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Wednesday night, I saw one of the most amazing sunsets I may ever see. The sun was setting over the lake and we began watching it from the top of a kopje (the same one we went to on the first day). We then proceeded to the lake's edge to continue watching the sunset. At the shore, we saw a man preparing his boat, which was really more like a raft, for the night. Around Lake Victoria, most of the fishing is done at night. Men usually leave as the sun sets and return in the morning at sunrise with their catch. Some will even stay out on the lake for days or weeks on end. Anyway, we watched this man depart for the night with the backdrop of a beautiful sunset. The pictures I took, which are amazing, do not do the experience justice.
Thursday morning, we all woke up at 5:30 to see the sunrise and observe the fishermen coming back with their catch. We went to Nyegezi Bay, an offshoot of the Mwanza Gulf, itself an offshoot of Lake Victoria. As we arrived, the sun was beginning to come up. Another spectacular view (although the sunset was better). As the boats came in, scores of women would surround the men and begin purchasing the fish. On this day, a bucketfull was going for about 10,000=/ (Tanzanian Shillings are abbreviated =/). This is significantly more than it was a few years ago, but because the catch the night before was good, it was lower than it could have been. The local staple, dagaa, was not the only thing being traded in this little market. People also sold Nile tilapia, Nile perch, and themselves.
That may have been one of the saddest parts of the market. We observed a young girl (her friends said she was 11) with a big bucket of fish. At her age, there is probably no way that she could have obtained such a bucket because she would not have had the income to purchase one. We can only imagine what she sold instead, but it would be a safe bet that it was her body. Strangely enough, we happened to meet this same girl walking back to her house as we left the market and a few of us stopped and talked to her and the other orphans (the orphans are allowed to pick out the bad fish, the cichlids, from the catch). In the market they were shy, but on the road they were talkative. We realized later that since most of them do not go to school, their Swahili and our Swahili were probably at equivalent levels, making communication a tad difficult. While we knew that they were going to be there, some of the more important men in the market seemed ashamed of the orphans and their status in the market.
When we returned to the classroom (8:30 in the morning), we began talking about the things we saw and the animals we acquired. We actually managed to obtain a small carp and a baby Nile perch as well. Dino was really excited to cut them open so that we could analyze the contents of their stomachs. The carp had plants and the perch had shrimp and baby fish. Exciting.
In the afternoon, I decided to do laundry. Most of my clothes is now partially washed. About 20 minutes into the process, I got very bored and so did a lackluster job. Now all the clothes are drying in my room in the most awkward of positions. Slowly but surely they are beginning to be OK. Now, to prevent bugs that can kill me, I need to iron all my clothes.
Later that night, we decided to go for another sunset walk. This time we brought drinks with us. Dino actually lost some of his credibility on this hike because we went walking through some pretty prickly spines. Marion and I got to the top of one rock, but nobody else followed us. So we had to go around and find everyone else. We eventually did and climbed a new set of rocks. This was another picture perfect sunset, just not
as good as the one the night before. When we finally returned to campus, I spent the better part of an hour pulling the spikey things out of my clothing.
Even later on, after dinner, a lot of us went to the stage near our hostels and just sat and talked for two hours. It was anything but a hopping party. It was a lot of fun anyway. Today should be better because it's a holiday.
So, for America's birthday, we got watermelon at lunch (or because it's watermelon season) and we are doing pizza for dinner. Yes, nice and American. It's the closest thing we have to "American" food so we're going to take it and enjoy it for one night. Additionally, a few of us have been singing random patriotic American songs out loud. The biggest problem with this is that none of us actually know all the words to the songs that we're singing, so it's making some very awkward humming. We ARE those annoying Americans today.
This weekend, we are going to a Sukuma Cultural Museum and probably taking another boat trip onto Lake Victoria. Another entry will come out of all of that.
Happy Fourth of July!
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Elizabeth
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I forgot...
So I forgot that today was the fourth...it's no big deal here and the fact that a friend/fellow intern was leaving was far more significant... I can't believe I'm leaving this place next Thursday ! It's crazy because for so long I was craving a bit of home but now I feel at home here and I love working at the museum...I miss people back home but in many ways I want to stay here... So there was a reason I was gonna comment, aside from forgetting the fourth, but I don't remember... Take care ! Bisous !