Thursday, January 20, 2011

In Dar anything is possible

  Unfortunately what I thought to be a smart, convenient way for friends and family to keep track of my adventures in Tanzania is turning out to be quite difficult.  Life in Dar is tiring for many reasons: the heat, busy schedules, being chased by baboons, an unorganized university, watching where I am going all the time so I don't fall into a ditch...so at the end of the day I have a hard time sitting myself on my bed and typing about the days' activities. This results in posts that often elaborate on the larger yet not as interesting events of my days rather than the small, subtle "oh wow that's new and intriguing" moments that happen hundreds of times throughout my day.  So just keep in mind that while there may be 'big' things going on like Bagamoyo excursions and dealing with different types of bathrooms, most of my time is spent wading my way through the culture of Dar, often making mistakes and being laughed at or experiencing the many cultural differences between Tanzania and the US.  In fact, it would be near impossible to document all of my 'learning experiences' as I am euphemistically choosing to call them.  But I can assure you I have never felt so distant and so interconnected with a group of people as I have with the people in Dar.  I also don't post many of these 'learning experiences' because really, who likes sharing with the world one's inability to order only three slices of pineapple versus six and then being stared at like a pineapple glutton by the fruit stand man? The point of all this rambling is to convey that what I am posting here is unfortunately only the tip of the iceberg of what is going on in my life, and that if you just imagine a thoroughly confused Jennifer wandering around the streets of Dar, but a Jennifer that goes to sleep happy every night because the people and experiences here are incredible, you will have a good idea of how I am doing.
   Now that is out of the way, want to hear some of what's been going on? Last time I mentioned a potential internship with an NGO called CHAVITA in Dar, but if you remember I also mentioned the complete lack of organization on the part of UDSM. So here I am, come Thursday evening, without word from CHAVITA, and a NEW set of classes. Apparently the university decided to offer some other classes to both CIEE students and some other kids from Norway, Finland, Canada and the like. While this may seem like an exciting new opportunity to learn different things, if you have gathered anything about UDSM and Dar you know it's not just that easy.  Some of the classes' assigned professors are not available to talk with, out of the country, or don't even know they are supposed to be teaching the class! So it is our job to find these professors (in buildings with unlabeled rooms) and straighten them out with a  "boy gosh, you have to teach this class!" and maybe an "or else!" for good measure. Also, being someone that loves to learn, especially about Africa, it is a little hard to only pick three classes out of the now list of fifteen.  And if I do switch then I have to coordinate with my professors at Humboldt State via email (which is down I might add) to re-write my transfer agreement to include the classes.  Oh goodness, what an adventure.  The best part of it all is that the program I am with (CIEE) has guaranteed classes that the school HAS to offer (with a definite "or else!" attached) but the other international students don't have such a guarantee. This resulted in a rather frustrating and comical meeting with a professor today in which both groups got into a time slot competition with CIEE claiming priority due to numbers and pre-designated classes and the other students based upon.......well nothing really, they were just being sassy because they could. I felt like I was in an international soap opera! Hopefully all of this will be figured out tomorrow? Monday? At some point...
 So after all of that drama I went sent off to find the mysterious Dr. A. Kwekason in the Archaeology dept. regarding a potential class I am interested in... It is a good thing the people in this country are nice because I haven't quite learned how to ask "Where is the archaeology department" and "do you know where the African Civilizations teacher's office is?" in Kiswahili. I wandered around two buildings (of which I am certain are modeled after the Minoan maze on Crete)  for fifteen minutes until I found a corridor that looked like it belonged to archaeology professors (impressively tall stacks of paper, books everywhere,  figurines poking out from behind said books) and was pointed in the direction of what I assumed was Dr. Kwekason's office. Nope, I was lead into the office of a man who knows the professor, but didn't actually know where he was. Maybe he was at the museum? Or possibly teaching a class? Or who knows...maybe he was lost in the maze? Either way I am expecting a call (yeah, teachers call students on their cell phones here..) from Dr. Kwekason, but I am a little concerned that meeting him for office hours will be an adventure every time.  However, if this class does get approved (and he actually knows he is supposed to be offering it) I will be one of four students! I like that teacher to student ratio.
  Even though I haven't made a convincing case in this blog that I have a life outside of school, I did actually go to the beach with the girls today. Getting to and from Konduchi beach was just half the fun! It cost 350TSH, or about 17 cents to take the dalla dalla from UDSM to Konduchi (about a 30minute ride on public transit) and a whopping 4000TSH (about $2.50) to take a taxi back for what we thought would be a safer mode of transit than the dalla dalla at night. We were wrong, but I'll get to that in a moment. So we took the dalla dalla to the end of the line which to my confusion was the entrance to a Wet-n-Wild (yes it makes me sad too) but thankfully we were pointed in the direction of the nearest beach. The nearest beach just happened to be on the property of what may be one of the nicest hotels in all of Tanzania.  The water was pristine with the island that we visited (pictures in a previous post) off in the distance.  Because we are wazungu (white people) they let us on their property without question; we took the opportunity to make ourselves at home.  We grabbed a drink from the bar and while the other girls went swimming I sat under a cabana in a lounge chair reading my favorite book to the sound of the ocean. I felt a little bad because without a doubt we are all living split lives on this trip.  On one hand we are supposed to mingle with the locals and interact with the people of Dar in what are often poor or less fortunate areas.  On the other hand we have a private air conditioned bus to take us on excursions and we spend some of our free time sipping cocktails in an obviously upscale hotel that caters to westerners.  Even though I understand the importance of  understanding the life and experiences of average people in Dar, I won't lie and say that I didn't enjoy the beautiful surrounding and relaxing atmosphere of the hotel and private beach. I will justify it by telling myself that I am experiencing ALL of Dar this way...the rich and poor! We stayed for about six hours and had dinner at the outdoor restaurant (I had Jerra chicken that was to die for and some 'strawberry' ice cream that I am convinced was actually bubblegum flavored) and had some good girl talk by the sea. Unfortunately all good things come to an end and we called a cab to take us back to the university. All was going well until, five minutes in, the cab driver pulled off onto an unlit dirt road and parked the car. Even without the eighteen safety lectures we have had here, I would have been wary. Fortunately he started the car after some "hapana, hapana, chuo kikuu dar-es-salaam not here!" and got back on the road. This was short lived however, as the taxi died in the middle of the road about five minutes later! What we thought was a sketchy stop on the side of the road was actually our driver checking to see if the car was OK. Apparently it wasn't. This is when things got a little interesting. Not only were we in a place that we were unfamiliar with at night, but the driver-not speaking a lick of English- left the car with us in it! Fearing to get out of the car we all huddled together pondering a plan B in case our driver didn't return or if the car wouldn't start. He returned shortly after our initial panic moment but gave us an ambiguous "five minutes" and left again, presumably to get petrol.  Thankfully the five minutes was, as we like to say, in American minutes and not Tanzanian minutes, or we would have been on the side of the road (some random guys pushed the car to the side) for at least an hour. But alas, petrol wasn't the answer and the car still didn't work! At this point we had nixed our plan B and were on C or D but still weren't sure about waiting on the side of the road for a dalla dalla to Mwenge (which in all honesty is super sketchy at night, and not a good place for white girls to go alone) or demanding to our Swahili-only driver that he call us a new cab. But don't worry, there is a happy ending. Some nice men pulled over their car and let us use their jumper cables (which worked!, hurray!) and I'm sure laughed at the silly white girls crammed into the back of the taxi afraid to get out, but we eventually got the car working and on the road again.  After that it was smooth sailing and we got home in one piece, if it was in a slightly ruffled state. All I could think of during the experience was "oh my gosh, if my mom knew about this right now she would be FREAKING out!". Hopefully this isn't a common occurrence with Dar's taxis, but at least we did the right thing by not getting out of the taxi. Squished wazungu or not, I would rather not be mugged or possibly left behind!
  Can you imagine how long these past two weeks have felt? What with all the taxi, bathroom, swimming, and school related adventures? Just today I witnessed an international soap opera episode, searched far and wide for a mysterious teacher, had a luxurious rest by the beach, and was in a broken down taxi on the side of the road! No day is boring in Dar, that is for certain! We will see how tomorrow goes because we are visiting the U.S. Embassy, but who knows....maybe we will race a herd of giraffes down the streets of Dar or possibly meet the Tanzanian president! In Dar anything is possible.

2 comments:

  1. Your damn right I freaked out! Thank the Lord He is watching over you - but don't push your luck OK? It is a good thing you have persiverance and maintain your goals. Don't let the cultural differences get you down; the book said it might happen. Stay level headed, sweetheart, and you can call or text 24/7. I love you, Mom

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  2. Some of the most memorable experiences seem to come while traveling! I'm glad it worked out, because it usually does - most people are good. I always found it helpful to carry a swiss army knife myself - good for slicing pieces off of extra bits of flapping tires, or a screwdriver to fix something. But that's just me. ;-)

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