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!