November 25th

Alright, so I've gotten a few concerned responses to my last post, and I just want to tell everyone that I'm fine. Every day campus feels lonely, but there are still fun moments, and I'm still learning a lot.

For example, today, I had an hour break in between class, so I sat at a table outside the classroom area. I was texting one of my friends when three guys came and sat down at the table. I looked up, and one said "Bonjour." I replied "Bonjour." I switched to Kiswahili, and he responded, but then continued in French, and said that they were not Tanzanian. I asked where they were from, and they said Comoros, and I was SUPER excited because not only did I know what that was, I knew where it was, and that it was a French-speaking country! It's a little island near Madagascar.

They are here to study masters in archaeology, but the first semester they are only learning English. They literally came here not knowing ANY English in September, and we were having a pretty good conversation. I was and still am amazed. We talked about studying different languages, and differences between Tanzania and Comoros, and it was really, really interesting. It was also really fun for me to hear French again, and made me miss my host family in Martinique. We talked for almost the entire hour we had until our next classes, and then they just said ok, see you around.

So, after that one little conversation, I've been trying to think of how I could possibly find myself a job which would require me to go to French-speaking and Swahili-speaking African countries... So far, I've got nothing, but I'll let you know, haha.

November 19th

My beautiful roommate Idda, and me... I taught her the art of good picture-taking, can you tell?

My entire world here has been turned upside down and backwards. Last week on Monday, the students at the University began a strike. They were protesting because about 20% of them hadn't received their loans which are promised to all students by the government. The loan system works differently here, and basically the students get a lump sum at the beginning of the semester to use at their own discretion towards food and books. Thus, these students who hadn't received their loans were in a tight spot.

So, on Monday morning I woke up for my 7am class (yikes, I know) and I heard lots of chanting and cheering. I decided to go back to sleep. They demonstrated by marching around campus with a sign, singing and cheering, and that was about it. No classes were held.

The same went for Tuesday as well. On Tuesday night, I was in my room with my roommate and her boyfriend when we heard lots of people cheering and coming closer. We all ran up to the roof to watch. Seeing this demonstration and hearing the passion and excitement was so invigorating. I can definitely see how people get swept up in it.

On Wednesday morning I was working on an assignment with a friend when she stopped to listen to what some girls were talking about outside. She said they were saying that the University was closed. I asked if it was true, and she didn't know. She left to investigate, and came back and said it was true. The administration had given a press release saying that all undergraduate students (with the exception of foreign/temporary students) had three hours to pack their things and leave, and that there were police waiting to force students out if need be.



I couldn't believe it. I sat there on my bed silently. Honestly I was fighting tears. I had become so fond of my roommate and her boyfriend, and I loved having so many people around; it was a nice change from St. Olaf. I didn't want to go back to how things were in August.

Almost instantly, the area around the dorms was full of people hauling luggage, returning mattresses, and loading cars. I helped Ida move her things and waited with her until her ride came. I had told her that if classes were canceled, I would go to her house with her, so now I planned to go with her. She was going to stay with her sister for a couple days, and then I would go with her on Friday.

As we were waiting, a land rover passed with a huge microphone on the roof saying in Kiswahili that everyone needed to leave, and there were riot police on the back with gigantic guns. It was then that I decided to leave campus after Ida left, and I spent the majority of the next two days with a friend off campus.

So, Friday through Tuesday I spent with my roommate and her family in Mbeya, which was one of the stops on my travel period oh so long ago. It was exactly what I needed, and it was so good to be able to spend more time with her. She sent me a text while I was on the bus home saying that she was crying.

Now, it's pretty much like it was in August. We are continuing with most classes, without the Tanzanians, so we're basically doing almost an entire semester's worth of class in three weeks. Campus feels like a ghost town and I hate it. I'm still glad I'm here, which is more than I can say for a lot of other people, but I miss all my friends, and just having people everywhere.

I wish I had more time to go into detail about stuff, but I don't, so you'll just have to talk to me when I get back in less than a month

November 11

Ok, so to elaborate on yesterday's post....

Last week was a pretty intense week for me culturally. On Tuesday I had a lecture in African Political Thought which I absolutely loved. Usually I have no idea where the professor is going in his lectures, but that day we had a guest lecturer who was really good. The topic was "Negritude" which is a concept I studied last year in Martinique, too. It was a result of colonialism, and is basically the idea that black people should be proud of their color, their origin, their culture, and just their very being. It says they should reject foreign values and ideals because they are repressing black people. He also mentioned "Modernity" and how "modern" really means "Western."

Our professor then opened for discussion with the question "Can Africans really go back to their own culture, the culture before colonialism?" The answers ranged from "Yes, no problem, we know what our culture used to be, we are fully capable of replicating it" to "No, culture is always evolving, so how do you know which point to go back to considering the nature of culture evolution is continuous?"

At one point, a guy giving his opinion mentioned "the global culture." When he finished, the professor corrected him saying "there is no global culture. When you talk about global culture, what you really mean is American culture."

It was by far the best lecture I've had here. As I was walking out of that class thinking about all of these issues, a guy calls "Eleeza!" (That's what Tanzanians call me... Liz is just not a real name here). I turn around, and it's a guy I randomly met one day while we waited under a building overhang for the rain to stop. He asked me how I liked the lecture, and I said I loved it. He was surprised, and asked if I had been offended by anything the lecturer had said. I said no, and that I agreed with basically everything he had said.

Then he asked "Why do I always see you by yourself?" I laughed and said I don't know. He said "All of the others are always together, but not you." I figured he meant the other international students, but I asked further. "The foreigners. Everywhere they go in groups. Even at lunch, and I can't talk to them for even five minutes because it doesn't seem like they want to talk to me." I say that maybe they're just shy, and they don't like to talk to people they don't know. I also said that if he studied in the U.S. and he found another Tanzanian, he would want to hang out with that person, too.

He said "Of course yes, I would hang out with the Tanzanian, but I would want to make American friends too. I would want to talk to them a lot to learn more about their culture." At this point I was at a loss, so I said "I don't know, that's what I want to do too!" He said that it was very nice, and that I was the only foreigner he'd been able to talk to. It was so depressing. We continued talking about other things until we reached the point in our walk where we had to split ways, and that was that.

THEN, I was waiting for my Kiswahili class to start, and another American girl who's not on my program asked me what I thought of the lecture earlier that day. I told her I loved it, and she was really surprised. She said that she thought the way the professor presented the material made it seem like there was a large gap between Africa and the West. I said "well... there is." Her response was "Well, but always talking about colonialism? Is that really progressive?"

I was so mad. I said most of the following to her. The point of the lecture was not to be progressive. The point was to teach the concept of Negritude. Thus, the professor wanted everyone to understand where these political thinkers were coming from when they formulated their ideas and published their writings. We need to understand the context of these concepts in order to truly understand their impact and importance. PLUS, the class is called African Political THOUGHT. We need to know what people THINK. Basically, she was uncomfortable because the impact of the West, specifically the US, has been less than positive in many ways here, so she wanted to blame it on the professor for making it sound worse than it is.

She is also one of the foreigners who will never be seen without another white person, so that comment compounded by my earlier conversation caused me to be really frustrated. I had started to do things more on my own before this, but after this experience I was determined.

November 10

AH! I'm LEAVING one month from Thursday!!! I don't mean to offend anyone, but I really don't want to go home! I only have about 3 min of internet time left, but I just thought I'd let everyone know that I'm still doing well. I'm getting to know my roommate better and I'm making friends in all of my classes. I might have to send out some reflections that I have to do for my program because I never have time to blog any more. But basically a couple weeks ago I decided that I need to be more independent and more out going, so I've been doing a lot more with my Tanzanian friends. I used to hang out with them with other people from my group, but I decided that I need to do so by myself, and I've been loving every minute of it. I hope I'll have time to say more about this later, but I thought I'd give you a heads up

October 15th

Guess what. Classes have actually started, I've registered for classes (I think?) and I have a set schedule for lectures! I'm taking African Theater, Intermediate Kiswahili, African Political Thought, and African International Relations. I'm really excited about all of them, and I know at least one Tanzanian in all of them (except Kiswahili, obviously). I'm the only white person in my African Theater class, and I really think the Fine/Performing Arts kids are more outgoing than others, so I think that will be really fun.

Other than that, nothing too exciting is going on. Ida took Siri and I shopping on Saturday, which was fun. She and I get along really well so far. She likes to joke around with me, and her boyfriend makes fun of me a lot, so don't worry someone is still trying to keep me in my place, haha.

I finally got sick this week, though. Boo. It was just the normal stomach crap, but I basically stayed in bed all day for two days. However, after that it was over, so it wasn't so bad. One of the girls in my group is a nursing student, so I asked her if I really needed to go to the doctor because I knew my mom would freak out if she knew I was sick and didn't do anything about it. But, she said I could wait to see if I got better on my own, so I did. And now I'm fine! See Mom? I'm not totally irresponsible.

Anyway, other than that, I'm enjoying playing my friends in pool because I had never really played much before, but I don't completely suck. A lot of the time I'm just really lucky, but we don't tell them that. Girls don't really play here, so I'm kind of a spectacle, but really what else is new. I think they're also pretty amused at my competitive attitude, haha, and I definitely have the Moen family to thank for that ;-)

October 5th

This past week was the first week of classes, though I didn’t attend any because everyone is just dealing with registration, so none of the Tanzanian students attended either. There is only one girl in our group that had class, and that was a biology class. Others tried, but I decided just to start fresh this week. So, on Monday, I will be attempting to find Intro to African Theater at 7am, Government and Politics in TZ at 8am, and African Political Thought at 10. My backup PS course in case the other courses don’t work out is African Politics. My other course will be Intermediate Kiswahili, which is going to be incredibly difficult, but I’m excited. My roommate said she’ll help me 

Oh yeah, my roommate moved in!! Her name is Ida (EE-dah), she’s 21, and in her 2nd year here. She’s a political science major as well, and she’s learning French, so that’s cool. Her family is from Mbeya, which you may remember we visited briefly, but they are now living near the University.

She was quite surprised at the way I was living, which was pretty funny. I didn’t think it was that bad; my bed was unmade, and my desk was messy, but there was nothing on the floor! Haha. When I came back to the room after lunch, she had made my bed for me and swept the room (we never knew where to find a broom, so the floor was a little dirty). I’ll try a little harder for her (I tied up my mosquito net this morning), but I refuse to make my bed, haha. So don’t feel too bad, Mom 

September 23rd -- Dar

Now we’re back on campus for a while, and lots of Tanzanians have moved in. We still don’t have roommates, but we’ve moved out of our old rooms, so right now I’m living by myself until my roommate gets here. And no, I don’t have any idea who I will be living with, and I won’t know until she shows up one day with all of her stuff.

It’s so crazy coming back to the same place and having it feel so different. Before we left, I felt like I knew what to expect everyday, but now I feel out of place again. There are two more giant cafeterias open which weren’t open before, and there are just so many people. It reminds me of the first day that all of the upperclassmen moved in when I was a freshman because I haven’t quite figured everything out yet, but it’s old news to them.

In addition, I’m much more aware of the fact that I’m a minority because the white people’s percentages just plummeted in that one week. As I mentioned before, I had never been bothered by the fact that I was a minority in Dar before, but the first day back here was a little disconcerting. It’s just because instead of having 20 people stare at you over the course of your walk to lunch, now it’s like 60, 70, 80… I’m just really anxious for classes to start so that I can feel like more of a normal student because right now I am still the freshman who’s never been in a college class; I won’t feel legitimate until I am in class.

September 16th --Moshi

The view about 50 feet from the front door... Mt. Kilimanjaro, everyone

Last week, everyone in my group had the pleasure of relaxing in the northern highlands at Chris’ family friend’s house. It is actually in a village in the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro. We met a bunch of her late husband’s family members, and hiked around by her house. Because there are always clouds around Kili, during the day you really can’t tell that the mountain is even there. However, in the morning and at sunset the clouds would lift for like half an hour, so we could see it then. It was really frustrating trying to take pictures because the haze made everything so beautiful, but you can’t really see anything in the pictures, so you’re just going to have to take my word for it.

One day we went to visit a hotel which on of our friends’ dad owns. It is very near to the entrance to Kilimanjaro National Park, which is where people start their climb. We hiked up to the entrance and actually got in and walked up to the point which you can’t cross unless you pay a large sum of money. So technically, we climbed Kili! Haha.

The rest of the days were filled with drinking tea and coffee and hiking around. We had to go fetch drinking water from a stream which was clean enough to drink without boiling. So, we actually drank natural spring water from Kilimanjaro! And yes, I’m sure it was safe to drink because we all drank it for a week and never got sick. 

September 9th --Kilwa Masoko

Siri and Stacey finally relaxing on the beach after a long week of travel

Finally, we were waiting for the bus to Nangurukuru, which is the junction near the coast where we could catch a daladala to get to Kilwa Masoko. We found the guy who sold us our tickets yesterday and asked him where the bus was, and he said it was coming, but that we had misunderstood the time (he had written it down incorrectly) and that we were an hour early. We were a little bummed that we missed out on some sleep, but now we had time to find more food for breakfast.

After about an hour and a half, our bus still wasn’t there, so we were starting to get nervous. The signs around the station all said that there was a bus going to Tunduru today and Dar (this is the one we wanted) tomorrow, so we got really concerned that he had misunderstood and thought we wanted to get on the bus coming FROM Dar going to Tunduru instead of the other way around. We found the guy eventually, and he seemed to understand and said that no, we were going to Nangurukuru. Seriously about 5 min later, the bus showed up, and it only waited there for about 5 min before it started going; we hadn’t even gotten into our seats yet.

This bus ride felt like the most amazing bus ride ever. I had an entire inch of leg room, no one was sitting on me, and the road was PAVED! According to our book, most of the road was supposed to be unpaved, but it has been paved since then, so what was supposed to be an 11-14 hour bus ride only took 5. After 5 straight days of traveling on crappy buses, we were SO EXCITED when we got there at 1:30. We took a taxi the rest of the way, so we got there at about 2. It took us an hour and a half to figure out our hotel situation because a lot of places were full, but we got everything figured out and immediately headed towards the beach.

We were really hot and sweaty, and we accidentally took the long way there, so once we got in the ocean, we were all very relieved. We lounged in the water for about an hour before heading back to go find dinner. At this point, I hadn’t showered in a week, so I didn’t even care that I was all salty. I felt cleaner with only salt on my skin instead of dirt and sweat combined.

It is Ramadan right now, so finding food was difficult in the smaller towns. We asked the lady working reception at our hotel, and she brought us across the street. The guy there told us that dinner wouldn’t be served until 7, and it was 6:20, so we said that was fine. A secondary school girl came out and started talking with us, and ended up pulling a chair up to our table for like an hour because our food wasn’t actually served until 8. Everything was going fine with her, but we seemed to be attracting a crowd of kids. At one point, there were 10 of them surrounding our table, all asking for things from us. One girl wanted colors and paper to draw, and a swimsuit, another wanted my watch. They only spoke Kiswahili, so I ended up pretending that I didn’t understand because we can’t give stuff to every kid that asks us or we’ll go completely broke.

Then, all of a sudden, the girl says she’s going to give us her address so that we can send her money for school fees. We didn’t know how to react because no one understands when we tell them that we don’t have a lot of money. We ended up just not really answering because our food came out, so she left. That encounter was frustrating for all of us because we were really enjoying talking to her up to that point, but then we sort of thought that the only reason she was talking to us was to get money. We started wondering how we would ever know if anyone was genuinely interested in who we are as people and had no supplemental motives for talking to us. I don’t blame her for doing that because if there’s someone who you think has a lot of money, you don’t really have anything to lose by asking them to help you out. It’s just not something that we do in our culture, so it’s really hard to get used to.

The next day we finally got to sleep in, so I got up at about 8:30 (late compared to 5 or 5:30!). We didn’t have any plans except to go to the beach, which was really nice. Swimming and then resting on the beach after such a tiring week was glorious. Nothing too exciting happened, we just bought our bus tickets for the rest of the way to Dar, ate, and went to bed. We got back to our dorms at about 2 the next day.

September 8th -Masasi

Us in our hostel in Masasi celebrating my birthday with chocolate

The next morning (my birthday) we left for Masasi. This time we weren’t on a coach bus, so we were uncomfortable in new ways. Still no leg room, but now also our butts started going numb. I made a friend, though, because the girl next to me slept on my shoulder almost the entire ride. The whole reason we were going through the rural south part of the country was to get to Masasi to see the famous woodcarvings that the tribe there makes. But, when we got there we had to figure out where we were going the next day and how we were getting there in Swahili at the bus station. This took about 2 hours because we would ask if buses went to Nangurukuru, what time, and how much it cost, and we’d get different answers from everyone we asked, but we were pretty sure there was only one bus that went on this route.

Anyway, we finally got it all worked out, so we wanted to go see the market where they sold the carvings. However, we had no idea where it was, and we didn’t have a map of the city, so we asked a taxi driver. I ended up doing all of this, but I didn’t know how to ask about woodcarvings in Swahili. I struggled for a bit, then I tried using a mixture of English and Swahili, but it wasn’t working. Finally I looked up “art” and “wood” and basically guessed at a phrase that I thought would mean art made of wood, and he understood. I was so excited that he laughed at me and pounded my fist like good job. He even said the same phrase I used back to me, which meant it was a real phrase, so then I was even more excited.

Then we just had to negotiate price. I bargained, and he said that my price was too low, that it was far, and I said he was lying, that it was not far, so he laughed and reduced the price. When we got there, I was going to ask the driver to wait for us, so when he saw me take out the dictionary, he shook his head and walked over to me to read what I was going to say. I started laughing and said “Oh, rafiki yangu! Pole sana!” (Oh, my friend, I’m very sorry for your trouble), and just like that we were friends. He pointed stuff out to me and explained what they were, and I just loved it. Stacey told him her name and asked what his was. I told him mine was Elisabeth because Tanzanians don’t understand Liz. He just decided that he would call me Eliza (Eh-leez-ah) instead. Anyway, the “market” was this little tiny shack that contained like 20 carvings… not exactly what we had in mind. At this point, we were all just laughing in disbelief.

We had read that there were two markets, so I asked if he could take us there, and he said he would. The second place had even fewer than the first, so I just asked him to take us to a hostel listed in the guidebook. On the way, we saw more carvings, so he pulled over and asked us if we wanted to look, which was really nice of him. This place was still small, but at least it had a few full shelves of carvings, and the girls seemed satisfied. I was running low on money, so I wasn’t going to get anything, but my new friend continued picking stuff up to show to me. When everyone was ready to leave, he took us to the hostel, and dropped us off. He shook everyone’s hand, and then he was like “Ah, Eliza, asante sana. Safari njema” (thanks very much, have a good trip). So awesome, I love Tanzanians.

Our day did not end there. The hostel he dropped us off at didn’t have any open rooms, so we wandered around and it wasn’t until the 5th one we tried that we finally got rooms. We were so exhausted, and hungry, so we went to find food. We sat down at a random restaurant and the girls paid for my meal, which was really nice. We walked to get some snacks for the bus the next day, and then hung out in Siri’s and my room for a while. Siri and Sara had also bought me chocolate and apple soda while we were out which I totally didn’t expect and was really excited.

September 6th -Songea &Tunduru

This is Siri about to attempt to slice open her coconut...

Next was on to Songea which is basically in the middle of southern Tanzania, close to the southern border. The bus ride here sucked a lot. We were on a coach bus, but we had very little leg room. The ride was 9 hours, and the driver packed it almost like a daladala. Everyone was trying to fit three people into each pair of two seats, and there were people standing in the aisle as well. The girls in our group who happened to be sitting on the aisle pretty much got sat on the whole way. We were not so happy when we arrived in Songea… We only stayed the night here, and we actually stayed at a place called New Star Bar and Guest House. I thought it was pretty funny that we were staying in a bar. This was the last time that we had running water.

The next morning we left for Tunduru. Keeping in mind our last bus experience, we chose the back 5 seats so that no one would be sitting on us, and if they were it would be on Sara, but at least she would have leg room since there’s no seat in front of her. However, we failed to consider that our guidebook at referred to this road as literally the worst road in Tanzania. It is a dust/dirt road, but not like American dirt roads. There were a couple points where everyone had to get out of the bus so that it could get up a hill, or get through a portion of the road that was literally like sand. The rest of it was just incredibly bumpy. So, we were literally flying around in the back seat. We bounced so high that we would get into a standing position. Every time this happened, we inevitably started laughing, and the Tanzanians were all very amused by us. The other thing, was that on this bus we had the least amount of leg room of any bus we have ever taken before or since. I literally couldn’t sit down in one of the seats. I had to sit with my legs at an angle in order to fit, which left my back in a twisted position for about 4 hours because Siri and I took turns sitting there.

When we got to Tunduru, it was in the afternoon, so we wandered around looking for a guest house for a while. When we finally found one that had open rooms, the money collector wasn’t there, so we had to wait for him for an hour and a half. We had no running water, but we were so tired we didn’t even care. We basically just went to eat dinner and then went to bed. The atmosphere here was a bit like Tukuyu.

September 3rd -Tukuyu

The next day we went to Tukuyu, which is an extremely small town in the Southern Highlands. Both days we stayed here, I only saw one other white person. It was here that I had the most intense cultural experiences. So far, I had never been uncomfortable with people’s reactions to my presence, but here I definitely was. A lot of the girls have complained about people always staring at them or calling them mzungu or whatever, but I haven’t minded at all because it makes sense that they are curious to know what we are doing. I can’t really put it into words, but the looks people gave in Tukuyu were not honest curiosity, but almost cynical. It wasn’t as if they were just wondering to themselves “Why are you here?” but it’s more like “Why are you here?” if that makes any sense. And of course this wasn’t true of all people; I had plenty of people respond enthusiastically when I greeted them. However, just walking down the street, I was uncomfortable, which had never happened before. I felt like everyone thought that I thought that I was better than them or something. It was quite disturbing.

While in Tukuyu, there were a couple guys who came to sit with us for a while in the lounge of our hotel. At first we were talking about little cultural differences and discussing the politics in our countries, which was really interesting. However, one of the guys told us that he loved Siri and wanted to marry her. She asked why, and he started saying that white women are just so beautiful, blah blah. We said that black women are beautiful as well, but he didn’t agree. This was shocking to us. He said that all white people are more attractive than Africans, and even that white people never stink like Africans do. We had a really difficult time with this because we were almost shocked speechless. These attitudes have been around for ages, unfortunately, but I can’t figure out if they have existed that long here. It wasn’t until recently that a lot of white people started coming to African countries, so I don’t know that these attitudes could be still existing from colonial times. I think it’s more likely that the American media and Westernization is the culprit because a while ago it was possible for an African to never see a white person, so how could they believe they are more beautiful.

Anyway, while Siri and Stacey argued with that guy, I was talking to the other guy about it, and he didn’t say that he personally thought those things, but that many people here do. He said that people think of Americans as first class, Brits, Chinese, and Japanese and second class, and themselves as third class. I felt extremely awkward to say the least. As I struggled to come up with words, he asked if this was true, and of course I said no very emphatically. He said that Americans don’t have any problems. I told him that many Americans are very poor as well and explained that our cost of living is extremely high compared to Tanzania, so even though we make more money, we also spend more.

Then he tried saying “well yes, but have you seen the way people live here? The way the Maasai live?” I said yes, but that most everyone I meet here seems to be very happy. He agreed, but when I told him that many Americans are unhappy, he didn’t believe me. The concept that money can’t buy happiness was completely new to him, so when I said, “Things don’t make you happy; people do,” he really latched on to that idea. I told him that I think the reason that Tanzanians are usually so happy is that they have such strong family and community connections. He didn’t understand that many people in the States don’t even know their cousins, or that maybe some people don’t know all of their neighbors. He kept saying that a person should know their entire family and live closely with them, and also know everyone in their town. So yeah, that was the most interesting yet depressing conversations I’ve had while I’ve been here.

August 30th -Iringa

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So, for the last 12 days, me and 4 other girls traveled in a loop around the southern central and coastal regions. Ok, the first city we went to was Iringa. It’s southwest of Dar, and it was about an 8 hour bus ride. We road a pretty nice coach bus, and I slept almost the entire way. The girls did wake me up, though, when we had stopped to let some elephants cross the road (I know, SWEET). We also saw a herd of giraffes randomly.

Alright, so we got to Iringa at sunset and walked to a hostel we had picked out from our guide book that was supposed to be good and cheap. When we got there, it looked really nice. My heart sank a little, and we went inside to ask how much it was to stay there. The lady spoke ok English, which was also not a great sign as far as price was concerned. We ended up getting a triple to share between the 5 of us, with me and Siri, and Wendy and Stacey sharing over-sized twins. It even had hot water, which I never ended up taking advantage of because I forgot to turn on the hot water switch and then was just too lazy to go out and do it. We stayed in this hotel for three nights, and just wandered around every day. We found ourselves hiking up a bluff one day, seeing an archeological site another day, and then just walking around the markets. I absolutely loved this city. Everyone was really fun and nice. When we walked past the bus station, like five guys kind of mobbed us asking over and over in Swahili where we wanted to go. After I told them we were staying here, they really liked me, I think because I spoke Swahili, so they all started calling me “rafiki” and shaking my hand. One of them pulled Siri aside and told her that he loved me, haha.

The fourth day in Iringa, two of the girls went ahead of us, so me, Siri, and Sara moved to a different hostel right by the bus stand. This time we just sort of wandered and went into a building that said Guest House. The innkeeper didn’t speak any English, so we figured everything out in Swahili again, which was really cool. I sort of became the negotiator of the group because the other girls were a lot less confident in their Swahili skills. I’m really not that good at speaking either, but I really don’t care if I mess up, and I liked being in control, especially with prices ;-) so I didn’t mind.

August 25th

Alright, so this will probably be my last post for the next two or three weeks because we are going to be traveling before international student orientation on September 12th. So... enjoy!

Last week, we went to a lecture on Darfur, which was really interesting. What actually happened (no, the main conflict is not going on anymore) got really distorted. I'm really hoping someone from home will buy his book and let me borrow it when I get home. It's called Good Muslim, Bad Muslim. I don't remember the author's name unfortunately. I can't really say too much because I'm sure someone will misunderstand and think I'm really insensitive, so you'll just have to buy his other book when it comes out in January.

Alright, on a lighter note, I ate a ton of food this weekend. On Friday, our Kiswahili teacher had our class over for dinner. We had sooo much food. And it lasted 6 hours, no joke. Our teacher's daughter had been up on campus for a dinner with all of the LCCT scholars (professors from UDSM who studied at one of our 4 colleges as part of the exchange), and my teacher had introduced me as "Cheka" (say "chay-kah") which is my Kiswahili name. I had chased her around a little then, but she went around to everyone there. On Friday, though, my professor called her in to the room, and she said she always asks about "Cheka." She sat by me most of the time, and then when we were done with dinner, she went to play outside. Soon, I heard her call "Cheeeekaaaa" from outside. It was pretty amusing, but I couldn't figure out why she liked me so much.

On Saturday we went to our TA's house to help make lunch, and we stayed there to watch the Olympics too. That was pretty fun, but I still don't like cooking. I don't think that's ever going to change.

On Sunday we met a family friend of the guy on our trip. She sent her grandson and his friends to take us to a really nice white sand beach across the bay, and then we went to her house for dinner. The beach was really nice, and the water was pretty warm. It definitely had the tropical feel with the turqoise water and palm trees. The guys that came with us were named Frank, Erik, and David (those were their English names; many people have a Swahili name and an English name). They were really cool. David was most known for trying to see what ridiculous things he could make us believe. My favorite was that sharks only eat white people. He really stuck to that one all day, and people started rationalizing "well, I suppose white skin reflects more light..." But don't worry, I was never convinced. He finally admitted it wasn't true later after dinner. Erik also tried to tell us that he wouldn't go swimming because it was too hot. I was just confused by that, so he had to admit he was joking right away.

Oh, and I have to tell you about my shining moment. I absolutely love when I can actually understand random people's Kiswahili, and not just my teacher's. So, Me, Siri, and David were sitting on the beach, and this older guy walks by and starts talking to David in Kiswahili. I can tell that he is joking with him, and I heard him say the word "mmoja" which means "one" when referring to people, so I just knew the guy was saying "one girl for me, one girl for you." I immediately burst out laughing and start yelling No! Hapana! and the guy was like "Oh, you know Swahili!" and laughed and said goodbye. I was soooo proud of myself; I just wanted to yell HA! I showed YOU! haha

August 18th

This is the view of the sunrise over the Indian Ocean from my dorm.

Alright, so now I think I'll say a little bit more about my every day situation here. The water usually works, but it's not safe to drink, so we usually boil water every day to drink. It takes almost all day to cool because it sits in the water boiler because we don't have any other container to put it in that won't melt. There is no hot water, so showers are always cold. If you ever want to save water, try taking cold showers all the time because you will not stay in there any longer than is absolutely necessary. I live on the 7th floor (the ground floor is floor zero), and there is no elevator, so I get a very nice leg workout every day. We have a little balcony, which is where we hang our laundry.

The sun rises at about 6:30am, and I usually wake up at about 7:00. I have a 1 kilogram tub of natural peanut butter, and a loaf of bread which I use to make my breakfast, and I also usually have a clementine that I got from the market. Kiswahili lessons start at 8:30 and go until 11:40. We're basically learning a semester's worth of a language in 4 weeks. Fun fun! After Kiswahili, we get lunch, and then I walk down to the Primary school, which is only about 1o min away. I usually hang out in the teachers' office for about 20 min, talking with other teachers and figuring out what I'm going to help teach that day. I help teach for 40 min (or like today, I teach by myself) and then I'm free for the rest of the day.

That time is usually spent relaxing, trading stories with the other people on my program, and doing homework. Sometimes I'll go to the market to get more fruit. It gets dark around 7, which is when we usually go to dinner, and I am completely exhausted by 8. I really think I could go to bed at 8:30 every day, but I always have to do my Kiswahili homework then.

Ok one story. Last week at the primary school, we had finished the lesson with a little extra time, so my teacher told the students that I was learning Kiswahili and that they should help me while he wrote their assignment on the board. Immediately, 60 kids started yelling Kiswahili words at me, and I couldn't pick anything out of the noise. I was just laughing, and my teacher was too. I picked up one thing a kid in the front row was saying, which was the equivalent of "give me five" but he had his fist out. So, I pounded his fist with mine, and immediately there were 30 other fists in the air. I started "air-pounding" their fists by just making eye contact and extending my fist in their general direction. Finally, at the end of the period, the teacher said goodbye and got out of the classroom ahead of me, but I didn't make it and was mobbed by another 20 fists. I looked like I was boxing or something because I was using both fists to get everyone, and I was just laughing the entire time.

August 11th

Today was my first day teaching at Mlimani Primary School. I had no idea what to expect, so I just showed up after lunch, and I went into my teacher's office (he shares an office with all the other Standard 6 teachers) and everyone said Hi, and then continued working, so I sat there for a while. One of the teachers asked me what I had planned, and I said uuhhh... I don't know. He said I should have plans, and I didn't know what to say because I can't really explain my whole situation with my college program and everything, so I just half smiled and shrugged my shoulders. My teacher went out and got me a work book, and told me that they were doing unit 10, but that I could teach whatever I wanted. So I chose to teach personal pronouns from unit 10. I sat there looking at the workbook for a while, wondering what the heck I'm doing, and then I asked my teacher if we would go through the exercises in class, or if they would do them as homework. He said we could do them in class, but that I needed to explain what himself/herself/myself etc. meant first, so I now at least knew what the format of the class would be.

About a half hour after I got there, my teacher said that it was time for English, so we went to the class room. Immediately upon our entering, all of the kids stood up and recited in unison "Good foundations. Good afternoon, madam." I reply "Good afternoon, how are you?" "Very fine, thank you, and how are you?" "Very fine. You may sit down." "Thank you, madam." It was disconcerting last week, but this week I knew the program. So then the teacher told them all to be quiet and listen to me, and wrote English on the board. So, then I wrote personal pronouns on the board and listed them. It was more difficult to explain them than it should have been because I would say ok, HIMself, is a boy talking about... himself... It was strange, but I managed to explain ok, saying ourselves includes me and all of you, whereas yourselves excludes me... stuff like that. After I finish my explanations which I hoped desperately made sense, my teacher reviewed with them and reiterated what I had said, and they said they understood.

So then we started to do the exercises. The teacher and I would switch off reading the exercises and calling on students to give the answers. At one point, one girl asked the teacher to come over to her, and then he came over to me and said "she wants to ask you a question." But then she yelled from the back, "No! I want HER to ask the questions!" We both had a good laugh, and he said "Oh, apparently she is tired of hearing my voice, and she wants you to read!" and let me do the last few lines. That was pretty much it. Nothing too earth shattering. Although I really don't feel like I need to be there. He is perfectly capable of teaching, but whatever. Maybe later I'll switch to tutoring instead.

August 6th

This is my bed with the mosquito net hanging from the ceiling. That door leads to the balcony. We're essentially on the 8th floor.

I'm at the University of Dar es Salaam, and the rest of the students will not arrive until September, so it's pretty empty. When they all get here, there will be about 8,000 of us. And the city of Dar is about 4 million. I will have much more limited internet access at least for the moment, so I will try to keep updating, but I give no guarantees.

Ok so from what I have seen so far, this is what I've got for you. We sometimes have running water. We sometimes have wireless internet connection in the dorm, sometimes not. We have Western toilets in the dorm, but other places are not guaranteed. We always have to bring our own toilet paper. The outlets in my room don't work, but they do in other people's.

We went to Dar the other day, and I loved all of the movement and color. It reminded me a lot of Fort-de-France in Martinique. We also went to another market via a "daladala" which was really fun. Daladalas are small public buses which have seats for 15 people, but they also have "jump seats" that flip down in the aisle, and then another person squeezes in between the driver and shotgun, and the rest stand in the small place behind the driver in front of the door. Basically, you can get another 10-15 people in there, and that's what we did. The other girl from Olaf ended up sitting on my lap. However, since they only cost about $0.30, we're willing to put up with it.

We also went to a couple other markets, one of them was all for art called Tinga Tinga, which was really cool. I have been more tempted to spend money on things that I don't need here than I ever have before, which I acknowledge doesn't say much, but I'm just saying. I really love the markets.

Oh, I forgot about the weather. Now it's finally hot. So far it's ranged from 80 to 85 depending on how humid it is, but the nights are always really cool. All of the buildings are designed to handle the heat, so it's never too bad inside. There are very few solid walls, our dorms have screen doors to the hallway and also to the balcony.

We have two student guides who are helping us out this week, and they are really cool. They are both poli sci majors, which is cool for me. No one else in our group is a poli sci major; we have a pretty good mix.

We also met the students that we are supposed to be teaching English to next week. My teacher that I'm taking over for is actually another student at UDSM, an ed major who is getting practice teaching. They were all very excited, and since they are in Standard 6 (like 6th grade), it should be interesting to say the least. They are currently learning about personal pronouns, so hopefully I'll be able to teach them something... I honestly have no idea what is going to be expected of me because I don't know how to teach... but we'll see! At least I will learn something, haha.

August 2nd --Prepare yourself, this one is long

These are a couple of the huts that make up the boma

From Thursday morning to Saturday morning, we stayed at a Maasai boma. As you might not recall, the Maasai are an indigenous group which have probably fought the most vigorously against Westernization. They still herd cows and goats and at least in this boma, they still live in their traditional huts, and wear traditional clothes.

We talked about concepts of development while we were there, and some interesting ideas came up. Some of the Maasai have "modern" things like cell phones and cars, but no running water. I put modern in quotes because we came to question the idea of modernity. Basically, the way people use the word "modern" means "Western." For example, the signature clothing of the Maasai is not the same clothing that they have always historically worn. The patterns and colors and styles have changed just like Western clothing has, but yet they are still somehow not "modern."

We also discussed Maasai traditional medicine. One lady that we met with had done research on the science behind Maasai medicine, and it turns out that there are several reasons that the Maasai often live to be over 100 years old, and furthermore when they are old, their minds are still sharp, and they can still do most everything for themselves. The different plants that they use have some of the same chemical properties as those in "modern medicine," but the Maasai have also found out which plants complement the others. This means that the negative effects of one ingredient can be controlled by another. This lady, Jema, had all of the names of the chemicals and plants and properties and what receptors they inhibit and so on, but seeing as I'm done with my science credits, I just took away the big ideas. Basically, I was pretty safe for the last three days, even though according to the US travel clinics I should just fly right now back to the safety of America... right.

OK I'm done ranting, now for the parts leading up to the ranting. The roads to the boma were very small and very bumpy (kind of a theme... I don't think you'd survive, Mom) and once we got close, we visited the secondary school for a bit. We talked to the headmaster, who was very interested in "modernizing" (hence the first rant), even if it meant losing a culture. Yeah, he seriously said that plainly. Our Maasai host then promptly said "OK I think it's time for us to eat." We then started our hour-long hike to the boma. Oh, and a boma is a clustering of Maasai houses belonging to an extended family. We arrived at the boma, met our host's family and had lunch, and then had a lecture on ethnicity and identity in Maasai culture. Basically, Jema just gave us the basic structuring of Maasai society and some relationships they have with other tribes in Tanzania.

After that we had tea and another lecture on ideas of development. It was all very interesting because I love hearing different perspectives on things that I've seen basically one way my entire life. Then we, literally, journaled until the cows came home :-) I was so excited to use that phrase. Once the cows (and goats) came home, we attempted to help milk them. Some of us were better at it than others. We then had dinner, talked a bit, and went to bed in our tent. All nine girls decided we wanted to sleep in the same tent, so Chris (the only guy) slept with our drivers and the cook, and our Professor and her assistant got a tent to themselves. We all fit, but it was definitely snug.

The next day we hiked to the Orpul site, which is where the Maasai go to give and receive medical treatment. Those who are squeamish, skip the rest of this paragraph. Once we got there, two warriors (circumcised men 18 to 40 or something like that) sacrificed a goat. The Maasai sacrifice by suffocation so that no blood is spilled, so it wasn't gruesome. I mean, I wouldn't want to do it myself, but I'm not scarred for life. After that they proceeded to clean it and such. They cut up parts of the kidneys and liver to eat raw (4 of the 12 of us participated, I was not one, I know you're disappointed), and then drink the blood (again, some people tasted this, but not me). The meat was roasted on a fire, and most of the other parts of the goat were made into a soup with some medicinal plants. I did taste this, and yes, it was nasty. I was glad that I hadn't partaken in the other parts though because those people had to drink a full portion of the soup to kill any bacteria or whatever was in the raw stuff they ate. We also had additional food cooked for us for lunch there (rice and meat).

Anyway then we had the lecture about the science behind the medicine and walked back to the boma. Nothing very exciting happened until we had dinner. Oh and I forgot to mention that dinner was always exciting because it was always dark by the time we ate, so we ate by lantern light which was difficult. It was sometimes surprising when you couldn't see what you were putting into your mouth. Anyway, we talked for a long time with our cook and our host, Lesikar. We showed the cook pictures of snow, and he told us he was going to have nightmares. He kept exclaiming "How can you live in this?!" and was honestly weirded out by it. Later we were joking with Lesikar, and he was pretending to use his powers as our spiritual leader to predict our futures. He also always joked that Chris had 9 wives (the Maasai are often polygamous), and that Lesikar was going to take some of us for himself. We would always say that we were waiting for a better offer, that Chris could not afford to send 500 cows to America for us, and that Lesikar's wife would kill him if he got another wife.

After all of this, they had a dance which I guess they always do the night that the warriors come back from Orpul. Of course they had us join in, and I'm sure they got a huge kick out of us attempting to mimic their dances. Needless to say, the women can move in ways that we couldn't even comprehend, much less imitate. We had a ton of fun laughing at ourselves though.

So yes, this ends the incredibly long post.

July 30th

This was my bed at "camp"

We finally had a short day today. We went into town to visit a primary school which only admits kids who are HIV positive, and many are orphans. The facility was very nice, and of course the kids were super excited to have visitors. When we walked in, they all stood up and started "singing" songs for us, which mostly consisted of melodic yelling, and it was pretty funny. One of the songs was "If you're happy and you know it..." so we sang along with them for that one. Then we helped teach numbers and letters for a bit before speaking with the founder of the school. SHE was amazing. Her organization includes not only the school, but also a bunch of other staff who train community members to speak with their communities about HIV/AIDS so that they get all of the facts straight.

After lunch, we visited another facility which promotes "a positive life" for people who are HIV positive. They have a tailoring course so that people can develop some life skills to be self-sufficient, and they also provide interest-free loans for people who are HIV positive so that they can start up their own business. Once they have paid back their loan, they can get another one if need be. Many Tanzanians can live healthily with HIV for 30 or more years, so programs like this increase their quality of life infinitely. So far, we've seen several charity type organizations, and the ones which are started by Tanzanians seem to be the best. Outsiders just can't know all of the cultural challenges that Tanzanians face, and often times their ideas of success are different from a Tanzanian's.

The next three days we're going to be camping at a Maasai boma, so more on that later.

July 29th

ZEBRA!

Ngorongoro crater was even cooler than anticipated. It's a giant crater left by an extinct volcano about 10 miles wide. It's a conservation area with a TON of natural wildlife, so there are some dirt roads cutting through it for people to see the animals. I was expecting to see some animals, but figured they'd probably be really far away, but we got extremely lucky. I was about 2 meters from two sleeping lions!! And we had some zebras and a herd of wildebeests cross the road in front of our vehicle. I have seriously about 50 pictures just of animals.

I'll tell you what we saw based on the lion king characters because that's what we did the whole time. When we started singing Hakuna Matata, our driver was very confused. I found out that "pumba" actually means warthog! Simba means lion, and rafiki means friend. Anyway, yeah, I'm excited to look at the pictures from today. I was also about 3 meters from an elephant, and a giraffe crossed the road right in front of us after we left the crater. So yes, basically THE MOST touristy day of our trip ever, but it was fun. We all had fun giving each other a hard time... with me being the target a lot of the time... which is good because I can probably take it better than most people.

July 27th

Me, Esther, and Stacey

Today we went to church, and then broke off into groups of 2 and 3 to have lunch with different families in the congregation. Before we had been paired off, a 9 yr old girl had sort of taken a liking to me, so our teacher said I should go with her family. She immediately grabbed my hand and lead me to her house, with her family in tow behind us. A bunch of their neighbors came and had lunch with us, so me and the other girl I was with, Stacey, hung out with all of the girls. There were two that were around our age, and the 9 yr old and an 11 yr old. One of the older girls started trying to teach us some Kiswahili words, but the only ones I remember are "kuku" which means hen, and "mbwa" which is dog. The girls then took us out around their farm. They grow coffee, bananas, beans, and some other things. As we were walking around, more little kids accumulated, and I was holding at least one random kid's hand at all times. It was good though because they knew where it was OK to walk, so I could easily follow them. Yep, that was about it for today.

July 26th

This is Ben. He gave us a tour, and I think he's somehow related to Lesikar. And that's a huge wheat field behind him.

Ok, so yesterday we went to a Maasai Village for half the day. The Maasai are a tribe in Tanzania and an ethnic group Kenya who have tried very hard to keep their traditions despite Westernization, and they have so far been pretty successful. We got a tour of the village and went to the market. The markets can be overwhelming at times because there are so many people trying to get your attention. We obviously stand out, and when Tanzanians see white people, they automatically think dollars. It's especially bad for me because I never want to buy anything, haha. But I finally broke down yesterday and bought a cloth thing there that I can use as a scarf or shawl. After the initial sensory overload, I became more comfortable and really enjoyed it.

There was one guy there who caught my attention by saying "Hello sister?" (or actually 'sistah') and when I looked, he waved me over. I hesitated, so he said "Just come and please look." So I said ok. After standing next to him just looking at the different fabrics he had laid out on a mat on the ground, I said "OK! I looked!" and started to walk away, but then went back, laughing, and he saw that I was joking and started laughing too, and shook my hand to say good one. Then he asked me where I was from and whether I was a student. He was no longer trying to sell me anything, so it was nice just to be able to talk to him. After that had a lecture and then went home.

July 25th

This is Steven (our orientation coordinator) in the wagon, and Aziz (our driver) on the right.

Today we went to visit a small village, and in particular a farm run by our teacher's friends. We first went to the farm to harvest some sunflowers. We cut the heads off, collected them all in a trailer pulled by donkeys, and then beat the heads with sticks until all the seeds fell out. It was really fun, and a bunch of their extended family and neighbors came out to help us. I'm pretty sure they had a lot of fun laughing at us. Then we walked into the village to see the primary and secondary schools. The kids were still in school when we arrived at the primary school, and they began to talk very excitedly and all stuck their heads out the window to watch us walk up. Occasionally we would hear "Wazungu!" which means white people in Kiswahili. There were 600 kids in the primary school, and only 11 teachers. They are only short 4 teachers. However, attendance is 92% every day, and 74 out of 82 kids went on to secondary school last year. By the time we got to the secondary school, the students were gone for the day, but we still looked around.

When we got home, we had a couple hours free, so 7 of us decided to go to an orphanage which is about 100 yds outside of the compound we're staying at. There are 35 kids there ages 0-3. We got there right at dinner time, so after we told them who we were, they said excellent, grab a kid and bring 'em inside to eat. The kids were so eager to get attention, that especially after feeding when most volunteers leave, we'd have two or three kids attached to us at all times. They are definitely not picky as to who holds them. We'll probably continue to go there every afternoon that we have free. Alright, I think that's all for today.

July 24th

Roasting the coffee... and the little girl who didn't know what to make of all these white people.

Ok, so to elaborate a little more on what my experience has been so far... We're staying at a training center where a lot of European and Americans come to learn Kiswahili. We have little cabin type things, and I'm staying with the other girl from St. Olaf. We have our own bathroom with a shower, so that's really nice. It's sort of like we're at Tanzania camp because we're still isolated from the locals. Obviously all ten of us go on the excursions together, chaperoned by our two professors, our Tanzanian teacher, and a driver. It's really good to sort of gradually get acclimated to life here, but I know I'm going to be so ready to move on.

Today we had a culture lesson, and then we went to a coffee farm. We picked the coffee, separated the seeds from the shell, watched them roast, grind and boil it, and then we drank it! It was really fun and really cool. And the coffee was way less bitter than any coffee I've had in the States. We then went to a traditional Tanzanian restaurant and ate a ton of food. I know some people were saying that I should eat fried food before I left, but believe me, there is PLENTY of fried food here. So then we just came back for a lesson on Tanzanian politics, and had a little Kiswahili quiz. The sun came out for a couple of hours around lunch, which was really nice, but it soon got cold again. Apparently the seasons here are starting and ending later and later as well. But we know that once we get to Dar it will be hot, so we're trying not to complain. I'm actually having more time to blog than I thought because we don't really have anything to do after dinner, at least for now, so feel free to email :-)

July 23rd

Tanzania is officially awesome. I fell in love right away. We had a history lesson this morning and then we all crammed into a tiny bus and had lunch and a Kiswahili lesson at Lake Duluti. The weather right now is pretty chilly, I'd guess 50s to 60s. We then went into Arusha to change money and go to a few markets. The people are very persistent to get us to look at their things, and even if they're not trying to sell us stuff, people stare. I don't blame them because we're a big group of white people, and people always stare at foreigners anyway. It's so great because you can basically make someone's day by trying to talk to them in Kiswahili, and they will try to have a conversation with you in English if they can. The other girl from Olaf and I had one guy walking with us the whole time we were at one of the markets. He was just so happy to be helping us, making sure to point things out, and telling us what some of the different fruits were.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to learn a lot of Kiswahili because the grammar is pretty easy, it's just hard to remember what the words mean. That probably doesn't make any sense. I mean the forms are really straight forward, and the spelling is all phonetic, so I just have to remember the vocabulary.

I'm not even really feeling jet-lagged. It's kind of hard to adjust to eating my biggest meal of the day at lunch instead of dinner, but yes, I DO eat it all, Mom. I bought a kanga today which is fabric that I'll have made into a skirt and blouse with a Kiswahili proverb on it. It says something about praising God, I don't really know. But, I'm gonna go eat now, so I hope everyone is enjoying the summer :-)

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