Getting Into the Orientation Rhythm

Hello all!

More interesting updates for you...!

We go to lunch every day at this place by the beach that's right near the hostel we're staying at. Apparently you're not supposed to bring your own food or drinks into the premises because that takes away from the place's business...it makes sense. However, we eat lunch there every day at 1:00pm and we've brought water before and it hasn't been much of a problem, since we're giving them service for 9 people every time (the 8 of us volunteers and our field director). Every day we walk in there is a Maasai guard (you can look them up on the internet to see a picture of them) there who checks what you bring in. They guard a lot of things here, like if you go into a club in the evening they'll watch over your car and when you leave you give them a couple hundred shillings in return. They're always very nice and polite and carry around walking sticks with them. They wear traditional kanga material (you can also look that up online) and always wrap one around their waists and another around their chests. But back to the story...even though we hadn't had any problems bringing water on the weekend and on Monday, the Maasai guard that was there on Tuesday got into a tiffy about us bringing water in. He said he might lose his job if he let us in. Ashley, our field director, had to speak with him in Swahili and ended up talking to the general manager of the whole restaurant and beach resort. She went into his office and said it looked like a 1970's disco, haha. We all got a kick out of that. He cleared us so we were finally able to each lunch...45 minutes late!

Time moves very slowly here, or maybe it's that people move slowly and don't really give a hoot about time. You do what you intend to do, but expect to wait and wait and waaaaaiiitttt to do everything. It's really easy to be overly ambitious when you first arrive. Like you might assume that going to the bank takes one second just to do a small transaction with a teller, especially in the U.S., but given any time of day during business hours in Dar es Salaam any bank you choose (like NMB for example) will be chocked full with people in a rather illusive, unorganized line that you have to somehow cram your way into in order to get service. It's always insane going to the bank and it's really hot to stand in line because there are so many people here. But people here really don't worry about it, they just wait because they're used to waiting. I'm telling you, if you ever want to test your patience and improve it then you should come to Tanzania. Even waiting in line for an atm can be a hassle and the line can get up to 30 feet long sometimes! It's normal protocol here for people to cut you because lines are so abstract sometimes that you can't even really claim a spot in them! You just have to understand the culture and take everything with a grain of salt and understand that this culture is just different from yours.

I went for a run on Tuesday for the first time since I've been in Tanzania. It was only my second run in over a month because after my dad partially ran over my left ankle with his car tire on my graduation day, I didn't want to run on it and strain it (sorry dad to publicize that...but it's the truth!). I ran with 2 other of the volunteers, Tracy and Matt, as well as with Ashley and her friend here, Katherine. I was definitely the slowest in the bunch, but that's ok. Nothing here is a race! It was super dusty the whole time we were running because we were mostly stirring up loose dirt that cushioned the side of the paved roads. I went about 3 miles, but I had to stop and walk a few times. It was soooo unbelievably hot, I thought I was going to melt! It was nice to get exercise though, so I'm hoping to do it again soon!

On Tuesday night after continuing with orientation we went out to a place called Q Bar. It's a more local hangout compared to the Irish Pub, but surprisingly they still serve hamburgers and chips (fries) and I've heard they're really good! We watched Spain play Portugal in football. Everyone there seemed to really be rooting for Spain, although our table was unofficially rooting for Portugal because she loves Christiano Ronaldo's Armani underwear ads, lol. When Spain finally scored in the second half the guys sitting behind us we so excited they leaped up joyously and embraced each other, jumped up and down, and then one of the guys banged his fist on their table 3 times super hard, knocking over 3 of their beers which spilled all over Matt (one of the volunteers) and I. Joyous for them - sure, but great for us - NOPE. We smelled like beer, cheap cigarettes (you can smoke in the bars here where ever you want, even ones that are all indoors), mosquito repellant (we almost OD on applying that at night!), and sweat because it was sooo hot. Lovely...hahaha. When I got back to the hostel I took a shower and God I can't even express how wonderful it was. Gotta love TZ. As our Swahili Teacher, Benjamin, says "T.i.T" - "This is Tanzania" lol.

Funny fact: when a girl or a woman here is wearing a short skirt at a club or something (which is definitely noottttttt appropriate during everyday wear - women especially have to cover up their shoulders and knees every day), if she bends over and people can see her underwear (a MAJOR faux pas!) then Tanzanian people say "Free Movie!!!!!" hahahahaha. I think that's hilarious. I don't plan to show any free movies while I'm here...

Wednesday morning we had Kiswahili (K/S) Class. Benjamin is a joy to learn from - he's always upbeat and extremely encouraging. We learned numbers, which I'd already learned previously, as well as how to structure the past and future tenses. It feels so good to know how to put together words now, even though we just know a couple verbs so far. It's much easier to try and figure out what people are saying now that we have some sense of K/S grammar. I was able to introduce myself and have a verrrrrry brief conversation with a couple of Maasai guards who were at the Irish Pub last night. It felt really good.

After K/S class we went to lunch without Ashley this time and were luckily able to bring water in no problem :). We ate really good pilau (almost like fried rice but not as greasy, it's just rice that has a lot of good spices in it), beef stew, pea stew (ish), fresh vegetable salad (some of the best I've ever had!!!!) and cooked kale. Once we were done lunch Becky, Liz (other volunteers) and I went on a daladala (bus-like taxi here) for the first time by ourselves in Tanzania. I'd ridden them in South Africa so I wasn't scared, but I think being on the daladala really freaked Becky out. We asked the guy at the door to the van if he was going to the mall, Mlimani City, and he said yes and shoved us on the bus. All the seats were taken so we were standing up the whole time. There were some windows open so it was a little breezy, but it was still pretty stuffy. We were pressed up against all the other people who were crowding the aisles of the bus. We were holding metal bars ahead of us so that we didn't fall. When we got off we realized we were in Ubungu, not near the mall at all! We had to get off at the bus station there which is really just an overcrowded marketplace with lots of small shops trying to sell backpacks, fruit, kangas, etc. We bustled our way to another daladala going to Mwenge which is much closer to the mall. It only costs 250 TZS to ride on a daladala per person, so it's much cheaper than a Taxi, even if it is more uncomfortable for some people. I actually sometimes feel safer in daladalas than I do in Taxis because there are more local Tanzanians and many more people around who can help out in a crisis, robbery, or hostage situation. Once we got off the second daladala we found a bajaji (I think that's how you spell it...) which is a little open motorized cart, almost like a golf cart. They go super fast and can weave in and out of traffic no problem since they're much smaller than cars. And they can go surprisingly fast, which is nice because then you get to cool down because of the wind. We paid 1,500 TZS for the ride to the mall, which turned out not to be very far away at all...but at least we made it...finally! We went to exchange Becky's phone which she had dropped in the sink in our hostel. I was trying to meet up with a cool guy who had helped me at Tigo the other day (he gave me his number on my receipt and I figured why not go for it), but we ran out of time and had to rush back to the hostel to attend our 4:00 session about constructing daily lesson plans with Ashley. We were all a bit frazzled when we got back because of all the transport we'd been on - we took a taxi back and he didn't really know where we were going so we had to walk part of the way which made us even later, but it was ok in the end. Everyone was super sluggish during that last session. They say that usually the 6th day you're in a place is when you really need a break from everything and to just relax and I think that was true for all of us!! Today (Thursday) we have a pretty relaxing day with just K/S Class and then a beach day with Katherine at her place just down the road at her pool! Woop woop! It'll be nice to finally go swimming!

Last night before dinner we did laundry by hand for the first time. I'd done this once in Tanzania when I was here last December/January, but it was certainly a refreshing experience! It is NOT easy to wash your clothes by hand - all those of you who have washing machines and dryers should be thanking your lucky stars! It's not that it's hard, it's just majorly time consuming. It took me over an hour to hand scrub my clothes in a basin filled with water and powder "Omo" (a dry laundry detergent here) and wash them out in a basin filled just with water. It was sort of a fun community experience though and I'm glad I finally got to wash my clothes. We hung them on the line last night so they should be dry in a day or two.

Last night we went to the Irish for their weekly karaoke night! It was pretty fun. I was about to debut my singing skills, but unfortunately the guy who was running it didn't have the song I had picked out from his sheet on file (Dido's "White Flag"). I was going to sign up again on the list but everyone was so tired that we went home before I got to go up again. I'll try it again next week and I'll keep you posted about whether I get cheered for or booed off stage, haha. Matt sang "She's Like the Wind" and Becky and Katherine sang "Like a Prayer." We got a ton of pictures of them having a hell of a time on stage. It was pretty fun. :)

I woke up early to post this blog this morning. Now I have to hurry to do my K/S homework from yesterday for our session that's in half an hour. For now, baadaye (later)!