Zanzibar Pictues

 Monument at the site of the former slave market

 Spice Market

 The Narrow Streets of Stone Town

Arabic Influence

Tanzanian Wheelchair 

 The Old Fort

 Inside the Old Fort before the Music Festival

Parade before the Music Festival

 At the Spice Farm

 If you smear the seeds it looks like lipstick

Rockin the hats we got after the Spice Tour 

 House in Jambiani Village made of coral and limestone

 Kids collecting leftover seaweed on the beach

 The Medicine Man

Zanzibar!

We had our first big trip this past weekend and one I had been looking forward to for a while.  We went to the island of Zanzibar which is right off the coast of Tanzania.  Typically people take a ferry there but because a ferry recently sunk, we took a short 20 minute flight instead.

We left Thursday morning and spent the day exploring Stone Town which is absolutely beautiful.  We visited a bunch of historical sites including slave chambers, museums, the Old Fort and the markets.  The music festival was also happening this weekend so after a stop for ice cream we went to see the parade. At night we went to the first night of the festival which was actually in the Old Fort.   We also went to get sweet Zanzibar pizza.  I got nutella and coconut pizza. Delicious.

On Friday we had a Spice Tour. It was a lot of fun and probably my favorite thing from our trip there.  We were taken around a spice farm and we were guessing and sampling different spices.  There was also this one fruit? ( or flower? I don’t exactly know what it was) that when you crack it open and smash the seeds, it’s pretty much like red lipstick so we had a lot of fun just smearing our faces with it.  We also got to see one of the guys climb a coconut tree barefoot.  I gave it a try and epically failed ( I think I got like 3 inches off the ground).  From some of the leaves there, they made us these awesome hats and little canteen bags too.  Then we had a wonderful lunch there made with many of the spices on the farm. 

After the spice tour, we headed to our destination for the next couple days, Jambiani village.  The hostel we stayed at was owned by Jenny’s friend and was right by the ocean.  We got in late afternoon so we just relaxed on the beach for the rest of the day.   Some people went swimming which I’m glad I didn’t because everyone that did got some pretty bad side effects.  The tide was very high and there was something in the water that was even carried in the wind.  That night we all had a weird feeling in our nose even just by sitting by the beach. 

The next day was pretty interesting. We all woke up with our eyes completely swollen and our faces feeling scaly.  Today even (5 days later) my face still feels like a snake and I got some sort of rash on my chin.  Anyways, Christina (the one that owns the hostel) got us some natural remedy after breakfast.  We had the put these boiling hot tea leaves on our eyes.  I don’t think it helped too much but it was an interesting experience.  The rest of the day, we went on a tour of the village itself.  We were walking around for hours and it was long, hot and uncomfortable with barely any shade.  The houses in the village were very interesting though especially since they make them out of a combination of coral and limestone.  We also learned about seaweed farming there.  So the ladies in the village have these farms in the ocean where they grow seaweed and sell it to high end cosmetic companies and to the Asian food market.  You can see the farms when the tide is far out.  When we first heard of this, it seemed like it would be a very good thing for the community, especially in terms of having women get income.  However, we met some NGO workers from Norway in the community and they told us about how little the women actually get from this work, how malnourished they are, the health effects and how their work is comparable to slave labor.  After we learned more about the Norwegian NGO’s initiatives there, we walked around some more and then went to see the local medicine man. 

After that, we walked back and since the tide was still pretty far out we figured it was safe to go swimming.  How much the tide goes in and out is pretty incredible.  It’s probably at least half a mile.  While we were walking to get to the water we had to watch out for the sea urchins and got to see a whole bunch of starfish and the ladies working on their seaweed farms. Unlike the water at high tide, the water when we got to it was perfectly clear, beautiful and definitely refreshing.  By the time we started to walk back, the tide had come in a bit and some of the seaweed farms were now underwater. That night after dinner, we sat by the ocean, had a drum circle by a bonfire and watched the moon rise over the ocean horizon.  The hostel workers were all very nice and tried to speak Swahili with us, which was definitely very helpful.

On Sunday morning, some of us woke up to see the sunrise.  Unfortunately though, the sky was very cloudy and we didn’t actually see much.  After breakfast, we packed up and left to go back to Stone Town.  We did some pretty touristy shopping (gypsy pants was a must for most of us) and headed back to the airport.  The airplanes we took there and back were very tiny, maybe 15 people max.  On the way back,  I sat next to the pilot up front and even got the fly the plane for a bit which was pretty exciting. 

All in all, I would say it was a pretty amazing weekend.  Pictures to follow!

Cooking with Bibi

I’m getting pretty behind on updating this.

Anyways two weeks ago we had cooking lessons as part of our cultural excursion program.  We went to a Bibi’s (grandma) house and learned how many traditional Tanzanian dishes were made.  Spicy tea, coconut rice, chapati, pilau (unfortunately not vegetarian), fish, mango-ginger juice and these delicious peanut bars were all part of the ridiculous feast that day. It was definitely nice to have a homemade Tanzanian meal rather than the typical cafeteria beans and rice.  As we were waiting for everything to cook, we also had a great time playing with all the kids there.  

 Bibi rolling out some chapati

Trying to shred coconut on this very interesting contraption

Taking Justice Into Their Own Hands

Petty theft is probably the most common crime in Tanzania and being a “mzungu” here makes you especially a target. During our orientation, it was drilled into our heads just how rampant theft is.  From the typical purse snatching or pickpocketing at crowded markets and  daladalas,  to taxi cab scams, to getting shoved into a car, beaten up a bit and driven around town emptying your bank account and finally to the alleged machete guy on campus who cuts off people’s hands. 

The university had their own orientation for us and one of the sessions about safety went something like this:

Mzungus: Is there anything we can do if we’re getting robbed?

Tanzanian police officer: You either let them take what they want or you shout Mwizi (thief).

Mzungus: Well what happens when you say that?

Tanzanian police officer: One of two things can happen.  If there is a police officer nearby, they will take him and arrest him.  If not, people might get angry and you might see him die in front of you. 

So basically, according to the officer if someone is accused of being a thief, people nearby will get really angry and start beating the thief until they die.  After hearing this I wasn’t sure what to think.  The officer said this so casually but I was skeptical just how true this was. In the end I assured myself that maybe this was an instance that happened once or twice in the past. At the same time though I wasn’t going to shout mwizi at the next guy who looks at me funny.

However, the other day my friend Marion and I were at lunch with Polycarp, one of the Tanzanian students working in CIEE.  We started talking about this topic again and we asked if this type of street justice actually happens.  Shockingly enough, yes it does. And it’s happened 5 times just on the UDSM campus. 

Polycarp then began to tell us his experience with this. He was walking to class and saw a group of people.  They were crowded around, beating a man. Some were striking him metal rods, others stomped in his face with their boots. Apparently, the man was caught stealing a bike nearby the campus.  He was then chased into campus, caught and beaten.  Polycarp said when he got there he saw the man bloody and unconscious. He then broke up the beating and there was an officer nearby who helped.  The man was then rushed to the hospital but by the time he got there, he was already dead.  

So there it is. Tanzanian street justice. I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around this concept but at this point I just hope  it’s one of those experiences I don’t encounter during my time here.  

First Impressions and Trip to Bagamoyo

 Last Friday we took an all day tour of downtown Dar es Salaam (which also consisted of trespassing every luxury hotel here).  It’s really interesting to see all the different influences in the downtown of Dar like Islam, Christianity, Indian and German just to name a few.  There, we also went to a fish market and Kariakoo which is a huge market with just about everything imaginable.

Street Vendors Downtown

Fishermen

Kariakoo Market

Then there’s the peninsula which is completely different from other parts of the city.  It’s filled with really nice hotels, shopping malls and restaurants and it’s mainly where most of the expats live. Also most of the embassy houses are pretty close by there as well.  Going in there almost feels like I’m back in the US and in general, it’s been really interesting going in between what seems like two different worlds here.  One day we’re walking through a traditional area of Tanzania and lugging buckets of water into our room and the next we go to hang out at the beach on a resort or out to dinner at a nice restaurant.

This past weekend we went to Bagamoyo which is an old historical town.  We saw ruins of an old mosque, visited the first church in Tanzania and learned about the slave trade here.

Learning about the slave trade in East Africa was really interesting. Typically whenever I’ve learned about slavery it has always been about West Africa and the Americas and so slavery here is not something I would have ever thought about.  The most interesting thing was how the effects of slavery still impact life on the coast.  For example, there’s still a stigma against marrying someone that is a descendent of slavery.  Also, even though the soil by the coast is very good, most people refuse to farm here because it’s associated with slave work.  So aid agencies and programs to promote agriculture in the area have mostly failed because of this.   

Ruins from an old mosque

Camel sighting driving around Bagamoyo

This week we were supposed to start our classes.  However, unlike the US, the schedule for classes isn’t as set and stone right from the beginning.  First off, the schedule changed about 4 times this week.  Also, most of the professors didn’t show up probably due to the scheduling confusion.  In general though we’ve  been told that professors might just not show up to class and when this happens we need to call them and ask if they’re coming.  When we meet our professors (which hopefully they’ll show up next week) we can aslo negotiate when we’ll have classes so we can change the schedule around.  So far, we’ve had Swahili, African International Relations and Foreign Policy and most people have started their internships. 

So I’m actually pretty stoked about my internship although it has been quite an effort to get to where I am now.  I’m really starting to get a sense of Africa time now.  Anyways, I’m going to be working for the Water Quality department and my project is going to be about drinking water.  Basically what I’m going to be doing is going to different parts of the city which will mostly be in the outskirts of town, collecting water samples from these kiosks that sell drinking water from the tap, assessing the quality of the water and comparing them to Tanzanian and WHO standards.  I need to write a proposal for the project this weekend probably so I can start working as soon as possible. 

On another positive note, we finally have running water in the dorms! It’s not uncommon for the water to be shut off here but it typically only happens for 1-3 days. However since we got here, the pump for our dorm has been broken so we’ve gotten water maybe twice for a few hours.  But the water has been working for more than a day now which has really been exciting.  

The Beginning

Alright so I’ve been here for almost a week now and a lot has happened.  I arrived to Dar on the 12^th and so far we’ve just been in orientation this whole time. Orientation has mostly been 2-3 hours of Swahili everyday along with some other activity afterwards.  The first three days here we were put into a really nice hotel right by the ocean to sort of ease us into life here.  The first day was mostly logistics, expectations and safety here.  The day after we had our first Swahili lesson on the beach on an island so not too bad of a start. The ocean here is absolutely beautiful and the clearest and bluest water I’ve ever seen. It’s been really hot and humid here (this is the hottest time of year in Tanzania). To give an example, when we were on the beach my sandals fell apart/ melted because of the heat.

The next day we had our Swahili lesson in the morning again and spent the rest of the afternoon moving into the dorms.  It was really hot and we helped each other move our luggage up to all the floors.  Then we had lunch and did a walking tour of the campus after which everyone was ridiculously tired.  The campus is pretty big and really green.  It essentially looks like a jungle botanical garden with some buildings scattered around.  Most of the buildings are pretty simple although one of the campus buildings is national landmark. Another awesome thing about campus: MONKEYS! They’re pretty much everywhere. However I’ve learned they are not very friendly when you approach then.

The dorms on campus are pretty basic.  We all got mosquito nets for sleeping and buckets and cups to do laundry and to shower when there’s no water.  The first two nights there was no water so what we do is go outside to the big storage tanks of water, fill our bucket up, bring it up to your floor (I live on the 4^th which is actually the 5^th) and enjoy your bucket shower, which is actually really refreshing after you’re all sweaty from carrying the bucket up.  Yesterday the water was on so we had the luxury of a real shower.  Today there’s no water again so it’s back to the bucket. 

On Monday we had our first 3 hour Swahili session in the actual classroom on campus and afterwards we went to Mwenge which is one of the markets.  A couple other girls and I got a text saying to come back right afterwards so we can meet with people from our internship. My internship is going to be at the engineering school here in the Construction Department so I guess I won’t be escaping engineering this semester after all. We took a tour of the engineering buildings and labs and I also met with the head of the department.  I don’t exactly know what I’m going to be doing though but I am pretty excited. It will be interesting to be interning at the engineering campus because there’s very few females in engineering here.  Polycarp (one of the Tanzanian CIEE staff) was telling me that in a normal engineering class there’s maybe 1 girl.  Anyways I need to go back to meet with some other professor to set up my schedule. I guess he was sick with malaria when we first went on Monday.

 

Yesterday I wasn’t feeling so good.  It worked out though because after Swahili, I had the rest of the day off since most of the people were going to meet their internships.  I just ended up sleeping and hanging out in my room for the rest of the day. 

And that brings us to today.  We had Swahili in the morning as usual and afterwards we went to the US Embassy here.  We met with some of the people there and they talked to us more about safety, health and cultural differences here.  Then we heard about USAID programs here and about being a Foreign Service Officer.  It was pretty interesting especially since I’ve definitely thought about being a Foreign Service Officer before. However, it seems like one of those things that once you’re in it there’s not much turning back.

I just had dinner with my roommate now.  She’s from Tanzania and goes to school here.  She’s really nice but super busy now as most people here are.  The semester for the university is ending soon so people are studying like crazy for finals now. 

Anyways this was a super long post but I think that’s it for now.

Let the Adventure Begin

First blog post!

I guess to start off and say I'm Agnes and I'm going to be spending the 2012 spring semester studying abroad in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania through the CIEE program.  I'm going to be living on the University of Dar es Salaam campus and will mostly be taking political science type courses along with some Swahili (we'll see how that one goes).  Other than that, I excited just to be in a completely different culture and setting than what I'm used to and plan on taking advantage of taking in as much as possible while I'm there.  And it also helps that I'll be taking a bit of a break from engineering for a while.

So I'm leaving the country to start my trip to Tanzania in about 14 hours (it's going to be another 2 days until I actually get there though).  Basically, here's a breakdown of how I'm getting there: My flight from Chicago transfers in DC, then goes to Qatar. In Qatar, I have about a 6 hour transfer overnight (just enough time to get a good nights sleep on one of those oh so comfy airport chairs).   From Qatar, I get on a flight to Kenya and make make my final transfer to get to Dar es Salaam.  So quite a long trip and I expect I'll be pretty sick of airports for a while after it. Needless to say though, I'm getting pretty pumped.  It's taking a while for it to sink in that I'm leaving tomorrow (I guess now it's today) to study abroad in Tanzania for 4 months!  Quite honestly, I don't exactly know what to expect but I guess that's all part of the adventure!

As you can see, packing was a bit of a complication.

Til next time in Tanzania!