Eggplant and Mango

So I’ve had a little bit of time on my hands here in Tanzania.  And yesterday, after studying, reading, checking my email, coloring, and working on my paper, I officially ran out of things to do.  So, I decided to cook.  I bought some eggplant and garlic and made myself some lovely ratatouille with pasta.  It was delicious!  Plus, it’s kind of exciting because I get to introduce the family to new foods. 

This evening, I just finished making a batch of mango jam.  And let me tell you, I think it’s going to be delicious!  It was incredibly easy: 3 mangoes, 1 c. water, 1.5 c. sugar, 1 tbs vinegar, and a pinch of salt.  Just simmer away until it thickens and voila, jam! 

Today I woke up and did some laundry.  I only managed to wash my underwear since I just didn’t have the motivation to do all of my laundry (it would have taken me hours).   I studied for our human evolution final and read a little.  Then, I went to church with Mama Frida.  We went to the church on campus and it was in all Swahili, but it was amazing how much of it I could understand. I especially liked listening to the choir.  The service was a little long (10:00-12:30) but I enjoyed getting a taste of the Tanzanian culture.  I haven’t heard from Liz or Abby yet, but apparently the church service they went to today goes from 10:00 to 4:00.  How crazy!  I ate lunch at the cafeteria as usual (rice and beans).  It’s really nice to have a communal eating area.  There is always someone from our group at the cafeteria so you never have to eat alone.  Then I went back to the Godde’s and worked on REU applications and my paper.  Again, it’s wonderful to have a communal place to go to.  Most of us go to the Godde’s house to hang out at least once a day, so there are always a ton of people there!  I came back to the house after that and now am helping Diana cook dinner.  We are having rice, leftover eggplant, cabbage, and meat.  This evening Lauren and some others are going to a pizza restaurant in downtown Dar and another group is going to Samaki Samaki restaurant at Mlimani City.  I didn’t really feel like spending money, so I’m just staying in. 

So I know I’ve talked about having so much downtime on the program, but having downtime here is so much different than downtime in the field.  In the field, we were all together.  So even when no one was doing anything, at least you had the company of everyone else.  Here, with our homestays, we are so much more isolated.  I wasn’t homesick at all in Tarangire, but here, I definitely am.  Maybe it’s the fact that the end of the program is so near (less than two weeks!) or maybe it’s just the fact that I get lonely not seeing everyone.  Also, this is random but I never realized how close we are to the ocean.  I understand that Dar is on the coast, but I never realized how close the university was to downtown Dar.  Traffic is so bad in Dar that it usually takes us 40 minutes to get downtown.  But the other day I was running up a huge hill outside campus and when I got to the top, I could see the ocean!  It was mind boggling!  Hah, oh the things you continue to learn here, even after 4 months. 

Hope all is well back home.  Miss you guys!

Erin

Swahili Word of the Day: Embe [EMM-bay] = mango

Happy Thanksgiving

Can I tell you just how weird it is that yesterday was Thanksgiving?  It’s 90 degrees here with a TON of humidity and we are all sweating profusely…and yet they claim that it’s Thanksgiving.  Weird.  Yesterday we took our ecology final in the morning.  It went surprisingly well.   Keep in mind that this is the professor who asked us on the first exam who the authors of our textbook were.  On our final, he only had one random question, so hopefully we all did well!  We will know our grades by the end of the program.  Also, our professor claimed that we needed our student ID’s for the exam and that he wouldn’t let us take the exam without them.  However, my ID had gotten pickpocketed at Mwenge a while back so I no longer had it.  So, the other day, I had to go to the student ID office and ask about getting a new one.  Well apparently it is a long and complicated process which involves going to downtown Dar for a police report, then coming to the UDSM police station to get another police report, going to the Dean’s office to get a signature, paying 10,000 Tsh to the bank, and then finally getting your ID.  Fortunately, I was able to forego some of these steps because I told them I had my exam the next day, but it was still a huge hassle. 

Thanksgiving yesterday was at the Azura health center (think spa on the beach) and was sponsored by the U.S. Embassy.  We got to meet the U.S. Embassador to Tanzania and also got to talk with many other Americans.  It was so weird being in a huge room filled with white people!  The program included speeches by a variety of U.S. Embassy officials as well as a charity raffle.  Zach ended up winning a gift certificate to a produce store while Jen won a night at a hotel for two.  The food was absolutely wonderful and was cooked by several of the Embassy families.  They had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, green beans, broccoli, corn, rolls, and macaroni and cheese.  And for dessert, they had probably 40 different pies!  Apple pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, walnut pie, cheesecake, mud pie, cherry pie.  I had mud pie and it was SOOO good.  After dinner a few went swimming in the pool or walked along the beach.  Overall, it was probably the weirdest Thanksgiving I will ever experience in my life, but it was worth it.  I only wish that I were able to be with my family on this wonderful holiday.  I hope that Thanksgiving was spectacular for all of you.  Don’t forget to be thankful for what you have.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned here in Africa, it’s that there are so many things to be thankful for that we don’t often consider.  As for me, I’d like to be thankful for the fact that I have running water, a bed, and a toilet back home in America.   

And as for Lauren, well she is grateful that she didn’t get shanked or killed last night.  All of her things got stolen last night at the beach, so today has been spent cancelling credit cards and filing police reports.  Thankfully, she didn’t have her passport with her, but almost everything else of value got stolen (credit cards, debit cards, cash, camera, phone, etc).  They even stole her shoes and underwear!  Needless to say, today was a major bummer. 

This afternoon I went shopping with Trudy and Colleen at Mwenge for some last minute gift items.  It was sooo hot!  I am sitting here sweating writing this blog.  Anyway, I’m off to play cards at the boys’ house.  Talk to you later!

Erin

Another Day In The Life [Back at the University]

So today was yet another eventful day in the life of Erin Frankson. Hah, we have so little to do right now, it’s not even funny.  This morning I woke up and ate some breakfast.  The cereal I got at the grocery store is delicious! And I even had milk with it.  It’s going to be strange trying to reintroduce my body to dairy.  Plus, my host family served us bananas with breakfast too.  Mama Frida is all worried that Lauren and I aren’t eating breakfast, but we tell her that we eat every day!  She is rarely around when we eat breakfast so most of the time she doesn’t see us.  But, as a result, we are now getting more fruit since she is convinced that we don’t want to eat “Tanzanian” food. 

At 8:30 I met Liz at the Kiswahili Café for an ecology study session.  We stayed there and studied for 3 hours before calling it quits.  Liz happily ate 5 sambusas J  Then I headed to the post office to mail some postcards and proceeded to sit under a tree and read my book before lunch.  I met Liz, Zach, and Abby for lunch at the cafeteria and had rice and peas with pineapple.  We headed separate ways after lunch and I went back to my host family’s house.  I was pretty bored out of my skull.  I ended up watching Jersey Shore on my Itunes since it was the only television show I had.  Apparently I must have downloaded it sometime when it was free on Itunes.  I colored some pictures, cleaned my room, and then braved the heat for an evening run.  It was short and I was drenched in sweat by the time I returned.  I sat in front of the fan in my room for a while just so I could cool off.  I walked over to dorm 3 and took a shower and now here I am, waiting for dinner to be served. 

I listened to music for a while and got a little homesick.  Sometimes there are just certain things like music and television that make you miss home.  I will admit though, I love having the university full of students!  It makes life so much more interesting and I actually feel like I am a part of the university now.  All of the buildings are open whereas before they were closed or abandoned and all of the dorms are completely full.  It’s nice to see so many people! 

Well, it’s off to dinner now.  I think it’s rice and beans and cabbage.  Talk to you later!

Swahili Word of the Day: Chuo kikuu [CHOO-oh kee-KOO] = university

Holy Heatstroke

After 11 hours of riding on a bus, we finally arrived back in Dar es Salaam the day before last.  The bus ride was actually quite nice – we got served drinks, snacks, water, and candy, and we even got to watch Harry Potter!  Lauren and I made it back to our host family’s house and crashed.  I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before, so it was good to finally be in a bed again.  Yesterday I picked up my things at the Godde’s house, did some grocery shopping at Mlimani City, and explored a new cafeteria on campus.  This new cafeteria is awesome!  It has rice, ugali, pasta, pilau, beans, peas, chipsi mayai – everything anyone could ever want.  And plus, there are a ton of fruit stands in the cafeteria and they serve mango, pineapple, papaya, bananas, oranges, and watermelon.  There are so many choices!  It’s funny just how many people are on campus now.  All the dorms are full and every building is bustling.  Apparently the university has been pretty wild lately.  There have been protests about funding and loans for the university, and apparently the university was on the verge of shutdown a week ago.  10 students got arrested and put in jail, but thankfully the students protested and got them out.  Things seemed to have calmed down now, but there are still a ton of people on campus. 

Dar is extremely humid.  I think that it’s about as hot as Tarangire, but there is 100% humidity, which makes life a little difficult.  I sweat profusely just walking anywhere.  It’s crazy!  It’s also weird being isolated, and not with the group anymore.  We are so used to seeing each other every day, that I feel like I don’t know what to do with myself when I’m by myself. 

Last night we went to Posta for Liz’s birthday and ate at an Indian restaurant.  I had naan and lentils, and the food was really good.  We have officially decided to go to the American Consulate’s Thanksgiving feast.  They are holding a Thanksgiving dinner at the embassy for all of the Americans in Tanzania and we are all planning on going as a group.  Rumor has it that they have real turkey, stuffing, and even pumpkin pie! 

Today we have our ecology review session, but other than that I’m free all day.  I think I’ll study ecology a little bit, work on my paper, and maybe do some sewing on my quilt.  Well, that’s all for now!

Erin

Swahili Word of the Day: Mgahawa [mm-gah-hah-wah] = cafeteria

Arusha

Yesterday we went to Mombasa, an archaeological site near Lake Eyasi.  It had huge rock formations and we got to climb all over them!  The view was pretty incredible, and we could see farmer’s fields for miles.  Apparently the rocks had been used as a stone shelter and even had the remains of some pictographs on them.  After Mombasa, we went in search of Lake Eyasi.  We wanted to get close to the lake, but ended up getting stuck in the muck!  The lake has been shrinking since the 1990’s and now it is pretty small.  We were walking on the dried up lake in order to get to the water but it ended up being too muddy to get anywhere.  We returned to camp for lunch and then took a car to a local blacksmith, where we got to see him melt old pipes and metal tools in order to make bracelets, arrows, and other metal items.  It was really neat to see him melt and mold the metal.  We walked back to camp through a scenic pathway that meandered through the marsh and wetland.  It was absolutely gorgeous! Huge trees and lots of greenery.  We had a campfire at camp, but since it was raining slightly, most of us didn’t stay out too long.

This morning we packed up our things and headed to Karatu where we ate lunch at the Guest House once again.  Lunch was a smorgasboard including spaghetti noodles, rice, potatoes, salad, veggies, meat, and bananas.  Then it was a 3 hour drive to Arusha.  We only managed to get two flat tires on the way!  While getting into Arusha, we had the cars stop at Shoprite to pick up some much needed snacks for tomorrow’s 12 hour bus ride.  And now we are safe and sound at the Outpost Hotel in Arusha.  Tonight will be the first night in a month that we have gotten to sleep in real beds!  And we also have hot showers and a tv in our room.  We watched Dora the Explorer and another series called Chase.  Oh the life.  This evening we are eating at an Italian restaurant and many of us are excited for pizza as usual! 

Adios for now, and I hope I survive tomorrow’s bus ride!

Swahili Word of the Day: Tofauti [toe-fah-oo-tee] = different

Lake Eyasi

Camp at the Crater

A view of the crater



Zebras!



Hyena eating a hippo

Today we packed up camp and headed off for Lake Eyasi.  It was chilly as usual in the morning, but we drove down into the crater for a game drive and it warmed up once the sun came out.  The crater is pretty incredible.  I love all of the mountains – it’s such a change of scenery from the rest of Africa.  Ngorogoro Crater National Park is a little different from Tarangire and Serengeti in that it has completely visible boundaries.  Whereas in the Serengeti, you could only see flat land, in the crater you can see from one end of the park to another and its boundaries are clearly delineated by the edge of the crater.  We drove around the crater all morning on safari and saw flamingoes, ostrich, wild pigs, wildebeest, zebras, cape buffalo, guinea fowl, snake eagles, and gazelles.  I was kind of game-drived out, and didn’t find the crater super exciting, but it was cool to see the animals again.  We ate our boxed lunches in the park (carrot and cheese sandwich, cucumber sticks, hard-boiled egg, fried chicken, cake, and crackers.  Then, we journeyed around the park a little more and headed off to Lake Eyasi.  It took us about two hours to get to Lake Eyasi, and the drive was quite beautiful.  Every place we go, it just keeps getting greener and greener!  We are camping at the Lake Eyasi Bush Camp and it is by far the most luxurious looking camp we have been at.  It has cute straw hut pavilions everywhere (rather than concrete ones) and is right on the edge of the swamp so there are tons of trees and foliage.  There is a great breeze flowing through camp, so hopefully that will keep away the mosquitoes (apparently they are bad here).  The temperature is much warmer than the crater and I don’t think I’ll need to bundle up in my sleeping bag tonight in order to keep warm.  Overall, this camp is very nice and it reminds me of a campsite in the states-instead of dessert bushland, we actually have trees and grass.  And plus, our tables our set up outside so we get to eat dinner outside as opposed to in a cramped pavilion.  Tomorrow we go out to see an archaeological site and to meet the local people of the village (they are of a different tribe than the Maasai).  I’ll post as soon as I can!

Erin

Swahili Word of the Day: Mwafaka [mwah-fah-kah] = aggrement (Chelsea picked the word today J )

Oldupai Gorge

Looking out into the Gorge

Walking to the archaeological site in the gorge

Sign showing Mary Leakey's camp one way and Zinj hominid site the other way

Place where Zinj (Anthropithecus Boisei) was found

Shifting Sands

Today we woke up and it was freezing outside! Luckily for us, it warmed up once the sun came out, but it was kind of crazy being able to see my breath outside.  After breakfast we drove about an hour to Oldupai Gorge, the place where the first hominids were discovered.  We visited the museum there and then walked down the path to the site where Mary Leakey’s crew first discovered the Australopithecus Boisei skull, as well as the remains of Homo Habilis.  These remains date back to over 1.75 million years ago!  Additionally, the remains of Homo erectus and Homo Sapiens have been found in the upper layers of Oldupai Gorge.  It was really neat to see the place where humans first evolved!  Dr. Bushozi gave us a lecture on the site and told us about geology and the formation of the Gorge.  It was created by faulting which happened thousands of years ago.  Additionally, water flowed through the gorge at one point and deepened the channels in the gorge. 

While we were at the gorge, I just kept thinking how much Lara would love this!  Apparently, a group from Rutgers University in New Jersey comes every summer to do excavation on the site and uncover more artifacts.  Wouldn’t it be cool to work on that research team?

After lunch we headed to shifting sands, a sand dune in the middle of the Gorge.  I never knew that college kids could have so much fun playing in sand, but we did!  We were rolling around in it, racing up the dune, and digging holes in the black sand.  We were covered from head to toe in sand by the time we were done with it, but it was nice to play for a while. 

We returned back to camp in the afternoon and hung out until dinner.  Tomorrow we leave for Lake Eyasi.  On the way, we will be going through the crater on a game drive and hope to see lots of wildlife. 

Adios!

Erin

Maasai Word of the Day: Oldupai = Sisal [a succulent plant that grows in Africa]