Karibu Tanzania

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My first impression when I stepped off the plane was that Tanzania is one hot country...temperature-wise. Even at 9:30 PM it was well over 80 degrees. Lahra, the program director in Dar, and Deyo, a driver, met us at the airport. I say us becuase I was on the same empty flight from Zurich as Ashley, and when the plane nearly emptied out in Nairobi, we decided to sit together to try to figure out how to fill out the stupid immigration cards. It was a nice flight, especially since I had several seats to myself. But Dar is simply hot.

We stayed our first night in a hotel because we all got there at different times and we needed to regroup. On Saturday morning, we took a bus tour of downtown (and all of its traffic) and then received a second security briefing. Finally, we met our host families and were sent away.

My family is the Msinjili family. Baba Msinjili works for the university administration as an auditor and Mama Msinjili is an economist. I was told that he is from a tribe near the Mbeya area and she is from Cameroon. They met in college in the UK at which point she moved to Tanzania and began learning Swahili. They have three daughters, the youngest of whom is 23. Growing up, there was an English-only policy in the house because Mama wasn't very good in Swahili yet. None of the daughters still live at home because one is in Alberta, one is in Maryland, and the youngest lives around the corner. The house itself is nice, if designed rather awkwardly. It consists of two parts connected by an outdoor patio. One part has three bedrooms and a bathroom and the other part has the dining room and kitchen. Although electricity is reliable, running water is not. I've been taking bucket baths with freezing cold water. Looks to be a fun month!

My host parents are devout Christians (they are Gideons and place Bibles in hotel rooms). My first night with them, they had a Gideon function to attend and Nsesheye, their youngest daughter, also had a function to attend. They gave me the option of with whom I wanted to go, but seemed to suggest that I'd rather be with her. So I went with Nsesheye.

The function was actually a party that was being thrown by the boss of her friend Joy. Although Joy is from Dar, her boss is a Belgian. He themed the party "Arabian Nights" and the majority of the guests got into character. I discovered the entire wazungu (white person) community at this party, including a German girl studying at Columbia named Inga. Inga, Joy, Nsesheye, and I were the young crowd. The party was a lot of food and dancing. After, we went to another wazungu place, O'Willies Irish Pub. Nsesheye later apologized for this being my introduction to Tanzania, but it is a side of the country that no one else is really seeing.

Sunday is relaxing day (especially when you get home at 2:30 AM!). The Msinjilis went to church, so I stayed home and talked with the house girl, Deborah. Tanzania is of a different mindset - Baba Msinjili told me, "We didn't go looking for her, she found us. And since we can use her and have the means, we felt obliged to give her a job." She is a big help, although both my host parents do some cooking and cleaning as well. It is just a very big adjustment for me.

Deborah (with a long O) is 20 years old and has worked here for 3 years. She is teh eldest of 5 (three brothers, one sister) and is Meru from the Arusha area. After telling me her tribe, she asked for mine. I had to explain to her that in America, we don't do "tribal" identification. She currently studies from 12-6 every day so that she can take the secondary school qualification test. My family is paying her school fees. As Baba Msinjili said, it is his contribution to her life. She loves cooking and is very good at it too!

Finally, I have to mention the animals of Dar. I have a reliable 7 AM alarm clock in the rooster from down the street who likes to do his morning walk to right outside my window. Even funnier and cuter than the rooster are the monkeys. They insist on climbing the trees and jumping into the house, except they hit the glass protecting the windows. So they fall, get up, and try again. They are very humorous.

And that is my introduction to Dar. Because using the internet is a bit of an effort, entries will be spread out a lot more than Europe. But I hope to write as much as possible on this blog because this is really an absolutely amazing country and I'm loving my entire experience so far. It's strange to think that I've been here only less than a week!

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Comments

[Tory]

wow, henri.. this sounds amazing.. experiencing a really different kind of life, culture, country.. !