First of all, I finally got to post pictures and these were requested by my mom... so here is a bit from my room. One of the distance pictures on the left is the view from my balcony, and I know it is small but if you look closely you can see the Indian Ocean in the distance. The other is a picture out the end of the hallway looking out over campus at a few of the dorms nearby (yes our hallway does just open up to the outside at the end of it). You can kinda see from these pictures what I meant about the campus being half in the middle of a forest... its very weird, but beautiful nonetheless. The two pictures on the right are my room from two angles (the matching posters were already there when I got here). The side with the plain green sheets and the bigger net is my side, the other side is my rommate Ashengai's side. To the right of her bed is where first the door out to the balcony is and then further over to the right is her desk and then her closet. On the picture of my side, the two doors in the middle is my whole closet, which is literally bigger than my closet at Lehigh (it's pretty nice)!
So this weekend was the first weekend since students have been on campus that we have not gone away for a trip. Although the trips are always fun and we still have a few left, it was nice to have a weekend to relax around campus and get some stuff done in Dar. On Saturday morning I went by daladala to the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) to meet with one of Professor Senkoro's family members, Prof Mbwette, who is going to help me with my research over the summer. For those of you who don't know, I guess I should give a (very) brief synopsis of what I mean by my research. My partner from school and I won a social entrepreneurship award from Lehigh to do research in Tanzania in order to possibly start up our own NGO (non-governmental orgnization). The idea for the organization is to promote sustainable water acces in rural areas of Tanzania by adding a heavy education aspect to the basic idea of building of wells. In order to start up the NGO (which I hope to do after graduating next year), Jason and I will be doing research this summer of wells that have been broken down (why they broke, why they haven't been fixed, other probelms with the wells, etc.) and with wells that are still functioning and why they are. That is a very very basic rundown... so I guess if you want any more details you can email me and ask. Anyways, Prof Mbwette is now the Vice-Chancellor of the Open University of Tanzania, but in school he had studied engineering and water purification. After graduating he did a lot of work with water companies and eventually has worked with the national water board as well. It was coincidence that we met when Prof Senkoro took us all out to dinner, but he is an amazing contact for me to have. We talked all about my proposal, how to register an NGO most efficiently, where I should do my work, etc. He also gave me the information for the head of University of Dar es Salaam's Water Insititute, who is a former student of his. I know exactly where the institute is and have been wanted to visit it but did not know who to speak to when I went there... so now I have the president's cell phone number! I can't even believe how much I lucked out. This seems to be a great start so far, so I'm very excited.
After leaving the OUT, I took the daladala back part of the way and then decided to walk home because it was a nice day. I stopped on the way back at one of the big markets because I really wanted to buy a khanga (the patterned fabrics that people use as aprons basically) that has Obama's face on it because I think they are pretty funny. When I asked how much it was, however, the seller told me it was Tsh 20,000 just because I'm white and she thought I was a tourist! (Tsh is the equivalent of like $18 and a khanga should cost no more than Tsh 5,000). It was ridiculous! I obviously didn't buy it, but it was funny to see how much some people try to jack up the prices just because they think they can.
On Saturday night a few of us went to the mall to go see a movie. There are only 4 theaters in the mall, but they are actually really really nice. We saw Bolt (the cartoon about the dog) which turned out to be really cute. When the lights turned on at the end we were all talking for a few minutes and finally one person said "Oh wow, I completely forgot we are in Africa right now." It was so true. Although it was really touristy of us to go to the movie, I must admit it was pretty nice to just be Americans again for one night.
Sunday midday I went to visit Mussa's family again (the professor who is studying at Lehigh right now). I ended up spending the whole day there, and it's starting to feel like my own little Tanzanian family. Mussa's wife taught me how to make pilau (spiced rice with meat and vegetables) and we cooked for much of the morning. We had a huge lunch all together and then watched Mrs. Doubtfire, which Ibu (the older son who is about my age) had borrowed from one of his friends. I really love spending time with the family because Ibu is the only one who speaks any English and he is pretty shy, so almost the whole time I try to speak in Swahili. Because Mama Ibu (Mussa's wife) doesn't know any English, she never looks at me like I'm dumb when I speak really slowly and in not always correct Swahili. It's quite the challenge, but I really like it and it's so helpful. I think I am going to go back again next weekend and Mama Ibu prmised to teach me how to cook chapati (a type of bread that is eaten here all the time).
This week is our last week of intensive Kiswahili, and starting on Monday we should have all of our five classes; however, who knows if that will ever actually happen on time. I don't think I have seen anything happen on schedule since I got here a month ago, so I would be surprised if this did! Either way though, we have class all week and then a big final exam on Friday. I can't believe I have already been here 5 weeks, time goes by so quickly. Miss you all lots.
Love,
Lisa
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