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.