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!