Since it was Adrienne’s last weekend in the country, we just hung out a lot and did some things that she wanted to do for her last days in the country. On Friday during the day, Adrienne and Tacy went to Kariakoo, the big market downtown, but I decided not to go because it’s like going to the most fun/inexpensive mall you can think of… and by that I mean I am always tempted to (and actually do) buy everything I see and spend money on things I absolutely don’t need. Like when I bought two new vitenge (the African fabrics) to get made into dresses which I don’t need any more of really at all. So anyways, I decided to be good and save myself from the urges by not going… but instead I went to the woodcarvers market and bought lots of gifts haha. I guess I failed at not spending money, but at least I got some great gifts for people! Be excited :)
On Friday night, we went to go see a movie at the mall and we ended up seeing “He’s Just Not That Into You.” It was SOO good! I mean a pretty cliché girly movie, but great nonetheless haha. Then we came back to the room and had dinner all together and helped Adrienne start to get her stuff packed up.
On Saturday morning (which went well into the afternoon as well), I went to a lecture that was hosted by the University to commemorate the 15th Anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide and to honor its victims. There were a lot of opening presentations and the actual speakers didn’t start until almost 2 hours after the planned start time (a usual occurrence at the university). The two speakers were really interesting though, and they talked all about this year’s theme for the anniversary: Fighting Negation and Trivialization of the Genocide. In the middle, there was also a really cool song performed by a few young Tanzanian artists about how to unite as Africans and be proud of your heritage. After the original presentations (made by the Rwandan ambassador, some UDSM professors, and a few people from the UN Human Rights Association) and the speakers, they made the floor open for comments/questions. After the first few questions, however, one guy decided to speak in Swahili instead of English, which then opened the floodgates and everyone started speaking only Swahili. We stayed for the rest of the time and I understood most of what was being said, but it definitely gave me a bit of a headache after an hour of trying to translate haha. There were all sorts of interesting comments being made and people talked a lot about how to stop genocide from occurring in Tanzania, especially considering the recent wave of Albino killings (I don’t know if that is just in local news or if you had any idea that was occurring here… but it is). Also, one professor was talking all about how being an African just means that you care about the issues of Africa, that you want Africa to develop and be peaceful, that you love the people and culture of Africa, etc. Therefore, why do people keep saying that “wazungu” aren’t African? If they love it here and want to live here and care about African issues, then they are truly African regardless of skin color. I liked that… I would like to think of myself as African…
Anyways, overall the presentation was really interesting and fun to hear student perspectives, but I had one HUGE issue with the symposium. In an entire 3 hours or more of discussing the Rwandan genocide and people saying how they need to unite as Africans and “never let this happen again,” NOT ONE person even mentioned Sudan. I wanted to stand up and ask how people can keep saying “Never again, never again” when genocide is happening this very instant in Sudan. Not to mention the fact that the entire theme of this years commemoration was about the issues with denying and/or trivializing genocide, which was EXACTLY what was going on at the seminar by not mentioning/discussing Sudan! I was almost furious by the time we left, but still not daring enough to stand up and say something… not only was it in an auditorium filled with about 800 students/faculty and I’m a little afraid of public speaking, but more importantly I was one of only 3 white people in the entire room. Anyways, I was afraid of being judged by the students and having them think “look, here’s this little white girl who came here to tell us what to do and what to think”… so I ended up not saying anything. I retrospect I wish I had because I really wanted to see people’s reactions, but oh well. In the end it seemed like everyone was saying “unite as Africans” and “we are all the same, we are all Africans,” but they were all still thinking predominantly about Tanzania and its issues. It was definitely a learning experience.
On Saturday night, a bug group of us went out dancing to this bar called “Sweet Eazy” for Adrienne’s last night out (so sad!). We had never been to the place before, but Adrienne wanted to go somewhere with live music and we heard from our Tanzanian friends that that was a nice place. The group was me, Adrienne, Mary, Tacy, and Mac (which was all of the remaining UF program girls… minus the one we never hang out with because she’s crazy haha), Eunice (Mary’s roommate), Eunice’s boyfriend Frank and a few of his friends, Anna (the family friend of a family friend of mine) and some of her friends who are also UDSM students, and two of the woodcarvers from Mwenge who Adrienne is really close with. When we first got there, it turned out to be much fancier than we had expected it to be… and therefore a lot more expensive that we had planned for. Right when we walked in, there was no live music playing and there were just like 10 old white guys sitting at the bar… we all turned to each other and were like “uhhhh, this wasn’t quite what we had wanted.” We were a little bit bummed at the beginning, but the live music started pretty soon after we got there and the bands that played turned out to be awesome. They played a lot of their own music, as well as some covers of famous American songs and covers of popular Bongo Flavor music (the Tanzanian equivalent of pop/hip hop). The boys we were with were all so, so much fun and danced more than half of the girls even did… so different than American boys! We had almost left when we first saw the place, but ended up staying til almost 3 in the morning dancing. It was a great going away night for Adrienne.
On Sunday it rained all day, which ruined our plan to have a Frisbee game at Mwenge with all the woodcarvers. Instead, we basically just hung out inside all day and helped Adrienne get her stuff together. That’s the big problem with rainy season… the rain make you want to do nothing and sit inside all day… but you can’t really do that when it rains every day! Nonetheless, we had a really nice day, and then had a mini party in the dorm Sunday night with some wine and chocolate cake/candy. We intended on watching a movie… but we got wrapped up in talking (and eating haha) and never ended up putting it in.
Adrienne got the last of her stuff organized yesterday morning, we went out to lunch at Hill Park (one of the nicer restaurants on campus), and then said goodbye. She was headed back to the dorm and we had to go to class, so Mary and I had to say goodbye outside in the pouring rain, switching back and forth who would hold the umbrella so the other one could hug Adrienne. It was sad, but didn’t really seem like a real goodbye because of the circumstances…. Last night it really hit us though since her room was empty and all. I can’t believe both her and Laura are already gone… we’re dropping like flies! At least there are a bunch of European girls who moved in recently since the real semester is starting now, so we’re at least a little less outnumbered :)
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Dodoma and Planning My Water Research
First of all, on Thursday night I found out that one of the girls in my program, Laura was leaving to go home to the US on Saturday morning. Because of a whole bunch of health issues, she had to go home to go to a good hospital which meant that she decided to leave extremely quickly. By the time I found out she was leaving though, I had already made my plans to go to Dodoma for the weekend and had bought my bus ticket. It was really sad saying goodbye to her on Thursday night, and I have another goodbye this weekend when Adrienne goes home. It’s so sad that everyone is going home soon! Time has gone by so quickly, I can’t even believe it.
First thing on Friday morning, my friend Ivan and I left to go to Dodoma for the weekend to get my research for the summer figured out a little bit. Ivan is a friend from school who I have been going to the orphan center outside of Dar with the past few weekends, and he has some friends in Dodoma who he wanted to visit anyways so agreed to go with me for the weekend to help out. The bus takes about 6 hours, but it was a fun ride since I have never been out that direction (past Morogoro) so it was all new sights. Oh and I found my dream place along the way. There is one area, about an hour and a half before you get to Dodoma, which I absolutely fell in love with. It is just these beautiful fields/farms that stretch in every direction with mountains in the distance and I looooove it there. Not to mention that in the middle of it there is literally Pride Rock (like you the big rock/mountain from The Lion King!?). No joke, it looks exactly like it... I got very excited haha.
When we finally came into Dodoma, I practically laughed out loud at the central bus station. Dodoma was technically made the capital of Tanzania about 15 years ago and has all of the main parliament buildings, but Dar continues to be the true capital. From plenty of research and from talking to a lot of people about it, I knew that Dodoma was no Dar es Salaam... but I guess I didn't expect it to be quite as pathetic as it was. Don't get me wrong, I ended up really really liking Dodoma, but it's pretty wimpy for a capital city. It is only a little bitbigger than Moshi was, no more developed, and just about the only big/impressive building in the whole town in the Parliament Building. The bus station that we came into was so small and dusty and undeveloped that at first I didn't even believe we were there. Anyways, once I got over a little bit of intial shock, we met up with Ivan's family friend Beatrice and headed directly to the Regional Government office before it closed (it is only open on weekdays). Beatrice is my age but is only in her final year of secondary school (high school) because of the way the schooling system here works. Because students start school later and have more years of schooling before the university level, most people don't start university until they are 20 or 21... which is why every here thinks I'm crazy when I say I am already in my third year of school. Anyways, Beatrice ended up taking care of us the whole weekend: we stayed at her house, she cooked for us, she helped me out with my research, she showed me around town, etc. It was wonderful.
When we got to the Regional Government office it was about to close, but I managed to make it in just in time. I spoke with a guy there and explained to him that I wanted to do research on water access in rural villages in the Dodoma region and was hoping he could give me some information on the area. He ended up being a really big a-hole (excuse my language) and being very rude to me. He said that I needed a letter from the University of Dar es Salaam explaining that I am a student, I am interested in researching water, etc. He kept saying that if I didn’t have a letter “or anything else to offer,” there wasn’t any way he could take me to his boss to talk about getting information. After a while I just gave up since the whole letter thing made sense, but when we left Ivan was really mad and I didn’t really understand. He said that by not having “anything to offer” the guy basically meant “well if you don’t have a letter than you should have at least come with money.” I was so surprised… that thought had never even crossed my mind when I was in the office. I guess that’s how things work here, but I’m not about to get involved in that so I’m working on getting the letter now. After that, we went to the local municipal council to try to find out the information, and they started telling me the same thing about needing a letter; however, after lots of persistence and talking to about 3 bazillion different people (I think the whole building knew and hated me by the time I left haha), I finally got to speak with one guy who helped. He told me the names of the local NGOs (non-governmental organizations) who do work with water, a few villages that have been worked with in the past (which I am assuming means that they have functioning wells now), and a few villages in desperate need of water access. That was enough of a good start for me, so I finally agreed to go back to Beatrice’s house for the night (it was about 5 at this point and we were still carrying all of our luggage from when we got off the bus at 2). Beatrice lives with her family about 20 minutes outside of town in a really nice house, but her parents/aunt/uncle were out of town so they had lots of extra space. We just hung out at the house for the rest of the night and watched some movies, which was a nice break from all of the running around I had been doing the whole week before.
On Saturday morning I went back into town to try to find the water NGOs and any other organizations that may help. I made it to the WaterAid office (a big international NGO) and there was a secretary there to talk to, but the office itself was closed. She told me that the Team Leader for Dodoma was out of town anyways, so she gave me his contact information and I’m still working on emailing him for information. Next, I wandered around town trying to find the other two NGOs, but they either 1. Don’t exist, 2. Don’t do enough work to be well known by the people, or 3. Are hidden in some magical part of town that disappears whenever I walk by it haha. I don’t know where they are but I walked around aimlessly for almost 2 hours asking people where they were and NO ONE knew anything at all. I guess I’ll have to go back to the municipal office next time I’m there (and it is open) to ask where they are located. Walking aimlessly, however, was actually surprisingly productive. First, I made friends with a guy who has perfect English, works at the Central Development Authority in town (not exactly sure what they do but they sound like they could be useful), and did his graduate study research is rainwater catchment systems. Worst case scenario, if I can't find any well experts or anyone else to work with for my research, he seems like a pretty great option for a translator. Also, I found one private drilling company located in town, which will be helpful in getting some price estimates for building/repairing wells in the area. Lastly, I found a few NGOs dealing with rural development initiatives. I figure NGOs like that would at least know info about the towns they have worked with and which ones need water access, have water already, etc. All of the companies were closed since it was Saturday, but it was really helpful to learn what Dodoma has to offer NGO-wise, figure out my way around town, get the phone numbers/contact info for different places, etc.
In the afternoon, Beatrice, Ivan and I went to visit a local orphanage that Beatrice works with a lot. The orphanage has about 35 kids living there, between the ages of 5 and 15. When we got there, the director told us all about the orphanage and the NGO it is run by, which also runs about 5 other community development/youth education programs in the surrounding area. Then we spent an hour or two just hanging out with the kids, playing games with them, and listening to them sing for us. I love the children at orphanages in general, and these kids were even more loving and excited to have us there than the most. They weren’t shy at all either, which made it really fun.
We had a late lunch/early dinner in town and then bought our tickets home at the central bus station. I had originally planned to stay until Monday, but after walking around Saturday I realized that there was really no point since everything would be closed all day Sunday. I considered staying just so that I could spend an hour or two in town on Monday when things would be open, but I didn’t want to waste Sunday not doing anything in Dodoma when I had a lot of work to get done at home as well. Plus, I didn’t really know anyone in Dodoma and Ivan had to go home for class Monday, so I would have been really lonely in town all day Sunday. Anyways, we spent the night relaxing at Beatrice’s house once again and then left to come back to Dar on Sunday morning. As much as I laughed/made fun of Dodoma for being such a pathetic capital at first, I really ended up liking it there. It is completely un-touristy (because there is honestly nothing to see there) and all of the people there are extremely nice. I take that back, all of the people except the ******* who worked at the regional office haha. Nonetheless, I think it’s a great area and I really think I’ll enjoy spending a few weeks there.
It was a good thing that I decided to come back when I did because I ended up getting some sort of stomach bug/food poisoning on Sunday night and was sick all day Monday… which would have sucked even more than it already did if I had been in a hotel alone in Dodoma and/or on a bus back home. So, I’m glad everything worked out as it did.
Yesterday I had a history essay/presentation AND a history test on the same day (I’m the unlucky one who got stuck with my presentation on that date), so I was busy all day Tuesday working on that. Both went well, and I’m glad to have them over with so I can get started planning more for my research. The trip to Dodoma was really successful in the sense that now I have a long list of preparation stuff that I need to get done which I didn’t know about before. Jason, the kid from Lehigh who I worked with this water project on from the very beginning and who I won the grant with, is coming to Tanzania May 8th-19th help out with the beginning of the research. I’ll have to skip classes for a week then, which isn’t exactly great, but it was the only week he can come so oh well. Anyways, I have soooo much to get figured out before he comes… and it’s only a few weeks away! Ah!
Now I stressed myself out thinking about it all and need to get back to work haha. First step is figuring out how to get the Vice Chancellor of the University of Dar es Salaam to sign off on my research in less than three weeks (mind you that NOTHING in this country happens in less than three weeks… I’ve been here three and a half months and still don’t have an ID card from the university…). Wish me luck! Miss you all
Love,
Lisa
First thing on Friday morning, my friend Ivan and I left to go to Dodoma for the weekend to get my research for the summer figured out a little bit. Ivan is a friend from school who I have been going to the orphan center outside of Dar with the past few weekends, and he has some friends in Dodoma who he wanted to visit anyways so agreed to go with me for the weekend to help out. The bus takes about 6 hours, but it was a fun ride since I have never been out that direction (past Morogoro) so it was all new sights. Oh and I found my dream place along the way. There is one area, about an hour and a half before you get to Dodoma, which I absolutely fell in love with. It is just these beautiful fields/farms that stretch in every direction with mountains in the distance and I looooove it there. Not to mention that in the middle of it there is literally Pride Rock (like you the big rock/mountain from The Lion King!?). No joke, it looks exactly like it... I got very excited haha.
When we finally came into Dodoma, I practically laughed out loud at the central bus station. Dodoma was technically made the capital of Tanzania about 15 years ago and has all of the main parliament buildings, but Dar continues to be the true capital. From plenty of research and from talking to a lot of people about it, I knew that Dodoma was no Dar es Salaam... but I guess I didn't expect it to be quite as pathetic as it was. Don't get me wrong, I ended up really really liking Dodoma, but it's pretty wimpy for a capital city. It is only a little bitbigger than Moshi was, no more developed, and just about the only big/impressive building in the whole town in the Parliament Building. The bus station that we came into was so small and dusty and undeveloped that at first I didn't even believe we were there. Anyways, once I got over a little bit of intial shock, we met up with Ivan's family friend Beatrice and headed directly to the Regional Government office before it closed (it is only open on weekdays). Beatrice is my age but is only in her final year of secondary school (high school) because of the way the schooling system here works. Because students start school later and have more years of schooling before the university level, most people don't start university until they are 20 or 21... which is why every here thinks I'm crazy when I say I am already in my third year of school. Anyways, Beatrice ended up taking care of us the whole weekend: we stayed at her house, she cooked for us, she helped me out with my research, she showed me around town, etc. It was wonderful.
When we got to the Regional Government office it was about to close, but I managed to make it in just in time. I spoke with a guy there and explained to him that I wanted to do research on water access in rural villages in the Dodoma region and was hoping he could give me some information on the area. He ended up being a really big a-hole (excuse my language) and being very rude to me. He said that I needed a letter from the University of Dar es Salaam explaining that I am a student, I am interested in researching water, etc. He kept saying that if I didn’t have a letter “or anything else to offer,” there wasn’t any way he could take me to his boss to talk about getting information. After a while I just gave up since the whole letter thing made sense, but when we left Ivan was really mad and I didn’t really understand. He said that by not having “anything to offer” the guy basically meant “well if you don’t have a letter than you should have at least come with money.” I was so surprised… that thought had never even crossed my mind when I was in the office. I guess that’s how things work here, but I’m not about to get involved in that so I’m working on getting the letter now. After that, we went to the local municipal council to try to find out the information, and they started telling me the same thing about needing a letter; however, after lots of persistence and talking to about 3 bazillion different people (I think the whole building knew and hated me by the time I left haha), I finally got to speak with one guy who helped. He told me the names of the local NGOs (non-governmental organizations) who do work with water, a few villages that have been worked with in the past (which I am assuming means that they have functioning wells now), and a few villages in desperate need of water access. That was enough of a good start for me, so I finally agreed to go back to Beatrice’s house for the night (it was about 5 at this point and we were still carrying all of our luggage from when we got off the bus at 2). Beatrice lives with her family about 20 minutes outside of town in a really nice house, but her parents/aunt/uncle were out of town so they had lots of extra space. We just hung out at the house for the rest of the night and watched some movies, which was a nice break from all of the running around I had been doing the whole week before.
On Saturday morning I went back into town to try to find the water NGOs and any other organizations that may help. I made it to the WaterAid office (a big international NGO) and there was a secretary there to talk to, but the office itself was closed. She told me that the Team Leader for Dodoma was out of town anyways, so she gave me his contact information and I’m still working on emailing him for information. Next, I wandered around town trying to find the other two NGOs, but they either 1. Don’t exist, 2. Don’t do enough work to be well known by the people, or 3. Are hidden in some magical part of town that disappears whenever I walk by it haha. I don’t know where they are but I walked around aimlessly for almost 2 hours asking people where they were and NO ONE knew anything at all. I guess I’ll have to go back to the municipal office next time I’m there (and it is open) to ask where they are located. Walking aimlessly, however, was actually surprisingly productive. First, I made friends with a guy who has perfect English, works at the Central Development Authority in town (not exactly sure what they do but they sound like they could be useful), and did his graduate study research is rainwater catchment systems. Worst case scenario, if I can't find any well experts or anyone else to work with for my research, he seems like a pretty great option for a translator. Also, I found one private drilling company located in town, which will be helpful in getting some price estimates for building/repairing wells in the area. Lastly, I found a few NGOs dealing with rural development initiatives. I figure NGOs like that would at least know info about the towns they have worked with and which ones need water access, have water already, etc. All of the companies were closed since it was Saturday, but it was really helpful to learn what Dodoma has to offer NGO-wise, figure out my way around town, get the phone numbers/contact info for different places, etc.
In the afternoon, Beatrice, Ivan and I went to visit a local orphanage that Beatrice works with a lot. The orphanage has about 35 kids living there, between the ages of 5 and 15. When we got there, the director told us all about the orphanage and the NGO it is run by, which also runs about 5 other community development/youth education programs in the surrounding area. Then we spent an hour or two just hanging out with the kids, playing games with them, and listening to them sing for us. I love the children at orphanages in general, and these kids were even more loving and excited to have us there than the most. They weren’t shy at all either, which made it really fun.
We had a late lunch/early dinner in town and then bought our tickets home at the central bus station. I had originally planned to stay until Monday, but after walking around Saturday I realized that there was really no point since everything would be closed all day Sunday. I considered staying just so that I could spend an hour or two in town on Monday when things would be open, but I didn’t want to waste Sunday not doing anything in Dodoma when I had a lot of work to get done at home as well. Plus, I didn’t really know anyone in Dodoma and Ivan had to go home for class Monday, so I would have been really lonely in town all day Sunday. Anyways, we spent the night relaxing at Beatrice’s house once again and then left to come back to Dar on Sunday morning. As much as I laughed/made fun of Dodoma for being such a pathetic capital at first, I really ended up liking it there. It is completely un-touristy (because there is honestly nothing to see there) and all of the people there are extremely nice. I take that back, all of the people except the ******* who worked at the regional office haha. Nonetheless, I think it’s a great area and I really think I’ll enjoy spending a few weeks there.
It was a good thing that I decided to come back when I did because I ended up getting some sort of stomach bug/food poisoning on Sunday night and was sick all day Monday… which would have sucked even more than it already did if I had been in a hotel alone in Dodoma and/or on a bus back home. So, I’m glad everything worked out as it did.
Yesterday I had a history essay/presentation AND a history test on the same day (I’m the unlucky one who got stuck with my presentation on that date), so I was busy all day Tuesday working on that. Both went well, and I’m glad to have them over with so I can get started planning more for my research. The trip to Dodoma was really successful in the sense that now I have a long list of preparation stuff that I need to get done which I didn’t know about before. Jason, the kid from Lehigh who I worked with this water project on from the very beginning and who I won the grant with, is coming to Tanzania May 8th-19th help out with the beginning of the research. I’ll have to skip classes for a week then, which isn’t exactly great, but it was the only week he can come so oh well. Anyways, I have soooo much to get figured out before he comes… and it’s only a few weeks away! Ah!
Now I stressed myself out thinking about it all and need to get back to work haha. First step is figuring out how to get the Vice Chancellor of the University of Dar es Salaam to sign off on my research in less than three weeks (mind you that NOTHING in this country happens in less than three weeks… I’ve been here three and a half months and still don’t have an ID card from the university…). Wish me luck! Miss you all
Love,
Lisa
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Life in Dar, Moshi Again, and Mwalimu Nyrere Week
The last week or so was fairly uneventful, but here are a few highlights before I get to my trip to Moshi: The students finished their final exams from last semester and were on vacation from school last week, so the campus was pretty dead. The night when they finished (last Thursday), we had a little party in our dorm to celebrate them being finally done. Later, I ended up going to this local club with two of my Tanzanian friends (all of the other UF girls were tired and being party poopers), where I was absolutely the only mzungu there. Not sure the last time any mzungu ever went there, but they didn’t play one American rap song (like they usually do at the clubs here) and everything was in Kiswahili. I must say I was a little nervous at first, but Eunice and Maggie took care of me and I ended up having a blast.
That Saturday, Tacy, Adrienne, Mary, a European friend of ours Yaanita, and I went to a big party at Anna’s volunteer house. Not sure if I’ve explained this before, but Anna and Tacy grew up together in the US and the Anna moved backed to Finland where she is from, but they stayed in touch and decided to study abroad together. Anna just moved into the dorm a few days ago because she will start classes on the new UDSM class schedule, but before that she was living at a volunteer house about 30 minutes away by daladala. Anyways, we went to her volunteer house for a big music festival/party. I ended up having a dance off with a random Tanzanian guy… and I won. It was hilarious to say the least haha.
On Tuesday we didn’t have class because it was a Tanzanian holiday, Karume Day. That was the day when the first president of Zanzibar, Karume, was assassinated. Kinda depressing holiday… but we got off from classes so I’m not complaining haha. I went to Kariakoo for most of the day (the big market in town) with Ivan, my Tanzanian friend who took me to the orphan center a few times, and Mary and Tacy.
On Wednesday night I got sick with a fever, headaches, aching bones, etc… the sure signs of malaria. I went to the clinic first thing in the morning on Thursday (instead of going to class), and got tested for malaria. I did have it after all, so I got the medicine, started it right away, and felt almost completely better by the end of the day. Honestly, malaria isn’t that bad! I don’t know what all the fuss is about… as long as you catch it early and take the meds it’s completely fine. I’m just becoming truly African and building up my immunity to it, that’s all.
On Thursday I took the bus to Moshi for the weekend, regardless of my (minor) health issues. I actually almost got left at the rest stop in the middle of the trip since I wasn’t paying attention to the time and was chatting with a friend I made… but after freaking out and boarding 3 other wrong buses in search of mine, someone finally yelled “mzungu” (meaning “white person” if you forget) and pointed out to the exit of the stop. The bus was waiting for me on the road and the attendant was outside with her hands on her hips looking angry…. Oops haha. At least there was one Tanzanian girl who was even later than me, so that made me feel a little less stupid.
When I got into town in the evening, we all had dinner at Ibrah’s house and then Ryan and I went out to this bar in town. The bar is a fairly expensive, all wazungu bar (for the most part), which isn’t really my cup of tea but it was where Ryan wanted to go to meet his friends so I agreed. There I met four of the CCS volunteers that Ryan knows who are living right now in the house that I lived in this past summer. After talking for a little, I came to find out that me and one of the four volunteers, this girl Kate, are literally the same person. First we figured out that she lives right near me in Jersey and she knows a lot of people who went to private schools around Summit and others who now go to Lehigh. Then, I find out that she also has a lake house at the northern end of Lake George!! For those of you who know, she lives in Hague and is working at the Firehouse this summer and knows EVERYONE from the Hague crowd. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a tiny area in the middle of nowhere and everyone knows everyone and it’s such a bizarre coincidence. Then I find out she is also in DG (my sorority) AND wants to go into NGO work for clean water access in Africa. We are the same person. It’s ridiculous. Anyways, I had a great time just talking to Kate and we kind of hid in the corner half the night haha, but it was exciting. What a small world.
On Friday morning I went into town to meet up with Nie, the head of TAFCOM (the HIV/AIDS group that I sponsor a family through). Unfortunately, Asia and her children (the ones who I support) were out of town again so I didn’t get to see them… but that is kind of my fault for not planning my trip enough ahead of time and asking Nie if they were there. Nonetheless, I had a great lunch in town with Nie and got to hear all about the new children’s center that TAFCOM just opened. After lunch, I caught the daladala out of town to visit Kilimahewa, the school that I had taught at when I was in Moshi. The students weren’t around because it was Good Friday (all of the school are on break until the 20th or so), but Mussawe (the head teacher) and his wife Susan and all of their kids were around. They were so excited to see me, it was wonderful! Not only were they excited that I could now actually speak with them in Kiswahili, but they kept saying how rarely volunteers actually come back after they leave. They took out the log book of volunteers they have and looked up when I had signed it last year, took me to meet Mussawe’s older brother and his family, and spent the whole afternoon chatting with me. It was so exciting to see them again, Mussawe is a wonderful man (he basically runs the whole school out of his pocket and doesn’t charge the children anything since most are very poor and/or are orphans). After finally heading back to Ibrah’s house, I got changed quickly and met Ryan and all of the CCS people that I had met the night before for dinner at El Rancho, a nice Indian restaurant in town (yea I know, “El Rancho” should be Mexican… but people here are weird, I don’t know).
On Saturday morning I walked from Ibrah’s house to the CCS house where I lived last year. Being back at the house was a really fun blast from the past, and even better since everyone on the staff remembered me! All of the lady’s who clean and help cook, the head cook, Mama Fatuma (one of the heads of the program)… they all recognized me immediately. It was great to catch up with all of them, and especially Peter who had been the driver who took me around last time. We got to talk for a while, so that was great. I spent some more time hanging out with the CCS people that I had met the two days before, and then left them to finish packing because it was the last day in the country for most of them! So sad… I remember balling my eyes out on the day I left… I completely knew what they were going through. After leaving CCS, I just hung out in downtown Moshi for a while and did some shopping before heading back to Ibrah’s for the night.
Sunday was Easter… but I did nothing remotely Easter related. In the morning I went to town to buy my bus ticket for the next day, and when I was in town I got to visit and catch up with Reagan, one of my friends who sells art downtown, for a while. The rest of the afternoon I just hung out at the house with Ryan and Ibrah, and helped Ibrah out a lot on making the brochure for his new volunteer company, AfriShare Solutions.
On Monday I took the bus home from Moshi… very long and painful as always. Got into town at around 5 and then, after quickly throwing my stuff back in the dorm, went straight to the woodcarvers to teach; however, since it was Easter Monday, there was no one there! The market was basically empty and only about 5 carvers who I’m friends with were left there, so instead of teaching Mary and I just hung out with the guys and helped them inventory their shop.
This week is actually the first annual Julius Nyrere Intellectual Festival Week at the university, which is in honor of “Mwalimu Nyrere” (mwalimu means teacher) who was the first president of Tanzania and completely united the country. He’s a national hero and did a lot of great things for the country, so everyone is pretty excited about the week. There are speakers all week and most classes are cancelled because everyone is attending the special ceremonies. Yesterday, I went to the second part of a talk on New Imperialism by the week’s keynote speaker, Wole Soyinka (this crazy old guy who looks exactly like a black version of Einstein… he literally has crazy white hair that sticks up everywhere… google it if you doubt me haha). Then last night we went to see a really great documentary on Nyrere’s life and all of his work before and after being president. It had interviews with other previous president’s of Tanzania, his wife, his children, and some other amazing people… it was a pretty impressive compilation. Oh and just a fun fact: Mwalimu Nyrere’s father had 22 wives. 22!!!! They showed a family photo with all the wives and children, it was nuts.
Yesterday I also went out lunch with this girl Anna who is a family friend of a family friend (a different Anna than the Finnish one who is Tacy’s friend). Anyways, our family friend randomly put us in contact since we are both in Tanzania and she didn’t know where either of us was geographically… but it turns out that she literally lives less than five minutes outside of the university. Plus, now she’ll be coming to the university all the time to take Kiswahili lessons from a friend, so we’ll be able to meet up fairly often. Yet again, it really is a small world.
That’s all for now, but hope all is well at home. I’m headed to Dodoma this weekend to do some preliminary research for what I’ll be doing this summer (aka visit the town council, some private drilling companies, etc). I’ll write again next week with either stories of success from the weekend, or nervous twitches about where the hell to go next haha… so let’s hope for the latter. Love you all
-Lisa
That Saturday, Tacy, Adrienne, Mary, a European friend of ours Yaanita, and I went to a big party at Anna’s volunteer house. Not sure if I’ve explained this before, but Anna and Tacy grew up together in the US and the Anna moved backed to Finland where she is from, but they stayed in touch and decided to study abroad together. Anna just moved into the dorm a few days ago because she will start classes on the new UDSM class schedule, but before that she was living at a volunteer house about 30 minutes away by daladala. Anyways, we went to her volunteer house for a big music festival/party. I ended up having a dance off with a random Tanzanian guy… and I won. It was hilarious to say the least haha.
On Tuesday we didn’t have class because it was a Tanzanian holiday, Karume Day. That was the day when the first president of Zanzibar, Karume, was assassinated. Kinda depressing holiday… but we got off from classes so I’m not complaining haha. I went to Kariakoo for most of the day (the big market in town) with Ivan, my Tanzanian friend who took me to the orphan center a few times, and Mary and Tacy.
On Wednesday night I got sick with a fever, headaches, aching bones, etc… the sure signs of malaria. I went to the clinic first thing in the morning on Thursday (instead of going to class), and got tested for malaria. I did have it after all, so I got the medicine, started it right away, and felt almost completely better by the end of the day. Honestly, malaria isn’t that bad! I don’t know what all the fuss is about… as long as you catch it early and take the meds it’s completely fine. I’m just becoming truly African and building up my immunity to it, that’s all.
On Thursday I took the bus to Moshi for the weekend, regardless of my (minor) health issues. I actually almost got left at the rest stop in the middle of the trip since I wasn’t paying attention to the time and was chatting with a friend I made… but after freaking out and boarding 3 other wrong buses in search of mine, someone finally yelled “mzungu” (meaning “white person” if you forget) and pointed out to the exit of the stop. The bus was waiting for me on the road and the attendant was outside with her hands on her hips looking angry…. Oops haha. At least there was one Tanzanian girl who was even later than me, so that made me feel a little less stupid.
When I got into town in the evening, we all had dinner at Ibrah’s house and then Ryan and I went out to this bar in town. The bar is a fairly expensive, all wazungu bar (for the most part), which isn’t really my cup of tea but it was where Ryan wanted to go to meet his friends so I agreed. There I met four of the CCS volunteers that Ryan knows who are living right now in the house that I lived in this past summer. After talking for a little, I came to find out that me and one of the four volunteers, this girl Kate, are literally the same person. First we figured out that she lives right near me in Jersey and she knows a lot of people who went to private schools around Summit and others who now go to Lehigh. Then, I find out that she also has a lake house at the northern end of Lake George!! For those of you who know, she lives in Hague and is working at the Firehouse this summer and knows EVERYONE from the Hague crowd. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a tiny area in the middle of nowhere and everyone knows everyone and it’s such a bizarre coincidence. Then I find out she is also in DG (my sorority) AND wants to go into NGO work for clean water access in Africa. We are the same person. It’s ridiculous. Anyways, I had a great time just talking to Kate and we kind of hid in the corner half the night haha, but it was exciting. What a small world.
On Friday morning I went into town to meet up with Nie, the head of TAFCOM (the HIV/AIDS group that I sponsor a family through). Unfortunately, Asia and her children (the ones who I support) were out of town again so I didn’t get to see them… but that is kind of my fault for not planning my trip enough ahead of time and asking Nie if they were there. Nonetheless, I had a great lunch in town with Nie and got to hear all about the new children’s center that TAFCOM just opened. After lunch, I caught the daladala out of town to visit Kilimahewa, the school that I had taught at when I was in Moshi. The students weren’t around because it was Good Friday (all of the school are on break until the 20th or so), but Mussawe (the head teacher) and his wife Susan and all of their kids were around. They were so excited to see me, it was wonderful! Not only were they excited that I could now actually speak with them in Kiswahili, but they kept saying how rarely volunteers actually come back after they leave. They took out the log book of volunteers they have and looked up when I had signed it last year, took me to meet Mussawe’s older brother and his family, and spent the whole afternoon chatting with me. It was so exciting to see them again, Mussawe is a wonderful man (he basically runs the whole school out of his pocket and doesn’t charge the children anything since most are very poor and/or are orphans). After finally heading back to Ibrah’s house, I got changed quickly and met Ryan and all of the CCS people that I had met the night before for dinner at El Rancho, a nice Indian restaurant in town (yea I know, “El Rancho” should be Mexican… but people here are weird, I don’t know).
On Saturday morning I walked from Ibrah’s house to the CCS house where I lived last year. Being back at the house was a really fun blast from the past, and even better since everyone on the staff remembered me! All of the lady’s who clean and help cook, the head cook, Mama Fatuma (one of the heads of the program)… they all recognized me immediately. It was great to catch up with all of them, and especially Peter who had been the driver who took me around last time. We got to talk for a while, so that was great. I spent some more time hanging out with the CCS people that I had met the two days before, and then left them to finish packing because it was the last day in the country for most of them! So sad… I remember balling my eyes out on the day I left… I completely knew what they were going through. After leaving CCS, I just hung out in downtown Moshi for a while and did some shopping before heading back to Ibrah’s for the night.
Sunday was Easter… but I did nothing remotely Easter related. In the morning I went to town to buy my bus ticket for the next day, and when I was in town I got to visit and catch up with Reagan, one of my friends who sells art downtown, for a while. The rest of the afternoon I just hung out at the house with Ryan and Ibrah, and helped Ibrah out a lot on making the brochure for his new volunteer company, AfriShare Solutions.
On Monday I took the bus home from Moshi… very long and painful as always. Got into town at around 5 and then, after quickly throwing my stuff back in the dorm, went straight to the woodcarvers to teach; however, since it was Easter Monday, there was no one there! The market was basically empty and only about 5 carvers who I’m friends with were left there, so instead of teaching Mary and I just hung out with the guys and helped them inventory their shop.
This week is actually the first annual Julius Nyrere Intellectual Festival Week at the university, which is in honor of “Mwalimu Nyrere” (mwalimu means teacher) who was the first president of Tanzania and completely united the country. He’s a national hero and did a lot of great things for the country, so everyone is pretty excited about the week. There are speakers all week and most classes are cancelled because everyone is attending the special ceremonies. Yesterday, I went to the second part of a talk on New Imperialism by the week’s keynote speaker, Wole Soyinka (this crazy old guy who looks exactly like a black version of Einstein… he literally has crazy white hair that sticks up everywhere… google it if you doubt me haha). Then last night we went to see a really great documentary on Nyrere’s life and all of his work before and after being president. It had interviews with other previous president’s of Tanzania, his wife, his children, and some other amazing people… it was a pretty impressive compilation. Oh and just a fun fact: Mwalimu Nyrere’s father had 22 wives. 22!!!! They showed a family photo with all the wives and children, it was nuts.
Yesterday I also went out lunch with this girl Anna who is a family friend of a family friend (a different Anna than the Finnish one who is Tacy’s friend). Anyways, our family friend randomly put us in contact since we are both in Tanzania and she didn’t know where either of us was geographically… but it turns out that she literally lives less than five minutes outside of the university. Plus, now she’ll be coming to the university all the time to take Kiswahili lessons from a friend, so we’ll be able to meet up fairly often. Yet again, it really is a small world.
That’s all for now, but hope all is well at home. I’m headed to Dodoma this weekend to do some preliminary research for what I’ll be doing this summer (aka visit the town council, some private drilling companies, etc). I’ll write again next week with either stories of success from the weekend, or nervous twitches about where the hell to go next haha… so let’s hope for the latter. Love you all
-Lisa
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)