One month in Tanzania with a bunch of colts photos!

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Hi everybody,

Well, somehow an entire month has gone by since I arrived in Tanzania. My last blog entry gave a pretty detailed account of the first two weeks and I’ve been up to many of the same activities … visiting schools, planning and fundraising for Roots & Shoots week, helping around the office and learning Kiswahili.

My computer has now arrived, so I’ve put some new pictures online in album G and if you don't look at those photos, you'll think this blog is all about the colts! For the rest of the blog, but I thought I’d talk about three things from the last couple weeks: adjusting to life in Dar/working at JGI, THE SUPERBOWL, and the trip to Zanzibar.


Life in Dar es Salaam
I’ve been adjusting to life here in Dar slowly but surely. The main challenges for me are threefold: heat, time and language. Basically, eight years of living on the west coast in the USA has turned me into a wimp regarding temperature extremes, whether hot or cold. I’m a wimp, and if given a choice, I’d lean towards a preference to cold temperatures. So as you can imagine, moving to the southern hemisphere in January, within arm’s reach of the equator, is a big adjustment. The first few weeks, I would find myself completely exhausted and drained of energy mid-afternoon and again in the early evening, but I’m getting used to it. I’m also learning that Dar and the coast are the hottest areas in the country, so when I leave town, things should cool off.

The second adjustment is Tanzanian time. I’ve traveled to many other cultures who don’t adhere to strict time-keeping like we do in the US, but until now I’ve never had a job in a country like this. Essentially, a 4:00 meeting here just translates into a starting point between 4, and some time before 5. But as a mzungu, I still show up at 4 and do a lot of sitting around while all the locals know to come later. What can you do? But it goes beyond that. On at least three occasions, people have been complete no-show’s for appointments … like teachers who aren’t at schools, or other scheduled meetings at the office.

My favorite story so far is a fundraising pitch we had scheduled with a local mobile phone company. We had emailed over a fundraising proposal to sponsor our Roots & Shoots Week celebration event, but wanted to meet with a rep from the company to discuss the project. The specific time and date were set up by the staff at the company, and we were all set for a Monday afternoon meeting. Upon arrival we checked in with the secretary only to learn that our contact wasn’t even there, and wouldn’t be back for three days! Bad sign. So later in the week we set a tentative meeting for Friday afternoon, which would also be cancelled at the last minute. Finally, we met on the following Monday, a week after the initial appointment. The meeting didn’t go so well, and among other things, we were told that the timing of the meeting was now too close to the upcoming event (but we weren’t the one’s who caused a whole week’s delay!). As fate would have it, we later learned that the company was funding the project in full … success! But this is just an illustration of how challenging it can be to get your bearings in this culture as an outsider. Things that appear detrimental or unprofessional in terms of keeping time are the everyday norm. I’m adjusting, but the bottom line is any time I set a meeting time with someone else, I only consider it a 50/50 likelihood that the meeting will take place at the scheduled date or time. Karibu Tanzania.

The final challenge is the language barrier, but things are moving forward fine. I’ve really learned a lot of Kiswahili at this point, even if it doesn’t feel that way some times. I’m down to two lessons per week, which leaves me plenty of time to study on my own and continue expanding my vocabulary. As I’ve heard in the past, a full immersion into another country is really the best way to learn a language and I completely agree. I’m very lucky that most secondary schools teach entirely in English in an effort to improve the students’ English language skills. It makes life easier as a volunteer, but I often feel guilty at meetings where everyone is forced to speak English just because one person - me - can’t speak the language. In time, it will get better, but it’s an adjustment.


THE COLTS ARE SUPERBOWL CHAMPIONS!!!

I’ve already been online with many of my die hard colts fan friends and family, so we’ve touched base about how good the Colts are and how happy we are that Indianapolis has finally receive a long-awaited major sports championship (first since Pacers won three ABA titles in the mid-1970’s). But I need to share my story about my Tanzanian Superbowl Party.

As you know, watching the colts win the superbowl in Tanzania had been a prospective plan since I left home. So once we beat the pats in the AFC championship I had to start making plans. First I looked online and discovered that ESPN was carrying the game internationally. Second, I had to find a hotel with ESPN so I could watch the game (no cable in my house) and especially because the game would be kicking off at 2:30 a.m. in Tanzania.

So in the days preceding the game, all necessary plans were made. Three of us from JGI would gather at the hotel early on to go for a swim and then we’d be joined by another friend here on a Fulbright scholarship, and finally, about seven undergrads studying abroad at the University of Dar es Salaam would come over late night for the game. We reserved a suite with a kitchen, we had snacks, drinks, everything you need for a makeshift superbowl party on the other side of the globe. Now fast forward to game day …

The three of us checked in, bought groceries, and went for a swim. And around 6 pm, went up to the room to discover the cable was entirely out. The hotel staff informed us that the cable company was moving their offices on that day, and cable was out all across the city until 8 pm. Having already discussed the unreliability of timing in this country, I started to panic. Fortunately, we still had many hours until kickoff. But I knew in my heart it was all over. There was no way the cable company was planning to work into the wee hours of the night to get cable TV going.

As the hours passed, a few channels miraculously appeared on screen. But no ESPN. By the time 9:00 rolled around, I figured there was no more hope. But we started strategizing and calling around town and found a bar with satellite. Of course, they’d be closing well before the game, so we thanked them and hung up. But they happened to send us a text message after we got off the phone telling us they’d let us stay at the bar to watch TV after the place closed. Hallelujah! We had a late dinner, piled into some taxis and went over to the bar around 11:00 pm on Sunday night … still having to wait 3.5 hours before kickoff!

ESPN had some basic pre-game coverage for the hours prior to the game. Rather than talking about this year’s game, there were two, half-hour programs about each of the colts and bears last superbowl championship teams … and it was definitely fun to go down memory lane with the ’85 bears, the first superbowl I can remember watching (back-story … I didn’t know anything about football until 1984 when the colts moved to town … my mom taught me the rules of football while watching games on TV … and the next year was the famous ’85 bears, who were mom’s favorite team because of the Gary, IN factor, and much more entertaining than the Count On Losing This Sunday colts that we inherited as a city back in the day. Nonetheless, all of us in Indy have desperately clung to the colts dream and my uncles frank and jim got me one of six season tickets back in 1990, along with a cadre of Cooks who also share in Colts/Pacers/Hoosiers worship. And over the years, I’ve we’ve had more broken colts hearts than you can imagine … this superbowl was a long time coming!)

Back to the story …
Eventually the bar shut down and the superbowl party turned into four mzungus: me, two guys from the US who study at UDSM, and one of their friends who’s from Sweden. We were also joined by one other table, two Tanzanians, one of whom has spent most of his life split between here and USA and currently lives in Lincoln Park Chicago (aka, the enemy). As you can imagine, by the time introductions and coin tosses and interviews were done, I was unbelievably re-energized for the opening kickoff (needles to say, about 15 seconds later I’d be completely furious with the bears opening TD). But despite my re-energized mode, this was definitely the most surreal superbowl experience of my life. Just the fact that I was watching the colts was strange enough (could this really be the superbowl, come on?) the character of the game with all that rain was weird, the fact I was pulling an all-nighter in Africa added a level of strangeness, and since I watched an alternate broadcast on ESPN, there was only commentary from the booth, no on-field reporting, and no commercials. Not one. What kind of a superbowl has no commercials?

Despite all this, by the time the clock counted down to zero, the sun was up (after 6 a.m.) the colts had won, everyone else was half awake, and I almost broke into tears when Peyton got the trophy. Without question, it was both my favorite colts game and superbowl of all time! Other than that, it was pretty ordinary … ha!

A couple of side notes, one, I really truly wished I had been in Indianapolis to watch the game and to be home for the parade and rally downtown. I still can't believe I missed it. For all those who were in attendance, I'm truly jealous. But I also have to give a shout to my aunt myra, uncle frank, cousin micah and friend Greg who were all at the game ... so lucky! I've actually seen a picture of my cousin holding the lombardi trophy after the game because my family members were in the colts post-game party. I can't believe you!!!! You can't imagine the distance I felt watching from so far away. You know how every year the announcers mention the X-number of billion quadrillion people watching worldwide? Let me let you in on a secret, just so we're clear. No one - and I mean no one - except American citizens follow the NFL or American Football. Other countries (except Canada) don't play the game at all, don't know the rules, etc. Believe me, it's a hoax. The only people watching worldwide are travelers and expats like me. Do you really think people in other countries would watch a game they don't understand in the middle of the night? Please. When we were announced as "World Champions" I looked around the empty bar and had a chuckle. Yes, football is very popular around the world, but it's the original football ... the one we call it soccer and mostly ignore. And as much as I love our football and the colts, believe me, the surreality of the situation was not lost on me ... I'm a grown man watching a bunch of young guys dress up like robots and beat the crap out of each other in the rain for a game that really has no bearing on anything of any consequence at all. Doesn't matter, I still love it!

Okay, so after the game I went back to my hotel, ate complementary breakfast, slept from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and woke up to attend the previously-mentioned fundraising meeting. What a day!


Zanzibar
Last weekend, I took a three day trip to Zanzibar from the 10th-12th with a handful of other Roots & Shoots volunteers for an annual music festival. The Zanzibar archipelago lies just east of Dar es Salaam (see map on bottom right of the page) and is known for a unique mix of Muslim, Indian and African cultures, colonial architecture, great food, white sandy beaches, wonderful coral reefs and Freddie Mercury was born in Stonetown … what do you know?

I didn’t actually do a whole lot of educational touristy things related to the island’s history. After three weeks, I just need to relax and I was looking forward to the music festival. My other companions had also visited Zanzibar previously, so they had already seen all the sights. But I have plans to return since it’s just a two-hour ferry from downtown Dar.

The four of us rented a two-bedroom apartment, met up with three other friends in Zanzibar, and we spent the time walking around the narrow streets, shopping, eating, relaxing, snorkeling and listening to music from Zanzibar, East Africa, and other countries (my favorite performers were a band called Mozambique Noise). It was a lot of fun and a much needed break from the city that helped recharge my batteries to get back to work in Dar.

That's it. I know, that really wasn’t the most exciting summary of Zanzibar, but I’ll save a better description for my return trip.


What's next?
Tomorrow is the begninning of the 16th annual Roots & Shoots Week, the anniversary of the program's founding which will include a lot of activities and work with hundreds of kids. And I'm planning some future outings for March and April including Mikumi National Park/Uzumbra Mountains, return to Zanzibar, possibly Serengeti and Ngornogoro Crater and a return to Zanzibar when my dad comes for an April visit.

I also expect to be online just about every night (day time for you) now that my computer is here, so for those of you with gmail accounts, look for me on gchat!

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Photos

Superbowl Champs
Within an hour or so of this photo, my cousin Micah would have his hands on the trophy, too

The Circle
Have you ever seen a more beautiful sight in downtown Indy? Not sure if I'm jealous of the celebration, or just those cold winter temps (9 degrees F this day) that are nowhere to be found in tropical Africa!

Downtown Indy
Watching colts win in Africa, I might have been quoted saying, "there's only one place I'd rather be ... French Lick."
(but I think someone already said that once)

Micah
That's no colt ... that's my cousin with Tom and Amanda holding the trophy!

Comments

[Lee Ann]

you are an inspiration!
"All life is an adventure" - David Cook, summer 2006 atop the space needle at sunset.