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.