worked for hunting safari companies. (The rest worked for oil companies or uranium-mining companies). I don’t think I saw eye-to-eye with the majority of the people I met, but I think there were some good dialogues going on. They were very hospitable and friendly, and I didn’t really know how to feel about them.

On Saturday our group had one final field trip to Kipepayo beach, which is about two hours away from campus. The departure time was "8", which of course meant that we left at 9:30. We took boats over to a near-by island and spent the day lounging on the beach and snorkeling. There was a giant yacht also on the island, which incidentally was owned by a beer company. They gave us a lot of free beer and items like hats and beer cozies, which made some people in our group very happy. We spent the night at a beach resort on the mainland and had some group discussions about reverse culture shock, and just reflected on the past four months. The next day most people left in the morning, but a group of five of us decided to spend the day at the beach. It was an amazing day. We rented a ball and spent the whole day playing beach volleyball and then swimming whenever we got hot. The day was almost ruined by two incredibly mean-spirited Russian men. Our interaction with them made me more infuriated than I have been in a long time. When the ball bounced near their table (which was RIGHT by the volleyball net), they started cursing at us and when we apologized they screamed “DON’T SAY SORRY! THAT IS ALL I HEAR IN AFRICA IS ‘SORRY’!” and then proceeded to pick up the ball and throw it as far away as they could. Anyway, they were huge assholes. I really wanted to tell them that if they felt threatened by our game they could just get off their fat butts and move, but something told me that wouldn’t go over well. Other than that, the day was perfect. We made friends with some Danish guys who are here working on a bio-waste project, and we played some intense matches of volleyball with them. Around 5 pm we pulled ourselves away from the beach and all five of us squeezed into one pijaji all the way back to campus. It was the perfect way to spend our last weekend together.

I think for this last week I will mostly be running errands (laundry is an all-day affair) and working on my paper. I have been doing a lot of reflecting on my time here and what I have learned, and I hope to write a post about it before I leave on Saturday. Thinking about leaving makes me sad, but I am also excited to move on to the next chapter of my life. Taking a hot non-bucket shower is going to feel pretty good. 

Sweatin' in Dar

Sweat. That pretty much sums up this past week in Dar, and will probably continue to sum up the next two as well. I distinctly remember the occasions during which my body briefly stopped sweating, and they do not include the nighttime or bucket showers. Once when I was in an air-conditioned car, and once at the mall…that’s it. The wet season is approaching, so Dar is muggy and incredibly humid. I’ve been told it gets a lot worse, so in some ways I am glad to be leaving so soon.

After about 6 am it starts to really warm up, so it has been a bit difficult motivating myself to move. However, I have gone on a few excursions to various places around Dar, and sweated my ass off the whole time. We had a really interesting dala-dala experience going to the downtown area, called Posta. The bus was so jam-packed that my feet were partially lifted off of the ground for most of the 50-minute ride. This was because I was sandwiched between one woman’s particularly large behind and a man who looked less-than-enthused that I was basically on top of him. It was a good day. Other outings have included Mwenge (the giant market close to the university), Mlimani (the mall), campus to use the internet, our Director’s house, Oyster Bay (the wugunzu part of town), and most recently to the beach (the ocean water was so dirty we only got into the pool). The majority of my time, however, has been spent sitting in my bed working on my research project…and of course sweating.

For Thanksgiving each home-stay pair volunteered to prepare a particular “American” dish, which would be supplemented by catered food at our director’s house. My roommate and I decided that we would make salad, which turned out to be an all-day affair. Our baba went with us in the morning to his preferred vegetable stand, and helped us get a good deal on a bunch of veggies. We then went to the mall with the goal of buying lettuce, but it turns out that Tanzanians don’t eat a lot of lettuce. Instead we bought a head of cabbage. Looking back that was a poor choice (no one ate it). In the afternoon we went over to our directors house with all of the food and then chopped vegetables for about two hours. It turns out we bought a lot of vegetables. The dinner was really really delicious – everyone’s dishes turned out much better than expected. People brought platters ranging from sweet potato and apple pies to pumpkin pancakes. I was impressed. We all ate a ton in the spirit of Thanksgiving, and unlike in the field there was more than enough food for everyone.

Thanksgiving was actually my roommate’s, Laura’s, 21^st birthday, so we had a belated dinner celebration for her on Friday. We all went out to this wonderful Indian restaurant in Oyster Bay, and it was a very pleasant experience. Usually when we eat out as a big group, the food takes forever and there are many complications, but everything went seamlessly. Afterwards most of us went out to a nearby bar called “George and Dragon”, but we left after a few hours when the power went out.

Our host family has been in-and-out, mostly because their actual home is in Mongorogoro, where they have a farm and livestock. Our mama is constantly traveling back and forth, and baba is on vacation right now so he has been taking the opportunity to go home when he can. Their son got married the day we returned to Dar, so they were gone for the first few days we were back. It is nice to have them around, but Laura and I are also completely fine on our own. Filomena the house girl is always here, so we still have breakfast and lunch at home. Filomena doesn’t speak any English, so we have been attempting some very broken conversations with her in Swahili. I much prefer living in a home-stay to the dorms. However there are still some awkward moments with our host dad, and I am still adjusting to eating dinner around 9 or 10 pm. Other than that we are very comfortable.

I think that pretty much covers this past week, maybe next time I will have slightly more interesting things to talk about. 

Archaeology Safari (Week 6)

        After departing Tarangire, we began the Archaeology portion of our safari. We picked up our Human Evolution professor, and he accompanied us for the last leg of our journey. We went to major archaeological sites such as Laetoli and Olduvai, and we also went to Ngorogoro crater for a few days. Ngorogoro was really cold, and it felt nice to wear a fleece and hat at night. Our campsite also was visited by a herd of zebras, which was fun. During our game drive in Ngorogoro we saw two black rhinos, and that was the safari highlight. We also went to an organic farm called Gibbs farm in Keratu, and we had probably the best meal of our lives. 

          Our last stop was Lake Natron, also the site of Oldonyo Lengai, which is a big-ass active volcano. We off-handedly decided that it would be fun to hike said volcano, but because it is so hot during the day it would have to be a night hike. Once we reached our campsite, we had dinner, took a short nap, and then departed around 11 pm to the trailhead. We didn’t begin our hike until 12:40 am, and our guides warned us that it is a difficult hike so we should have water, lights, and proper clothes. Some of us didn’t have these things, but we laughed it off and were like “yeah, whatever. We will be fine”. We weren’t. After about two hours of hiking in the dark, the terrain started to become really ashy and slippery, and it started to get steep. Some of our group members decided they were done, and turned around to go back to the cars. As we kept ascending, the ground kept getting sketchier and steeper. After the halfway point our guide told us “now we begin the climb”, so even more people dropped off. It was too dark and dangerous to go down, however, so they had to sit and wait in the dark until the sun rose. The remaining 11 of us decided to push on, even though I was getting kind of scared and it was difficult to hold the flashlight because I needed to use both hands at all times. Once the sun rose I almost had a panic attack because I realized we had gone really high, and we still had a ways to go. I kept slipping down a few inches with every step and I had all four limbs touching the side of the mountain to keep from falling down. It took us six and a half hours to reach the summit, and at the top I primarily felt cold and miserable. All I could think about is that we had to somehow get back down vertical scree and dust. It didn’t help that I hadn’t slept or eaten in a very long time. The decent was…interesting. We were all getting a little bit delirious, and I couldn’t stand so I slid down on my butt most of the way. Loose rocks would come tumbling down every so often, so we would scream “ROCK ROCK ROCK” and the people in front would cover their heads and duck. There were a few close calls but no one got hurt. It took us five hours to get down, and in the end our hike was a 12-hour experience. I was so glad when it was over, and I have a sore body and bruises and cuts to show for it (there is a big one on my butt from all of the sliding on the ash and rocks). Retrospectively I guess it was sort of fun. That was the grand finale of our six-week adventures. The next day we drove back to Arusha, and yesterday we had a 12-hour bus ride back to Dar filled with lots of horrible movies and music videos.

            We will be in Dar Es Salaam for the last three weeks, and I am going to do my best to make peace with this city. We don’t have any classes, so our only responsibilities will be to study for our Ecology and Human Evolution finals, and to type up our research reports. I think I have thoroughly bored my audience, so I will cut it off here. I’m sure I will post later about my last few weeks in Dar. It actually feels good to be back, and now I have internet, so please send me updates on life at home! Baadaye. 

Tarangire/Olasiti (Weeks 2-5)

               The field portion was amazing, and gave me a more realistic idea of what it is like to conduct Anthropological research. We stayed in a campsite about three miles away from the gates of Tarangire National Park, and about a mile away from a tiny town called Olasiti. There were six students doing Biology projects, four doing Archaeology projects, and the remaining ten of us did Cultural Anthropology projects. Every day the Biology and Archaeology folks would take the cars to the game park or the Archaeology site, and they would usually go twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. It was way too hot between the hours of 11-4 pm to do anything, so during that time we would usually attempt to sleep, play cards, read or just sit there and sweat. There were five translators living with us, all of who are Maasai and speak Maa, Swahili and English to help the cultural students with our projects. Only a few of the translators wore their traditional Maasai clothes, and most of them have moved away from their home villages, but they were important cultural brokers in our interactions with the Maasai community. All of us got really close with the translators, drivers and kitchen staff, and some of my favorite times at the campsite were hanging out with the translators, doing dishes or helping prepare dinner in the kitchen. Even though most of the staff spoke English, it was a good opportunity to practice some Swahili (although I am still not fluent by any means).

            My research project was on comparing traditional Maasai education to the formal education at the local government schools in and around Olasiti. I conducted several participant observation sessions at the local primary school, spoke with teachers at both the local primary and secondary school, and did interviews with Maasai elders and parents in Olasiti and another village called Oltuki. I really enjoyed going to the schools and it was very interesting for me to see how the classrooms work and what teacher-student interactions look like. The teaching style is heavily based on call-response and repetition, and I never saw any students asking questions. I watched Swahili, English, and math classes, and once a friend and I got to teach one of the English classes (which meant writing things on the board and then checking the answers in the students’ notebooks). The educational system is still a bit confusing to me, but I definitely learned a lot during the short time I visited the schools. The interviewing process was a bit of a wild goose chase. There was limited access to the translators and we never created any kind of schedule, so I just leaped at any interviewing opportunity that came my way. I was able to conduct about 18 interviews, including my interviews with teachers. Sometimes interviews could be stressful and frustrating. Often participants wouldn’t show up at the time you had scheduled an interview, and people were often busy, especially the men. We compensated our participants with a box of tea and a kilo of sugar, but sometimes they would get angry and ask us for money. Most of the community members in Olasiti were welcoming, but we would frequently be asked tough questions like “why are you here? How will your research help us?”. It was difficult to answer questions like that because the reality is that our research won’t really help them, despite our best intentions. I really enjoyed wandering around from boma to boma with the translators looking for participants, and I got to see a lot of cute babies and goats in the process. I audio-recorded the interviews, and in my downtime at the campsite I transcribed them by hand to try to see if I could find any trends in my data. Transcribing was tedious. Sometimes it was difficult to understand the translator, and the background noise of goats, cows and children drowned out our voices. However I think the transcriptions will be valuable during my analysis, and it was a good way to stay focused on my topic. A lot of us encountered the same obstacles during our research, and it was helpful having each other and our director to find different ways to approach various issues. I could keep going on the research aspect, but I think I have covered the main ideas. I learned a lot, mostly about the research process than my actual topic. The last day we gave a presentation to the community members, and in the true Tanzanian fashion we started two hours late, and the presentation was about five hours long.

            When we weren’t out at the park, arch site, or doing interviews, we had a lot of time to hang out at the campsite. The cultural anthro people had interviews to transcribe, but that would only keep us occupied for so long. Strangely enough I never got bored, although some days I would accomplish absolutely nothing. Even when we wouldn’t leave the campsite, herds of goats would raid our tents, and Maasai children would stick their heads over the walls and yell “HELLO HELLO HELLO! Give me pen! Give me chocolate! What is your name? HELLO!” several times a day, every single day. I would go for runs in the mornings before breakfast or in the evenings, and almost every time I would get mobbed by groups of children who would grab my hands and run with me until they were tired. At first I sort of dreaded the child-attack, but after a while I grew quite fond of them. Also in the evenings we would do a Jillian Michaels (she is on the Biggest Loser for those of you who are not familiar) workout video, and we always had an audience of several children and an old babu who would watch us over the wall. It was pretty hilarious. We decided that they probably thought that we were doing a choreographed dance, because that is way less absurd than what we were actually doing. Other past-times were walking into town for a soda or snack, making friendship bracelets, and we gave each other haircuts using child craft scissors. The last few days we found and adopted four adorable and probably diseased puppies, so that kept us entertained as well. In the evenings after dinner each of us had the opportunity to tell his or her life story for about 1-2 hours, while the rest of us sat under the stars and listened. It was interesting hearing the experiences of people with whom I lived in such close contact.  It was also a good exercise telling my own life story and thinking about what parts are important and worth sharing. Other than that we didn’t do too much. We rose and fell with the sun, and did our best not to annoy each other. 

There were two special events that occurred during our time in the field. The first was Halloween. There was a bit of drama over the proposition of buying and slaughtering a goat at the campsite in order to include the Tanzanian staff in our celebration. Another girl and I felt uncomfortable with the goat situation, and when we raised our concern our group had a very long discussion deciding whether or not we should buy the goat. More than half of our group is vegetarian, incidentally, but only three of us (against 18) had an emotional response to the idea of killing a goat at our campsite. In the end we decided not to buy the goat, and I think the conversation we had about it was important for all of us. Instead we created makeshift costumes out of the resources we had, and ate a lot of candy. I was a dust devil (they are everywhere), and I was very impressed with the costumes that people threw together. The other major event was the election. That was probably the highlight of my time at Tarangire. The morning after the election we found out that Obama had won, and we took the day off to celebrate. Actually, we couldn’t do any research because the cars had no gas, so we used that as our excuse. We went into town for some celebratory sodas, got to watch some CNN at one of the bars, and then after lunch we had a piñata. The piñata was a paper mache giraffe that we had made for Halloween, and the staff got to demolish it using a cow femur we found. It was so much fun and I took several videos of people taking turns trying to take down the piñata. That night we all went out to dinner at a restaurant in town, in order to celebrate Obama’s victory, and to show our gratitude to the staff. We made thank you cards for all of them, and had a blast eating and dancing together. It was really sad to say goodbye to the translators when we left Tarangire, but we made sure to friend them on Facebook.

Ecology Safari (Week 1)

Wow. Well I have a lot to catch up on, considering I haven’t posted on here in six weeks, and a lot has happened between then and now. I will do my best, though. In order to make it more manageable I will divide up the three major portions of the past six weeks. I will be impressed if any of you make it through all of them.  

      From Arusha we drove to Engerkarat, which is a Maasai village pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The ground was black volcanic ash, and it was extremely hot and dry. Water is scarce so the only plants growing were various species of Acacias, which have vicious thorns. We stayed in Engerkarat for a few days, and got a crash course on Maasai culture and traditions. We went on an herbal medicine tour, beaded with some Maasai mamas, witnessed an orpul (goat sacrifice), collected firewood, and participated in one of the night dances (which involved a lot of jumping and chanting in the dark). It felt a little strange and touristy at times, but never the less it was a really fun and interesting experience. The last night in the village there was a question and answer session around the fire, where we got to ask the Maasai some questions, and they asked us questions as well. They asked things like “how many children do Americans have?”, and it was difficult to answer for an entire diverse nation. It gave us a little taste of the types of questions we would be asked during our interviews to come. After leaving Engerkarat, we picked up our Ecology professor at the Arusha airport and began the Ecology portion of our safari. 

We drove all through Lake Manyara and the Serengeti, spending the majority of our time in the Serengeti. I got to spend my 21^st birthday on safari in Lake Manyara, which was incredible. Instead of getting drunk at a bar I got to see some wild elephants, so I think it was a fair trade. We would drive around in our safari caravan and every so often we would get out of the cars to talk about Ecological concepts we were witnessing. Each student had a designated topic, but our knowledge was limited at best. Our cars had a sticker on the back saying “special permit do not follow”, and sometimes we would drive for hours to the middle of no where so that the other tourists wouldn’t see us getting out of the vehicles. The off-roading was bumpy, to put it mildly. We saw so many amazing animals, including lions, elephants, giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, cheetahs, leopards, hippos, etc. etc. For me the most thrilling animals to see were the cheetahs and leopards. It rained every day in the Serengeti, marking the beginning of the short rainy season. After about a week of traveling, we drove to Tarangire National Park, where we would spend the next month doing research.

Off to the Serengeti! Nitasafiri!

Well, I only have a little bit of battery left on my computer, so I will try to write this quickly.

I just wanted to blog once more before I disappear from the blog/internet world for six weeks.

Yesterday we arrived in Arusha, after a twelve-hour bus ride from Dar. The bus ride was...interesting. We arrived at the bus station at 7 in the morning, and were instantly yelled at by every single bus driver to board their bus. We had tickets for a certain bus company, so our taxi driver helped us locate the right bus. Maybe things were going over my head... but I don't understand the bus system one bit. People were boarding and leaving the bus at random places along the way that didn't seem to be real destinations, and sometimes they paid, and other times they didn't. We only made two stops, and it was very unclear how long the stops were going to be. I was afraid to drink any water because there were no bathrooms on the bus, and it didn't seem like they were going to stop because one person had to pee. They played Tanzanian movies along the way, and the star-actor, producer, and screen-play writer was the same guy for all of the movies. We watched "Uncle JJ" 1 and 2, and "Magic House" 1 and 2, and I slept through some of the others. Once we arrived we were assaulted by ten different guys telling us that they could drive us to our hotel. The taxi system is also something I don't think I will ever understand. There are so many different guys talking to you, but it turns out that they all work for the same driver. Most of the time they try to scam you into giving them extra money that doesn't go to the driver, so it's hard to know who to talk to. It is extremely confusing, and I think we ended up paying twice the amount that the driver originally charged us. We were so tired though we didn't really care.

The hotel we are staying in here is really nice. There was a bit of a room mix-up though, and today we had to move all six of us into one of the triples that we had booked. It was frustrating that they didn't write down our booking correctly, but "this is Africa".

On Monday we are going to the Serengeti to go on safari, and then we head to Tarangire to begin our research projects! I have no idea what to expect, but I am excited. Today we bought a bunch of beautiful kangas to wear when we interview the Maasai.

Until mid-November!

Breakin' in Z-Bar

I can't seem to get enough of Zanzibar. For our week-long break before we head to the field, a group of us decided that we needed to go back and bask in the glory of the island. We arrived Saturday morning and are returning to Dar tomorrow evening, and thus far it has been lovely. For the first two nights we stayed at a beach resort called Kendwa Rocks, and now we are spending two more nights in Stone Town. Being at the beach resort made me feel like a prime white tourist, but it was nice to relax and have some time to process the past two months. Kendwa Rocks is surrounded by rural villages and poverty, so it was pretty weird driving through the gates into the most pristine beach I have ever seen. What attracted us to that particular resort is that once a month they host a big Full Moon party, and the wuzungu from all over come to celebrate. Even though at times our luxurious accommodations made me feel uncomfortable, it was really great to escape bucket showers and let my body see the light of day. After being on edge for two weeks due to our research proposals and other recent events, it felt good to let my guard down. Honestly most of what we have been doing involves lying down, but there have been a few incidents that are worth sharing...

Story #1: Getting here was a little bit dramatic. For some unknown reason, the immigration office only processed 17 out of the 20 passports, so three people didn't get residency permits. Unfortunately, these three people all had plans to go to Zanzibar over break, including myself. The beauty of the residency permit is that you get a big discount on ferry tickets to and from Zanzibar, and we all had paid for these permits. There wasn't much we could do, so we showed up at the ticket office a few hours early on the morning of our departure to plead with the guys who work there. At first they told us "no no no it is not possible, you must have the permit", but then our taxi driver made a mysterious phone call and said something to the guys in swahili, and somehow it worked. I am not really sure what happened, because our taxi driver didn't speak any English so he couldn't tell us what he did to change their minds. Anyhow, the guys at the ticket office told us that we should be fine as long as we didn't show anyone our passport. On our way to the ferry one of the guards demanded to see our passports, and I thought we would get busted. I showed him my student ID card from the University and I told him in swahili "we are students at the University and we study swahili!". As soon as I said that he started grinning and shaking our hands and told us "oh okay go ahead!" and said other things in swahili that I didn't understand. Again, I'm not really sure how that worked but I am very grateful for our intensive courses in Swahili. On the other end of the ferry ride the guards asked to see our residency permits, but luckily some people in our group have them, and once they saw one or two they let us all go through. I hope we will be just as lucky on the way back...

Story #2: Yesterday I was swimming and frolicking in the water, and all of a sudden I felt a prickly stinging sensation on the top of my foot. I looked down and I realized that I had kicked a sea-urchin, and pieces of the quill had lodged into my foot. I am not very familiar with sea-urchins, so I went over to the front desk and asked the guys who worked there what I should do. They started laughing and told me to go with one of the employees because he would help me. He told me to follow him and we walked a little ways and stopped next to a giant mound of earth with pieces of cement jumbled up inside. I was really confused, and he walked over to a tree and said "you know papaye?". He then ripped a papaya off of a tree and put the juice on my foot. Then he said "it will come out in a few minutes, or a few hours". Classic African time. Anyway, in a few minutes or a few hours it went away. Hakuna Matata.

Story #3: This one is going to be hard to explain, but I'm going to try because it was one of the most hilarious interactions I have seen in a while. Last night we ate dinner at the night market, and we were waiting at one of the stands for a dessert pizza. The guy making the pizza saw our friend Michelle eating some peanuts, and instantly lit up. He told her "Michelle! Pole pole you shouldn't eat too many peanuts. Do you have a boyfriend? You shouldn't eat peanuts if you don't have a boyfriend. You will be like ehhhh all night if you eat those. You will come back here tomorrow and tell me I was right and say 'I am so tired' Pole pole, Michelle!". He went on like this for about ten minutes and it took us a long time to figure out what on earth he was talking about. After a while we determined that he was telling us that peanuts are an aphrodisiac. I had never heard that before, but now I'm thinking that maybe I should change my Swahili name (which incidentally is "karanga", which means peanut).

Today we are going to do some shopping and do a lot more hanging out, and I am going to soak it up before we have to go back to Dar. I am getting so excited for our safari and going to the field, but there are many preparations that have to get done this week. I'll try to blog once more before we go off the radar for six weeks! 

Spices of Zanzibar

So there is a lot to catch up on, but I will start off with the weekend. Wow. Zanzibar was incredible. Things have been a little bit stressful with writing our research proposals, wrapping up our classes, and figuring out plans for break, but going to Zanzibar was just what we needed. Logistically, the timing was not ideal, but I think my blood pressure dropped significantly as soon as the ferry pulled into the Zanzibar port.

Friday morning we left the dorms at 5:30 am and ate chapattis made by Mama Jane on the dala-dala ride to the ferry station. The ferry ride was about 90 minutes and most of us slept the whole way. As soon as we arrived, we dropped off our bags at the Karibu Inn and embarked on our walking tour of Stone Town. We saw some of the main attractions, including a slave traders’ house and the House of Wonder, where the sultan lived. After lunch we went on the Zanzibar spice tour, which was located about an hour away from Stone Town. We saw a lot of cool plants on the tour, including saffron, jack fruit, star fruit, cloves, and many others that I cannot recall the names of. All of the plant nerds in our group were having a field day. At the end we got to sample the fruits, my favorite of which was a creamy white fruit called custard apple. We also treated to some fresh coconuts that were cut down by a man who climbed up to the top only using a piece of cloth wrapped around his feet. That evening we had some time to shop around and for dinner we went to the night market in Stone Town. The night market is essentially a bunch of stalls wrapping around the town square that sell various types of foods. There were a lot of “pizza” stalls, which are chapatti-like squares of dough that have toppings inside of them. My personal favorites were the vegetable pizza and the nutella and mango pizza. Yum.

On Saturday we woke up fairly early and took a bus all the way to the shore, which was on the other side of the island. Then we loaded into two boats and began our “swim with the dolphins tour”. I put that last part in quotations because in reality it was more of a “chase after the dolphins tour”. Basically what happened was that as soon as our boat-driver would spot some dolphins, he would bring us over to them and start yelling “GET OUT OF THE BOAT NOW! GO GO GO!” and we would jump out as quickly as we could in all of our snorkel gear and chase after them. Dolphins are slightly faster swimmers than we are, so they would swim past us for a couple seconds before the driver would yell “OKAY NOW BACK IN THE BOAT! QUICKLY!” and then we would repeat the same series of events. There were a few more boats around doing the same thing, so the water was really choppy and a couple of our group members sick off of the side of the boat. Also my snorkel gear was broken so in the heat of the moment I inhaled massive quantities of water. The whole thing was really comical and definitely worth the few seconds that we got to swim with the dolphins.

After lunch we drove to one of Zanzibar’s forests and got to see mangroves and a couple troops of Red Colobus monkeys. The monkeys were completely unfazed by our presence and brought their babies out to model for us. For dinner we accidentally went to this fancy beachside restaurant and blew most of our communal meal fund. The food definitely did not live up to its prices, but the atmosphere was very romantic.

Sunday we went to Prison Island to see the giant land tortoises and then snorkeled off of the side of the island. The tortoises were definitely the highlight. Some of them are incredibly old (I saw one that was 155), and they look like prehistoric dinosaurs. Their model of evolution seems extremely impractical, but I think it has served them well over the years. I observed that tortoises like having their necks scratched, and that is pretty much the only time they seem to notice you. In the afternoon we packed up, ate lunch, and took the ferry back to Dar.

This week thus far has been pretty stressful. We moved into our home-stays Monday night and on Friday our research proposal is due, we have our Kiswahili final, and we begin our week-long break. Moving in with a Tanzanian family has been so awesome thus far, but I wish I had more time to spend with them in the house. I am paired up with another girl in my group, Laura, and we live with Mama and Baba Maro, about twenty minutes walking distance from the dorms.

Both of our host parents are teachers, and they are from the town of Kilimanjaro. They have two twin sons and a daughter, but none of them currently live at home. Margaret their niece and their house girl Filomena live in the house and Laura and I have our own room. We were super excited to discover that they have a house cat, “paka” (which means cat in Swahili), and a dog who lives in the backyard. We eat breakfast and dinner at our home-stay, and so far the food has been FANTASTIC. There is so much to discuss about the host-family, I’m not really sure where to begin. It has been very interesting living with a Tanzanian family; issues like gender-roles, religion and education have come up over dinner conversations, and at times I have felt pretty uncomfortable. Our family is very avidly Christian and our host Baba has asked Laura and I to say grace before dinner. When I told him that I don’t know how to say grace he was very shocked. Last night I did a pilot study using my tape-recorder doing an interview with my Baba and it was very cool to hear about his life and background. I will try to write more about the home-stays at some point next week, because a lot needs to happen in the next 24-hours so I can’t linger on this too long. Hope all is well with everybody!

Ode to Hall 3

Tomorrow we are going to Zanzibar, and then Monday night we will move into our home-stay residences and will officially leave our dorm, Hall Three. I am looking forward to the home-stay, but I have grown fond of the dorm and I wanted to take note of some of the lessons I have learned while living there.

1. If you want to do something involving water, DO IT NOW (because the water could go out at any time)
2. The same thing goes for anything involving electricity
3. Always bring your flashlight to the bathroom at night
4. The mattress may or may not give you scabies
5. Don't tug too hard on your mosquito net
6. Sound travels so try to go to bed before the other American students start partying
7. Don't plug your chargers into a converter because they will melt
8. Always flush your poop. Always. You live in a community.
9. Be sure to say hi to the guards when you enter and leave the dorm because they are awesome.

These lessons do not paint the most romantic picture of the dorms, but with that being said I have enjoyed living in Hall 3 and it will be missed.

This week has been busy despite not having as many hours of classes. We had tests in Human Evolution, Ecology and Swahili, and we are all trying to get our IRB forms completed before we go on our break. Unfortunately, our program alum Laura found out she has malaria yesterday, and three girls on a program from the University of Florida also found out they all have malaria. Hopefully I can dodge that bullet.

I am getting so excited for our weekend in Zanzibar. We are leaving early tomorrow morning and we have a really fun itinerary lined up. I will be sure to post about it when we get back!

Wazungu Problems

This week has been fairly eventful, despite having seven hours of monotonous class every day. As soon as we got back from Bagamoyo last weekend, the water at the dorms cut out before many of us were able to shower. We had some water stored in our laundry room but we ran through it pretty quickly. I don’t understand how the plumbing operates, because we seemed to be the only dorm that didn’t have water. After two days it came back, and it was a huge relief.

As much as having water raised our spirits, our group has had some health troubles this week. On Monday, the day before his birthday, my fellow Grinnellian Jake found out that he has malaria. Jake got to bring his 20^th in style lying on our program director’s couch trying not to vomit as he watched us wolf down delicious veggie burgers and icecream in his honor. He has been a trooper though and the medicine is slowly making him feel better. Then, on Wednesday, we learned that every last one of us has scabies. For those of you who don’t know, scabies are little mites that burrow under skin and lay eggs. Gross, right? We think that they are living in our nasty mattresses so it will be a hell of a job trying to disinfect ourselves. Fortunately the bites don’t itch very much, and a lot of us probably wouldn’t have noticed if one of our group members didn’t have an allergic reaction to the bites. They can only get bad if they go untreated for a long period of time, so we bought some soap and cream that will hopefully help. Starting next week we will be moving into home-stays anyhow, so we can escape the mattresses.

On an international level this week has also been eventful. The internet was down for three days, but I heard about the anti-Islamic film that sparked bombings and riots at American Embassies in the Middle East. There hasn’t been rioting in Tanzania, but there is a large Muslim population here so we have been warned to be careful. In general I feel pretty safe here, especially on campus, but it is always better to be prudent. On Wednesday night two American girls from the other program living in our dorm were robbed at knifepoint on their way back from dinner. They were pretty shaken up but they weren’t hurt. We were warned against walking around at night because things can be pretty seedy, and we have tried to take that advice to heart. Usually when we go out at night we travel in a big group.

This weekend we didn’t have any scheduled trips, so I took it easy. We have two tests on Tuesday so I have been studying a little bit and filling out my IRB forms for my research project. We are also supposed to start a pilot study on campus so I have been thinking about the details of that. Today is our group member Nikki’s birthday, so last night we went out to celebrate. We went to this Irish pub called George and Dragon in the mzungu part of town, and it was a very fun and odd experience. I say odd because there was a very random crowd in there. We ended up making friends with a group of middle-aged Chinese and German construction workers, and a bunch of other older ex-pats. It was so strange I didn’t feel like I was in Tanzania anymore.

This upcoming week our class time finally drops down to 3 to 5 hours, which should give us some more free time. I’m really looking forward to being able to do more with my days. This weekend we are going to Zanzibar, which I am SO excited about, and I’ll be sure to post about it next week! 

Bagamoyo Adventures

Well that was quite the action-packed weekend. Early Saturday morning we left the dorms and headed to Bagamoyo via dala-dala. We arrived at the beach resort around 10 am to drop off our bags, and then we headed out to our first destination. We drove to an archaeological site that is now used for salt mining, but there are ancient shards of pottery lying everywhere. Unfortunately almost all of us got pretty sunburned during this expedition and we walked about 2 miles in the really humid air, so we were pretty sweaty as well. We had lunch at this tiny café located downtown that served traditional Tanzanian food. There also happened to be a chicken butchery next-door, as evidenced by the flies and the smell. In the afternoon we went on a really long walking tour and got to see most of the downtown area. We were led by a tour-guide who told us a lot about Bagamoyo’s history as an intermediary slave port on the way to Zanzibar, which was really interesting. We probably walked about five miles total, so by the end of the day we were really tired, hungry and sunburned. Before it got dark we had some time to frolic on the beach right next to the resort, which was refreshing after a long day in the sun. We all went out to dinner, and with 23 of us it is always quite the affair. Three hours later, we finally headed back and crashed. Some of us were lucky enough to stay in these little bungalow structures with beds, and the rest of us slept in tents provided by ACM. I slept in my dinky 50-degree sleeping bag, but I was so exhausted that my discomfort and the chanting from the mosque barely deterred me.

Yesterday we had an early morning and went to see another archaeological site. This site had ruins and some old graves, and was absolutely beautiful. There was also a gorgeous baobob tree that we had fun climbing until the guards told us to get down. On the way to the site we saw something really disturbing. I only caught a glimpse, but we saw a crew of village children dragging a live cat from a rope and beating it with a broom. Our tour guide told us that when cats steal food from the villages that is a common punishment; it was really horrible to watch. The rest of the day we had time to play on the beach, and then we left in the afternoon around 2 or 3.

This week we have 7 hours of class every day, but starting next week we will go down to around 5. That’s really all I have to say for now… Bagamoyo is a cool place and made for an interesting weekend.

Vincent Van Goatie

            I haven’t had time to post on here this week, but I need to tell you guys about the goat races. Woah. My Aunt Barb said something about it being a “clash of cultures”, and that is a spot-on description of the Dar Es Saalam Goat Races.  It is a charity event hosted by “mzungus”, but there are also Tanzanians and other nationalities that come to bet on goats and drink lots of alcoholic beverages. A lot of people were in crazy costumes that didn’t even remotely relate to the Wild Wild West theme, and it was hilarious. Every half hour there was a race, which consisted of twelve goats in racing jerseys doing two laps around a small arena. The goats also had fun names, like the title of this post.  Goats do not have much natural motivation to run, so a group of “jockeys” would chase behind them holding a giant foam bar so the goats couldn’t turn around. It didn’t seem terribly cruel, but I’m sure the goats were not enjoying it as much as the spectators. There were many different sponsors who had tents selling their products, such as Savannah Dry and other beer companies. After the races closed we all went out to dinner at local restaurants and the food was amazing. Needless to say, I think everyone had a great day.

            This week has been kind of a blur. Starting Monday we have been going to seven hours of class every day, and it has been pretty taxing. Swahili is still four hours in the morning, and we are moving quickly. I did a little bit better on my test last week, but there is…room for growth. We started our Human Evolution and Ecology classes, and so far I think I have learned more about the Tanzanian education system more than anything else. Both of our professors are Tanzanian, and class consists of them reading off of their powerpoint presentations. In fact, today the power went out during our Ecology class and class was canceled because our professor couldn’t show the powerpoint. The classes move incredibly slowly and there is very little discussion, so there has been a lot of staring off into space and some people have done some excellent drawings. I think there are a number of reasons that could explain the teaching style: 1) English is many students’ second or third language, so the professors are accustomed to moving slowly to accommodate the language barrier 2) Classes are typically supplemented with discussions in Swahili, and 3) lecture-based learning is viewed as more respectful. There are probably some other factors at play, but it is hard to see the whole picture in a place where we have only been living for one month. It can be pretty frustrating to spend all day sitting in class when we could be doing something interesting elsewhere, but we are trying to make the best of it.

On a different note, this weekend we are going to Bagamoyo, which should be really fun. We are spending the night there on Saturday; some people will stay in a beach resort, and others will sleep in tents. I think we are going to draw straws to settle the sleeping arrangements. I will post about it after the weekend is over, and hopefully have some nice pictures. Say hi to America for me!

Bad Fail (lowest grade you can get on the Tanzanian grading scale)

            I don’t have too much exciting news to post, unfortunately, because we have officially fallen into the routine of classes and schoolwork. We will still have four hours of Kiswahili for the next two weeks, which should be pretty intense because starting next week we will also start our Ecology and Human Evolution classes. I think next week we will be in class from 8 until 4:30, with an hour break for lunch. I’m excited to start those classes but a little anxious that I will never leave campus. Luckily we have some sweet weekend trips coming up, including excursions to Bagomoyo and Zanzibar. Oh and tomorrow we are planning on going to some goat races. I’m not entirely sure what that means but the theme is “wild wild west”, so it is bound to be interesting.

            Over the past week or so I have mostly been doing homework and relaxing. I have made a few trips to Mwenge and the mall, but that’s about it. The most memorable moments were when we witnessed a monkey swipe some guy’s doughnuts in the cafeteria (it was so slick), and when we went out to eat at an Indian restaurant last Friday. On the dala-dala ride back to campus around 10 pm we passed a little icecream stand on wheels, and one of our group members yelled “ICECREAM!” out the window. Much to our surprise the vendor took off in his mobile booth and weaved his way through the traffic to catch us at a red light. Of course Bob (the guy who yelled) had to buy ice cream at this point because this guy’s performance was truly impressive. I also went to Mwenge to teach English again this week, and it was quite fun.  

Today we had our second Kiswahili test, and I sure hope that it went better than last week… I got a whopping total score of 65. Fortunately the Tanzanian grading scale entails that anything above a 70 percent is an A, so I got lucky on that one. I think we are all starting to get a little bit burned out on Swahili class, but we can now have conversations which is cool. I have made a fair number of faux-pas so far... like "I am from two chapati", "my parents are very difficult" and I accidentally tell my tutor that I am drunk every time I try to say that I understand. I'm working on it. 

Yesterday we had our first official malaria victim. That sounds really sinister, but she is now on a bunch of pills that should nip it in the bud. It was also determined that she has three parasites, which is a bummer. I have been feeling pretty healthy so far, only with the occasional stomach issues, which unfortunately is all too familiar.

Last update: I am making some progress on my research project idea. My working research question involves education and how the local village schools affect/conflict with traditional Maasai views and education. The initiation ceremonies are going on, so it could be cool to compare the purpose of the ceremonies to a traditional western education. I think the topic of education could take me down several different roads, so I am open to any suggestions or related topics…

I suppose I ended up writing more than I had thought, which is probably a good thing. Again, I would love to hear from anyone who is reading this blog… Sometimes I get pretty homesick so it is always nice to get a little slice of home. In fact, I went out a restaurant called “Chicken Hut” and went to see the movie “The Watch”, both of which are activities that probably would not have happened if I were in the US, but felt strangely comforting. Until next time!

(Most of the pictures I took this week were of the monkeys on campus)

Shikamooo mama

We have now almost completed our first week of intensive Kiswahili classes, and boy is it intensive. We have Swahili class four hours every morning, and often we go overtime. In theory, we are supposed to have two hours of lecture, and then two hours of discussion with small groups and Swahili tutors. So far our lecture has been much longer than our discussion sessions, but in any case it is exhausting. The teaching style is really different here than from what I have experienced in the U.S., and I am doing my best to adjust. We have learned very little structure and grammar, but there is a strong focus on vocabulary and common phrases. Our instructor also makes sure to emphasize words that we should NOT mispronounce, like “jambO” (hello), because “jambA” means to fart. The most important aspect of the Swahili language that I have been able to determine is greetings. There seems to be an infinite number of different ways to greet someone, and there are separate greetings depending on whether you are talking to someone who is older or younger than you. Before any conversation starts, we are told to exchange three or four greetings of “hi how are you?” back and forth using different words until you are absolutely certain that the other person is doing well. Another major difference between Swahili and English is that when telling time they use an entirely different system. In Tanzania, the day starts at 6 a.m., so in Swahili 6 a.m. would be written as 12:00. So when it is 3 p.m. for us, they say that it is 9 p.m. (or saa tisa kamili mchana). Anyhow, it is confusing but we have been practicing a lot. I am pretty terrible at Swahili at the moment, but I am looking forward to when it all sinks in and I can have real conversations. We have quizzes every Friday so I am a little bit nervous for tomorrow.

            Other than Swahili classes, we haven’t been up to much else. People have been practicing a lot outside of class, which I think is helping us learn faster. We are taking research methods classes as well, but that class only meets twice a week for one or two hours. The deadline for our research topic is approaching, but I am still pretty lost and need to do more research before I make any decisions. Last night a small group of us went to the woodcarving section of Mwenge (the big market), because some years back someone started a volunteer opportunity where students come to teach the woodcarvers (or anyone else who shows up) English, and then we get to practice our Kiswahili. Some people have been going every evening all week, but it was my first time and it was awesome. I didn’t really know what to expect but I had so much fun. All of the guys (there are hardly any women) are really friendly and eager to learn, and are super patient with our broken Swahili (and shoddy English grammar lessons). I hope that I can go a few times a week because that was the most fun that I’ve had in a while. That’s really the only big news from the events of this week, I am looking forward to the wikiendi. I would love to hear about anything that is going on back at home or elsewhere! 

Americans on a Boat

I can’t believe this time last week I was on a plane flying to Tanzania. I am finally starting to feel at home here and I am really stoked about starting Swahili classes tomorrow! It will be awesome to be able to converse with people beyond “hello” “how are you?” and “cool!”. Today I had my first experience in the ENORMOUS open-air market called Mwenge, which is about a 15 minute Dala-Dala ride from the university. This market is probably the size of an entire neighborhood and sells just about anything that you could imagine. It was pretty intimidating at first but it ended up being a lot of fun to browse around and haggle with the vendors (even though I was probably still getting ripped-off). People were really friendly and offered to hold my stuff and helped us find the items that we wanted amongst the giant heaps of clothing. I only bought a couple of things but I plan on going back and really going to town on the clothes and souvenirs. I only brought a few items of clothing with me to Tanzania, and given the heat I have already sweat through most of them and it is getting pretty uncomfortable. Plus, it’s always fun to buy new things.

            Yesterday was quite a journey. We went to Bongoyo island, which is off of the coast in the Indian Ocean. It was a 2 and a half hour journey to get to the island, but it was SO worth it. The island had white sand, turquoise water, and cool wildlife like crabs and eels. It felt amazing to lounge in the sun and float in the warm water. On the ferry ride back to the mainland our poor little motor was having a lot of trouble. About every five minutes it would give out and the high tide was flooding the engine. The choppy waves made a lot of people sea-sick and we kept joking that we were probably going be stuck there all night. Luckily we had some Dramamine and mars bars to get us through. Our drivers were amazing though and somehow managed to revive the engine every couple of minutes so we made it back in about an hour, even though it only took us 20 minutes on the way there. All 22 of us squeezed into a 15-seat Dala-Dala for the bus ride back, so we developed a long chain of lap-sitting so no one would have to stand. When we got back we all went to dinner and right in the middle of the shower frenzy the power went out. Luckily the plumbing system is not connected to the electricity so we just showered in the dark and then went to bed. (Pictured below is us squished in the Dala Dala). 

Tonight we had a debrief at our director's house just discussing the week and any issues or concerns that we wanted to voice. It was helpful to hear the other kids in my group talk about culture shock and some ethical issues that we have been thinking about, and I think we will figure it all out over time. Well I better post this incase the electricity goes out again, but I hope everyone is doing great and feel free to shoot me an e-mail about what you have been up to! My email is manda1010@gmail.com, or you can just Facebook message me :)

Almost one week!

Hello again from Tanzania! We have been in Dar for almost a week now and I think I am finally starting to settle in here. We are all getting the hang of things on campus and trying to get all the things we need before classes start.

 (walking through the university)

            Over the past few days we have been doing orientation-like things, like going to talks and filling out paper work (we just got our university of Dar es Salaam ID cards, which was quite exciting). Yesterday I had my first Dala-Dala experience (which no, is not a fun way to say money). Dala-Dalas are the public transportation vehicles around here, which, although small, can pack in an absurd amount of people and they run all over the city. We were told to watch our things closely because you get really up-close and personal with the other folks riding the Dala-Dala. I rode out to the Milimani mall yesterday, which is pretty much a western mall that you could find in any metropolitan area of America, except that we were the only westerners within sight. There is a Walmart-like store called “game”, where you can get pretty much anything that you would need, from toiletries to food. We also went to a cultural center yesterday, which entailed watching a “traditional” African dance where at the end they force you to get up and dance with them. I’m not sure how authentic the whole experience was, and there are always some moral questions about exploiting the culture that is on display. Never the less, it was entertaining and the dancers were talented.

(Garrett and one of the dancers getting friendly)

            We started our first class today, which is research methods, taught by our Program Director Molly. We brainstormed and discussed ideas for our research project, and talked about the process that will be involved for our preparation. I am thinking about doing a project related to the relationship between animals and the Masaai people, but I will have to do a lot more thinking and research before I start making any decisions. Being all Anthropology, Ecology and Biology majors, many of our projects may overlap and some of us may be doing projects together or in conjunction with each other.

            I have been going jogging in the mornings because my jet-lag and the Ramadan morning prayers have been waking me up early anyhow. We have been going in groups and always get some stares from the morning workers who laugh at the white people running around in shorts. After my run this morning we returned to the dorms only to learn that the water was turned off, so I got to take my first (and I’m sure not my last) bucket-shower of the semester. We save jugs of water in the laundry room just for these occasions.

            I don’t have any more major updates for now – my mind is still spinning since our arrival, but slowly things will start making more sense. Right now I am sitting under a huge Baobob tree where you can get internet on campus, so I’m feeling pretty good about life right now. 

Arrival!

Hey guys,

I am safely in Dar es Salaam and just as sweaty and exhausted as I had imagined. August is actually winter in Tanzania so this is only the beginning of the heat. With that being said I am so thrilled to be here and excited about the upcoming four months. I am here with ACM (Associated Colleges of the Midwest) and there are about 20 of us students on the program. We are staying in the dorms at the University of Dar es Salaam and are paired up in rooms ranging from the 3rd to 6th floors. We arrived late on Monday night and went straight back to the dorms to pass out. Our rooms are pretty nice and are accompanied with our own balconies to dry laundry and mosquito nets. The only downfall is the bathroom, which doesn't seem to have any lightbulbs or toilet-paper, and the toilets don't seem to exactly flush. There is also no hot water, but I don't mind at all because it is so dang hot.

Yesterday morning we awoke at the crack of dawn to the morning prayers at the local mosque and the resident rooster. We had breakfast at the cafeteria on campus and had fruit and chapatis for about the equivalent of one US dollar. After breakfast we had a campus tour (which is HUGE, by the way) and after lunch (which is a whopping portion of rice with an assortment of vegetables and sauces) we had a talk regarding campus security. We had the evening to chill out and I think a lot of us took really long naps, and after dinner I promptly went to bed.

Today I felt a little bit more lively and in the morning we had a discussion about gender roles and other cultural to-dos/taboos, and in the afternoon we went to a museum and experienced the town fish market. Being downtown is over-stimulating and I think will be much more manageable once we start taking Kiswahili classes. We have already learned some key phrases such as greetings and how to say "thank you", but I am looking forward to when we can actually converse with the local people. Every one we have met so far is really nice, although I do feel very awkward and out of place when we walk around in our huge group of white students, otherwise called "mzunga". I think though as time goes on I will grow more accustomed to being a conspicuous foreigner and learn how to embrace it.

(the beach next to the fish market)

Well that's all for now, over the next few days I am going to work on getting a feel for the campus and adjusting to the climate and overall environment. I forgot to mention that there are Vervet monkeys just running around the campus, which I was super stoked about but the Tanzanians seem to view them as squirrels or something equally as mundane.

Hope all is well with you guys!!

Love,
Amanda