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.