Village Museum

Waiting for a Dala Dala

Dala Dala!

Our Spacious Dala Dala

African Drummers

African Dancers

Zoe's Indedible Oxtail Soup

So I just wrote this awesome post about today, and then the internet decided it didn't want to work. lame.  I will attempt to recreate it now.  Today we went to the Village Museum downtown.  I thought I would give you a chronicle of our dala dala adventure to get to the museum since I keep talking about dala dala's but you have yet to see a real one!  There are several dala dala stops at the university, and you wait by a stop until a dala dala passes by and you can hop on.  The dala dala's have the names of two cities written on the front of them.  Basically, the dala dala goes back and forth between the two cities dropping people off and picking them up.  All you have to know is the correct side of the street to stand on and the name of the town that you are going to and you are golden!  Once you hop on, you hope that there will be a seat (we are often crammed into a dala dala and have to stand because there aren't any seats left).  We have fit upwards of 30 people on a single dala dala!  Typically, the dala dala's are the size of a short school bus, but they do vary.  They are usually run by two Tanzanians: one who is the driver and one who is the conductor/money man.  The money man comes and shakes his handful of coins in your face when he needs you to pay (typically it costs about 20 cents) and then stops the driver when you yell "shusha (shoosha)" - stop - to get off.  And alas you can breathe B.O. and exhaust free air!  One thing I've learned about Tanzanians while riding in dala dala's: I don't think they believe in using deodorant. 
Anyway, back to the point.  Today we went to the Village Museum which was basically an outdoor exhibit of the Tanzanian tribes and their lifestyles.  We wandered around looking at the various mud and straw huts and reading about the different tribes in Tanzania.  Afterwords, we shopped at the market outside the museum and I got some souveneirs (I won't spoil the surprise by telling you what they are!) but also got a coin purse ($1.50) and three postcards ($1 each) for myself.  For lunch we had...well...let's just say it was interesting.  The menu consisted of tongue soup, intestine soup, joint soup, tail soup, and gizzard (among other things).  The only slightly normal thing there was chicken and chips (french fries), which is what I ended up getting.  The tail soup was extremely gross and I almost gagged watching Zoe try to eat it.  It consisted of chuncks of lard and bone in soup broth.  And the joint soup was interesting too, although I didn't try it.  Let's just say that that lunch made us all appreciate the cafeteria food here in the dorm.  The rest of the day was spent doing homework and practicing Swahili and catching up on my internet.  It's so hard to stay in touch when you don't have  a working computer!  I hope you all have a wonderful day back in the states (or wherever else you are).  Talk to you later!
Erin

Snow Day!

So today marks our first official snow day here in Tanzania.  While it didn't exactly snow here, we do have school off for two days in order to celebrate the end of Ramadan.  There was a bit of controversy about our days off due to the fact that the moon has to be sighted in order for Ramadan to officially end.  Apparently the moon was sighted in some places, but not in others.  We cleared up all the confusion this morning and told our teacher that we would be celebrating Ramadan today and tomorrow. 
I used today as a sort of "Sunday" to tie up loose ends, do some laundry, and work on some homework.  I finally washed my sheets!  Fortunately, the water came on for about an hour and I was able to do the laundry.  Unfortunately, however, I was unable to take a shower during that time. 
This afternoon was dedicated to cooking our Ramadan feast: eggplant with tomato and peanuts, fried chicken, rice, sweet potatoes, and hibiscus juice.  Right now I am taking a break from the kitchen after cooking for 3 hours.  Colleen and Nidal are in there right now cooking.  It's quite a struggle trying to find Sudanese food in Tanzania, and also cooking with only two burners!  I tasted the sweet potatoes and they are wonderful.  Fun fact of the day: sweet potatoes in Africa are white, not orange, and taste completely different from our sweet potatoes, but are still really sweet.  I also had some green pepper, tomato, avocado, and carrots that I purchased at the market and I was pleasantly surprised at how good they all tasted.  The carrot was sooo sweet! I don't know if it tasted so good because I haven't had one in such a long time, or if it was because carrots are better in Tanzania, but it was delicious.  The others are at dance class right now. They opted to take a 2 hour African dance class with one of the dance professors on campus and are working up an appetite for our feast.  Hopefully everything gets cooked on time and I'll let you know how it turns out!
Tomorrow we are going to the village museum in town in the morning, and then a church service in the afternoon.  I'll try to grab someone else's computer in the next few days so I can post some pics. Until then, kwa heri (Kwah Hairy-Goodbye!)
Erin

Wanafunzi! Wanafunzi! Wanafunzi! [Pugu Hills]

Well hello there.  I finally have access to the internet :)  My laptop charger has decided to cease working and am I now computerless as the battery on my computer has died.  How very very tragic.  But, alas, hopefully a new charger is on its way.  Who knows exactly how long it will take to get here, but hopefully it's soon!  As for now, I am going to just have to mooch off of other people's computers.
This weekend we visited Pugu Hills.  I wish I could tell you where exactly it was in Tanzania, but truthfully, I have no idea.  We took 2 dala dalas to get there and it took us about 2 hours.  We encountered many traffic jams along the way and got a little dizzy from all of the exhaust fumes (Tanzania is the most polluted place I have ever been-the exhaust coming out of the cars is literally jet black).  But, we made it to the small little village and then began our walk to the camping resort.  Unfortunately, our 30 minute walk took us about 90 minutes because we got lost and went down the completely wrong road.  But we eventually made it to a picturesque lodge in the middle of the hills complete with a straw hut pavillion, swimming pool, cabanas, and a few camp sites.  We pitched our tents, cooled off in the pool, and had the most amazing lunch.  Our choices for lunch included grilled chicken, beef kabobs, vegetable quiche, or red snapper pasta.  Being the pasta lover that I am, I totally ordered the fish pasta.  The best part about the dinner was that it came with salad!  Now, it wasn't the whole lettuce, leafy green type, it was more of a tomato, cucumber, pepper salad, but it was still wonderful.  After that we took an extensive hike through the hills (it took about three hours and was quite strenuous).  During the hike we didn't see much wildlife, but we did get to see a lot of the countryside, including some farmer's plots, pineapple plants, and a few villages.  The terrain was variable and there were many hills (hence the name Pugu Hills!).  I have to cut this story short because I am already late for Swahili, but this blog is to be continued this evening! Enjoy the day!

Back again on the Godde's wonderful computer :)  When we returned from our hike via dala dala, we ate a wonderful dinner of thai soup and beef kabobs.  We got salad once again and fresh watermelon juice!  After dinner our hosts made us a campfire and we all sat around the fire playing little kid camp games and telling riddles. It was extremely fun!  We all hit the hay later that evening in our tents.  Colleen and I shared a tent and had a little bit of trouble falling asleep due to the obnoxious and very vocal bush babies in the tree above us and the talkative boys in the tent next door.  We awoke the next morning in our tent and got dressed, packed up, and headed to the pavillion for breakfast.  We ate the most wonderful breakfast in the world: homemade yogurt, with fresh oranges, banana, mango jam, and peanut butter.  Our second course was eggs made to order (scrambled, fried, boiled, or omelette) along with watermelon juice, tea, coffee, and toast.  We finished packing up and threw our stuff in the car to take back to the dorm while we rode the dala dala back. 

We got back to our dorm, anxious to take a shower and do some laundry, only to find that the water wasn't working.  This evening marks the first time that the water has worked in like 4 days.  We were all super gross and dirty from camping and all we wanted was a nice shower, but I guess even that is a little bit demanding for Tanzanian standards.  I managed to take a bucket shower this morning, but still don't feel too clean.  Alas, tomorrow's shower will be great! 

Today in swahili class we learned about the future, past, and present tenses.  (They are so easy compared to English and Spanish-there are virtually no irregular verbs!).  We also had our research methods course.  Lunch today was rice and beans and cabbage as usual at the Kiswahili cafe.  After class, Nidal, Colleen, James, and I went to the market at Mwenge and the Mall at Mlimani City to get groceries for our end of Ramadan celebration.  For the past month, Nidal has been fasting for the past month during the daylight hours and we are making a traditional feast for her either tomorrow or Wednesday (depending on the moon sighting in Saudi Arabia).  We got red onions, potatoes, peppers, rice, garlic, and eggplant at the market.  At the mall, we got chicken stock, tomato paste, and some other staples.  The shopping mall was CRAZY.  I felt like I had stepped into another world!  They had computer stores, fast food shops, and virtually everything I could ever want!  I got cereal, yogurt, and a sandwich at the supermarket.  And let me tell you, it was the best sandwich I have eaten in a long while.  French bread, tomato, cucumber, and cheese, all for a whopping 75 cents.  This was the first time I have had cheese in two weeks and it tasted wonderful.  We have all been dreaming of cheese and dairy since we have been here.  It is so expensive!  This evening we are all convening at the Godde's house to celebrate Siri's 20th birthday.  We even have birthday cake!  Well, I have to go sing Happy Birthday.  Adios for now!
Erin

Erin

A Tour of the Dorm

My bed and balcony

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The bathroom

The yard area between the dorms

The Washroom

So I thought I would give you all a little better idea of what life in the dorms is like.  So far, we have many pets here in Tanzania.  Karen has a pet lizard named Fernando who lives in the hole in her wall.  She wakes up every morning to the lizard staring straight at her face (there are tons of lizards here).  Colleen and I have discovered a black rat living in our communal trash can in our hallway.  That was kind of gross.  And this morning, we discovered that we are hosting a ton of ants in our room.  At the cafe, we have adopted a cat and have named him "Beans".  He likes fish, beans, rice, and pretty much whatever leftovers you feed him.  We also have two baby kittens living in our research methods classroom.  They barely have their eyes open and are adorable!  Outside, we have seen tons of monkeys, bushbabies, some butterflies, a few bees, and mosquitoes.  Overall, the bugs here aren't bad at all.  The only time the mosquitoes seem to come out is during the evening, and since we don't walk around at night, we haven't gotten bitten very much. 
As for our dorm, we are in one of the dorm buildings in "Hall 3".  There are 7 "halls" on campus and each "hall" has about 4 or 5 dorm buildings.  There are ten floors on our building and we often get tired of climbing the stairs even though we are only on the fourth floor.  Mama Jane is our hall warden and lives in a building next to ours, and we go to her when we have issues with our room (or when we lock ourselves out :).  There is always a guard sitting in front of our dorm to make sure that nothing suspicious is happening.  As far as the other people living in our dorm, there is a group from Germany, and a group from Korea.  During the summer I think that most of the people who live in the dorms are foreigners or on an abroad program.  So far, we have had some interaction with these other groups, but haven't gotten to know them very well.  On our floor we have about 5 rooms.  Each is a double and comes with two closets, two desks, a balcony, and if you are lucky, two chairs.  The windows only have screens on them and at night it can be quite loud..  Each floor has a washroom with two utility sinks and a bathroom with two toilets, three sinks, a bathtub, and a shower.  There is no hot water here so showers are always taken cold.  My favorite nook is at the end of the hallway by the fire escape.  The fire escape is a spiral staircase outside (it's super sketchy) but has a landing on each of the floors where I often eat my breakfast.  I have taken to eating Weetabix (think shredded wheat biscuits) and bananas for breakfast.  Milk here is expensive and hard to keep since we don't have refrigerators so I have taken to eating my cereal with water.  It's pretty disgusting at first, but hey, I've gotten used to it.  The weetabix kind of makes an oatmeal like mush when you mix it with water.  Maybe I'll get more creative a little later on.  Some of us do peanut butter and jelly for breakfast and others just snack on crackers and juice.  So far, our main staples here in Tanzania that we get from the store include peanut butter, bread, jelly, jackers (Tanzanian pringles), cookies, crackers, and mango juice. 

What do you do with your tongue?

 

Our Classroom

Fish at the Market

Practicing Kiswahili

Octopus at the Market!

What do you do with your tongue?  For days now we have been trying to get the correct pronunciation of “j” in Swahili.  While most of the other letters of the alphabet are straightforward and easy to pronounce, for some reason, “j” is nearly impossible for us wazungu.  It’s a cross between a “y” and a “j” and I’m fairly certain that there is no correct pronunciation.  We have gotten so many different suggestions from so many different people that it’s crazy!  Finally, today in class someone asked the teacher, “What are you doing with your tongue when you pronounce “j”?”.  That made us all crack up, and while the teacher tried to explain it to us, we still don’t really understand.  Anyhow, by the time Swahili class is over, we are all extremely burned out and just want to curl up in a ball and take a nap.  Usually we are all “Swahili-ed out” by that time and aren’t very talkative.  Today we learned possessives “my, your, his, her, their” and how to talk about our families (brother, sister, ages, names, etc.).  I must say, we are getting pretty good!  This morning I was walking to the dorm when I was stopped by a Tanzanian lady who said hello and asked me how I was.  She then proceeded to ask me where I was from, what my name was, and where I was going (all in Swahili).  And I was able to successfully understand and answer all of her questions!  Then this afternoon we sat down with some of the dormitory staff and chatted with them for a while in Swahili.  And this evening while I was studying at the cafeteria, the kitchen workers came over and studied with me, teaching me new words, and learning their English equivalents.  Overall, it’s awesome that the people here are so willing to teach and to communicate with you.  I can’t even imagine what it would be like if nobody wanted to speak Kiswahili! 

This afternoon we ventured out to Ubungo, a nearby town with a market.  This market was fairly different than that at Mwenge, and contained more roadside stands than permanent shops.  I would compare it to a flea market, or a giant goodwill.  They had tons of clothes (mostly used), shoes, toothbrushes, soap, household items, jewelry, fruits, and vegetables.  I bought some bananas, a pair of athletic shorts for 6000 shillings ($4.00), and a dressy scarf for 2000 shillings ($1.50).  I am very excited about the shorts, only because I have one pair at the moment, and they have been getting quite dirty!  We’ve been hanging out a lot with Ryan and Bailey, the two students who are on the Lutheran Consortium Program.  Ryan is from St. Olaf and Bailey is from Concordia.  It’s nice to have some new faces around here! 

I think this week we are all in a little bit of a slump.  Everyone is still extremely happy to be here, but the “new and exciting” part has passed and now we have quite a bit of down time.  However, I’m not missing anything too much and we are managing just fine here. 

I thought I would give you guys a list of things that I have learned so far about Tanzania:

1.        People here do not pronounce it Tan-zah-NEE-ah, instead, they pronounce it Tan-ZAY-neeah

2.       Tanzanians talk extremely quietly.  It is nearly impossible to hear what they are saying!

3.       Swahili is a game of call and response.  Unlike in English, there is only one response to a question, rather than several responses.  For example: Hujambo? (How are you) Sijambo (I am fine).  There is literally no other response than that.  Apparently, you cannot be bad, or sad, or mad, you can only be fine.   Or mambo (hello), poa (hello).   Or habari gani (How are things), nzuri (fine). 

4.       Tanzanians eat using toothpicks.  Yes, that’s right, toothpicks.  You cut with a toothpick, stab with a toothpick, and eat with a toothpick.  Basically, it’s the poor man’s fork. 

5.       Large bills will get you in trouble at the cafeteria.  They DO NOT like to give change there. 

6.       Everything except for cheese is available here.  Forget what they said about pens, conditioner, and school supplies being available.  Those are available everywhere.  However, cheese and milk are not. 

7.       Tanzanians are willing to teach you anything when it comes to Swahili.  They all want to be your friend and get extremely excited when you speak to them in their language.

8.       Toilet paper is a luxury.  Public restrooms and restaurants often have squat toilets, and most of the time they do not have toilet paper in them.

9.       If you don’t like rice, you are doomed.  Rice for lunch, rice for dinner, rice for snack.  Rice, rice, rice. 
10.  Tanzanians drive on the right side of the road.  I'm sure it has to do with colonization by Britain somewhere way back when, but it's very confusing when you are trying to figure out what side of the road to walk on!

Kiswahili!!

Walking to Class

Hello Mr. Monkey

Swahili Word of the Day: Asante (Ah-sahn-tay) = Thank you

So today marks our second official Swahili lesson.  We have already learned so much and are very eager to use our Swahili to talk with others on campus.  We have one professor who directs the class and then have 4 or 5 teaching assistants who aid us in our study.  The first two hours of class are devoted to lecture and role play.  We typically learn a set of phrases or words (today was introductions and greetings) and then are asked to practice them in a group and prepare a dialogue to perform in front of the class.  We get lots of practice and seem to be going at a decent pace.  We get a break after the first two hours of class and then we split up into small groups of 4 students where we sit outside under the trees and practice conversing.  During this time we are also able to ask the teaching assistant about anything we are confused about, or about anything in particular that we would like to learn.  So far, in lecture we have learned basic greetings and introductions (my name is, I come from, I live at, nice to meet you, etc.).  We also picked our own Swahili name and our known exclusively by that name in Swahili Class.  My name is Amina (ah-mee-nah).  I’ll list a few names here to give you an idea about Swahili names: Sauda (sow-oo-dah), Fatuma (fah-toom-ah), Jamila (jahm-ee-lah), Tukae (too-kai), Bahati (bah-hah-tee), Musa (moo-sah), Mika (mee-kah), Siti (see-tee).  Today in our small groups, we learned the days of the week, foods, and how to say “I like….”.  It’s great to have such a wonderful group of students to practice with.  The class consists of ACM Tanzania students, so in total there are about 16 students in the class and 4 or 5 teachers.  We practice lots, especially outside of class when we talk to each other or to people on the street.  It’s nice to finally be able to respond to them when they talk to us!  Just today, I was at the bank talking with a Tanzanian woman and she asked me where I was from.  Luckily, that was one of the phrases we learned today and I was able to say “Nanatoka Marekani” (I come from America).  She was so thrilled that I answered in Swahili!  The Tanzanian people here are always willing to teach us Swahili and often prompt us with the correct response or greeting when we don’t understand them or know how to reply.  It’s so nice that they embrace us wazungo (foreigners).  This afternoon was spent reading, walking to hill park store to buy a cereal bowl (it was 15 cents), and just lazing around.  Dinner was rather unfortunate as we went to the cafeteria only to discover that they were out of food.  We then trekked to the Kiswahili Café, only to find that they were closed.  We finally made it to Hill Park, a restaurant on campus, where they were out of ugali, njegere, and maharagwe, but still had rice and beef stew.  So, we had some of that and it was really quite good.  A nice change of pace from our usual cafeteria fare of rice and okra or rice and peas.  Anyhow, Colleen and I hung out at the Godde’s house for a little while and now I’m back at the dorm.  Looking forward to another day of Kiswahili tomorrow.  Hopefully it won’t seem like four hours long!

Erin

Sunday = Day of Rest

Wali na Bamia (Rice and Okra)

Wali na Ngejere (Rice and Peas)

So I was sitting in my dorm, happily replying to some e-mails when all of a sudden, the power went out.  GREAT.  Well, I suppose it’s been about 24 hours since our last one, so we were about due for a power outage.  And, on the plus side, we haven’t had water all day.  We got back from the beach all salty and sandy and some of us still haven’t showered because there isn’t any water.  This morning I made do with a bucket shower (sometimes I wonder if I will ever get clean using a bucket to shower with) and managed to do some laundry with some water we reserved.  I’m not too confident that my clothes got very clean, but perhaps I’ll be pleasantly surprised.  Laundry is yet another thing that us wazungos don’t know how to do.  That, along with using a squat toilet (are you supposed to put the toilet paper in the hole?) and flushing a toilet when the water is out (do you pour water in to flush it or just wait to flush until the water comes back on?).  I’m sure the Africans would laugh at us if we ever asked them these questions, but honestly, these are things that most Americans have never had to deal with. 

Last night we finally got dinner around 9:00 p.m.  As always, our dinner was on Tanzanian time.  We were all famished and anxious to get to our roast beef and potatoes that Mr. Godde had ordered for us from the cafeteria.  We were so hungry that we started talking about all of the foods we craved from America.  BAD IDEA.  When the food finally came and we realized that it was wali na kuku (rice and chicken), we were severely disappointed.  I cannot tell you how many times in the last week I have had wali na _____ (fill in the blank) for a meal.  It’s probably been at least 10 times.  But, it was food, and it managed to fill us up. 

This morning was our first lazy day here in Tanzania.  We had absolutely nothing scheduled, which was nice for a change.  I got up and did some laundry, filtered some water, and cleaned up a little.  Then Brennan, Jen, Shaye, and I went on a monkey hunt to find some monkeys (they aren’t too hard to find!).  We sat and watched the monkeys for about an hour, just observing them and their behavior.  I took a walk around campus and ate some lunch (fried sausage, bread and butter, and a banana).  It was a very makeshift lunch, but the cafeteria wasn’t serving lunch yet so I made do with some street food.  I also cracked open my loaf of bread from the store, which tasted surprisingly good.  I always crave plain bread when I’m away, so it was nice to have that.  After lunch I went around campus collecting leaves from some of the trees and identifying the trees using a book from Mr. Godde’s house.  It was quite fun and gave me a little project for the day.  So far, I have identified bougainvillea, aloe, pulmeria, and a handful of other trees and shrubs.  My goal is to learn as many as I can!  We just got back from dinner at the cafeteria (wali na bamia) and now are here sitting in the dark.  Tomorrow we start Kiswahili and I am so excited!  We made friends with the cafeteria workers today, but they know very little English, so it will be great to talk to them in Swahili.  I’m off to play bananagrams right now, talk to you later!

Erin

Our Own Little Paradaise



Bongoyo Island



Our Boat



Our Beach Hut

 Today was amazing! We woke up early, took a couple of dala dala’s to the coast, and then got on a boat to head out to Bongoyo Island.  The boat was a single masted small ship, that had just enough room for all of us to fit in it.  The sea was fairly calm, although we had a few who felt a little motion sick toward the end of the ride.  We reached the island and our eyes met beautiful white sand, turquoise blue water, and rustic cabana style huts.  The island is a fairly small one, and we had it completely to ourselves until about 10:00 when another ship arrived with tourists.  The island boasts one restaurant, which serves fish and chips, as well as beach huts and snorkel gear for renting.  We changed and snagged some snorkel fins and headed back out on the boat to the snorkeling area around the bend.  We jumped from the ship into the water and were immediately immersed in an array of sea life.  Now I have to say, I am very spoiled in that I learned to snorkel in Hawaii, where the fish and reefs are absolutely stunning, and unfortunately, all other snorkeling now pares in comparison.  However, it was still neat to see the fish, coral, anemones, and sea urchins.  I even saw a box fish!  The water was about 10 feet deep and somewhat murky, but contained lots of coral and sea plants.  After climbing back in the boat, we headed back to shore for some lunch: the local special of freshly caught fish and fried chips (French fries).  This was my first time eating a whole fish and I was very proud of myself!  Looking at the fish’s eye while eating it is somewhat creepy, but we all managed to get over that part.  Then it was off for a hike into the inner part of the island.  Mr. Godde, Colleen and I went for the hike and followed a trail that led to the other side of the island.  When we went to take a different trail back, we ended up getting lost, and it took us about three times as long to get back to our cabana as it did to go to the other side of the island.  But, on the bright side, Colleen and I were master shell hunters and found two HUGE conch shells that we plan on adding to our collection.  While on the beach, we also saw a tide pool that was filled with enormous eels (think 4 inches in diameter and 3 feet long).  They looked like something out of Harry Potter!  And, much to Trudy’s dismay, we saw a giant python curled up on a rock off of the trail.  The highlight of the day was definitely….EVERYTHING.  It was an awesome adventure and I can’t wait to see what the other weekend trips bring.  Supposedly they are even better!  All of us are salt covered now, and waiting for dinner at 8:00 which is at the Godde’s house.  Yet, none of us are able to take showers because the water is out yet again.  I think I may start a count of the days where we have both power and electricity for the entire day.  So far, our count would be zero.  Anyway, talk to you all later!

Erin

Kumi Wazungu (10 Americans)

Our Dorm Building

Colleen and My Dorm Room

Breakfast at the Cafeteria

We this afternoon was an adventure to say the least! After the morning run, we went on a nature hike through the African jungle.  Ok, so I’ll confess, it was just through the forest by the university, but it felt like our own mini safari.  We then went to lunch at the cafeteria – wali na ngejere-as usual (rice and peas) with a side of watermelon.  From there, we took two dala dala’s to get to the U.S. Embassy downtown.  After being thoroughly checked by the security there, we spoke with two American individuals in charge of the embassy on safety abroad.  It was a good lecture and they were able to tell us exactly where NOT to go and what NOT to do while in Tanzania.  For example, pornography, along with homosexuality, and marijuana are extremely illegal.  From there we killed some time at the shopping center which was the most modern building we had been in yet!  They even had a Subway restaurant and an Apple store!  I bought some much needed bread and peanut butter there while the others gathered some goodies from the supermarket as well.  At 6:00 we headed to Addis in Dar, an Ethiopian restaurant downtown.  It was AMAZING.  The restaurant is set out on a deck with candles and small little wicker tables to eat at.  You order a combo meal with the person sitting across from you and it contains 3 or 4 different dishes.  We ordered one of the vegetarian combos and one of the chicken combos as well.  The dishes come on a huge platter (think two feet in diameter) lined with Ethiopian flat bread.  We had lentils, chicken, lamb, chickpea patties, and a variety of other dishes on our platter.  They then give you sourdough bread to dip in the meat and eat.  It was all excellent.  Our ride back to campus was a little hectic as it was dark outside and the dala dala’s were very crowded.  The title for this blog comes from our bus ride, where Brennan attempted to pay for all 10 of us Americans.  We tried and tried to communicate to them that we were paying for all ten of us, and they finally understood once we translated it into Swahili.  We eventually made it back safe and sound and now are all very tired.  Thankfully, the water had come back on at that point and we were able to wash up before bed.  Tomorrow, yet another adventure awaits as we listen to a cultural lecture on Tanzania and then start our first class (research methods).  And Saturday, we get to visit Bongoyo, an island off the coast of Dar where we will get to snorkel, hike, and eat freshly caught fish.  It should be tons of fun!  Anyway, off to lecture.  Adios for now!

Erin

Yes, We Have No Water

Laundry Room

Bathroom

We woke up this morning and Zach and Brennan and I went on a quick jog around the university.  It was good to get out and see some life in the morning and the temperature was quite decent (probably around 75).  We came back to find that the water was out in the dorms, which is not too big of an issue except for the fact that I was drenched in sweat and really wanted a nice shower.  So, I took to taking a shower with a bucket.  We keep extra jugs of water filled in the washroom so that when the power does run out, we still have water to wash our faces and do our laundry with.  (Laundry is an challenge that I have yet to undertake).  We will see when our water comes back on!  But, on the plus side, we do have electricity, and I managed to get our converter working and I charging my camera on it. 

Last night we all went to UDASA, which is a bar just outside the university.  The bar boasts a projector with a big screen where they show local sports games on TV.  We watched the REAL Madrid vs. Spain soccer game and ordered some food.  It was my first introduction to ugali, a stiff cornmeal mush made from white corn and rolled into a huge ball.  Basically, it looks like a snowball as big as your hand and has the consistency of stiff mashed potatoes.  You are expected to use the ugali as a spoon, rolling it between your hands and scooping up beans and meat with it.  It is fairly tasteless, and could use some salt in my opinion, but it is good once you dip it in meat or gravy.  There was a little mix-up with the check as we were charged an outrageous amount for our chicken (they charged us 23,000 shillings for 2.5 orders of chicken which were supposed to be included in our meal price of 5000 shillings).  But, we ultimately had to pay and laughed it off when we realized we had paid about $25 for 7 of us for dinner-far cheaper than America!  Our meals at the cafeteria are the cheapest and usually cost about 50 cents or a dollar for rice, meat, and a drink.  You can always get fresh fruit at the cafeteria, which is especially nice (bananas, papaya, watermelon, and cucmber).  Meals out at restaurants typically cost a little more, around $3-4 a meal, but it is still very cheap.  The conversion rate here, if anyone is wondering, is about 1500 shillings to 1 dollar.  We’ve been getting very good at doing math in our heads!  This morning I had some cereal, milk, and a banana for breakfast which I purchased yesterday at the store.  I’m not quite sure if I’ll ever eat that again here.  Warm milk on cereal is definitely not that great, and although I thought that the cereal would mask the taste of the milk, it clearly didn’t.  If there is one thing that is for sure, it is that I am definitely going to be calcium deprived here!  In Ecuador, they had cheese in just about every soup and rice dish.  And plus, we had milk at breakfast every morning.  But here, milk is never served with meals and I have yet to see any cheese. Good thing I brought my vitamins! 

Mambo! [Hello]

Our Glorious Breakfast

I slept like a rock last night. It was wonderful.  We headed to Mr. Godde’s house for breakfast and were attacked with a pile of forms as high as my head (ok, not really, but there were a LOT of forms to fill out for the university).  It was all a trick! Tempt us with breakfast then spring a bunch of forms on us! Well we got the forms filled out and settled outside for our breakfast catered by the cafeteria workers.  It was some interesting food, picked out by our very own, Mr. Godde himself (although he didn’t have a clue what he was choosing at the time).  Breakfast consisted of Fried bread, more fried bread, hot dogs, and fried plantains.  I can safely say that I got all of my food groups in that meal: fat, cholesterol, processed meat, and more cholesterol. Haha, it was good though, even if it was a little weird.  We were introduced to some of the faculty members at the university and then were given a break.  I went back to the room and read while some others went to eat some chips Maii at the cafeteria (an omelet made out of eggs and French fries).  We then got a health talk in the afternoon by the health center officials which basically consisted of “don’t get AIDS”.  The highlight of our day was visiting Mwenge, the town outside of the university which has a huge market.  We rode in a dala dala, a short mini bus crammed full of people for 300 shillings (15 cents).  It was a tight fit and a bumpy ride!  The market was wonderful with tons of fresh fruits, beautiful paintings, handmade clothes, and other trinkets.  We were all so overwhelmed that we decided we would have to come back another time to purchase gifts and goods.  Lara, I saw so much that you would have loved there!  And dad, I did find your musical instrument there, but I thought that maybe I could find a better one somewhere else.  Anyway, I ate at the cafeteria when I came back and had wali na njgerere (I’ll get a proper spelling on that soon) which consisted of rice with peas.  I then went to the shop at the university to finally get some shampoo.  Now we are sitting in my dark dorm room, waiting for the power to turn back on. It’s been out all day and Colleen and I are dying to see if our new power converter works.  Well, my laptop is out of juice.  I may not post this for a couple days depending on when we get power back.  Hope all is well back in the states!

Erin

Sewage Popcorn and Buttery Dirt (Finally in Tanzania)

Dala Dala Ride to Campus

Climbing up 8 flights of stairs with two suitcases is NOT my idea of fun

So, I've finally reached Tanzania! The last flight was great and I seriously LOVE Swiss Air.  Not only did we get pizza, icecream, a chicken dish, and swiss chocolate, but we also got warm towels handed to us to wash our hands with.  It was fabulous.  We had a stopover in Kenya and it was my first real look at Africa.  Everything was so brown! We learned that Kenya and Somalia are experiencing one of their worst droughts in 50 years.  Only one more hour and we reached Tanzania! It was dark out so I didn't get to see much, but we arrived safely out of the airport and realized that Professor Godde was nowhere to be found. But alas, we eventually found him and made our way up to the cafeteria at the airport to wait for the other flight to get in.  We had our first Tanzanian food: bitter lemon soda and samosas.  All 12 of us then piled into the bus with all of our luggage (it was a tight squeeze) and made our way to the dorms.  The reason for the title on this post is that our first smells of Tanzania were described as firework-like, popcorn sewage, and buttery dirt.  We were all quite delirious after our flights and had a good laugh at this.   The dorms are very similar to those that I stayed in during my internship in Mexico.  Very simple towers with a central stairs and washroom on each floor.  Let me just say that never again will I bring a rolling suitcase with me to Africa.  It was fabulous in the airport, but absolutely terrible trying to get it up 7 flights of stairs.  We were all huffing and puffing by the end of it!  Our rooms are suprisingly nice, we each have a twin bed with mosquito net, a closet, a desk, a chair, and a bucket for laundry.  In addition, we also have a patio.  We unpacked and went to bed (by that time it was one o'clock in the morning and I was so excited that I was afraid I wouldn't be able to sleep).  It was really warm and humid during the night and I only slept with a sheet on. 
We woke up the next morning at 8:30 in time for breakfast at 9:30 at the cafeteria.  We ate chapati (flatbread), andazi (fried dough), omelettes, and fruit (watermelon, papaya, banana, oranges, and strangely enough, cucumber).  There was also juice, which we think was made of kiwi and plantain.  We had a quick little tour around campus and got to see Professor Godde's house and then went to the security orientation at the police station.  We saw many monkeys and an egret on our way! We also received our schedules for classes and realized that we start Swahili on Monday and Research Methods on Friday.  We are so excited to learn swahili! One interesting thing about the professor's house, is that they have 2 guards that watch it 24/7.  How crazy is that! Although I don't feel too unsafe here, so far, no one has done anything remotely pushy or offensive.  We headed back to the dorms to relax for the afternoon and many of the jet lagged took a nap.  Later, we went to dinner at the cafeteria and it was quite an adventure.  We didn't know what many of the words on the menu board were, so we guessed and just ordered blindly.  We ended up with rice and beef, rice and okra, or rice and sardines.  I tried the sardines and almost gagged.  I'm not so sure I could have choked that plate down.  We found several stones in our rice and that was a little bit surprising.  I also had some watermelon to wash it all down. 
Now we are hanging out in one of the dorm rooms.  Thankfully I found someone's outlet that worked and was able to charge my dead computer.  I'm not sure if the internet here is good enough for skype, but we are still figuring things out.  Tomorrow, we are hoping to go to the market in town after breakfast at Mr. Godde's house.  The store here on campus has everything anyone could ever want, including towels, school supplies, flip flops, and shampoo.  So far, I don't think I have forgotten anything, but I do wish I had a converter that worked!  I'll hopefully be able to post pictures when the connection is better.  Talk to you soon!
Erin

In Zurich, Switzerland

So we made it to Switzerland! It's noon here and 4:55 a.m. back home.  Not quite sure how much sleep I got on the flight but it will have to suffice since we are going out to explore the city today!  The staff on the flight were amazing and the food was SO good. I never thought I would be saying that about airplane food, but seriously, they served us hot fresh rolls for dinner, with chicken, rice, a wonderful green salad, and brownie for dessert.  And they also gave us breakfast!  And to top it off, there was no one sitting in the seat next to me so I got two seats all to myself!  Only minor issue: I had expected to get my checked bags in Zurich, but apparently they are being sent straight through to Dar.  But, I think I have everything I need, minus any new clothes.  We found the shuttle to the hotel all right and are now waiting for our room.  They switched us from a 2 person to a 3 person room so now all three of us have a bed!  The weather is absolutely beautiful here.  Probably 70 degrees and sunny.  Looking forward to exploring the city today and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.



In the Chicago Airport

Switzerland!

Waiting for our hotel room

I Leave Tomorrow!

Well everyone, I leave tomorrow (did I really just type that?).  I never thought I would actually be saying that! It seems like such a long time ago that I was at St. Olaf applying for the program.  I've been packing like crazy and think I am finally set (minus the textbook that has yet to come in the mail).  I will have to post pictures of me at the airport tomorrow with all of my luggage because it's a pretty hilarious sight!  I managed to fit everything in my backpacking backpack and a small suitcase, which is a feat in itself, considering that I need to bring 4 months worth of possessions.  So far, I believe I am still under the weight limit of 50 pounds, although just barely.  The 4 textbooks and 5 bottles of contact solution are really weighing me down!  But, that being said, I think I've got just about everything I'll need. 
Yesterday it finally hit me that I'm leaving.  And now I am in my "let me just sit and do nothing and savor the fact that I am in my own house for the last time in 4.5 months" mode.  I don't know if any of you have ever experienced that feeling before, but I definitely get it before every big trip I take.  I did manage to get out for a last run here in the United States (I'm not planning on doing much running there as it will be very, very hot and humid, and possibly dangerous) and it was great, although I can't say I remember much of the run.  My mind was going a million miles an hour thinking about Tanzania so I'm not quite sure that I registered the fact that I was running.  And I've got to talk to and see many close friends in the past few days which has been wonderful. 
Well, my flight leaves tomorrow at 7:15 pm from Chicago and I have multiple connecting flights before I actually make it to Tanzania.  We have a 22 hour layover in Switzerland and I hope to get some internet there before heading off to Africa.  All in all, I hope things go smoothly tomorrow (and for the next 2 days of travel).  I'll update as soon as I can!
Erin

T-Minus 12 Days and Counting

Where in the world has the summer gone?  I have 4 days left here at Iowa State and then I pack up and head home for a week before leaving for Tanzania.  It's hard to believe that it's only 12 days away.  I think it's finally starting to set in.  I had to say goodbye to my sister yesterday.  She is leaving today to go to France to visit our foreign exchange student Aurelie.  It will be her first real travel adventure by herself and I am so excited for her! That being said, I won't see her for 5 months and that will definitely be rough.  I ordered the last of my textbooks today.  Hopefully, I will be able to leave them in Tanzania so that I will have more room to bring back souvenirs!  My new sleeping bag just came in the mail and my camp towel should be arriving soon.  I've got all of my things for Tanzania packed up in a laundry basket right now, so the only difficult part now should be making everything fit.  Well, I'm back to work here at Iowa State.  I'll be updating you as things get a little closer!