Week 6: the Archeology week, and returning to Dar

This was probably my least favorite week, but that’s because I was sick to my stomach for the majority of it. We went to Laetoli, Olduvai Gorge, Ngorongoro Crater (where we even saw a rhino!) and Lake Eyasi. On Sunday we drove back to Dar, which took about 12 hours or so.

I have mixed feelings about being back in Dar. It is insanely hot and muggy. Now that students are back on campus it is crowded. After living with everyone for so long, it feels odd to sometimes go days without seeing someone, and I miss having the whole group together. On the other hand, it is both mango and pineapple season. For lunch I eat a big plate of fruit (which costs less than a dollar) and my host family has pineapple for dessert after dinner. I’m very happy about this.



For Thanksgiving, a lot of us went out to dinner at Addis-in-Dar, an excellent Ethiopian restaurant. Four of us split a bunch of different dishes which were served on one giant piece of bread, which we ate with more of the bread. This was followed by coffee (real coffee, not the awful instant stuff that’s generally around) and ice-cream. All in all it was a delicious meal in a beautiful location with people I very much enjoy being around -- a very worthy Thanksgiving dinner.

Weeks 2-5 of the Field: the Research Weeks

We stayed at Zion Camp near the small town of Olasiti, about 6km from Tarangire National Park. This was definitely not a remote campsite with wild animals wandering around, sadly. Our group had a corner of the campsite (which is surrounded by a stone wall) to ourselves, where our fleet of tents was set up – we were 3 students to a tent. Additionally, we had a building for eating and such. Since that was one of the few places with shade, we spent a lot of time in there.



The first week was spent doing very little; projects didn’t start until the second week. My original idea didn’t work out, so I had to come up with a new idea that week. I had two main priorities: to get the experience of spending many hours observing animals, and to be able to work pretty independently. So I ended up watching birds at a puddle near the park entrance. I’m not sure how my paper will turn out, but I got what I wanted out of it: I got to spend a good 50 hours at the puddle and didn’t have to deal with park entrance fees, translators, having a spot in a car, etc. Moreover, since birds are more active in the early mornings, this gave me a great excuse to get up early every day. I’d wake up at 4.50am, get a sandwich from Eric, one of our fantastic cooks, hop the wall and be on my way by 5. It was still dark out by then, and the stars and moon were amazing. Over the course of the hour it took to walk to the puddle, it would slowly get lighter, and by the time I arrived at Tarangire, I’d see a gorgeous sunrise. Those mornings were probably my favorite times in the field. At first I’d go alone, but the last week or so other people came with, which made it all the more enjoyable.



Basically, each day felt really long, but the time went past very quickly overall. Most days were pretty similar (which isn’t a bad thing) but there were some really fun occasions too, like Halloween. We all dressed up as well as we could and each tent gave out some kind of a treat, and at the end of the evening we made a fire.

Week #1 of the Field

On October 10th the group met up in Arusha. It was so nice to see everyone again, and hear about people’s breaks. Everyone seemed to have done something amazingly fun! In Arusha we stayed at a place called Kundayo, which had a room with leather couches and a huge TV, as well as multiple seasons of “Sex and the City.” After a week of bus travel, lounging around watching trashy TV was very nice!



Our first destination was Manyara National Park, followed by Serengeti. In the campsite we stayed at there, there were hyenas that walked around at night. While walking to the bathroom to brush my teeth, I could see eyes moving around when my headlamp hit them. It was kind of spooky but awesome as well. During the days, we went on game drives and saw a ton of animals: lions, cheetahs, leopards, zebra, hippos, etc. One day we also went to a kopje and wandered around it for a while before going to see some Maasai rock paintings. There isn’t a whole lot to say about this week, but it was quite possibly my favorite time in Tanzania.

Fall Break

For fall break, I ended up travelling around by bus. I like bus rides, but I’m not sure spending 50+ hours on Tanzanian busses is an experience I’m going to want to repeat anytime soon… And if I do, I’ll choose a bus company based on something other than its name. But then again, how can you pass up riding on “Spider Bus”?



My first trip was from Dar to Mwanza, on Lake Victoria. The bus left at 6am and within the first five minutes narrowly avoided crashing into a car with a “baby on board” bumper sticker. I had a seat in the very front so could see out the front window, which turned out to be somewhat terrifying; busses here seem to spend half their time in the wrong lane! Every few hours we stopped for bathroom breaks and to buy food from various vendors. I got a bunch of passion fruit to complement the biscuits and chocolate I’d stocked up on before leaving. All in all, the trip was fairly uneventful until we got to the Kenyan border (the bus went via Nairobi). We were dropped off by the immigration office, and after getting a transit via, I went to board the bus again. It wasn’t there, but someone pointed to across the border. Crossing the border on foot, under an unbelievably beautiful starry sky was fun. About 10 meters into Kenya, though, I was stopped by two men who insisted I pay a “gate fee” of $25. That was of course total BS, and once I realized I wasn’t buying it, they switched from trying to scam me to being very helpful and helped me find the bus. The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful.



My next bus, “Air Jordan,” was far more exciting and much less comfortable. In the early morning the drivers burned incense, which I’ve never seen in a bus before. Mid-morning, the bus broke down. About 10 minutes later it was fixed. After another hour or so, it broke down again. This time it took about 2 hours to fix, but it was fairly enjoyable – we were in a small town where I could sit by the road and eat bananas from the market and read. In the early afternoon, we broke down again, this time in a bus station of sorts in some town. Here I could not get out, because I’d immediately have a swarm of people trying to sell stuff surrounding me. So I sat on the hot bus, trying to stay clear of the baby puke on the floor, and read and sweated. Six-ish hours later, we left, only to break down a 4th time shortly afterwards… Busses in Tanzania aren’t allowed to travel between midnight and 4am, so we spent those hours in Babati. People were sleeping on top of one another; I had a stranger’s head on each shoulder for most of those hours. By the time we finally got to Moshi, I was thoroughly exhausted but very happy.

Leaving for break!

Since the train didn't work out I'll be taking a bus instead. The longest bus ride I've taken so far was the 30-hour Greyhound trip I took from Baltimore - Grinnell to get to college my first year. Now I'll get to spend (at least) 36 hours on a bus, which should be interesting. Everyone I've talked to says the city I'll be going to, Mwanza, is really nice, so that should be fun too. I hope to spend a few days in Arusha as well. Aside from my bus ticket I haven't planned anything though, which gives me a lot of freedom to do whatever seems appealing at the time.

After the break we go into the field. The first and last weeks we're traveling around and visiting Serengeti, etc. which I'm super-excited for. The other four weeks will be spent in Tarangire working on our projects. I can't remember when I last went 7 weeks without internet. It should be interesting...

Preparing for break

In a few days our fall break starts; this is our last week of classes, which feels really odd. My plans for break are still pretty hazy, so I went downtown yesterday to try to find out some more information. It’s funny how it can take 4 hours (four very tiring hours) to find out the kind of stuff it would take me ten minutes to find online if I were traveling in Europe or the US. Up-to-date websites with timetables have always seemed an obvious feature of travel, not a luxury. I can’t believe that I’m feeling nostalgic for Greyhound now – that says something about how frustrating today has been!

I started from campus, took a daladala to Mwenge and a bus to Posta, which took more than an hour. From the bus stop I walked to the tourist information office and asked for the train schedule. They didn’t have it so tried to call the ticket office, but there was no answer. So instead they gave me a map and directions to the station. It’s closed between 1and 2pm though, so I spent some time at a café eating a piece of chocolate cake with ice cream and reading in a guide book. Got to the train station at a bit past two pm, and asked someone in what appeared to be the ticket office if I could get a ticket to the city Mwanza. His reply was simply “no.” That somewhat surprised me, as the (2010 edition!) guide book clearly says this train goes there three times a week, and moreover, I’m not used to someone answering a reasonable question with one word, spoken with great finality. I tried to prod a bit more, and he eventually pointed me to an office, where a somewhat more helpful woman told me to go to some other office. So I followed her directions and went through a dubious-looking gate, asked some people sitting around, and found it. The man I asked there was nice and seemed happy enough to try to answer my questions, although I’m not entirely sure he understood what I was asking, or that what he answered is entirely correct. It seems that the Central Line no longer goes to Mwanza, and only goes to Tabora (from where I thought I might be able to catch a bus) once a week. Tickets can only be bought on Mondays?! And they only have 3rd class tickets. The details are irrelevant--- point is, my plan to take the train is not about to happen.

Feeling rather disappointed, I went back to the tourist information and asked for bus timetables. The guy there, Joel, was extremely helpful and although it took forever, I left with a sheet of hand-written notes with information on various bus lines, where their offices are, the departure times, prices, etc. as well as a friendly note cautioning me to go straight to the ticket counters and to not “negotiate with anybody outside the office.” By that time it was past 3pm and I was exhausted as I’ve been sick and get tired really fast, so I decided to wait until after class today to go to Ubungo Bus Station, which luckily is very close to campus. The trip to town was somewhat exasperating, but at least it ended well – to get on the bus to Mwenge, I had to jog along beside it for a few meters and then jump into the open doorway. That kind of chaos just doesn’t exist back home. Busses usually wait to leave the stop (and they only stop at designated, well-marked spots) until everyone is seated – you’d never be able to launch yourself into a moving bus.

This week we’re living with host families instead of in the dorms. It’s nice to get a chance to meet our families now before the field, so we’ll know what to expect when we come back. So far, I love my host family. They are incredibly nice and I feel very comfortable living here. The daughter (my host-sister, I guess?) is awesome, and the three of us ACM students living here spent yesterday evening playing games and watching a movie with her. It was such a fun evening! It is so nice to be living in a family, and to wake up to the sounds of a home instead of a dorm. I enjoyed living in the dorms and will miss that time a lot, but there is something very comforting about being in a family, especially one as warm and welcoming as this one.

Zanzibar

This past weekend we went to Zanzibar – a perfect end to four weeks of intensive Swahili classes! The first day we had a guided tour of the town. Stone Town is very different from Dar. The streets are really narrow and don’t seem to follow any sort of pattern whatsoever. I have a terrible sense of direction but usually get pretty good at getting around once I’ve had a chance to wander around an area for a while, but even after three days I would not have been able to get from our hotel to the waterfront on my own without getting lost.

The second day we went to a spice farm, which was really cool. Seeing how some of my favorite spices, like cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, vanilla, pepper, etc. grow and what they look like as plants was fun. One of the books I was reading this summer, “In Defense of Food” by Michael Pollan, talks about how so many people in the US can’t recognize fresh vegetables because they’re so used to processed foods. There have always been gardens and real foods in my family so I’m fairly familiar with what vegetables look like, but it wasn’t until on Zanzibar that I even realized how ignorant I am of spices. So I’m very glad to have seen them now! It was also fun to be able to buy some spices from the farm. They were slightly more expensive than in the spice market in Stone Town, but the fact that I have actually been to the place they’re produced far outweighs the slight difference in price. I’m excited to try them out at home! After the spice farm we went to Jozani forest and saw Red Colobus Monkeys. They were very used to people so we could get within a few feet of them. They’re beautiful, and very different from the vervets on campus.

The third day, we went snorkeling. It was fantastic! I was a bit nervous at first, since I’m somewhat afraid of living things in the water and the whole purpose of snorkeling is to look at living things. After the first few minutes of twitching at the sight of a fish and envisioning sharks sneaking up on me I ended up loving it though. I wish I knew more about corals and the fish that live in them. I could recognize clown fish, and a few others that I’ve seen in aquariums or movies before but have no idea what they’re called. We were out there for about two hours, but I could have stayed for several more. Simply floating and looking down at things was fascinating, and it was lots of fun to swim with the flippers. A few times I tried to join a group of fish, and while some of them seemed a bit freaked out at a giant creature following them, others mostly ignored me and I could swim along with them for a bit. Snorkeling was a wonderful conclusion to a highly enjoyable weekend.

Pictures from Zanzibar

A Hermit Crab and an Odd Conversation

My roommate and I have accidentally acquired a pet. For a few days we could hear some noise in the night. Thought it might be a mouse or something like that. Instead, a few days ago, Stacey figured out that it is, in fact, a hermit crab! That was really confusing at first. How would a hermit crab end up on the 4th floor of a UDSM dorm? Then I noticed that my desk – right under the shelf I keep seashells on -- was somewhat sandy… Evidently the last time I was at the beach, I must have picked up a shell that was not empty. So now we have a free-range hermit crab living with us. He’s quite cute. I don’t know what we’re going to end up doing with him, though!

On Monday I ventured into Mwenge alone for the first time. I like wandering around aimlessly looking at things, and the less people in your group the less you stand out, in general. Not that I’ll ever manage to be inconspicuous here… I’m getting more used to being stared at though! It’s fun to talk to people in shops and on the street too. I had one memorable conversation with one shop-keeper that went something along the lines of:
“Welcome! How are you?”
“Thank you. I’m doing well. And you?”
“Very good. How is your afternoon?”
“Good. How is your work?”
“Good, thank you! How is….”
And on and on for a while with various polite greetings and inquiries in Swahili. After a while I began to browse through the store, him following behind asking where I was from, what I study, etc. – all things I’m able to answer in Swahili, and basically an identical conversation to what you’ll have in the next five shops you step into. Then, as I paused for a second to look at a beautiful pipe carved out of wood, he enthusiastically exclaimed “ah, pipe for your husband!” To which I replied (in English) “I don’t have a husband,” prompting him to ask me why that is the case. So I said something along the lines of being too young, which he emphatically disagreed with, and this was repeated back and forth a few times until we said bye. In retrospect it feels like a very bizarre conversation to have with a complete stranger, but I guess here it isn’t.

Weekend #3, and fruit

Our field trip this weekend was going to Makumbusho, an open-air museum that has houses from different regions of Tanzania. Seeing the many very different styles side-by-side like that really made it clear how many diverse cultures all exist within this one country. I keep hearing and reading how the language of Swahili has been so important in uniting the country as Tanzania rather than a bunch of separate tribes, and getting this visual impression of the range of different cultures makes it easier for me to grasp the significance of that. The more I learn about this country, the more I admire it. The book I’m currently reading, Robert Sapolsky’s “A Primate’s Memoir,” has one chapter about how the Tanzanians got rid of Idi Amin. I had no idea about that. Perhaps that’s largely my fault for being ignorant, but I also think it has something to do with this part of the world being relatively overlooked when it comes to current events, history, etc. Before I came here I’d sometimes simply tell people “I’m studying abroad in Africa this fall,” and I can’t recall anyone reacting as if that was an odd thing to say. I’d never just say that “my brother is studying in Asia” without at the very least specifying “east Asia,” or talk about my friends “studying abroad in Europe” without also mentioning the country (or general region like Eastern Europe). It’s rather sad.

But anyway, while I did find it interesting to go to the Village Museum, I felt somewhat ill at ease almost the entire time there. I didn’t take a single picture either, which is unusual for me. It felt hideously touristy, especially the drummers and dancers. Again, it was fun to see some traditional dance, and the men doing it were extremely talented. But it was also so very staged and catering to what tourists want to see (or what they presume tourists to be interested in seeing). I’ll never be able to blend in here and I don’t mind sticking out as a foreigner, but I like feeling like I’m at least making an effort to participate in life here rather than merely gawk at parts of it that have been especially constructed for tourists. We’ve avoided that kind of stuff fairly well so far, so it was odd to suddenly be in it. Afterwards, I thoroughly enjoyed the daladala ride back. It isn’t terribly pleasant to be squished up against multiple strangers in a cramped, hot, somewhat smelly vehicle that lurches along wildly in the chaotic traffic, but it is what people here do and I am so glad to have the chance to try it out. And I know I’ll miss the daladalas when I’m at home. Public transportation is way better here in Dar than in either Iowa or Sweden. In Iowa it is virtually nonexistent, and in Sweden it is prohibitively expensive. Affordability and convenience more than compensate for how crowded and occasionally terrifying the rides are.

On a completely unrelated note, the fruit here is excellent! I had mango for the first time, and loved it. Avocado and papaya are new fruits for me as well, but they’re delicious. The bananas are superb, and the oranges juicy and good. It is all very cheap too – a huge plate of fruit is way less than $1. While rice and sauce is good, it gets a bit repetitive and more and more of my meals are becoming fruit-based.

pictures from last weekend

weekend #2

The weekend started with three of us girls getting our hair braided at a little hair salon near campus. It took nearly 3 hours, and we each had several women working on our hair the entire time. I look rather ridiculous now, but it was a lot of fun to do, and having a lot of small braids instead of a lot of easily-tangled hair is certainly convenient!

On Saturday the entire group spent the day at Pugu Hills, a place outside of Dar. Along with eating good food and lounging around a pool (perfect activities after a week of intensive Swahili!), we took a walk along a ridge to a gravel quarry and back through a village. The people working at the gravel pit were asking us for water, as they are not able to afford enough water to bring with them to work. I can’t imagine working outside in this heat all day without drinking liters of water. In the village, almost everyone greeted us, and at one point a bunch of kids followed us, laughing. We would wave to them and say “mambo” or some other greeting, and they’d wave back and reply, and keep following at a distance. It is frustrating to be so limited by language!

On Sunday, four of us went to Mbudya Island. To get there, we took a dalla-dalla to Mwenge, another dalla-dalla to somewhere, and a bajaji (a tiny three-wheeled vehicle without doors) to a beach. From there we went to a hotel that Lonely Planet said was near where the ferry to the island went and asked where it was. We were told to sit down, and some phone calls were made. Half an hour later, we got on a small motorboat that had come over from the island. On the way there, the boat stopped by one of the many small dug-out fishing boats and bought some fish – the fish that we later on were served for lunch! The island was beautiful. Two people went snorkeling (which evidently was great – at some point I’m going to have to overcome my fear of live things in the water and try it) and two of us took a walk. The tide was out so we wandered around tide pools and saw lots of little fish, crabs and starfish. The boat ride back was fun since the waves were fairly big by then. I’m fairly sure that at times the entire boat was out of the water.

Overall, it was a very nice weekend! It was relaxing and yet eventful. Just hanging around campus would feel like a waste of time. Two weeks have already gone by. That’s 40% of our time living in the UDSM dorms, nearly 30% of the time before fall break (after which we go to Tarangire), and 10% of the entire semester! It’s scary. Maybe I’ll feel differently later on, but right now the last thing I want is to leave, and knowing that time is going by so fast is sad.

First week of classes

We’ve had four days of Swahili now, and I’m enjoying learning the language a lot more than I’d expected. We have two hours in the classroom, followed by 2 hours outside in small groups led by a language assistant (as in the picture). So it is tiring, but we’re able to move at a fast pace which makes it a lot more interesting and keeps me from becoming discouraged – every day I notice how I’m able to understand and say more, which makes me want to learn even more. I’ve never been good at languages, and partly that is probably because I’m somewhat impatient. With Spanish, I’d have maybe an hour of class a few days a week, and I never felt like I’d make any progress so I’d get frustrated and bored and stop working, and then I’d really not learn anything. Now there’s a ton of new grammar and vocabulary to learn every day, and not studying it isn’t an option as trying to catch up is a somewhat frightening thought. Consequently, I’m now able to communicate much more than just a few days ago. The idea that if you put some work into learning a language you will get better at it seems like (yet another) painfully obvious fact of life that I’m treating like an epiphany, but I’m rather amazed.

Two days ago we took a field trip to the American Embassy and the National Museum. We got stuck in traffic for ages on the ride back. In Dar there are lots of people who try to sell you items as you sit in your car. Ice cream makes sense, but giant inflatable “Hello Kitty” chairs, or aprons, just seem random. People do buy them, too. At one point, the people in the car in front of our ACM bus were buying aprons, when the traffic suddenly started moving again. The guy selling the stuff just hopped in the car to continue the transaction, and was let out the next time traffic stopped. Seeing things like that makes it not unpleasant to be stuck on the bus for hours. This is one of the reasons I love travelling so much. There is always something interesting to look at, and even the most mundane interactions between people are fascinating to watch.

Beach!

Went to the beach yesterday! It was amazing. To get there, the 21 of us ACM students as well as Hamida and Emanuel, the two USDM students who have been showing us around, had to all pile into a dalla-dalla that took us to Mwenge, where we got in another dalla-dalla that took us to the city center, from where we could walk to a ferry that took us to an island, where we got on a third dalla-dalla that took us to the beach. This beach was part of a resort hotel, so we had to pay a bit to get in. It did seem very touristy, and makes me all the more glad that we’re living at the university and are getting an exposure to the actual Dar. Not only is it more interesting, it is much cheaper as well; a meal on campus rarely costs more than 2000-3000Tsh (so around $2-$3), whereas at the resort food was closer to 10,000Tsh.

The beach was perfect: fine, nearly white sand, warm turquoise water, palm trees, very few people (because it is Ramadan), lots of pretty seashells… I spent the day swimming, floating lazily (the water is really salty so it’s really easy to float), eating coconuts, and wandering along the shore picking up shells. The most fun part was swimming out quite far. This was because the soccer ball Emanuel had rented somehow ended up drifting way out, and I went with the guy who swam out to rescue it. We swam out fairly far, to the point that I felt myself getting very tired (and I’m a decent swimmer) and turned back. So for the return to shore I was alone. I’ve always been mildly afraid of bodies of water that contain living creatures. I know this is about on par with my fear of snails, but for some reason I get freaked out by the thought of fish-like animals brushing against me in the water. Hence, I tend to stick to the shallow water where I can see what’s around me and can easily run to land if a stray piece of seaweed startles me. If I do go out farther, which I have been trying to do more lately because I hate being such a wimp, it is always with someone else. It feels safer – the more people making noise, the less fishy things there ought to be. Despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed finding myself alone in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I did make sure to not look down, in case I’d accidentally mistake my shadow for a shark, and did have to somewhat bully my thoughts into focusing on how wonderful it felt to be swimming, and how gorgeous the water and beach and trees were. But I’m SO glad to have done that, and next time we go to the beach I want to swim out far again.

The other person who went out continued and did save the ball. He also got a ride back with a fishing boat, and me and Emanuel met him on the shore. Several boats had just come in, and we got to watch them sell their fish to people. The fish themselves were beautiful. There were some long, red ones, and some broader iridescent ones, as well as an octopus. What was really interesting though was to see these people go about the transactions. These were subsistence fishermen – what they catch they sell, and what they earn will (hopefully) be enough to get them through the day. I’ve never seen that before. Seeing poverty, as one does every day here, is odd. Like the dalla-dalla driver the other day said he drives about 14 hours a day. It’s horrifying. And yet everyone here is so incredibly friendly too. I'm certainly glad that I'm getting the chance to see this kind of thing, as it is very different than simply reading about it.



Today we had our first Swahili class. Four hours... It was exhausting. But also a lot of fun. The professor is great, and the language assistants are all very helpful. I'm just scared of falling behind, as I doubt catching up later is much of an option -- the class moves too fast for that!

I've been here a week now. This is going to be one very eventful, interesting and thought-provoking semester!

First few days

I’ve been in Tanzania for a few days now, and so far it has been great. The food is surprisingly delicious. It’s kind of repetitive, with lots of rice and chicken/meat and some sauce, but it is all really good. The breakfast foods are my favorites though: there’s “andazi,” a bun (with cardamom in it sometimes); “samosa” dough filled with minced-meat; and “chai a maziwa,” tea with milk. And fruit!

It’s funny how despite being so very different from Swedish standards, everything about the dorms seems perfectly adequate. The mattress is a bit lumpy and the bed short even for me, the shower only has cold water, laundry is done in buckets in a sink, etc. and it doesn’t even feel that odd. The fact that there is water, and that we have flush toilets in the dorms instead of the hole-in-the-ground present in most buildings, is something I’m actually appreciative of. Last semester at college I grumbled when I had to wait ten minutes take a shower because the one on my floor was closed for cleaning – imagine the inconvenience! I wonder if I’ll quickly return to that mentality once I get back. Hopefully not.

So far, we haven’t really done a whole lot. This is an orientation week of sorts, and we’ve had a few presentations on topics like safety and health. It’s rather nice to not have to constantly be running from one organized activity to another, and there’s always plenty to do. Swinging from the vines hanging from trees is one of the most fun things, and we’ve gone to the market at Mwenge, and today we’re going to the beach. At the same time, I kind of wish we’d started Swahili right away. Not only would it be practical to know more, but it would also have helped me feel less like yet another clueless tourist. I hate not being able to reply when someone says something to me, especially since everyone here is so very friendly.

Vervets!

Culture shock? And time to go!

I’m finally all packed, and in about an hour will leave for the airport. I feel like I’m forgetting multiple really important things, but can’t think of what. I have my toothbrush, my passports, socks… I’ll have a roughly 6 hour flight to Doha, a 7ish hour layover there, and then another flight of about 6 hours. In just about 24 hours, I’ll be in Dar es Salaam!

I’m getting really curious about how I’ll react to Tanzanian culture. Some sort of culture shock is inevitable, which is good. Going somewhere without a culture shock would be boring – that’s part of what makes travel so exciting.

I spent the summer in the US, and have had about a week here in Sweden before going to Tanzania. In many ways, Sweden is my “home;” I was a resident for 20 years, my parents live here, all my schooling until college was in Sweden. Nonetheless, I’ve definitely been experiencing some culture shock since getting back. It started in JFK as I was waiting in line to get my boarding pass for the flights to Reykjavik and Stockholm. The family ahead of me was Swedish. Several times, the father absentmindedly rammed his suitcase into my backpack, which I’d placed on the floor. In Keflavik airport, the cashier at the store where I got a croissant barely made eye-contact. At the baggage claim in Arlanda (Stockholm airport), an announcement on the loudspeakers informed us that our luggage would be delayed as they couldn’t open the hatch in the airplane. There was some grumbling among people travelling together, but that’s it; when the baggage finally came and I was struggling to simultaneously pull my two nearly 50lbs duffel bags off the carousel, a few hundred people watched me and no one made the slightest gesture to help.

I’ve flown across the Atlantic a good 25 times by now (my mom is American so we’d spend every summer with her family in Maryland, and now I go to college in Iowa), and have had similar experiences in multiple airports. On a predominantly American as opposed to Scandinavian flight, these scenarios would almost certainly have been very different. Any accidental nudge would have been acknowledged with an “excuse me” or “I’m sorry.” In stores, you’re given a smile if not a “have a good day.” There’s invariably someone who will take a delay as an excuse to make some comment that bonds the flight as a group caught in a mutually inconvenient, but unavoidable and somewhat humorous situation. In the US I can haul around way more than I can possibly carry on my own because I can more or less count on people helping me – whether that’s getting a ride from Wal Mart to campus in Grinnell, or help with moving wheel-less bags through a New York subway (even back in the good old days when you could have two bags of 64kgs each).

I know that there is a dramatic difference in how people act in Sweden and the US. I’ve always known that. Nonetheless, every time I switch countries, I’m surprised by people’s behavior. I’d like to think my reactions have gotten somewhat more nuanced over the years, but on the whole, they tend to remain pretty stable. When I go to Sweden, I’m horrified by how rude and selfish people are. When I go to the US, I’m appalled at how shallow and impersonal everyone seems. At the same time, I love how independent and no-nonsense Swedes are, and by how friendly and open Americans are. I’m not really a foreigner in either Sweden or the US, yet experience culture shock in both. I guess it isn’t the culture itself that is as important as the change from one to another. Tanzania will be a huge change. On the other hand, I’ll be expecting to feel out of place there, whereas I’m always taken slightly by surprise at how weird it feels to arrive in Sweden or the US (since by the time I leave either, I feel entirely at home there). I wonder if the fact that Tanzania is so vastly different from anywhere I’ve ever been will in a sense make it easier to adjust to it.

Vaccinations

Back in Sweden now! The last four days or so in Portland were crazy -- I had several nights where I only had time to sleep two or three hours -- but it was a lot of fun, and seems to have helped with jetlag, as my sleep schedule was already totally messed up when I got here. Dar es Salaam is only an hour ahead of Stockholm time, so I won't have to deal with jetlag arriving there either, which will make the transition easier.

I've finally gotten vaccinated against most of the things one can potentially get in Tanzania! It's a relief to have it done, but I ever do this again, I think it might be better to space it out more. I've never liked shots (who does?) but don't mind them terribly. Nonetheless, after the fourth one I actually fainted. It was a very odd experience. I felt faint and vaguely recall trying to tell the nurse, and the next thing I woke up utterly confused about where I was and what was going it. For some reason I was convinced that I was at home and trying to get my dog to stop jumping up, and it took a good twenty seconds to remember that I was at the vaccination clinic. At least that gave me a good excuse to head to the cafe next door and have coffee and a Swedish pastry. And now I am vaccinated against yellow fever, typhoid, hepatitis A and hepatitis B! And this evening I'll start malaria pills and take the first of the drinkable cholera vaccination!

Six days until I leave for Tanzania. I still can't really believe it.

Three weeks until departure

In just a few weeks I’ll be leaving for Dar es Salaam, which is rather hard to believe. It isn’t the fact that I will be in a totally new country, meeting lots of new people that is strange. What I have a hard time grasping is that I won’t be here, in Portland anymore – no more handling birds of prey, training rats, or being driven crazy by the “gigagantosarus” song. I’ll no longer be able to answer questions about where I got a certain cut with a vague “well, I spend my days with raptors,” and thus avoid having to admit to yet again having tripped over my own feet. Reality for me right now is very much living in this wonderful city and enjoying my amazing internship with the wildlife show at the zoo. Nonetheless, in just two weeks I’ll be back in Uppsala, and a week later I arrive in Tanzania and begin what I’m expecting to be one of the most incredible experiences in my life.

The downside of not quite having going to Tanzania feel real is that it is very hard to actually focus on practical matters. I’m doing plenty of the fun things -- I’ve been reading books about the region, like “In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro”, “In the Dust of Kilimanjaro”, “Coming of Age with Elephants”, “Among the Elephants”, “The Worlds of A Maasai Warrior,” and a few others. I’m trying to learn a few phrases in Swahili. I’m sure I’ll be glad to have done these things, but they aren’t exactly essential preparation. I did make an effort to be organized about a month a month half ago, but after finding out that yellow fever vaccinations are about three times cheaper at the vaccination place next to one of the best cafés in Uppsala than here, I’ve happily postponed worrying about vaccinations until I leave Portland. It’ll work out somehow I’m sure.

24 days left!