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!