Reflection

I've been back in the States for about two weeks now, and I'm starting to process and decompress the four months I spent in Tanzania. I'm figuring out everything I learned in the classroom and in the field, what I learned about the culture and about myself. I'm discovering why I loved Tanzania only now, after returning home. I don't think I realized how much I loved that place until I left it.

Of course I'm enjoying the more tangible things, like dependable electricity, running water, and fast internet. I'm really loving the change to cold weather, it's so nice to curl up under covers to go to sleep rather than sprawling out under the mosquito net with the fan on high. I'm not really sure what to say about what I've taken from my semester abroad. What I do know is that it was a fantastic experience that I wouldn't ever take back, and that I feel like a more confident, independent, and interesting person because of it. The semester wasn't easy, I'll admit that, but I think because of the things I was forced to struggle with (both Tanzanian and from home), I've become a lot stronger as well.

I love Tanzania. I love the country, the people, the culture, everything about it. There's something about that place that can't be captured in words or pictures, and just has to be experienced. I truly hope that someday I can go back to that country that I love so deeply, that has truly touched my heart and soul, and that will live with me for the rest of my life whether or not I return. Tanzania has become part of who I am, and I am so proud of that.

So for now I leave this blog.
Nitaonana baadae, Tanzania. Nakupenda.

Dirt & Bones

After we completed our field research outside of Tarangire National Park, we had one more week of traveling on a field trip for our Human Evolution class before we returned to Dar. We packed up our campsite and left on the morning of November 15th, and drove all day through Ngorongoro Conservation Area until we reached the small village of Endulen located in the Conservation Area. We camped outside the area hospital, where in previous years most of the anthropology students on this program had stayed to do medical anthropology projects and projects with the Maasai, seeing as there are many bomas in the area. This year, due to budget cuts and the high number of students who contracted malaria at this site, we all stayed at the Tarangire site. It turned out well, though, as all of our projects were successful and even to this date nobody has gotten anything serious, only minor stomach bugs that usually came from food poisoning. Anyway, we stayed at Endulen for two nights, and visited two major archaeological sites.

First was Olduvai Gorge, which any Anthropologist knows is an incredibly important site for Human Evolution. I was exceptionally excited to visit Olduvai. Since high school Biology, I’ve always taken a particular interest in Human Evolution, and so I’d naturally read a lot about Olduvai in text books then and for my Human Evolution both last Fall at Grinnell and here in Tanzania. It was really awesome to finally get to visit this place that I’d read so much about and seen in pictures for so many years. The gorge itself is gorgeous, as well, so just seeing the natural beauty was spectacular as well. After a brief lecture on basic information about the area, we drove to Mary Leakey’s camp on the ridge of the gorge where Louis Leakey, Mary Leakey, and their son Robert ran their research. Then we drove down into the gorge to the Zinjanthropus site. Olduvai is particularly famous for Mary Leakey’s first big find in 1959, Australopithecus bosiei, or as she named it ‘Zinjanthropus’ which means East African man. They found a skull as well as post-cranial (non-skull) remains at this site, and a year later also found remains of another species, Homo habilis, very nearby in direct association with ancient stone tools from the Olduwan tool industry. After visiting the site, taking pictures with the plaque, and looking around at the huge excavation that took place exactly 50 years ago (the 50th anniversary of the discovery was this past August), we walked up the gorge further to the two other major sites where more Homo habilis remains and stone tools were found. At one point, our professor had us ‘practice archaeology’ and we were asked to walk around the excavation site and look for stone tools and any skeletal remains. I found a ton of faunal bones and a few crude stone tools, but my exciting find was a jaw fragment and two teeth from an ancient extinct giant pig!

After visiting the excavation sites, we drove to the other side of the gorge to visit the ‘shifting sands’. This place was really perplexing. It’s just a large sand dune made of black sand in the middle of the plains. Apparently it moves about 5 centimeters every day! It was really bizarre. We took our shoes off and played on the dune for a while before piling back into the safari vehicles to make the very bumpy drive back up to our camp at Endulen.

The next day we visited Laetoli, where Mary Leakey discovered a 30-foot track way of footprints made by Australopithecus afarensis (more famously known as ‘Lucy’) in cemented volcanic ash about 3.75 million years ago. It’s an important site because it’s the earliest undisputable evidence for habitual bipedalism in our ancestors. Unfortunately, due to lack of infrastructure in Tanzania, the track way has been preserved and covered in order to conserve it. So all we really got to see were pictures in the little museum and a long strip of a mound of lava cobbles covering the place were the footprints are. Plans are in place to build a museum over the footprints so people can come and view them, but electricity isn’t dependable enough and opening the track way would require a climate controlled museum. Additionally, the site is in an extremely remote location, and there isn’t a huge tourist draw, which makes constructing a museum not really practical. It was still pretty neat to visit the site, and try to picture what it looks like under all those protective layers.

In the afternoon after visiting Laetoli, we packed up our camp at Endulen and traveled to our next site near Lake Eyasi. This journey was epic, to say the least. Not 10 minutes into our drive, it started to rain a heavy African rain that comes down in sheets and floods everything. And of course, driving on dirt roads down the extremely steep escarpment wall of the rift valley plus this rain doesn’t make for easy traveling. The going was slow, but things were okay. The rain let up after a while, but the roads were littered with deep puddles and occasionally we’d come across a river of a flash flood racing across the road. Once we were really driving down the escarpment, the road was probably at a 45 degree angle going down and really sharp hairpin turns. At one point, the vehicle in front of us had its brakes go out, and it almost toppled over on the road and could have gone tumbling down the wall. Luckily, everything worked out fine, but it was terrifying to see the car in front of us with 5 of my friends in it almost tip over. I was actually really shocked that the car didn’t end up tipping, but thank goodness it did! After this point, things just got silly. The people in that car were forced to get out and start walking while the driver worked on some repairs, because functional brakes are just not an option on an extremely dangerous road like this. Eventually the car was fixed, and caught up, and all the vehicles were together again. Not long after reaching the lake basin, the supply truck behind us got stuck in a river bed. This led to a good hour of trying to get the car out. They tried towing it out forwards with a cable, towing it out backwards, pushing it forwards, pushing it backwards, gathering stones and placing them under the tires in the mud, shoveling out water and mud. It was ridiculous. I got so incredibly muddy from helping push. Finally the car was freed, and we were on our way again. After another few hours of driving, we finally reached our destination at Eyasi around 9pm and set up camp in the dark and ate dinner late.

The next day we drove out to Mumba rock shelter, which is a site from the Middle Stone Age under a large rock outcropping. Excavations were done here that yielded archaic Homo sapiens remains as well as tools and faunal remains. It’s also a particularly interesting site because of the paintings on the walls of the rock. We climbed to the top of the rocks and had a lecture in the wind at the top of all the rocks. The view from up there was so beautiful! After our lecture, we drove out to a site near the lake shore that has all sorts of artifacts. Pottery sherds, beads, faunal remains. We walked around the site and picked up artifacts. I found a handful of beautiful pottery that had designs etched in them, and my Professor let me take two with me (he did his Ph.D. on this site and others in the area).

On Thursday we had the opportunity to visit a local tribe known as the Hadzabe, who are one of the last if not the last remaining functioning hunter-gatherer groups in the world. We had the option of hunting with the men, and of course I decided to join! We spent probably two hours running through bushes and trees, and I ended up pretty scraped up and bruised afterwards. It was a really fun time, though, even though we didn’t catch anything (probably because of how many of us there were joining them). When we returned to their camp, they sang and danced for us, which was great. Their music was so different from the Maasai music that I had been studying for four weeks, so it was very cool to hear other indigenous music from Tanzania. It made me want to come back and study more African music! Good thing I’m taking the ‘African Music’ class at Grinnell next semester! In the afternoon, we visited another local tribe called the Datoga. They’re similar to the Maasai in their practices with cattle and trade of beads. The women wear gorgeous cow-hide dresses with ornate beading designs. We also visited a Datoga blacksmith and saw how they manufacture things. They make really neat bracelets and arrowheads, which they sell and trade with other tribes.

Friday was our free day, so we all decided to go back out to the rock outcroppings near the lake shore to go hiking and rock climbing. We all climbed to the top of the tallest hill, which was an adventure. Naturally there was no trail, so we were scrambling up boulders and crawling under thorny bushes. I was scratched up even more when we reached the top, but the view was incredible. You could see for miles, over the lake and the escarpment wall stretching as far as the eye can see. Then we climbed down and did some bouldering on the big boulders at the base of the hill. Some people decided to explore up another big boulder, and went climbing up. Apparently a hyena was on their tails, though, so that was a little scary! It was a really relaxing and fun last day on our field trip. In the evening, a dancing and singing group came in from another town and performed for us. It was a really fun performance, and at the end we all got up and danced for a while.

On Saturday we drove all the way back to Arusha, and were thrust back into the ‘big city’ life, if you can call it that. But after spending 6, almost 7, weeks living basically in the middle of nowhere, Arusha can definitely be considered a big city. We went out to lunch at the Maasai café and got delicious pizza and enjoyed some cold drinks and just hung out for a while, before returning to our hotel in the afternoon to enjoy having internet again. Very early on Sunday morning, we all piled onto a bus and made the 8-hour journey back to Dar. We were all returned to our homestays, which was so nice. Our host Mama was so excited to see us again, and it was a really nice homecoming.

Seeing as it’s now my last week in Tanzania, I’m incredibly busy. I’ve got to finish my final research paper on my research for Friday, as well as put together a poster and presentation which will happen on Wednesday. On top of that, I need to buy final souvenirs and gifts for people, as well as do all the things I want to do one last time before I leave (like eat at Addis in Dar one more time - the fantastic Ethiopian restaurant downtown). Hopefully I’ll get everything done, and the week won’t be too stressful so I can enjoy my last days here. So far things have been going pretty well. The Ecology and Evolution finals were the first week we were back, and went well. I was relatively stressed about everything because we hadn’t really had class since September, so I had to remember all of that material. Other than that I’ve just been enjoying being back in the city and on campus again and working on my paper. I’ve made good progress, but I’ve still got quite a bit to do. This past weekend we spent two days on the beach, which was great. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to return to the beach on Thursday or Friday one more time. Yesterday, also, I got my hair done, and now I have long braids. All the Tanzanians keep saying ‘umependeza’ to me, which basically means ‘you look nice’, so that’s been pretty cool. It’s a pretty drastic change from my previous light brown, curly, bob. I love it though, and hopefully it’ll last long enough for all of you to see!

Field Research!

From October 18th to November 15th, we stayed at Zion campsite 5 kilometers outside of Tarangire National Park near the village of Kibaoni. It really was a village, too. No internet café, no supermarket. Our campsite had no electricity, so we either had to charge things off our solar-charged car batteries, or walk into town and use the electricity at the mini ‘supermarket’ (if you could call it that). Walking into town usually meant purchasing something as well, the supermarket had incredibly cold sodas which would be really refreshing when the afternoons would reach into the mid-90s.

During our first full day at Tarangire, we drove into the park to meet with the park Ecologist. This was for the four students doing Ecology research projects in and around the park. It wasn’t totally useless for us Anthropology students, though, because he presented some interesting basic facts about the National Park for us. Later in the afternoon, all the non-Ecology students got to return to the park to do some safari. We saw much of the same things we had already seen in Lake Manyara and Serengeti, but it was still a lot of fun. Tarangire is famous for elephants and baobab trees, and for good reason! There are huge baobabs everywhere you look, and elephants roaming the plains everywhere as well. It was really exciting, seeing as elephants are my favorite animal! We also saw a rather large herd of wildebeest on our way out of the park, which was awesome. We didn’t get to see any wildebeest in the Serengeti because the herds were all up in the Maasai Steppe in Kenya at that time of the year.

For the next 3 ½ weeks, we all conducted our research for our projects. My project was about the traditional songs of Maasai women, and how they shape and maintain gender roles. If you didn’t already know, Maasai women are highly marginalized. Men are the dominant gender in all aspects, and domestic violence against both women and children is the common practice. So I wanted to see how the traditional songs that the women sing preserve the patriarchal structure. I conducted a total of 30 interviews at bomas and in the village with just Maasai women. I haven’t finished writing my paper, but I’m pretty sure at this point that my research supports my hypothesis, that the songs do indeed perpetuate the marginalizing place of women in Maasai culture. As one key example, the women often use singing to apologize to their husbands if they’ve done wrong or beg for forgiveness, and sometimes women sing to praise their husbands. I also found, however, that the songs do not necessarily only restrict the women. All of the women I interviewed talked about how happy singing makes them, and that’s why they sing so often. For Maasai women, I believe singing is a release. It brings them joy when their lives are often extremely difficult due to their place in society under men. I think my research turned out well, and now I’ve got a little over a week to complete my 20-30 page report on my research, and then give a short presentation with a poster at the National Museum in downtown Dar.

During the field research time I also helped other people with their projects. I helped Fergs (Amy, my roommate from the dorms) and Christine a lot, because their projects corresponded with mine, they were both interviewing Maasai women exclusively. Fergs was looking at how the manufacture and selling of crafts (beads and jewelry) for locals and tourists gives women a sense of independence. Christine researched how selling milk is a form of independence for the women, as well. Their projects were both really interesting, and it was always fun to sit in on their interviews. The person I helped the most, though, was David. David was the only person to do an archaeological project, and I was excited to help him because I took Archaeological Field Methods last Spring and wanted to put my knowledge into practice. In the area in and around our campsite, the ground is literally littered with stone tools from the Middle Stone Age industry (about 400,000 years ago). You basically can’t walk anywhere without stepping on one. David picked two sites, one right next to the campsite on a slight terrace, and one down the hill on flat ground. At the terrace site, he just established transects, which are just measured divisions of the plot. I would go out with him and help him take measurements, but primarily collect artifacts. At the second site, we established the plot and transects, and then collected artifacts. After that was completed, David started doing a test pit at the site to see if there were artifacts below the surface. I got to help him with that one day, which was really fun. Nothing like digging in the dirt under the hot African sun!

I also went into the park one day with two of the Ecology people, Tabriz (Aimee, my homestay roommate) and Julia. Tabriz did her project on baobab trees, and Julia did hers on guinea fowl and francolin birds. We were working on the trees first, and had taken measurements and data on one tree, and were working on the second when it started raining. When it rains in this country, it doesn’t just drizzle. The mantra ‘when it rains, it pours’ is completely true. So not soon after the rain started slowly, we were in a torrential downpour, with the wind ripping in making the rain fall sideways. We finished taking data quickly on that tree, and rushed back to the car completely soaking wet. The roads had already started flooding, and we had to figure out how we were going to get back to the gate without getting stuck. The way we had come in had taken us through the dried river bed, which would clearly not be possible anymore, so we had to take the long way back which was tricky. The rain was falling so fast and so much that the roads were like rivers and the plains had turned into lakes and swamps. We were all already so wet, that we decided we wanted to enjoy the downpour fully rather than sitting inside the car like wet dogs and the windows fogged up from our breathing. So we opened the windows and stuck our heads out as we drove through the flooded plains, and the rain showering us with more water. It was a really invigorating experience that I can’t really explain well. At one point we got stuck on a road that was flooded with water that was probably 2 feet deep, and we were really worried that we wouldn’t get out, but our skilled driver Babu (which means grandfather in Swahili) successfully freed us. After the rains stopped, we visited a baobab tree that had a huge hole in it in which you could stand, so we took some pictures before climbing back into the wet car and heading back to camp. This was definitely my favorite and most memorable day in the field!

Daily life in the field was pretty bland. There were 14 of us, and 8 doing Anthropology projects that necessitated one of our 3 translators, so there was lots of time sitting in camp with nothing to do. I read 11 books and listened to a lot of music. We tossed the frisbee around a lot, and invented silly games like ‘rock-tire’ which involved two tires placed about 15 feet apart and trying to throw rocks into the opposing team’s tire. Although we got bored and a little stir-crazy by the end, it was a fantastic time and we all got to know each other so well. By the end of our last field trip when we were returning to Dar, we were all very sad to be parting ways and not living with each other all the time anymore. I had a great field research experience!

Coming up next, the week of field trips to important archaeological sites in Northern Tanzania!

My Life is Actually "The Lion King"

Posting while the internet is working!

After climbing Kilimanjaro, everyone met up in Arusha for the next portion of our program. It started with a free day, that our director filled with a trip to visit a Maasai boma. This turned out to be a crazy experience. I expected to go see the boma, meet some people, and have it be a kind of uncomfortable tourist experience (we went with a tour guide), but it was a fantastic day! We did meet some people in the boma and walk around and see things, but we also got to do some very awesome things. In the afternoon, we all crammed into a mud/cow dung-walled hut with an old Maasai woman, and drank their tea. Then we got the incredible opportunity to take part in a ritual called Olpul. Usually, groups of Maasai warriors will go away to refuge-type places and take cows to eat and stay for a couple of months. It's a reflective time, and it's called Olpul. Naturally, we didn't do this, but we did get to participate in the part where they slaughter a goat. It was insane. I helped kill the goat and I skinned part of it, which was bizarre. Then when it was skinned, the men began butchering it. In the process, they were cooking certain parts of the animal. But some they eat raw. And of course, they offered them to us. For example, they eat the kidney straight out of the animal with no preparation whatsoever. As they came around offering it, I thought to myself, "No way, I am not going to eat a raw, bloody kidney" but then realized you only live once, and it won't kill me! It had a really strange, smooth texture, and it was pretty salty. Not as gross as I thought it would be, but certainly not something I would choose to eat again. Apparently it's a delicacy in Maasai culture. I also drank some of the blood with cooked intestines in it, which was also surprisingly tasty. The cooked goat itself was delicious, as well. It was a very intense afternoon, and I'm so glad I witnessed and got so active in participating. It was awesome

The next day we drove to Lake Manyara National Park, where we got our first glimpse of East African wildlife. It was like living in a nature documentary! That was only the very beginning, though. After that day, we drove to Serengeti National Park where we spent three days and four nights experiencing the ecology. Our campsite was smack dab in the middle of the park, no fences or anything. There was a sign that read something along the lines of "please do not leave campsite, animals will attack humans". We quickly found out that the sign was no joke. Every night after the sun went down, we'd start hearing the whooping laughter of hyenas around our campsite, and occasionally the growl of a lion in the distance. Every night we were camped there, the noises got louder and more frequent. By the last night, hyenas were walking through the campsite, and lions were laying next to our tents in the night. We woke up the last morning to find hyena pawprints inches from our tent! It was admittedly really scary at some times, because in reality a tent isn't much protection from a big cat, but it was a very cool thing to experience.

In the Serengeti we saw all sorts of incredible wildlife. A herd of up to 1000 cape buffalo on the first morning, and then a large herd of zebras. Elephants, giraffe, gazelle, hippos, babboons, topi, water buck, reed buck, hyena, lions. We even saw a cheetah sitting next to the road with a half-eaten gazelle. Not long after that, we came upon a leopard lounging in a tree, with its kill hanging in the branch above it. Leopards are a rare catch, so it was exciting to get to see one! On our last day in the Serengeti we got to see something incredibly cool. There was a pride of lions that had taken down a very large cape buffalo earlier in the afternoon. When we pulled up in our safari vehicles, the buffalo was lying dead probably two feet away from the road, and two lions had their heads completely inside the body cavity. It was so incredible to see these lions devouring their prey in person, although there were a lot of safari vehicles there to see it as well which kind of ruined the effect.

Safari week was great, and after it was over, we drove to a small village known as Kibaoni which is located about seven kilometers outside of Tarangire National Park. We spent the next four weeks there doing our field research. That will be in my next post!

Roof of Africa

10/3-10/9
This seems so long ago now, so I’ve had to refer to my journal entries to refresh my memory. After we finished our exams, myself along with five of my friends (Daudi, Max, Tim, Abe, and Jemie) hopped on a bus and rode eight hours from Dar to Moshi, which is the town located at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The bus ride there was a great start to October break, it was so beautiful! It was really nice to actually get out of the city for the first time, and seeing the more rural parts of Tanzania was really exciting, because that’s where we lived for the next six weeks! A few hours into the trip, we started driving next to the Usambara Mountains, which are stunning. The shoot up out of the ground out of nowhere, and have beautiful cliffs and drop offs of rock. We drove alongside the mountain range for the better part of the day, and it was a real treat.

When we arrived at the bus station in Moshi, there was a van from our tour company - Zara Tours - there to pick us up and take us to the Springlands Hotel. When we arrived, we were swiftly whisked away to a large table in the courtyard to catch the last half of the ‘briefing’ for all the climbers departing the next morning. After the meeting was over, we met our tour guide and also discovered we had a solo climber added to our group. Her name is Rebecca, and she was climbing by herself and then meeting up with her mom afterwards to travel around Tanzania. She’s from Canada, and was a really great addition to our group. She was a very cool person, and a lot of fun, it was really awesome to make a new friend in such an incredible experience. Our guide was named Theo, and he’s the head guide for the whole company. He’s a really big guy, and seemed very professional, so that was consoling. We devoured a delicious buffet meal that evening, and went to bed early to try and get one last night of good sleep before we started hiking.

The first day we hiked from the Machame gate to the first camp on the Machame route, Machame hut. The hike was really beautiful, we were hiking through rain forest for the better part of the day, until we climbed into a new ecosystem which was cooler in temperature and composed more of bushes and shrubs, and it was much dustier. When we arrived at camp, our tents were all set up and our bags had already arrived, so we moved our things inside and gathered in the ‘food tent’ for popcorn and hot drinks. Up until this point, we hadn’t really seen the mountain at all because of clouds every day thus far. Then, after dinner, the clouds parted and we got to see the full moon rising over the peak. It was gorgeous, and so exciting to finally see what we’d be climbing!

Day two was short in length, but very steep all day. We hiked about 10km and up 800m in elevation. It was a really tough day, and I really started to feel the elevation. I was having difficulty breathing and I had to walk much slower, and when we arrived at camp I had a terrible headache despite having drunk 4 liters of water! It was a little nerve-wracking, but I was trying to stay positive. We arrived at camp a little after 1pm, and rested for a while. We stayed at the Shira camp , which is around 14,000 ft above sea level. Later in the afternoon, a bit before dinner, we hiked up to a camp that’s just up at the top of the hill. It’s got a great view of the Shira plateau and peaks, and the clouds parted just in time for us to get another great view of our goal. After dinner, we watched a spectacular sunset over the Shira peaks, and got our first view of Mt. Meru peeking over the clouds in the distance.

Day three was a really tough one. When we started out, I was feeling pretty good, but not long after we started I started struggling. We hiked around 4 hours, and it was hard for me the entire way. I felt terrible at lunch with a headache, nausea, and fatigue despite the large quantities of water I had consumed. Soon after lunch, we reached the high point for the day at Lava Tower at 4,645m above sea level. When we reached Lava Tower, all my pains went away because I felt so accomplished and proud of myself for getting to that point. We were standing above 15,000 ft above sea level, higher than Mt. Meru, and a much higher elevation than I’d ever hiked to before. That adrenaline rush helped me push through the rest of the day. The rest of the day was downhill to our next site at Barranco camp which is at an elevation close to that of Shira camp. This day’s hike is the trick to the Machame route’s success rate. Hiking high and then camping low allows your body time to acclimate to the high altitude better. When we reached camp I was feeling much better, there seemed to be so much more oxygen, despite the fact that we were still quite high. Again, the view of the mountain was great in the evening, and this night we were so close to it. You could actually see the blue in the ice of the glaciers!

As if it could get harder, day four definitely was the hardest yet. The morning was really tough, but a lot of fun, especially at the very beginning. Barranco camp is located right next to a giant wall, known as the Barranco wall, which you climb up immediately after leaving camp. It took about an hour or so to get to the top, and it was a very fun and challenging climb. When we reached the top of the wall, we had an absolutely spectacular view of the peak and the glaciers, definitely the best yet! It was really exciting, because we were looking at what we would be climbing in less than 24 hours. The next few hours of hiking up until lunch were very difficult. It was all very extreme ups and downs. Up a wall, and down into a big valley, and then the same. Finally we reached the top of the last wall and enjoyed some lunch. After lunch things started going downhill for me, despite the remaining hike being 100% uphill. Not long after we started up again after lunch, I started really struggling to keep up with the rest of our group, which wasn’t a big deal because they’re all really in-shape athletes and I’m not really. It was kind of discouraging, though, because I couldn’t keep up and one of our assistant guides would have to fall back and hike with me alone. After three long hours of hiking, we finally cleared a hill and could see the plateau where Barafu base camp was located. We climbed up the wall and thought we were there, but when we reached the top of the wall where the tents were located, our tents were nowhere to be seen and our guides continued to hike us up, up, up! And of course we dutifully, but very winded and exhausted, followed. After another half hour of hiking, we finally reached the actual hut and we were able to sign in and register. We all crashed in our tents almost immediately after arriving, trying to relax and catch up on sleep that we wouldn’t get that night. Barafu camp is extremely high in elevation, higher than 15,000 ft. and Mt. Meru, so it’s difficult to function. I was feeling okay other than just being exhausted and a small headache, but some people weren’t feeling so hot. A few people threw up quite a few times between arriving at camp and when we began our summit hike. I went to bed immediately after eating dinner, which was around 6:30 pm and tried my hardest to get some sleep before the 11pm wake-up time for the midnight summit hike. I found it hard to sleep not only because of elevation and cold, but because I was so nervous as well. I also got woken up around 8 to Tim shoving his stuff in the tent because Max was being rushed down to a lower elevation at Mweka hut. His oxygen levels were below 30, which is extremely dangerous, and they needed to get him lower immediately. Luckily, everything turned out fine, but it was a scary thing to be woken up to, and I had trouble getting comfortable after that.

Somehow I got sleep, and woke up at 11 for hot drinks and a snack before we started off. I put on as much clothing as possible and shuffled out into the cold. The sky was clear and the stars were spectacular, the moon was really bright, and there was almost no need for a head lamp. I could tell right after we started that it would be a long and cold morning. It’s supposed to take about 6 hours to get to Stella Point, which is the first major summit landmark before heading to Uhuru Peak. Around 3 ½ hours into the hike, we reached the halfway point to Stella. We were all really cold and feeling the effects of the altitude. I was having a little more trouble than everyone else, but everyone was being really encouraging and that helped me so much to keep myself going. Eventually, I just couldn’t keep up with Theo’s pace, and I was given an assistant guide to go with me at my slower pace so I wasn’t pushing myself too hard. The altitude was really getting to me, my lungs were dying for more oxygen, and my muscles were aching a lot from the lack of air as well. On top of that, my fingers and toes were feeling frostbitten and it was incredibly painful. I somehow pushed through the pain, and made it to Stella Point, but didn’t have the strength to get all the way to Uhuru Peak. In retrospect, had I known it was only 45 more minutes to Uhuru, rather than the 2 hours our guide had told us the night before, I would have pushed through to the finish. I was really hurting, though, and I’m proud of myself for getting to Stella, because that itself is a huge accomplishment. Almost 19,000 ft. above sea level! Everyone else, besides myself and Max, made it all the way to Uhuru, which was very cool.
When everyone had descended from the summit, we all spent a couple hours sleeping a bit and recuperating from an extremely difficult morning. We ate lunch at Barafu, and then hiked down to Mweka hut for our last night on the mountain. It was a three hour hike in pure dust, and when we reached the site, we all had sore knees and feet and were covered in a layer of dust.

The last day was a quick morning of 3 more hours of hiking down to the Mweka gate. We arrived a little past 10 in the morning and signed the book at the bottom, so my climb was official. We spent the rest of the day at the hotel, hanging around the pool and relaxing, and it was a great end to an unbelievable week.
Ultimately, it was hands down the most physically and mentally challenging and at the same time rewarding experience I’ve ever had. And despite the fact that I didn’t reach the final goal of Uhuru Peak, I made it to Stella Point, and it was worth every cent.

I’ll try to keep posting about the next 6 weeks of traveling and doing field research as internet permits. Stay tuned for more updates!

I'm Alive!

I've been back in Dar for a week now, and the time is already flying by. We had our Evolution final yesterday morning, and it went incredibly well. In the afternoon, we all gathered at our director's home for Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone brought a dish to contribute, me and my roommate made a sweet potato dish that turned out surprisingly well despite not actually knowing what we were doing at all. Unfortunately the internet situation on campus is less than ideal. It no longer works in our home, and probably won't for the remainder of my time here, and the places where I can get internet are extremely slow. So I won't have the access or time to put up posts or pictures from the seven weeks of travel until I'm home in all likelihood. I do plan on posting about everything I did, so be prepared for many long posts! I'm excited for two more weeks in Tanzania, and leaving will be very bittersweet. I must say, I'm eager for a washing machine and snow.

Safari

Well, it's time!
I leave tomorrow, and I won't be back in Dar until November 22nd. This means I will probably not have access to internet until that return date. If I do, by chance, find an internet cafe, I will probably only check my g-mail account (mg.kathleen@gmail.com), so if you want to contact me during my time away, that's where you can reach me. I certainly make no guarantee of responding, though. Here's my schedule for the next seven weeks:

October 3: travel by bus to Moshi
October 4-9: climb Mt. Kilimanjaro! (October 8 is summit day, in case you're curious)
October 11-18: safari at Ngorongoro and Serengeti National Parks
October 18-November 13ish: field research outside of Tarangire National Park
November 13ish-November 22: safari at Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli, then return to Dar

Zanzibar

This past weekend I got to spend three days on Zanzibar, and it was spectacular! We left early on Friday morning and took a bus downtown to the port where we boarded a boat to the island. We arrived around 11 in the morning, and dropped our things off at our hotel, the Safari Inn. Then we went to a lecture by a professor at the department for marine studies of the University which is on Zanzibar. We got lunch on our own, and then met up to get a walking tour of Stone Town. We started at the Anglican Church which is built where the slave market used to be. The cells for the slaves are preserved in the basement of the museum, as well as monuments to remember those who suffered from slavery. The baptismal font sits on the spot where a well used to be where weak slaves were sacrificed, and the whipping post is marked by a circle of differently colored marble in front of the altar. It was a very powerful experience.

After the church, we walked through the town and got to do a little shopping. I got some great things for myself as well as some wonderful gifts! We also visited the fort which now houses independent vendors. At the end of the day, we went to the House of Wonder which is a large building and complex where the former Omani rulers would welcome visitors. The museum inside was nice, but the best part were the balconies three stories up that wrapped around the entire building. We could see the ocean on two sides, and we could look out over the rooftops of Stone Town, it was quite the treat! After the planned part of the walk was over, most of us walked back through town to get to Africa House. It's a ritzy tourist hotel that has a nice bar, and we normally wouldn't go there except for the fact that it's got the best view for the sunset over the ocean in the city. I even ordered a delicious drink in a coconut for my birthday! For the evening we went to a restaurant on the beach called Mercury's, named after Freddie Mercury who was born on Zanzibar. I had a Zanzibar curry with fish, which was quite the treat as Zanzibar is well known for its delicious spices. It was a really great birthday night with all of my friends here, and I had a fantastic time.

On Saturday we boarded a bus and headed to the middle of the island for the day. We first visited Jozani Forest. We walked through the forest a bit at first, and got to see many types of trees and plants, as well as a few animals. The real treat of the morning was going across from the forest portion to see the red colobus monkeys, which are only found on Zanzibar. We were able to get really close to them, probably because so many people come to see them and they're used to people. It was very cool. Afterwards, we went to the mangrove boardwalk where we could walk through a large mangrove forest. It was really beautiful!

In the afternoon we visited a spice farm and got a delicious spice lunch and tour. The lunch consisted of rice pilau, two sauces (one red sauce with meat, the other a yellow-ish curry sauce with coconut), cassava greens, bananas with some sort of spice on them, and tasty Swahili chai. It was unbelievably tasty! After lunch, we got a tour of a farm. Which basically consisted of walking through the farm from plant to plant, and we got to taste all of the spices and fruits that were in season. Something that was really cool was that we got to try Jack fruit, which I had never seen or heard of. It's the tastiest fruit, and so bizzare! The outside is yellow and bumpy, and the inside is white-ish, sticky, and kind of looks like string cheese. But it is so delicious, I've never tasted anything like it. It tastes kind of like bananas and pineapple, and it's very sweet. I can't describe it well, you'll just have to try it for yourself!

That evening we went to the park to get dinner, and it was so neat! In the park, there are many vendors with their tables set out with all sorts of delicious local foods. Fresh seafood, spices, Zanzibari pizza. There are so many people and it's really exciting. Being able to speak Swahili is really nice, because they're less likely to rip you off. I definitely caught a few wazungu (white people/foreigners) getting ridiculous prices for food. I got calamari in a masala sauce, shell fish, and chapate for 8,000 shillings. That's about $6.50! I also got some beautiful henna done on my right hand, and it should stay there for about a month before it really fades.

On Sunday morning, we walked around town some more and did shopping. I got some really beautiful scarves that are only made in Zanzibar among other things. We boarded our ferry back at 12:30 and came back to Dar. It was a fantastic weekend, and I'm sad we couldn't stay longer. It would have been nice to have just one more day.

On Sunday night we moved from the dorm to our home stays. Luckily, myself and Aimee (my roommate) live in an apartment literally right next to the dorm, so we didn't have to go far with all of our stuff. We live with our host mom and live-in maid, and that's all. So it's just four women in our apartment. It's really nice, Mama is so sweet and caring, and Sofia (the live-in maid) is hilarious. We're trying our hardest to speak as much Swahili as we can, but sometimes it's really hard. Thankfully Mama speaks great English, so we're able to communicate easily no matter what.

Just one more week of classes before October break! The time has flown by so fast, and I can't believe I'll be climbing Kilimanjaro in just a matter of days. Wow.

(I'll try to post some pictures with this in the next few days.)

Bongoyo & Navratri

This past weekend was certainly an eventful one!
After doing some tour-book research, I planned on going to Bongoyo Island for a day, and ended up going with a bunch of my friends here. We woke up early, and took taxis to the Slipway. The Slipway is an area of City Centre that is very well developed, and many tourists hang around. There are nice, expensive hotels and resorts, good beaches, and a rich neighborhood surrounding. The Slipway itself is basically an outdoor mall, and all of the stores sell their goods in Tanzanian Shillings, US Dollars, and British Pounds. It was very bizarre. We payed for tickets for the ferry, and got a delicious breakfast at one of the restaurants while we waited. The ferry took about half an hour to get us out to the island. Bongoyo Island is a marine island off the coast of Dar es Salaam. It's got beautiful wilderness, a coral reef, and a gorgeous beach on one end. Nobody lives on the island, so it truly is an oasis. We got to do a good hour of snorkeling off the island, and saw all sorts of coral and fish, as well as a shipwreck! It was a very fun activity. We spent the rest of the day swimming in the ocean, eating freshly caught fish, and enjoying the sun. We came back on the afternoon ferry, and went to get dinner.

After dinner, we met up with Amy's friend from University of Chicago, Samira. She was staying with a family friend for the last week before she went home, and they invited us to join them to celebrate Navratri at the Patel Brotherhood in downtown Dar. Navratri is a 9-day Hindu holiday when they celebrate every night from about 10 pm to 1 or 2 am. I didn't get the specifics on the actual background of the holiday, but it had something to do with goddesses and fighting off demons for 9 days or something like that. There are no words to describe this experience, and unfortunately my camera battery ran out that afternoon on the beach, so I'll have to get pictures from my friends who had cameras there. There had to e at least 600 people at this event, all dressed in traditional Indian clothing. Women wearing beautifully colored and adorned Saris, with blasting music and bright lights, and huge circles of people dancing around the center of the venue. I even got up and danced for a good 20 minutes. It was so much fun! There were three parts to the festival: two-step dancing, three-step dancing, and then some sort of stick dance. In between the parts, they serve delicious and spicy Indian food with a rice milkshake. Yum! We stayed until about midnight, and then decided to go home. It was such an inspiring and awesome experience. If we weren't moving into our home-stays this Sunday night, I would definitely go back for the last night of the holiday. I'm thinking I might go downtown to the Indian district tomorrow afternoon to buy myself a Sari for a birthday present to myself!

Sunday we woke up late after a late night out, and went to our Swahili professor's house. We got to learn how to make two types of chapate, a Tanzanian tortilla-type food that is eaten for breakfast, and we got to eat an extremely delicious meal. That evening we went downtown to an Indian restaurant called The Alcove to get dinner to celebrate Julia's 21st birthday. Goodness, it was yummy! I had some really delicious Naan. I've found that the ethnic food in Dar, not only Tanzanian, but Ethiopian, Indian, Lebanese, Chinese, Tai, Malaysian, and so many others, are so good! It's quite a treat to be able to get such good international food in just one city. I feel quite spoiled.

Now we have just two more weeks in Dar to finish up our research proposals before we go on break and then into the field. Time seems to move so much faster here, but it's probably because every day is a little bit of an adventure. This weekend we have a planned field trip to Zanzibar, so I'm looking forward to celebrating my 21st birthday on a tropical island! I don't think it could get much cooler.

The internet in our dorm has mysteriously stopped working, so I won't be able to upload photos unless it gets fixed. At least I can update my blog in the meantime!

Home Sweet Home

Well, this is extremely delayed as I'm only living here for one more week, but I've lived here since I've been here. Almost 5 weeks now! I can't believe I've been here so long. And just when I'm getting used to the dorms, we move out to live in our homestays next Sunday. We had a dinner party at our director's house tonight to meet our host families. I have a host mom who is wonderful, and two sisters and a brother. I only got to meet my mom and one sister tonight. My sister is named Sofia, and is 20 years old. She speaks very little English, and is excited to help us practice, to learn more English, and to teach us how to make chapate and Tanzanian donuts. My roommate is Aimee, a fellow Grinnellian actually. We're very excited to get to know our host family better, and hopefully Tanzania and its culture better as well.

But for now, here are some pictures of my current residence, Hall III. Or as it's known in
Swahili: bwenit la tatu.

My bed, my desk, the balcony off of my room, and the view from my balcony.

Daily Life

I've been meaning to get around this post, but haven't really had my camera with me while walking around campus and going to classes. But now it's finally here! Some documentation of my daily life at the University of Dar es Salaam. Unfortunately we're only here for three more weeks before we head out for October break and then the 6-week portion on safari and in the field, plus we move in to our home stays in just two weeks! The time here is really just flying by, and I can't believe I've been in Africa for a month now!

This is a view from the ground up. My room is five stories up. My balcony looks out into the quad-like area of Hall III, which comprises of a few actual dorms. Nothing too spectacular. We use the balcony to hang our laundry.

At the end of our hallway, there's a small stoop connected to a spiral staircase that goes up the entire height of the building. It seems to be some sort of fire escape. We use this spot to hang out together and talk. The view is great, and we've seen some pretty spectacular sunsets from here.

This is the bridge leading to the academic area of campus. We've taken to calling it 'fairy land' due to the large trees with draping vines and cobbled steps up the hill, giving it an ethereal feel.

This is the classroom where we are currently taking Human Evolution and Ecology of the Maasai Ecosystem.

Walking back from class by the library.








Eventually I'll take some pictures of my room, balcony, view from balcony, etc. That's all for now, though!

More Adventures

Things have been starting to get into a regular schedule now that I've been here three weeks. This past weekend I went to a very beautiful beach with people from the program as well as three guys we've all met from the University, and we camped out and spent a day hanging out. It was a gorgeous beach, with perfect white sand and clear waters, very unlike my last beach experience. We got there in the afternoon on Friday, paid the camping fees, and set up our tents in the sand. We almost immediately started making dinner, and the Tanzanian guys (Isaac, Ezekiel, and Willy) did most of the cooking with our American help. Oh my goodness, it was some of the best food I've had since I've been here! Ugali is a traditional Tanzanian dish that's made from maize and water, and cooked to a thick porridge-like consistency. You take small bits and ball it up in your hands, and then use it to pick up meat or vegetables or whatever else you're eating. On Friday night we had a scrambled egg/vegetable combination that was incredible, and some really yummy beef. The ugali I've had at the cafeteria at the University isn't bad, but it's just kind of blah, but the ugali that Isaac made us was incredibly tasty! I would have ugali with every meal if it tasted like that!

That evening we all donned our swimwear and headed to the beach around 10 pm. The full moon was out and we were the only ones on the beach for miles. We went swimming in the ocean, and it was so warm and clear. The moon was so bright, and it was reflecting off the water - it was one of the most gorgeous things I've ever seen. I didn't have my camera on me, but even if I had, it wouldn't have been able to capture the beauty of that night on the beach. It was definitely something I don't think I'll be lucky enough to see again.

We basically spent all day of Saturday on the beach, which was so relaxing and fun. We came back on Saturday night, and all crashed. Saturday was extremely fun, but a day under the equatorial sun can really wear you out! I was able to sleep in on Sunday for the first time since I've been here. I've 'slept in' during the past weekends, but usually animal noises or people yelling have woken me up around 8, which isn't very satisfying. So I got a great night of sleep, and woke up around 10 to a hard day of work with my research proposal that is due tomorrow. I went through about three ideas before I officially pinned down my research question, but I finally came to a decision and I'm really happy with it! I'm going to research the role of music in Maasai women's lives. I think it'll be a really interesting project, and combines both my interest in music and gender relations/culture.

Today was the beginning of all of our classes. I had the usual four hours of Swahili this morning, which is really starting to get rough. I don't understand how students on the block plan do it, four hours straight with only a ten minute break in the middle is incredibly hard. I find it really hard to stay focused in that last hour, but there's only two more weeks of that, and then we switch to two hours of Swahili. At least it's frequent enough that I feel like I learn more every day. This afternoon we began Human Evolution, which is going to be a total breeze because I took Human Evolution last Fall. I'll enjoy it, though, because I find it to be a fascinating subject and I can just enjoy it and solidify my knowledge. Tomorrow we start Ecology of the Maasai Ecosystem. I'm mildly nervous because Science just isn't my thing, but I'm looking forward to it because I think it'll be my kind of Science. The bizarre thing about it all is that these classes are over in just four weeks! It's going to fly by.

Another exciting tidbit is that I'm going to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro during my October break with 5, maybe 6, other students on my program! I couldn't be more excited. If you want to see exactly what I'm doing, you can go to this website: http://www.zaratours.com/kilimanjaro/machame.html, and see exactly the route I'm taking, and learn more about the company. I can't believe we'll be climbing the mountain in less than four weeks now. It's so close! But I have to push through classes first, and climbing that mountain is a great motivator.

I've officially started putting all of my pictures up on Grinnell Gallery, and I'll try to keep them regularly updated as the internet permits.

Throw Down Your Heart

Today was a long and wonderful day. We had a planned field trip out to Bagamoyo, which is a more rural town about an hour north of Dar es Salaam. We spent the morning at the Kaole ruins, which is one of the oldest coastal settlements in East Africa. We had an archaeology professor from UDSM with us to tell us about the history of the town. It was one of the first sites for trading with the Middle East and Asia, and where the Asian influence began to flow into Africa. This influence is still seen today, with much of the coast population considered Muslim. A few centuries later,Bagomoyo area became a major slave port. Slave traders went into the mainland to capture people, and walk them 500-700 kilometers out to Bagomoyo, where they were auctioned and then shipped to Zanzibar, and then onto the home countries of the slave traders. Eventually Dar es Salaam began to develop, and traders and colonists set their sites there instead of Bagomoyo, for its more ideal bay for fishing and a port. Today Bagomoyo is a struggling little city, with many people moving from the mainland to the coast, and native residents fighting for jobs and money.


So we started our day at Kaole, and after checking out the ruins, we walked back into Bagomoyo to get lunch at the Traveler's Hotel. While our lunch was being prepared, we went down to the beach to stick our feet in and relax after a very long walk. Turns out there was a school group there on a field trip, and we got to play with a large group of children on the beachI tried out some of my Swahili on the kids, and they thought it was great! I'm slowly picking up more vocabulary.

After lunch, we walked to the first Catholic mission in Tanzania and East Africa, and visited their museum. It had some interesting exhibits on the beginnings of Bagomoyo, the German colonization of Tanzania, and the slave trade in Bagomoyo. There was also a giant baobab tree planted on the mission grounds that was planted in 1868 when the mission was opened. It was the best baobab I've seen, it still had its leaves and everything - baobabs aren't in season right now, and look kind of gross without any leaves on them.

We then walked back to the daladala stop through town, and walked through the neighborhood streets. People in Bagomoyo, and much of Dar es Salaam and Tanzania live in houses with mud walls and palm-frond or tin roofs. Many of them are decrepit and falling apart, and hardly an acceptable place for someone to live. Seeing those houses, and seeing the smiling faces of the children playing in front of their homes made me truly realize how unimportant material things are. If these people can be so content in this state, how can someone like me who is so privileged to be able just to go to college, ever be unhappy with life? It was definitely a moment today when my brain clicked, and I truly appreciated how blessed I am to have the life I do, and how much I really ought to appreciate it.

Mzungu!

Today has been one of my best days here in Tanzania thus far. Swahili for the past few days has been great, I feel like I'm picking it up well. This afternoon after our ethnomusicology seminar, four of us joined our student guide, Batista, to visit a Catholic mission that houses orphans, the elderly who have noone to care for them, and people with mental disabilities. We got to visit all the people staying there, and it was a truly incredible experience. The kids were the most fun to visit, they were so excited to see us and hold our hands, and we got to talk and play with them for a bit. It was so touching, and just so much fun!

The neighborhood that surrounds the mission is also full of children, and when we walked down the streets the kids would shout "mzungu!" at us, which means white person or foreigner in Swahili. They would run up to us and hug us and hold our hands, and they were so cute! It was a really rewarding day, and I feel great right now. But at the same time, we got into real neighborhoods in Dar es Salaam, and got to see how most people really live, and it's heartbreaking. I feel a mix of joy from meeting the children and seeing their happiness, and sadness at the realization that people truly live in such horrible conditions. But this is why I chose to come to study here in Tanzania, because I wanted to shove myself into something uncomfortable and out of my experience, and I think I've been successful in this regard.

The Indian Ocean is Like a Bathtub

I know I update a lot, but the past week has been filled with so many adventures!

So on Saturday we took a trip downtown for the first time. We rode the Dalla Dalla and then a bus to central Dar, and then walked to the National Museum. They had simple exhibits, but it was really interesting. My personal favorite was the one on evolution in Africa, as this past week was the 50th anniversary of the discovery of Austrolopithecus boisei in Tanzania. There was also a great section on tribes of Tanzania, and I got to look at musical instruments and read some information on them as well, which is really helpful for my upcoming research project. The picture is of our whole group on the steps of the museum.


After the museum, we walked along the shoreline, and I got to see the Indian Ocean for the first time. The color is really beautiful. We walked along the beach to the big fish market, and walked through the market. It's bustling with activity, and everyone was so excited to talk to us. Wherever we go, whenever people find out we're from the US, they usually reply with a very enthusiastic "Obama!". It's really fun. They sell all sorts of fish and different shells and trinkets from the sea there. We then walked through downtown to get to the Jambo Inn, which is a well-known hotel for backpackers going through Dar, and ate at the restaurant there. I had some delicious chicken curry. The hotel is in the Indian section of the city, so it was particularly yummy. Once lunch was over, our director showed us where the textile market is, and some of us purchased some fabrics. I bought myself a Kitenge, which is a long piece of printed fabric, that you can wear just on its own, or you can have it made into a dress or other piece of clothing. They also sell Khangas which are printed fabric that look more like tapestries, with a border and some sort of saying printed on the bottom.

Yesterday a few of us woke up early, and went with a local student who we've befriended to an orphan education center. It was about an hour walk there, so we got to see a little more of the city. They teach classes there for orphans so they have an opportunity to get an education, without school fees or book fees. It's a really neat institution. All the kids were at church because it was Sunday morning, so we're going to go back later this week to meet the kids and teachers, and see if there's an opportunity to help out. Batista, the University student, is also going to take us to an actual orphanage on Wednesday afternoon that houses young kids ranging from babies up to teenagers. I'd personally like to see if I can volunteer there, because I'd love to work with younger kids.

We went back to the University and then all got ready to go to the beach. Because public beaches aren't really safe, especially for tourists, we took public transportation to a resort beach at a hotel called White Sands Hotel. There was a small entrance fee, but the beach and resort were really nice, and it was a lot of fun. Besides getting to swim at the beach, we also got use of the pool. The water in the Indian Ocean is incredibly warm! The sand is really fine, too, and feels so good under your feet. Unfortunately there was quite a bit of trash in the water, mostly washing up on shore and not really out in the water where we went to swim, and I can only assume this is a fairly common occurrence in Africa. There's trash everywhere on land, and I guess it's not that surprising to have it wash up on the beach. We spent basically the whole day there, and it was so relaxing. It's quite a chore to get out there, though, so I don't think it will be a frequent outing for me, unless we can find one that's closer and easier to get to.

Today we started our first day of Kiswahili classes, and I'm so excited to finally be learning the language! We have 4-hour intensive courses every weekday for the next two weeks, and hopefully I'll pick it up quickly. I'm already feeling good about how it's going to go. It's very different from English or Spanish, which makes it difficult, but it's much more simple in structure and pronunciation. Today we learned pronunciation and greetings. Next week the class will be taught completely in Swahili, so we're going to study vocabulary every night so it's not such a shock when there's no English! It's a really fun language to speak.

Almost a Full Week

I can't believe it's already Friday, and we've been here almost a whole week, and at the same time, I feel like we've been here ages. We all seem to be adjusting very well, to the culture and how to get around, despite our language barrier. It's hard to communicate, but people here are so kind and understanding, that they don't hold it against us in any way. I know I'm extremely eager to begin Swahili courses on Monday, and we start with four hour intensive courses for the beginning so hopefully I'll gain some good knowledge of the language so I can start communicating. I've already learned the simple essentials, like greetings and farewells, some numbers, and how to order certain types of food. Even this doesn't help me a ton, though, because there are probably 100 different ways to greet people, and different for every situation depending on time of day and who in particular you're talking to. I'm eager to get comfortable with the language, as I hope it will help me get a better grasp on the culture and the people here.

Yesterday we visited the US Embassy in Dar. I had expected a large building with some sort of fence and lots of security, but it turned out to be a very highly guarded complex of sorts. The inside was very well manicured and beautiful, definitely like stepping out of Tanzania for a while. We met with a woman who works there and she explained what the embassy does in Tanzania, and also explained different things that Americans are doing in the country, like volunteers, researchers, and Peace Corps members. It was all very informative and interesting.

That afternoon we started our first course, Research Methods, which is taught by the director of the program. The course is intended to prepare us for our research projects which we'll work on in the field, so we'll know what we're doing when we're sent out to do interviews and collect data. Swahili courses start on Monday, and soon thereafter we begin Human Evolution and Ecology of the Maasai Ecosystem. Orientation itself is basically over, other than a field trip tomorrow, and I'm really glad. It's been informative and fun, but I'm really ready to get the ball rolling and start learning and taking classes. I'm really enjoying everybody on the program, here, we all get along very well and everybody is really intelligent and fun to talk to.

During our free time this week, we've been slowly venturing out and trying new things. Last night a group of us got on a Dalla Dalla and rode down to near the city center, and ate at a nice seafood restaurant. We met Abe's sister, who's here for school at a different University in the city to work on her master's degree. She studied abroad in Kenya, so has a good grasp on Swahili, and has been hanging out with us occasionally and helping us out. Dinner was delicious, and because we were out a little later, we had to negotiate a little to find our way back. We ended up taking the bus and the Dalla Dalla, but it took a bit of figuring out. We met a guy on the bus named Vincent who finished his undergrad. and is interested in coming to the US to do his master's degree. He was really interesting and very nice, and helped us find a Dalla Dalla back to campus.

Tomorrow we're taking a field trip to the city center (finally!). We're going to the National Museum and probably to the market a little bit so we know what's in the area. We'll probably get a chance to actually see the Indian Ocean, as well. I can't believe the first week is over!

Karibu, Tanzania!

Well, I made it all in one piece, if not totally exhausted and jet-lagged. But I love it already, and the last three-ish days are a total blur. I got in on Sunday afternoon, and happily both my bags arrived with no problem. The flying I did to get here was absurd, and I was so tired and so sick of being by myself when I arrived, so it was immediately wonderful to see and talk to other people. The director, Chet, picked us up at the airport and drove us to our dorm at the University of Dar es Salaam. I have a very simple room with a bed, desk, and closet, which is all you really need when you think about it! My roommate is from the University of Chicago, and we seem to get along fairly well. In fact, everybody here on the program is getting along, and we all seem to be clicking and bonding really quickly. We're already a very tight-nit group, which is making the transition so much easier. It's much easier to be confident and less stressed and scared about the newness with people to lean on and do things with.

We've gotten a good grasp on the campus, and have eaten mostly at the cafeteria, but branched out a little and tried a few places around campus as well to get an idea of what's out there. We learned more about the schedule of the program and our classes, too. Turns out that we're in the field for 6 weeks, but for the first 3 we're going on safari. For three weeks! It's unbelievable, and I really can't wait. Our classes sound great, and I really can't wait to start taking Swahili. I'm already extremely sick of pointing and grunting to communicate with people here. I feel like such a tourist - although I understand I kind of am at leat for the beginning of this experience. The trees here are incredible, and there are all sorts of crazy animals just running around. I've already been woken up by screaming monkeys and incredibly loud frogs just in my few nights here.

Yesterday we rode the Dalla Dalla into central Dar. Dalla Dallas are a type of public transport here in Tanzania that run around the city, and are marked on the front with their route. It costs about 250 Tanzanian shillings to ride one anywhere, which is about 20 American cents. It's a fantastic way to get around. They're run-down, kind of sketchy vans that fit a lot of people, they just pack everyone in. We took the Dalla Dalla to the Village Museum, which is an open-air musem with 20 actually constructed huts from various tribes around Tanzania. It was very informative and interesting, and afterwards we got to see a dance and music performance which was fun. Then we rode the Dalla Dalla back out towards school, and stopped at the Mwenge wood carvers' market. They have absolutely beautiful artwork there, and I'm definitely going to visit it again to make some purchases once I have Swahili skills to bargain. I just know that because I can only speak English, and I'm very apparently a foreigner, that I'm an easy target to get ripped off. We walked across the street to the mall, and checked that out. It's a good place to get comforts from home, as well as necessities like shampoo, toothpaste, etc. We went to dinner there, at a nicer place that had meals similarly priced to the US. It was really delicious and a great time.

Tomorrow we're going to visit the American embassy, which will be an interesting time. We're planning on getting into the city and maybe checking out the beach this weekend. We've all been roasting this whole time, and we're ready for a refreshing cool-off. This semester has started out great, and I can't wait for the adventures to come!

Bon Voyage!

My bags are packed and I'm ready to go!

Downfall? I get on a plane at 8:35 tomorrow morning, but don't actually arrive in Tanzania until Sunday afternoon. So much flying! I'm incredibly excited, though. I probably won't get a chance to update from Dar for a few days if not a whole week, but I'll try and get something up as soon as I'm there. I'm so pumped!

The Adventure Begins

So I don't actually leave the country for another 14 days, but the adventure is already starting. So in order to get everything ready to go, I'm getting my medications in order. This means I have to get four months worth of medications so I don't have to worry about the hassle of finding a pharmacy that will fill my prescriptions correctly while I'm over there. And of course, the insurance company is making this as difficult as possible. But they're only filling my Malaria medications for one month, because that's a normal amount to fill. And you can get two advances on prescriptions per year, so in that case they can give me 90 days worth of medications. Again, not enough. So we're in a battle with the insurance company, because it's absolutely necessary that I have four months worth of Malaria medications. If anyone is going to get bit by a Malaria-filled mosquito, it's going to be me. Luckily we've got two weeks to figure this debochle out, but it's definitely a very annoying road block that I was hoping wouldn't be a problem.

Sheesh.

Title

This is where I'll be posting for the next four months, writing about my adventures and interesting daily interactions. To start, before I leave, an explanation of the blog's title. The Swahili proverb "Dunia duara" literally means "the earth is round". It's traditionally meant that you shouldn't be worried by the little things, because after all, the earth is round! It's a reminder to myself that while in a different, and possibly scary and new, place, that I shouldn't let the little things bother me. It's also a reminder that the earth is round, and we're all connected. We're all part of the human family, and while culture and traditions may be different and new, we're all part of this family, and we can always remember that the earth is round. Dunia duara!