Where Has September Gone?

Ugali, Peas, and Cabbage that I ate for Lunch

Our Disasterous Room (We have no closet)

The Living Room

The Beginning of My Quilt.  This is the only sneak peek you get...you'll have to wait until I get back to see the finished product!

It seems like just yesterday that we were saying we couldn’t believe it was the beginning of September.  And now it’s almost a month later! Oh how time flies.  Tomorrow we have our Kiswahili final exam.  It consists of a written portion and an oral portion.  Hopefully it all goes well!  Today we had Kiswahili, research methods, and ecology.  For ecology we got to walk around outside and identify physiognomic vegetation types (just think of identifying ecosystem types, like woodland, grassland, bushland etc.) .  It was fun even though we got rained on a little!  So yes, it did rain today.  Actually, it poured for quite a while.  But as always, the rain never lasts and we ended up having sun for the rest of the day.  Lauren and I are both getting ready for our break which starts tomorrow after our exam.  Lauren is going to Cairo and is leaving tomorrow afternoon.  I am going to the Usambara Mountains and will be leaving Saturday morning.  The bus ride to the Usambaras is about 7 hours long, so hopefully we should be there by mid afternoon.  Life with the host family is going well.  It’s crazy to think that we have to leave them so soon!  Tonight we had rice, peas, beef, and cooked spinach.  It was a pretty typical meal, although it was interesting to cook since we didn’t have electricity today.  But, no worries, they have a charcoal stove that they use to cook things on.  I don’t have much else to say except for that I started my quilt.  I decided that my project in the field is going to be making a quilt.  I plan on buying one kanga (a huge piece of fabric that is used to wrap around you as a kind of dress) in each place we visit, and then cutting them apart to make a quilt.  So far, I’ve gotten one kanga from Zanzibar, and then I bought some fabric from Mwenge.  And I’ve found that hand sewing doesn’t actually take that long. 

I thought I’d share a few observations about Tanzania with you since I don’t have much to say in this blog.  One, Tanzanians walk very slowly.  Nobody has anywhere to be and they do not have busy schedules, so the walking pace is definitely slow.  It is a pain to walk behind them!  Two, Tanzanians always hold hands.  In the states, it would be slightly odd for two grown men to be holding hands, but here it is perfectly common.  In fact, often when you meet a stranger, they will grab your hand and hold onto it.  Three, variety does not seem to be a concept that is embraced by many Tanzanians.  They find comfort in eating the exact same food every day, for virtually every meal.  Rice fritters for breakfast, rice and beans for lunch, and rice and beans for dinner.  Four, athletics are not very popular.  But, if you think about it, this makes sense.  Why would you waste your time burning calories if you only have a limited supply of food?  Five, toilet paper and hot water are luxuries.  You can tell how ritzy a place is just by looking in their bathroom.  Six, Tanzanians talk very quietly.  It is nearly impossible to understand them and we often have to tell them to repeat what they are saying.  Seven, deodorant is a foreign concept.  Sometimes, being in a crowded room or squished in a daladala is suffocating due to the B.O.  Eight, air pollution is terrible.  The exhaust coming out of the tailpipes of cars is thick and black, and we often feel nauseous after riding on a bus for a while.  Nine, there is no cheese anywhere.  We want cheese!  And ten, it hardly ever rains here.  I think it has rained maybe five times since we have gotten here. 

Well, this may be my last post for a while.  I am going to the Usambara Mountains on Saturday, and while I will have my computer, there won’t be internet access.  Hopefully I can pawn an internet stick off of someone or use an internet café!

Erin

Move In Day

Brajec Pub where we Ate dinner with our host families

Our driveway

Our House

Well, well, well. This host family situation is definitely going to be interesting.   I moved in this morning during break and got to see the house for the first time.  You walk into the living room area which is a very long narrow room that seems to go on forever.  They have an endless coffee table and both walls are lined with chairs.  Our bedroom is off to the right and is fairly big.  Lauren and I each get our own double beds!  The kitchen is to the left and even has a stove.  The rest of the house is not connected to our portion, but contains Mama Frida’s room, Diana’s room, Faham’s room and Ingara’s room.  Faham (19 yrs old) and Ingara (17 years old) are Frida’s niece and nephew and Diana is an orphan who works for the family but has pretty much been adopted into the family.  She now works for the family and in exchange, they send her to school.  Curiously enough, I feel like I am stuck in an airport terminal.  While Lauren and I have been given free reign of our portion of the house, we still have not seen the rest of the house (even though we have requested to have a tour).  And plus, we have no idea where our host mom is about 90% of the time.  There has been very little “welcoming” by the family.  Basically, we just hang out in the living room with everyone else bustling about around us.  And our host mom disappears to her room most of the time.  But, it will be great, and the kids here are really nice.  They made us dinner last night.  It was the usual: rice, beans, beef, and spinach.  It was great to actually dish up our own food and take tons of veggies!  They refused to let us help them clean up afterward but promised that they would let us help tomorrow.  Tomorrow they even said they would teach us how to cook!  Our host family has a couple of dogs, which are fun to play with.  One of them has 3 little mangy puppies, which would be cute if they weren’t so dirty and diseased.  Lauren and I tried desperately to organize our things last night.  It was difficult to try and decide what we will need in the field.  I can’t believe we leave for the field on Saturday! Oh how time flies.  I was kind of hoping that there would be internet here at my host family’s house, but there isn’t and am planning on either going to hall 3 or the big tree on campus to use the wireless.  Last night, after Lauren and I found out that they have no water pressure for showers (and that we get to take bucket showers), Lauren called the Godde’s and asked to use their shower.  Both Lauren and I looked at each other last night and said “we miss Hall three with its ants and rats and no running water”.  Surprisingly, we are considering going back to hall three just to use the showers since I never really feel clean when taking a bucket shower.  We went to bed and it felt really weird to sleep in such a big bed.  There were definitely some mosquitoes in my mosquito net last night.  And I found out why this morning: there are a bunch of gigantic holes in it!  Oh well, what can you do.  I didn’t actually sleep very well even though it was quiet most of the night.  I think it’s just being in a new place.  And the dogs were barking obnoxiously.  It brought back memories of the howling dogs in Ecuador. 

So I’m writing this now the following morning.  Diana got up and made us breakfast.  I decided to eat some cereal instead because I finally had cold milk!  Breakfast consisted of toast with butter, jam, or peanut butter, mango juice, coffee, and tea.  Fairly soon I think I am going to head over to hall three to get some internet so I can post this!

I just want internet!  I went to hall three and then to the big tree and there is still no internet today!  It will connect, but then says that there is no internet access.  Ergghhh. 

Swahili Word of the Day: Nyumba (nnn-yoom-bah) - House

Homestay

Well yesterday was quite eventfull.  I went to Swahili Class as usual, then to research methods and off to lunch (now all of that wasn't too exciting).  After checking the mail and realizing that my charger for my laptop was never going to come, I resolved to buy a universal charger at the mall.  So after class, I headed to Mlimani City to pick up a universal charger.  But, guess what.  Not one of the 7 adapters that come with the universal charger fit into my laptop.  So, I was back to square one.  As a last resort, I went into Game (a store owned by Walmart) and asked if they sold laptop chargers.  The security guard told me that they don't sell laptop chargers but that there was a technician on duty who could look at my old charger and see if he could fix it.  So, I left my charger with a mysterious man at Game, gave him my phone number, and told me to call me when he was done looking at it.  It took about an hour and he came back with my charger...but with a new plug (one with three prongs instead of two).  He plugged it in and it still didn't work.  So, he asked me to wait 15 more minutes and he would be back.  When he returned the second time, he plugged it in and it worked!  He said that when he opened the converter box, there was a small burn mark where it looked like two wires had come disconected.  He soldered the two wires together and superglued the box back together and voila, just like new! I was ecstatic!  I am pleased to say that I am typing this blog on my computer for the first time in 4 weeks.  :) :) :)  I also went to Mwenge yesterday to pick up my dress.  The tailor there was so sweet and the dress fits perfectly! I'll have to send pictures of it.  Then, Shaye and I headed to Brajec Pub for dinner with our host families.  Lauren and I got to meet our host mom, Mama Frida who is an older woman who works as an education professor at the university.  She was very sweet and spoke very good English.  In fact, she studied at Ohio State University for a while.  We asked her what her favorite foods were and she replied, "pizza and Wendy's french fries".  Hah.  It was kind of refreshing to hear somebody say something other than rice and chicken. But, she is going to teach us how to cook traditional Tanzanian food,which I am very excited for.  She lives with her niece and nephew who are 17 and 19 years old, and then she has one other girl living with her.  It should be fun to get to know everyone!  The restaurant had a buffet and we got to eat rice, plantains, french fries, chicken, beef kabobs, beans, and salad.  The beef kabobs were the best beef I have ever tasted.  Lauren and I joked about going back to the restaurant and just ordering a whole plate of beef kabobs because they were that good.  At the end of the evening, our host mom dropped us off back home at our dorm and we slept for the last time in Hall 3.  Today, we move in with our host family.  Thankfully, they are picking us up so we don't have to lug our suitcases to our homes.  I am excited to see the house and meet her pet dog, Simba.  I'll post pictures later!
Erin

This Weekend I Swam with Dolphins

Our Boat to Zanzibar

The Hotel

The view of Zanzibar from the Museum

Stone Town

The Fish Market

Lunch! Pilau, Curry, and Spinach

Drinking Coconut Water

The Nighttime Seafood Market

The Beach

Rainforest Tour

Red Colobus Monkey

Dinner at Monsoon Restaurant

The Band at Monsoon

Giant Tortoises on Prison Island

Zanzibar, Zanzibar, Zanzibar.  I can safely say that the best part about this weekend was…well…everything.  It was spectacular.  Friday morning we left the dorms at 5:30 a.m. in order to catch the 7:30 ferry from downtown Dar to Zanzibar.  The ferry was a big yacht-looking ship with two stories.  We sat below in economy class and it was freezing because they had the air conditioning cranked to about 50 degrees!  The water wasn’t too rough and most of us handled it quite well.  We got to Zanzibar around  9:45 and walked to our hotel-the Princess Salam Inn.  It was right next to the fish market and we could definitely tell…the whole street reeked like fish!  The hotel was great and we each got rooms with a bathroom and shower in them.  The best part was that the hotel: 1. Had water  2.  The water was heated!.  We were so excited to take warm showers.  We left the hotel midmorning for our tour around  historic stone town where we visited a museum and got to see some of the old stone buildings.  I really enjoyed the museum; it had a ton of history on Zanzibar, Dar, and the people of Tanzania.  I learned that they used to construct their ships by sewing the planks together rather than nailing them.  Sound like hard work to me!  We then hopped on our bus to head to the spice farm where we ate lunch.  It was a wonderful lunch under a little hut where we sat on mats on the ground and ate pilau (rice spiced with cinnamon, curry, cardamom, pepper, and a variety of other spices) and vegetable curry.  Then, it was off to the spice tour!  We wandered about the jungle with our guide who pointed out all of the different fruits and herbs that they grow on the farm.  It was incredible to see all of the things that they can grow in Africa.  We got to try everything from jackfruit to starfruit to cloves to cacao.  It reminded me so much of living at Finca Sarita in Ecuador.  We headed back to the hotel in the evening and then off to dinner at Mercury’s.  Before dinner, a few of us went shopping at the little art market downtown and I spent way too much money!  But, the good news is, I have most of my gifts for everyone now!  And I finally bought a kanga, which I am very excited about.  Dinner at Mercury’s (named after Freddie Mercury, who was born in Zanzibar) was good and I enjoyed  seafood pasta and salad.  We were all exhausted after a whole day’s worth of activities and we crashed at the hotel after dinner. 

Saturday morning I woke up, showered, and ate breakfast.  The breakfast had to be one of the highlights of the trip-they had cornflakes with cold milk, fruit, rolls, sambusas, eggs, toast, and pretty much everything you could imagine.  I was so excited for cereal with milk!!!!  Then, it was off to the other side of the island where we got on a boat and headed out to sea.  We all had our snorkeling gear with us and our bathing suits on.  Our mission was to find the spinner dolphins that inhabit the waters around  Zanzibar.  We spotted a group of 4 dolphins rather quickly and raced to catch up with them.  Then, we prepared ourselves for launch, putting on our snorkeling equipment and cozying up to the side of the boat.  When we got close, our guide yelled, “Jump Now!” and we all jumped in the water.  We adjusted our snorkels and masks and started swimming.  And there we were, swimming with dolphins.  I was literally swimming a foot above dolphins.  It was one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life.  Mom and dad, if you guys come, I am absolutely taking you to do this.  I followed the dolphins for a good several minutes and then they picked up the pace and I couldn’t keep up.  I swam back to the boat and then prepared for round two.  Basically, the tour continued like that for the rest of the time, with us chasing a pod of dolphins, jumping in, and then following the dolphins for as long as we could.  The funniest thing happened when I was following one of the groups of dolphins…a dolphin actually peed on me!  There I was swimming about a meter behind it and all of a sudden it just let it all go.  I luckily was able to move and avoid it in time.  We were out on the boat for a good 3 or 4 hours.  The guides then took us to the reefs to snorkel and Karen and I taught all of our Swahili teachers how to swim!  They were so scared that they would drown even though they all had life jackets on.  Basically, we would help them into the water and then hold onto them until they were comfortable to let go of the ladder.  We even gave them a mask and showed them how to look at the coral under water.  They were so excited!  This was the first time that any of them have gone snorkeling and it was really cool to see.  We headed back to the beach for lunch and I had fish and chips.  It was delicious and they even brought us fresh fruit for dessert.  We all got super sunburned from snorkeling, but it was totally worth it.  Sunburn is definitely one concept that the Tanzanians don’t understand.  Their skin is so dark that they don’t have to worry about getting sunburned.  After snorkeling, we went to the nature reserve where we got to see the famous Red Colobus Monkeys of Zanzibar and learn about the medicinal plants that grow on the island.  It was really neat.  When we got back to the hotel, I headed to the fish market to buy some spices.  Zanzibar is known for all of the spices they grow and I purchased some pilau masala, saffron, and cardamom.  Plus, I even found a pharmacy for Colleen that sold contact solution!  It was wicked expensive, but hey, when you need contact solution, you need contact solution.  Then, we ate dinner at Monsoon, a Zanzibarian Restaurant.  I had pilau with vegetable curry.  It was delicious and had loads of veggies in it!  Others had stuffed eggplant or other curry dishes.  On our way back we walked past the park on the beach which was full of people.  We wandered in to see what was going on and there were rows and rows of tables set up with chefs behind them in huge chef hats and tons of seafood.  We had just walked into the coolest seafood market ever!  Basically, every night on the island, all of the chefs come to the park and cook their seafood-everything from octopus to squid to prawns to fish-and then people can come eat the food.  It was one of the coolest things ever.  A couple of us tried the seafood and many said it was the best seafood that they had ever eaten.  We crashed again, and were exhausted when we finally fell asleep. 

Sunday we woke up as usual and ate breakfast.  We left by boat at about 9:30 to head to Prison Island.  We got to see the old prison buildings as well as the giant tortoises on the island.  We snorkeled off the boat and then headed back.  I ended up not snorkeling since it was raining out and I was already cold.  Then, back to our hotel where we gathered our things and headed to lunch before getting on the ferry.  Lunch was excellent and was at an Indian restaurant.  I had Vegetable Jaipuri, which was a veggie dish with corn, carrots, and green beans mixed with cheese and served with rice and tortillas.  It was awesome.  We all boarded the ferry and headed on back.  The sea was exceptionally rough and nearly everyone got seasick.  I was even feeling a little queasy myself and I rarely get sick.  Several of us ended up having to use sick bags.  Basically, we spent the entire ferry ride plugging our ears so we didn’t have to hear the noises of everyone being sick around us.  We finally reached land (thank goodness) and hopped on a bus back to the university.  When we got back, we found out that we have water (hooray) and wireless internet.  Today is just a great day.  Now, I’m off to Swahili, Research Methods, and Human Evolution.  Although apparently our Human Evolution Teacher got his computer stolen so I’m not quite sure how we are going to hold class today.  Then, off to Mwenge to pick up the dress that I had made for me and then out to dinner with our host families.  It’s going to be a busy day!  I’ll try to post pics later if the internet is good.  Have a fabulous Monday.  And if you ever get the chance to visit Zanzibar, you should.  It is definitely worth it.  They have the most beautiful beaches that I have ever seen.  (I think they may be even better than Hawaii’s).  Anyway, adios, and I send hugs and kisses from Africa.

Erin

Swahili Word of the Day: Bahari (Bah-harr-ee)-Ocean
[Bahari ya Hindi-Indian Ocean]
And FYI, the stress always falls on the second to last syllable in Swahili. Always.  So Bahari would be baHARee.

Can I have a shower...please?

Well let's see, today is Thursday, and yesterday was Wednesday...
sometimes it is so hard to keep track of the days here!  Yesterday we had our human evolution exam, which was fairly easy.  Our professor pretty much told us what the questions were going to be ahead of time and we all finished within a half an hour.  After class, I trotted off to Mwenge to check out the market again.  I ended up buying a fabric picture of an elephant and giraffe that is multicolored and beautiful!  I got back, went to ecology, and then returned to the dorm.  Colleen and I lugged some water up from the big black tanks below (they finally filled them!) and we got to flush the toilet :)   I cooked some pasta in my room for dinner (it turned out alright) and then studied some for our Swahili exam today.  The Swahili exam went well...same old, same old.  There are definitely some tricky parts on the exam, but the beautiful thing is that we are allowed to ask the T.A.'s just about anything we want.  Then it was off to research methods and then to lunch at the Kiswahili Cafe.  After lunch we had an awkward break before human evolution at 2:45.  I read out on the grass under the big tree at the university and then went to the post office to mail a letter (FYI it costs 2,200 Tsh to mail a letter from here to the US-that's about $1.30).  We got our tests back in ecology and surprisingly everybody passed.  Granted, passing is defined as 50% and above, but we all did just fine.  Our professor decided to throw out the silly first question which asked us to name all 6 of the authors for our textbooks.  After class, I headed to the mall at Mlimani City to buy some cotton balls (thrilling, right?)-I have become very dependent on using cotton balls and face toner as my face gets pretty gross from all the dirt and sweat around here.  I also found some sugar snap peas and fresh baked bread at the grocery store and they were delicious! Colleen and I are still on the lookout for contact solution...I have plenty but Colleen is running low.  I'm not quite sure if we will find any seeing as many of the people here have never even heard of contacts before.  The power was out all day due to the electricity shortage, but we have power now!  Tomorrow we head off to Zanzibar for the weekend.  We leave at 5:30 a.m. and take a bus to downtown Dar where we catch a ferry to Zanzibar.  We should be there by 10:00 a.m.  Our T.A.s for Swahili our coming with us since the trip is funded by the Swahili department at the university.  It will be interesting trying to converse with them in Swahili the entire time!  And interestingly enough, Zanzibar is 1/2 hour ahead of Tanzania.  Why? I have no idea.  Apparently they thought it was a good idea to have a different time zone.  Anyway, look for another blog entry Monday.  Talk to you all when I get back!
Erin

National Museum

Yesterday we went to the National Museum in downtown Dar es Salaam.  We went right after Swahili (which is now only two hours long!) and had our human evolution professor guide us.  It was exciting to actually be in downtown Dar.  None of us have really spent a lot of time there, and it was cool to see the bustling city and tall buildings.  The National Museum is supposedly one of the better museums in Tanzania.  It chronicles the history of Tanzania as well as the fossils and artifacts from ancient civilizations that have been found in the country.  Dr. Bushozi (our human evolution professor) actually works with a lot of the archaeologists there and he showed us some of the human teeth he found while excavating a site in Tanzania.  We also got to see endocasts and replicas of the skulls that were found in Olduvai Gorge and other places around Tanzania.  The museum took about 2 hours, and by the time we got everyone together it was about 2:00 p.m.  We headed to lunch at a Lebanese restaurant downtown called Al Basha.  It was crazy nice!  They had beautiful bathrooms with flush toilets, running water, soap, and a hand dryer.  It was heavenly J  I ordered a hummus platter with pita bread for lunch and many others got the same.  We were thrilled at the fact that there were salads on the menu too!  And I even got to have a little of Abby’s tabbouleh, which is my favorite salad ever!  The food was beyond good.  Many of us ordered milkshakes, freshly made juice, or banana-honey smoothies.  And for dessert, there were fruit salads with ice cream on top or banana splits.  The food was definitely a much needed change from rice.  We headed back to the university and by the time we got back it was almost 5:30.  We studied for our tests (we have three this week) and then hit the hay.  We are all a little frustrated since the water has been out for 4 days and we have not showered since then.  Plus, we are all still sandy and gross from the beach and have no way to wash our hair.  Normally, we would be able to take bucket showers, but all of the water is used up, and there isn’t even any reserved water in the big black canisters at the bottom of the dorm!  Plus, the internet has been out for 3 days now, which is also somewhat frustrating.  Luckily I can go to the Godde’s house and use their internet. 

On a side note, I have to share a funny story with you.  Carla and Karen, who live two rooms down from us, apparently couldn’t sleep last night because there was a rat in their room.  Now they tried to just go to sleep, but then realized it had chewed through 7 pairs of Carla’s underwear along with a cardboard box.  When Carla went back into her bed, the rat scurried into her bed and bit her finger (don’t worry, no blood was drawn).  So Carla and Karen brought their mattresses to the 5^th floor and had a sleepover on Siri and Zoe’s floor.  It will be interesting to see where they sleep tonight.  They talked to Mama Jane (the hall warden) about it, so hopefully it will be resolved soon. 

And, as for more news, we have our first confirmed case of malaria.  Lauren has been sick for 3 weeks now and has been just drugging herself and trying to make it through the day.  She has had 2 different malaria tests done and both came back negative, but she finally went to the hospital today to talk with a doctor and the test they gave her there came back positive.  So, hopefully now she will be able to recover with all of the meds they gave her!  Anyway, I’m off to read.  Talk to you later!

So I'm back (I wrote that blog yesterday and am now finishing it today).   Good news! I finally took a shower!!!!! The Goddes graciously let me use their shower (I haven't showered in 5 days!).  Apparently, the water pump on campus is broken so none of the dorms have had water for the past 5 days.  It's getting pretty disgusting.  Ten girls using one toilet without water to flush with gets pretty nasty pretty quickly.  But on the bright side, our "rat" problem is now fixed.  I found the two rats (they were really mice) in the trash can this morning scavenging for food and threw them off the fourth floor fire escape.  Needless to say, I don't think that they are alive anymore. 

Today we had our first ecology exam.  It was...er...interesting.  We all studied our brains out, but nothing we studied or went over was actually on the test.  For example, the first question asked us to name the authors of the 3 optional textbooks that were assigned for the class.  Other questions were based off of items that were talked about in passing, or asked about in class (but these things were never actually covered in the powerpoint or notes).  But, oh well.  We all did quite horribly, but at least we only have to get 50% to get a B!  We have a human evolution test tomorrow so we will have to see how that goes.  I'm off to study!

Erin

My First Tanzanian Kiss

My favorite billboard on campus

Today is Sunday, and it’s the first Sunday that we have had free in a very long time.  We almost didn’t know what to do with ourselves all day!  I woke up, ate some breakfast, and studied ecology for a while (we have an exam on Tuesday).  At 10:00, I showed up at the cafeteria where I was supposed to meet Josephin.  Josephin was going to take me to her house today and teach me how to cook, but one of her relatives passed away and she was unable to come get me.  I chatted with Beatrice at the cafeteria for a while and then headed over to the Godde’s to steal a computer.  It was crazy over there today!  The internet hasn’t been working too well in the dorms and everyone needed to use a computer to work on their research proposal.  I managed to get there before the rush, and had time to work on my proposal, but there were people in and out of the house all day.  Brennan, Jen and I listened to some music while we worked and we had a great time together.  I headed back to the room and made some phone calls about Fall Break.  Colleen and I are going to the Usambara Mountains, together with Siri, Zoe, Carla, and Karen.  However, the 4 girls that I just mentioned already booked their hotel and got the last room.  So Colleen and I are staying at our own hotel: the Kimunyu Guest House.  It is going to be a real adventure!  Let’s just say that it could be a very sketchy place.  We are paying 5,000 Tsh a night for a double room (that is the equivalent of $3).  Hah, I am so excited!  If worse comes to worse, the other group has a nice place and we can always sneak over there to use their shower.  Colleen and I also scoped out a guided tour that includes hiking through the Magamba Rainforest and visiting the Mkuzi Falls.  It should be a fun day trip and will only cost about $25 a person.  Also, we are looking forward to the markets in Lushoto and Soni which are known for fresh fruits and handmade pottery.  I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around town and studying a little.  The title of this blog comes from the guard at the gates of the University.  When I was walking back to the university, the guard greeted me and then took my hand and gave it a big old kiss!  He almost wouldn’t let my hand go!  Oh, Tanzanians…Colleen and I also met a great guy at the cafeteria today.  He asked if we were Catholic or Islamic, and I said that I don’t go to church.  He looked at me like I was crazy and then told me that “that was no good” and that “Jesus is Power!”.  Hah, Colleen and I had a good laugh about that.  He just kept telling us that Jesus is power over and over.  Colleen and I went to the cafeteria for dinner and I decided to change it up and get an omelette and some fruit.  I brought along a red onion that I got at the market and chopped it up to put in my omelette (omelettes here usually only consist of eggs, no peppers or meat).  Now we are looking at the guide book some more and studying.  Tomorrow we only have 2 hours of Kiswahili and then we get to go to the National Museum!  

Mbudya

On the Boat!

At the beach

Lobster at lunch

The beach

I love my chacos! Thanks mom and dad.

Today we visited Mbudya, an island off the coast of Tanzania.  It’s near Bongoyo, the island that we visited during our first weekend trip here.  But before I get to today, let me fill you in on last night.  Last night we all went to Addis in Dar, an Ethiopian restaurant in downtown Dar es Salaam.  The food was fabulous!  Mom and dad, if you guys end up coming, I am so taking you there!  Colleen and I shared a plate for two which consisted of Chickpea cakes, brown lentils, red lentils, and a curry sauce.  It was all served to us on a giant plate of bread and we got Ethiopian sourdough rolls to go with it.  We were stuffed by the end!  The bill for all 22 of us came out to be 480,000 Tsh (about 300 dollars) but it was so worth it!  My meal cost about 10 dollars, which is quite pricey for Tanzanian standards, but pretty average for American standards.  We caught a daladala back to the dorms around 11:00 and then crashed. 

So, back to today.  This morning we met at the cafeteria at 8:00 to leave for Mbudya.  We hopped on a daladala to Mwenge and then headed to Kunduchi where the boat would leave to take us to the island.  Surprisingly enough, Kunduchi is home to one of the only waterparks in Tanzania.  We scoped it out when we went by and it looked entertaining, but probably not as big as anything back in the states.  We met our captain at the boat house and we all piled into the boat.  This was the same boat and same captain as we had when we went to Bongoyo Island.  The University of Dar es Salaam has a marine wildlife department in Kunduchi and the boat is university property.  It only took a short while to get to the island and it was beautiful as expected.  The ocean was so blue!  There were adorable little bandas for us to stay in and we dropped our stuff and got ready to snorkel.  The water was surprisingly warm, much warmer than last time.  This time we snorkeled right off the beach instead of taking a boat to the reef.  I saw so many fish and so much coral!  I saw a huge starfish, an angel fish, some clown fish, anemones, and sea urchins.  It was great to see all of the marine wildlife.  I dried off and went on a seashell hunt.  I found a gigantic conch shell about 8 inches long and 5 inches wide.  I kidnapped it and plan on bringing it home with me.  We ate lunch on the island which consisted of French fries with your choice of fish, kalamari, or lobster.  I had the fish and it was excellent!  Plus, I got to try lobster for the first time.  I thought it was pretty tasty.  After lunch, a group of us went on a hike to explore the rest of the island.  We decided to take a path which cut across the middle of the island, and then follow the beach to get back.  In theory, this was a good idea, but the beach wasn’t continuous around the whole island and we ended up hiking through some brush and wading through some tide pools.  We made it back just in time to depart, and we headed off the island around 4:00 pm.  The boat took us back to shore and we made our way back to the dorms.  I just finished dinner at the cafeteria (rice and okra per usual) and now am working on some homework.  I am very excited because tomorrow I am going to Josephine’s house and she is going to teach me how to cook! 

It's Friday, Friday, Friday

Thank you Karen, for the title of today's blog.  She was singing the "Friday,  Friday, Friday" song all day today and now it is officially stuck in my head.  We are all in a very good mood.  Today was our last day of 4 hour Swahili Class - next week it cuts back to 2 hours which will be a relief.  We had another Swahili test today.  It went alright.  We have all pretty much given up on studying for the exams in that class because whenever we do study the material for the test, it never actually ends up being on the test.  After the test we got to listen to Swahili music, something that we always love doing!  Our teacher plays popular Tanzanian songs for us and we have to try to pick out the Swahili words in them.  It's quite fun!  If any of you are bored and want to check out some Tanzanian music, try googling "Narudi Kijijini" by Best Nasso or "Mama Nitilie" by Gelly and AT.  It's really cool to see some familiar landmarks in the music videos.  Lunch today at the Kiswahili Cafe made up for last night's dinner.  I decided to have ndizi (plaintain stew) with beans instead of the usual rice and beans.  It was a much needed change and I really enjoyed it.  After lunch, we had human evolution.  We typically don't have human evolution on Fridays, but since the power has been out so much, we had to reschedule it to today.  Right now some of the kids in our program who have been taking dance classes are volunteering at an AIDS shelter.  Their dance instructor (Musafa) volunteers at the AIDS shelter and asked them if they wanted to come show the AIDS victims some dance moves.  And this evening we are all going downtown to Addis in Dar, the Ethiopian restaurant that we went to on one of the first weeks we were here.  Some of us are planning on going clubbing afterwords for Nidal's birthday, but we will see if that actually happens.  Tomorrow we have to be up at 8:00 am to leave for Mbudya where we will be spending the day.  The original plan was to stay overnight, but it looks like it is going to be way too expensive so we have decided to make it a day trip instead.  We are all really excited to relax on the beach and do some snorkeling.  Hopefully I'll have some wonderful pictures of the island for you all! 
Today I got the three letters that my family sent me.  One was sent August 22nd, one was sent August 29th, and one was sent August 30th.  Still no sign of the computer charger, though.  Anyway, I'm going to work on some research until we leave so have a fabulous day!
Erin

Happy Anniversary!

Happy one month in Africa!  Today we are also celebrating Nidal's Birthday (she is turning 22!).  Right now we are all congregated at the Godde's house for cake and singing.   This morning we had Swahili as usual, but then, surprise! the power went out yet again.  According to Paulina (our Tanzanian ACM coordinator), the power never goes out this much.  Apparently the drought is having a major effect on the hydroelectric power plants.  So, we did not have human evolution class yet again (this is the third class cancelled this week).  We rescheduled it for tomorrow, so will have to go it to then, but we only have two classes tomorrow so that will be nice.  And next week, we cut back to only 2 hours of Swahili which we are all so excited for! 
Haha, if only you could see this birthday cake that they have for Nidal.  It's plastic wrapped and in the shape of a heart...and James just put a huge candle in it.  Oh, Tanzania. 
Today it was sunny (no more rain) which was nice.  I checked out my homestay house this morning (I just walked past it) and it looks pretty nice!  I am so excited for homestays!  We are beginning to think about fall break, which is only two weeks away.  I'll have to start looking into some lodging for us in the Usambara mountains. 
Dinner this evening was a little bit disappointing.  Since the power has been out all day, they cafeteria workers haven't been able to cook very much food, so they only had rice and liver or rice and fish.  I tried the rice and fish but it wasn't too great.  It was way too fishy for my taste.  But, on the bright side, Beatrice was back at work!  And, I got invited to go to Beatrice's house and Josephine's house on Sunday! I am very excited.  We will see if it happens though.  This weekend trip is to Mbudya, an island off the coast of Tanzania.  We are all looking forward to relaxing on the beach and snorkeling.  Well, I'm off to study a little for my Swahili exam tomorrow.  Adios!
Erin
Swahili word of the day: Rafiki (Rafeekee) - Friend

Rainy Day

A mama monkey and her baby

Pulmeria

Sisal

Bouganvillea

Both today and yesterday have been quite rainy.  Now keep in mind that when I say rainy, I mean that it rained on and off for maybe a total of 4 hours each day.  Today marks only the fourth day that we have seen rain here in Tanzania.  Since it is the dry season, things haven’t been too wet around here!  We are used to practicing Swahili in our small groups outside, and the rain makes it difficult to do so, but other than that, we aren’t bothered too much by the rain.  Our Swahili professors were complaining that it was so cold today!  (I think it was probably 78 degrees).  And although the rain hasn’t affected our classes, the electricity sure has!  For the past two days, the power has gone out during out human evolution and ecology classes.  This is all fine and dandy, except for the fact that both of our professors teach via powerpoint and can’t use a projector when the power is out.  So, we have had to reschedule some classes and do some extra work in order to make up for it. 

I have a few random things I’ve been meaning to talk about, and I think I will mention them here.  First of all, the other day, we saw the hugest rat ever!  It was probably at least 8-10 inches long with a huge tail.  Apparently, they have an animal here that is a cross between a rat and a mouse.  And speaking of animals, today during our Swahili class break, we saw a whole group of monkeys outside our classroom (that’s typical) but they had a whole bunch of babies! They were adorable and we even got to see one nursing.   And the last thing I would like to mention is that Tanzanians do not have a word for “love”.  The closest thing that have is the word “like”.  I think that is the reason that many Tanzanians say “I love you” to foreigners in English.  They just don’t fully understand the meaning of love. 

Anyway, I’m sitting here writing this while I finish my dinner – a delicious plate of wali na bamia (rice and okra).  Surprisingly, I am not getting too sick of rice here.  It’s actually kind of nice to have a reliable dish that is served to you every day.  No thinking about what to eat or what to make, just eat what they give you and that’s it.  My mom was asking me what the prices were like here and so I thought I would share that with you.  Breakfast I eat in my room and I usually have cereal (I bought it at the grocery store at the mall for about $4) and a banana (I usually buy one at the cafeteria-they have a local fruit guy who comes and sells fruit for 5 cents).  Lunch is at the Kiswahili Café and typically costs about $1.50.  I typically get rice and beans or rice and okra.  Sometimes I will bring some food from the cafeteria for lunch and just eat it cold.  And then dinner is at the cafeteria and costs about 50 cents for a plate of rice and okra.  You can also get fried plantains, French fries, omeletes, and chipsi mayai (an egg omelet with French fries) at the cafeteria.  We snack on items that we buy at the Hill Park Store on campus, which has everything!  We all have peanut butter and jelly in our rooms, and I also have bread, honey, and crackers.  Yesterday I splurged and bought a yogurt at the grocery store!  Today I was talking with Jen about homestays and she said to me, “it will be so nice to live in a house…I can actually buy milk and put it in the fridge!”.  We are all very excited for homestays and are looking forward to eating some more traditional African food.  I just found out that my homestay will be with Lauren (from Beloit College) and we are in a house on the same road as our dorm.  The owner of the house is an education professor here on campus.  I am looking forward to it…only one more week until we move in!  Oh how this program is going so fast.  Tomorrow is our official one month anniversary – we will have been in Tanzania for exactly 31 days.  It’s crazy to think that I spent a month in Ecuador.  How in the world did I manage to leave after just one month?  I get so sad just thinking about having to leave now. 

We have begun to write our research proposals for our projects in the field and I am planning on addressing the effects of termites on soil properties in Tarangire Park.  Next week we are still in the dorms and will continue with our classes.  The following week we move into our homestays and finish classes.  And then the week after that is our break!  I’m still hoping to go to the Usambara Mountains during break to hike and explore some of the markets there.  I think a bunch of us want to go there together. 

Well, I had better go and study something.  I have so much to memorize between ecology, human evolution, and Swahili.  Lucky for me that 70% is an A here!  Talk to you all later.
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Erin

Bagamoyo

The painting I purchased

In front of our hotel

The old Catholic Church

My chicken and olive pizza!

Riding my bike

The Kaole Ruins

Crocodile Farm!

This weekend we went to Bagamoyo!!! Bagamoyo is about an hour and a half north of Dar on the coast of the Indian Ocean.  We got took off from the University at around 8:30 Saturday morning and got to the hotel in Bagamoyo around 11:00.  It was absolutely beautiful!  Think picturesque bandas on the beach to sleep in and little private hotel rooms for others.  It was right on the beach and you could literally walk to the ocean!  We ditched our stuff at the hotel and walked to the old Catholic church in town.  There was a cute little museum there that told all about the slave trade and slave market that used to exist in Bagamoyo.  Originally, Bagamoyo was settled by the Arabs, but later was colonized by the Germans and then by Great Britain.  In the 1800’s, it was used as a slave port for shipping slaves either to Zanzibar, Egypt, Persia, or a variety of other countries.  There were a ton of artifacts in the museum and it was really cool to see all of the old slave possessions.  We got to walk through the Catholic church and it was extremely beautiful.   So much more colorful than the churches in America!  After that, we headed to lunch at a little roadside restaurant.  I had pilau (brown rice with spices) and meat.  Unfortunately, the restaurant managed to run out of food before they could serve all 19 of us, and we had to go to another restaurant.  While the second half of the group was eating, we toured the Caravan Serai, a building and museum where they used to keep the slaves before shipping them off to other countries.  We did a little shopping at the shops on the side of the road and I got an adorable little blue scarf for 5,000 Tsh ($3).  We then visited Dr. Kessey’s project (he is an archaeology professor here at the University) and he showed us his excavation site.  Basically, legend has it that there was an underground tunnel that was used to shuttle slaves from the interior of the island to the coast, and he is attempting to find the tunnel.  Currently, he has 5 holes that he has excavated and is planning on digging some more in order to find artifacts, remains, or other clues that there may have been a tunnel.  After seeing the archaeology site, we all broke off into smaller groups and were given free reign in Bagamoyo.  A group of us went art shopping, as Bagamoyo is known for its old art market where many painters sell their artwork.  I bought a beautiful African painting for 30,000 Tsh ($20) that is about 2ftx3ft.  I was so proud of myself because I got the price down to 30,000 Tsh from 60,000 Tsh!  A couple of the other girls bought art as well and many also bought kangas (traditional piece of cloth worn by the women in Africa).  We returned to the hotel exhausted (we had been walking and standing all day!) and had the best meal EVER.  Now most of you may know that I am not usually a huge fan of pizza back home, but I had chicken pizza and it was delicious.  SO GOOD!  We also got mashed potatoes, just because we could!  It was nice to have some good old comfort food.  We hung out and played some bananagrams before heading off to bed.  Colleen and I shared a banda (think mud hut with a palm roof, concrete floor).  It was adorable!  In the morning we got up and ate breakfast which consisted of the best fruit salad I have ever eaten, passionfruit juice, omelettes, toast, and of course, hot dogs.  Hah, I have no idea what it is about Tanzanians and hot dogs, but they have them for the weirdest meals!  We picked up our bikes (we rented them for the day) and biked to the Kaole ruins, which are ruins from a 13^th century Arab settlement.  Next, we biked to the crocodile farm (yes they have those here!) where we got to hold baby crocs and watch them devour their lunch.  It was very intimidating to see the crocodiles jump at their meat.  We biked to the Millenium Hotel for lunch and had a spectacular buffet.  You will never guess what I had.  Broccoli! And to think that I used to hate broccoli.  They had mushroom soup, fresh rolls, butter, cold salad, sautéed vegetables, spinach, fish, lamb, meat, potatoes, and even some tortes for dessert.  It was fabulous.  After that, we headed back to Dar and made it back in time for the evening.  I ate dinner at the cafeteria as usual and worked on homework.  We have our first ecology exam this Thursday and we aren’t quite sure what to expect.  Both ecology and human evolution are a bit dull, no one really looks forward to sitting through either of those classes.  Basically, they both involve powerpoint lectures in which the teacher literally reads the words off of the slide.  I’ve come to realize that the professors here don’t really feel the need to engage the class.  Learning here is more of a privilege I think, and if you have the money to go to school, then you had better be interested yourself rather than have the professor make the class interesting.  Anyway, Swahili is going well.  We just had our second exam and we did pretty well considering that the things he told us were going to be on the exam, definitely were not on it.  I just learned today that my small group Swahili professor (her name is Sauda) has relatives in Zanzibar, and her nephew actually died in the ferry accident last weekend.  She was quite sad today but managed to still teach us.  Overall, things here are going really well.  Someone told me yesterday that we are officially ¼ of the way done with our program.  That’s crazy! It makes me so sad to think about leaving!  Sorry for the lag in the blog posts, but I have had limited access to the internet, especially since my computer’s charger no longer works.  Cross your fingers that the new charger comes soon!  Talk to you all later!

Erin