First Week in Dar

I’m sorry about the lack of blogging for the past week. I thought that we had a tight schedule in TCDC, but this past week in Dar has been even busier. Partially, my lack of updating has been because of the computer situation. The computer labs are open from 8am-10pm, and we have Kiswahili class in the morning, and are often booked through 9:30 at night. So needless to say, it’s tricky to find time to get to the computer. To make things a little more complicated, the internet is not always functioning at the best rate. I’ve had difficulty with webmail, so blogging seemed like a daunting task.

Anyways. It is Sunday, and we have until 4 pm free. So I am updating. Like I said earlier, we have Kiswahili class everyday from 8:30 to 12:30. Our teacher, Edith Lyimo, is really great. She is funny, and explains grammar in a very helpful, logical way. She also randomly breaks out into song, then teaches us the song. They are helpful, for example we learned one about counting, and also one about introducing ourselves. Edith will also dance during our songs, which is quite possibly one of the funniest parts of our singing. Edith teaches our class for the first 2 ½ hours, then we break up into two groups with our tutors, Kapemba and Regina. Regina is a very good teacher, and Kapemba is average. She is harder to understand when she speaks, and isn’t as organized in what she is explaining.
After Kiswahili, we eat lunch, then embark on different “adventures” in the city. For example, our first dalla-dalla ride to Mwenge on Monday. The dalla-dalla there was fairly comfortable, which means only a few of us had to stand. Mwenge is an area of the city where a lot of artisan work is sold, jewelry, lots of wood carvings, some cloth, bags. Mainly it’s wood carvings. We got to Mwenge and promptly were swooped down on by almost every vendor we passed. “Hello, my friend, rafiki come in here, welcome, karibu my friends, come and look here, just look, looking is free!” If you do step inside, you are watched intently, and the moment you pick up something to look at it, or even move to pick it up, the vendor is at your side, lauding the virtue of your choice, or of the item. It’s frustrating because I can’t get out of my skin. I can’t stop being the right white American. I’m not a tourist, but that is the instant assumption made by everyone who sees me. The ride back from Mwenge was very crowded. In Tanzania, I’ve heard that the motto for travel is there is always room for one more. We actually reached the point where there wasn’t room for any more people. There were probably about 20 people crammed into that small little mini-bus.

Tuesday, we went to buy our cell phones and visited a place called The Slipway. The Slipway is a very strange place. For one thing, it was extremely clean. Not that I think the rest of Tanzania is dirty and unacceptable, just that other places are dusty, and older feeling. The Slipway was almost unnaturally clean. This place looked like it had been transplanted from some ritzy southern Florida town. Archways, a kid’s playground named after Peter Pan, tile sidewalks. The only people I saw shopping were white tourists. The Slipway is the kind of place that white people go to escape, to not see the actual city, and to pretend. I didn’t like it, and partially, this is because I realize that at some point in the semester, I will probably want to go to the Slipway, to buy ice cream, to walk around the bookstore, and walk around on those tile sidewalks for a little bit and pretend that I’m not here. And it bothers me because I don’t want that option to be there. I want to have to struggle with being the outsider here. Tuesday night we went to an Ethiopian restaurant called Addis-in-Dar. The food was great. I think I accidentally ate a chicken heart, which was interesting. Other than that, I really enjoyed it. The place was beautiful. It was on a rooftop, with candles, and velvet umbrellas covering all the light bulbs. The chairs were low, carved wooden chairs with cushions around these round wicker tables. There was incense burning somewhere, which was a little strong, but it added to the environment. The food is served to the group on a platter. The platter has this big round piece of bread on it, and all the food it placed on top of the bread. The bread is kind of spongy, but very good when it’s warm.

Wednesday after class we visited Mlimani primary school. This is the school that we will be volunteering at throughout the semester. We met that head of the school. She welcomed us and explained that until our classes start, we will only be able to come during the last hour of their day, so for the first few weeks we will only be playing games, and possibly doing some English conversation skill exercises. After we get our schedules we can commit to going at a particular time. I think it will be a lot of fun, and learning from children is a great way to learn Kiswahili, because they are good teachers. They will sit and help us learn colors, body parts, plants, animals, whatever, probably because it’s fun to watch us struggle. Children also will correct you right away if you say something grammatically incorrect, and it isn’t as intimidating as having an adult correct you. Also, kids will laugh with you about your poor Kiswahili skills, which is fun. Anyways, after that we went to the Embassy to register. Getting into the Embassy is really a hassle. The extra security is because the Embassy had been bombed about 10 years ago, around the time when the Embassy in Nairobi was bombed. Anyways, we are registered, if there are any problems or crises, the US government is supposed to know we are here and help us out.

Thursday after class, we took the dalla-dalla downtown. We went to a local Indian restaurant. It was decent, but different than what I would call Indian food. It was still good, just not what I was expecting. After that we went to Uhuru street, where the cloth market is located. That was really fun. My mom would love to see it. A whole street, shops after shops, selling meters of amazing kitenges and kangas. I bought 12 meters of kitenge for the equivalent of $12, which was a pretty good price. We took the dalla-dalla home. It was very crowded, but not as bad as when we rode back from Mwenge. That evening we ate Indian again, and it was more like Indian food that I’m used to. I had saag paneer, which is cottage cheese and spinach. It was delicious.

Friday we had our first Kiswahili test on introductions, what we study, where we come from, telling time and describing basic actions. It went pretty well. After that, we had the afternoon off, which was great. I took a nap, made a few phone calls, and bought some toilet paper. That is one thing about Dar that is different from Arusha. You need to carry toilet paper with you everywhere, because the bathrooms don’t always have it. My friend Kristin, also on this program, explained it best when she said “toilet paper in the bathrooms in Tanzania isn’t so much an expectation as a nice surprise.” I really should have updated this blog then, but instead I just sent a few emails, and relaxed. That evening we went to a dinner where some of the Tanzanian scholars who have been part of the LCCT program joined us. It was a good experience. I talked to some very interesting professors about Tanzanian culture, and also about classes to take, and about their visits to the US.

Saturday we went to Bagamoyo. We visited some ruins, and saw a baobab tree that is older than the US. That’s pretty cool. We also saw a neem tree. The ruins were from a Shirazi town from the 13th century. We saw the ruins of a 13th century mosque and graveyard, in addition to a small museum. We also walked through an older part of town and saw some beautiful old buildings. The carvings on the doors were wonderful. Seeing the ruins, and the old buildings in disrepair makes me wonder what Bagamoyo looked like when it was in it’s prime.
We also saw the first multi-racial school. It was built by the German colonists in the late 1800s. Outside the school, I was stopped by an old woman. She seemed very old, and just came up to me and started talking to me. I greeted her properly, using “shikamoo”, and asked how she was. She replied, and then asked me “do you have any food for an old grandmother?” I didn’t know what to do, or what to say. The group started walking again, so I muttered a hasty “hapana, samahani” (no, sorry) and left. The whole interaction made me feel a little sick. I don’t know what to do in situations like that.
Unfortunately, my first instinct is to wonder whether or not she really needs food, or if she just saw some white American tourists and thought she could get some money off of them. I can’t help thinking stuff like that, and it makes me feel awful. In some ways, I just want someone to tell me what to do. Sometimes, I want to be the dumb tourist that pays double the price for everything, and gives money to everyone who asks me for it, because I’m never going to fit in, and I’m never going to be seen as anything other than a tourist, an outsider. I know, that will reinforce the stereotype that white people have money, but the thing is, I do have money compared to a lot of people here. Even though I hate it, I am a rich white “tourist.” Being here for 5 months won’t change that. Even if I learn enough Kiswahili to get around without giving blank stares to people, I still won’t fit in, which is uncomfortable. I wonder how some of the people we met at TCDC who are staying here for 2-3 years will adjust after the first year, year and a half. Will they be more accepted? Or will they too be perpetual outsiders? I kind of understand why the international students at Luther stick with each other. It’s just more comfortable.