The ex-pat life!

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  Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
Wednesday, September 6, 2006

Swahili Greetings!:

Hujambo! (Worries?) response Sijambo! (I am fine or no worries).
Mambo? (What matters?) response Poa, Bomba, Safi (all variations of cool).
Vipi? (What's up?) also respond with Poa , Bomba, or Safi.
Habari za leo? (What's the news today?)
Habari za asubuhi? (What's the news this morning?)
or just Habari? (What's the news?) respond to all Nzuri (good) or Safi (cool or clean).

However, if you were to greet your elders then you would not say Mambo or Vipi which is used in conversation with your own generation!  Instead, you would say 'Shikamoo' (elders I respect you) to which they would respond 'Marahaba' (no direct translation but an acceptance of the respect).

Tanzanians are very big on greetings.  It is a part of their culture and rude not to participate.  In fact, everywhere you go you are greeted, mostly with "Mambo" as a younger person.  If you know someone, a greeting can go on for a few minutes - example: Mimi (me): Shikamoo; Baba (father) Marahaba; Mimi: Hujambo!; Baba: Sijambo!; Mimi: Habari za leo?; Baba: Safi, habari za darasa (class)?; Mimi: Nzuri!

It has been really easy and interesting to learn greetings because you hear them so much! : )

For the last two weeks, I have had some time to explore Dar es Salaam including the downtown area, a rotary meeting, the US embassy, and some side trips.  My classes were scheduled or were supposed to start last week or this week but in fact they will start next week, I hope.

Catholic Church in Bagamoyo

I am actually glad that classes have not started yet; it has been nice to have time off to explore the city and study Swahili on my own.

Rotary (for my Rotarian friends!): Two weeks ago, I went to my first Rotary meeting in Dar to introduce myself and exchange club flags from Peabody, Massachusetts with the club flag from the Rotary club of Dar es Salaam.  It was a good experience and a nice lunch.  The meeting was held at the Movenpick hotel downtown (formerly the Royal Palm) where Saada (my host counselor) actually has her office (British Airways).  Everyone was very receptive and the food was great.  I was even able to have ice cubes!  A big deal because it's one of the no-no foods for good health abroad...others are salad and milk.  The club meeting ran just like ones I had attended at home except that instead of the national anthem, we praised the president of Tanzania, Mkapa.  It did seem, however, that the club had to limit its projects because of the lack of funding in the district.  For example, there were some Rotaract students (for those of you who don't know it's Rotary's student delegation) who wanted to travel to the district conference in Kampala, Uganda in March but the club told them they could not afford it.  I am interested in finding out more about what projects they do have going on and perhaps start some cross cultural links to the United States (if anyone knows of a club that would be interested, let me know!).  Also, I was interested to hear if there were any Rotary scholars accepted from Tanzania to study abroad and it seemed that there hadn't been any outgoing scholars.  I emailed my scholarship coordinator to find out if Tanzanians could get the scholarship and apparently the Rotary Foundation enables low-income districts to send candidates through a separate fund, 20 -30 students in all will be sponsored.  I have met a few students who are interested in the scholarship from here so I'm hoping that the Dar club could send someone next year using this fund.  We'll see.

US Embassy: Going to the Rotary club and the US embassy has opened my eyes to the wonderful world of the ex-pat.

Dhows of Bagamoyo

 Last Wednesday, I happened to go to the US embassy to register as a citizen and check out the library.  There isn't much available in the library but there are some resources and it's a good place to get away and use the internet (in fact, I'm there right now!).  I learned that on Thursday nights, the Marine house on-site at the embassy has a movie night/Thirsty Thursday party.  I found this out from a Fulbright scholar that I met in the library on Wednesday.  The movie for that Thursday was 'Over the Hedge' so I was interested to find out what the scene would be like.  On Thursday, I got there a little early.  The first wave of people were US embassy employees, the ambassador himself, and spouses and children of employees.  We played a little volleyball and I met the ambassador. It was almost like an employee barbeque.  After that, the movie started and some people went to watch it while others stayed at the bar for conversation and drinks.  It was nice to meet some of the staff and people living in the area who were from the states but it was also very strange.  I felt like I was at a party in the states.  They told me about their houses on the peninsula with washers, dryers, a/c, and cable TV and their membership to the yacht club. Most of them did not speak Swahili unless it was to their gardener or housekeeper.  After being around Tanzanian students and Swahili for the last couple of weeks, it was almost a twilight zone and seemed very far removed from everything I had been experiencing in daily life.

More ruins

 However, I did exchange emails with a few people I met there and actually returned the following week to watch X-men III with a friend who really wanted to go.  One of the employees, Maureen, who works in the political and economic unit invited me over to do laundry and watch TV sometime and I have a feeling that I'll take her up on it one of these days.  Who knows, maybe I'll be back in a US embassy position one day!

Downtown Dar es Salaam: Downtown Dar doesn't have much to offer.  There are some historic buildings to check out amid all the hustle and bustle, a couple of hotels, a botanical garden (actually a small park) and a small national museum.  With classes not in session yet, I decided to take a day to explore the city. I find that the best thing about exploring on your own is the people you meet along the way.  Although, I am very particular about who I talk to here.  On the way downtown, I met a professor of archeology going the same way and I mentioned to him that I had always wanted to go on a dig and had thought about taking an archeology class at the university.  He said that the student digs are in June/July but that he has a personally organized dig coming up in December to Mafia Island off the coast of Tanzania that I'm welcome to be a part of.  I was excited to hear this and hope that I can be a part of it although my original plan was to travel to Egypt then!  I might have to rethink my trips!  I also met a law student from another university and a US embassy security guard who was off duty.  It was an interesting day.  The museum itself was small and under-funded.

Ruins from Arab slave town in Bagamoyo

They do however have many important fossils that other museums have been trying to take from them. I can see both sides of the argument because the museum did not take very good care of their exhibits -- in fact, things were exposed, tanks were leaking, and items were not preserved, but I can also understand why Tanzanians would want those priceless items to stay in Tanzania.

Side trips: Last last weekend I took a trip to Kipepeo (butterfly) beach right outside of Dar es Salaam with a few friends from Swahili class.  It took us a while to get there by dala dala (local transport like a VW vans that seat 12 but often have 20- 27 passengers cramped in...it's only 200 shillings (20 cents) to travel and a very interesting part of the experience). We used the dala dalas to get downtown (as we often do) and then took a ferry across to an island (100 shilling ferry ride, 10 cents) and then took another dala dala to the beach. The beach was absolutely beautiful and very pristine. There are only two small places to stay there and both are made up of huts on the beach. We stayed the night and it was about 10,000 shillings or $8 a person.  The next day we took a dhow across to an island we had heard was exciting to explore.  A dhow is a man made wooden boat with a sail that sometimes looks like a t-shirt collection strung together.  It was so beautiful to travel the water in one of these boats.  For 15,000 shillings, we were taken across (1 hour there, 20 minutes back because of the wind) and we were given a barbeque lunch consisting of vegetables, soda, and fish caught that morning.  It was wonderful.  I will have to put the pictures up soon.

Then, this last weekend I went on another trip to Bagamoyo, which is an old slave trading post.

Women selling shirmp she had just de-shelled

I t is called Bagamoyo ("lay your heart down") for two reasons:  1) because slaves that were brought there from the interior would never see their homes again; and 2) because the porters who were free Africans would end there job terms at the coast, having laid down their goods, and return to the interior having been paid.  There was a museum in town and ruins from the 17th century of Arab villages and cemeteries to see. I t was very interesting.  We also had a chance to walk around town and found some local artists to talk to.  They told us about a huge art festival in Bagamoyo next weekend that I'm considering going to.

All in all, the side trips have been wonderful but I'm planning to stay "home" in Dar for a few weekends to hang out with my family and get settled at the school.  This weekend I am going with my family to visit their daughter, Deborah, who is 13 and away at school. I think that we are also going to have my Rotary host counselor's family over for dinner.  It should be interesting.  More about my host family in my next entry.  They have a very interesting dynamic.  Also, I'm planning on posting pictures whenever I can.  It takes about 10 -15 minutes a picture so it is a slow process but keep looking back at the postings to see if I have added pictures.  The first entry has a few now!!  Also, I'm sorry that these entries have been so sporadic.  I try to organize my thoughts the best I can but sometimes it is more difficult and I just want to get it out!  Thanks for reading.I miss everyone!

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