African Wedding

Yesterday we got invited to attend a send-off party for the daughter of one our professors.  The send-off party is a pre-wedding event where the groom's family offers the bride's family gifts and the bride's family gives away their daughter to the groom.  We hitched a ride via a chartered daladala to Mbezi Beach, about 20 minutes away from the University.  The party was at the Skyline Motel, which was a typical wedding reception building (but think Tanzanian style and a little more upscale).  They had air conditioning!!! We entered the building and everyone was dressed very formally (heels, dresses, and suits), plus there was also a lot of traditional African clothing, especially worn by the men.  The room was decorated in cream, black, and fuschia, and was quite beautiful.  They had music playing and a live camera man who was shooting the event and playing it on a projector. We sat at a table and were offered drinks by the waitress.  The ceremony began at about 8:30 when the groom's family arrived carrying gifts for the bride's family (bananas, soda, spirits, and a few other items).  There was a whole ritual in which the groom's family presented the bride's family with the gifts.  In order to accept the gifts, the bride's family had to taste the whiskey brought by the groom's family, in order to make sure the gifts were of good enough quality in order to be accepted.  After that, the men in the groom's family took turns asking the bride's family for permission for their son to marry their daughter.  Then, the bride was presented along with her maid of honor and her family.  There was a ceremony where the groom had to "discover" his bride among the women and she was revealed to him.  Her father gave her his blessing and they popped champagne to celebrate.  Then, we all got up and began to wave our hankerchiefs and dance around.  We all had glasses and were supposed to try to toast and dance with everyone in the room.  Later on, we watched a traditional song and dance performed by a woman and three men in grass skirts and traditional African wear.  After the bride presented her family and the groom's family with two tiers of her wedding cake, and proceded to cut the wedding cake, we finally got to eat!  We were so hungry! It was 11:00 pm by that time and we were famished even though we had been drinking bottomless drinks the entire time.  I had hoped that because this was a wedding reception, there would be different food than rice and chicken, but alas, we had the usual wali na kuku (rice and chicken).  There were, however, a variety of other dishes including a salad, plantains, peas, lamb, pilau, and noodles.  It tasted great! And best of all, there was cake to finish it off!  We left fairly soon after we ate, since we had class this morning at 8:30.  Classes went well today and I think I'm starting to adjust to the 8:30-4:45 school schedule.  Although, everytime I get out of class I feel like the whole day is gone!  Tomorrow is more classes, but this weekend we are going to Bagamoyo, another island off the coast of Tanzania.  I'm pretty excited!  Well, I'm going to say goodbye for now.
Erin
Swahili Word of the Day: Maji (Mah-Jhee) - Water

School

Today marks the first day of our official school schedule.  We had Kiswahili as usual from 8:30-12:30, then had Human Evolution from 1:30-3:30 and Research Methods from 3:45-4:45.  Needless to say, we are all very tired from our classes!  Right now I'm at the Godde's house snacking on some rice curry and chapati and working on some homework.  Our schedule for the week will be school every day from 8:30-4:45 with three classes a day.  Not much else to say here. I think I'll head to the store on campus in a little and pick up some snacks.  Talk to you later!
Erin

Tanga Fresh

The Crocodile-Filled River

On our bikes!

One of the cutest little kids EVER!

Liz and I in the Caves

This weekend we visited Tanga, home of Tanga Fresh, the local dairy.  Although we didn't actually see the dairy, we did bike around town, explore the Amboni caves, visit the hot springs, and ride in a dugout canoe. 
The weekend started on Friday after Swahili Class when we took a five hour bus trip to Tanga.  Our bus was extremely nice by Tanzanian standards (air conditioning and a tv that played the same music videos over and over).  We thought the TV was great until we heard Shakira's Waka Waka song 5 times in a row.  We made it to Tanga at about 7:30 and caught a daladala to the Hotel.  The hotel was nice and served us dinner when we got there.  I had fish curry and rice!  We checked out our rooms after dinner and boy were they sweet!  Chelsea, Abby, and I shared a room with one single bed and one king bed.  We had our own bathroom with a flush toilet and a shower, and we even had a balcony with a futon and chair.  It was great.  Plus, the rooms had air conditioning!!!!  We slept wonderfully, especially with the sound of the fan drowning out all of the animal and street noises we are used to hearing.  When we woke up, we headed to breakfast which consisted of tea, coffee, toast, omelettes, and bananas.  Then, it was off to the bike shop to rent bikes.  We had sweet old style cruiser bikes with no gears and only semi-functional brakes.  We rode about 3 miles to the Amboni caves where our guide gave us a tour of two different caves.  There are no walkways or lights in these caves so we had to bring lanterns and explore them ourselves.  We saw tons of bats!  The second cave was...err...interesting to say the least.  It was named, "the gender cave" because aparently, all of the rock formations in the cave look like male and female genitalia.  Our guide pointed some of these formations out to us and we couldn't help but laugh!  After the caves, we biked to the hot springs, which involved stopping and parking our bikes at the nearby village, and crossing the river by dugout canoe.  These were the coolest canoes I have ever been in-they were literally huge logs that were carved out by hand.  We crossed in groups of 4 or 5 with the guide and then hiked to the hot springs.  Along the way, we all had to try climbing the huge palm trees (they cut notches in the trees so locals can climb up and get the coconuts).  We even saw one guy climb a palm tree without any notches or footholds.  The hot springs smelled of rotten eggs and were the strangest blue-green color I have ever seen. Supposedly the springs will cure any skin ailment.  We biked back to the hotel and then ate linner (it was like 5 oclock by this time!) at the Food Palace.  I got a cheeseburger and fries! Real cheese :)  And to think that I don't even like cheeseburgers in the U.S.   We hung out at the hotel and chatted before heading off to bed.  The highlight of the evening was when the power came back on and I was able to take my first warm shower in 3 weeks. It was heaven. 
Sunday we woke up and had breakfast (the same as Saturday).  We went to the market and store and then trekked to the bus for our ride back.  It was a long and sticky ride to Dar and it took nearly 7.5 hours.  This bus was packed and there wasn't air conditioning so we were hot nearly the entire time!  We had spring rolls, sambusas, falafel, and other fried goods for lunch. The best part of the trip was that I got to hold a darling little African baby for 2 hours on the bus! She was so cute and she even fell asleep in my arms. I definitely got my kid fix today.  When we were at the village by the river on Saturday, we also played with the kids and they were great fun.  We took their pictures, and many of them were afraid at first, but after we showed them their pictures, they wouldn't let us stop!  They were so much fun.  Anyway, that was this weekend. Now it's back to work....this week is death week.  We start Human evolution and ecology classes this week, which means we have class every day from 8:30-4:45.  It's going to be rough but I will be so smart once it's over!  Well, that's all for now, adios!
Erin
Swahili Word of the Day: Mamba (Mahm-bah)-Crocodile
P.S. Although we didn't see any, our guide said that there were crocodiles in the river that we crossed!

Blah

Forgive me, I couldn't come up with a good title for this blog!  We are all kind of in a "blah" mood today.  It is our first day back at school today and it was a little rough after two days off.  Plus, everyone else in Tanzania was celebrating Eid today instead of yesterday so the campus was a ghost town.  Literally there was no one around!  All of the restaurants on campus were closed and even some of the classrooms were locked.  We had class in a different classroom and our Swahili instructor decided to lecture for 4 hours instead of the normal 2 hours of lecture, 2 hours of small group.  Needless to say, we all walked out of there like zombies.  A few of us went to the engineering cafeteria for the first time, and it was decent.  We went in search of ugali (the staple food of Tanzania-it is a sticky cornmeal dough/mush) but they did not have any today.  We had rice and beans along with a beef stew type dish.  There wasn't a whole lot of meat in the stew but the broth was good!  This afternoon I went to Mlimani City to the mall to pick up some groceries for our 5 hour busride tomorrow to Tanga.  I got sandwiches (pre-made at the deli) and Spinach to make a salad. I'm so excited for leafy greens!  Let's just hope I washed them well enough so I don't get sick.  Right now I'm using the Godde's hot water pitcher to boil water for my water bottles.  It's much easier than pumping water!  Tonight I'll pack for Tanga and maybe practice some Swahili.  And tomorrow....Tanga! For those of you who don't know, Tanga is 5 hours north of here and has a bunch of caves that we get to explore.  We are all pretty psyched because we will be staying in a hotel, and plus, there are hot springs nearby! I'll take lots of pictures and hopefully will be able to post them when I get back!
Erin
P.S. I almost forgot the Swahili word of the day: ndizi - banana
You say it nnn-dee-zee, with the "nnn" part sounding like "mmm" but with an "n" :)

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