Greetings from Tanzania - finally!!
I apologize for this long-delayed post… internet connection has been unreliable here, and I wanted to wait until I could post some photos to upload my first update.
A lot has happened in a single month (I landed in Dar es Salaam on October 6th), but perhaps one benefit to waiting such a long time to make my first post is that I’ll be able to skip over some the more mundane parts of arriving and settling in. Unless anyone is dying to hear an account of what I’ve eaten every day since my arrival.
This pretty much sums it up anyway.
The hotel that I first stayed at was in the city centre of Dar es Salaam, an exciting place to be, but kind of far from the university.
View from the balcony. Lucky, huh?
I’ve since moved to an apartment that is extremely close to both the university AND a shopping complex (a corrupting influence).
Real estate is a different kind of experience here in Tanzania, or maybe I’ve just watched too much House Hunters International. My agent did his best to convince me at every prospective apartment that we visited that “this is the perfect place for you, no? You’ll take it, right?” and seemed reluctant to show me more places. In addition, he would casually refer to me as “ the mzungu” (white person) in a professional context to his colleagues, which was both incredibly amusing and infuriating. I half expected the official lease agreement to read, “I, mzungu Nina, agree to abide by the terms and conditions…”
Perhaps there will be an additional blog entry on the use of the word “mzungu” later. It's probably deserving of a full entry by itself.
Anyway, the apartment that I ended up with is both beautiful and perfectly located, in spite of my agent’s best efforts to sell me on a different place, one with neither furniture nor plumbing...
Classes at the University of Dar es Salaam officially started two weeks ago, but have been slightly inconsistent in their regularity so far. This has given me more time to settle in however and shop around for classes. I’ve also started my internship with the Tanganyika Christian Refugee Services organization [more on this in a later post].
On campus...
This is me creepily taking a photo during class. Sorry it’s not the best of quality – I was trying to be inconspicuous about it. I wanted to show everyone how nice the classrooms are at UDSM, but the students sitting behind me probably thought I was pretty strange.
Living so close to campus, I have had the chance to meet a lot of students, which is something I was looking forward to. One masters student in the Institute of Resource Assessment, Nico Malik, had actually contacted me several weeks prior to my arrival in Dar – in a strange twist of fate, he emailed me asking about my undergraduate thesis on education in Tanzania, without knowing that I would be coming to the university. We agreed to meet up once I arrived, and he showed me around the campus and taught me the fine art of navigating the university registration process.
I get to study under this crazy tree on campus. Nico told me that it is called the “mdegree” tree, which corresponds with a popular tale that if you study under this tree you will successfully complete and receive your degree. Let’s see, shall we?
Unrelatedly, there are wild monkeys running around on campus, in a similar style to squirrels on US campuses. I haven’t caught a picture yet, but I’ll upload it as soon as I do. Nico seems amused by my amusement at this.
I’ve also met many of the other foreign students at the university, including fellow Rotary scholars. Emily, a Rotary scholar from Vermont, is in the same program as me at the University, so it has been a relief to have someone with which to share experiences, frustrations, and information regarding the university bureaucratic system, which is more complicated than expected – registration took several weeks to successfully process.
I was fortunate to meet with my rotary host club last week (The Rotary Club of Bahari Dar es Salaam). It took a little longer to get assigned to a club than is usual for scholars I think, but everyone in the club is incredibly nice and welcoming. I also met some students who are in the Roteract club at the University of Dar es Salaam. They are planning a blood drive for the city, which I'm going to help out with, and I’ve also been going with them to teach a daily English class to a group of nearby local Tanzanian woodcarvers. The Roteract clubs here are encouragingly active, and they’ve proven to be a great resource to not only get more involved in Rotary but also meet students my own age.
Tonight I visited the Rotary Club of Dar North and gave my first “official” presentation as a Rotary Scholar in Tanzania. There are a total of 4 clubs in Dar AND 4 Roteract clubs – I didn’t realize coming into this how active the city is in Rotary.
Many Tanzanians ask me what has been the hardest part of adjusting to life in Dar. Many of the students seem to expect that I’ll have problems with the food here. Fortunately, this hasn’t been a problem at all, due not only to a truly transcendental love of food, but also because food here isn’t all that different than in the US, although perhaps more limited in variety. The over-abundance of French fries here is enough to make any American feel at home.
Life could be more difficult, I suppose.
The only thing that I find occasionally disconcerting is the way in which samaki (fish) is served [see below].
A little bit off-putting, no? But aside from dealing with the occasional guilt-inducing stare from my food, one of the hardest things about moving to Tanzania has been how much I miss my dog. But let’s be honest, how could anyone NOT miss seeing this face every day?
This is usually a strange thing to explain to my Tanzanian friends. Here, dogs and cats are kept for specific purposes (security and hunting mice, respectively), not as companions. It’s a little bit like a dairy farmer professing his love for his cows.
Anyway, Sophie (my dog) and I have tried Skyping together, but to no avail. I’m assured by my parents that she misses me terribly however.
That’s about it for this month; this is a pretty comprehensive summary. This blog post was supposed to go up last night, but instead I ended up sitting in my apartment in the dark, without electricity, Internet, or even a charged computer. I realized that in a single month I’ve learned a lot about patience… A couple of weeks ago I would have been incredibly frustrated; last night I just took it as a sign that I should go to bed early. Nothing wrong with that.
Kwa heri (good-bye) for now. I'm off to get a cup of tea... Tanzanians, much like the British, drink tons of tea. It's been a pretty difficult adjustment.
