building a Tanzanian social life

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I took Tuesday off to recover from the day before and catch up on some other work, and I’m glad I did because it was even longer than Monday. The research team didn’t get back to the hotel until after 9pm. They continue to make progress, and I’m sure not having me tag along makes it a little more enjoyable for them, especially since 8 of us were cramming into the vehicle.

Yesterday I went to the RTI office in downtown Mwanza with the team (kind of strange for me to keep hanging out at RTI, since I left them to work for Hopkins, but we are subcontracts to them for this project). The researchers spent the day transcribing interviews, I spent the day running errands and taking care of odd and end tasks. Iddy (the driver) took me to find another digital recorder (which was super expensive compared to what I paid in the U.S. for the other two), a set of headphones for me since a woman sitting next to me on the plane busted mine, and an outlet converter. I had lunch with the procurements guy at RTI, named Noel Moses Mecameca (what a great name, but Meca is his nickname). He wanted to meet with me to hear about the research we are doing with RTI, and in return he told me all about going to school in Uganda, college in Tanzania, his family, his girlfriend, and how it is to work for RTI. It’s always nice to make friends with a local, as you get all sorts of information that expats and other foreigners don’t know. We had pizza at a place called Pizzeria. It was nice because it was a mixture of foreigners and locals, rather than it being an all-white crowd.

Wednesday night a bunch of people (most of whom I did not know), had dinner and beer at the hotel restaurant, which was a tiny place with about 5 tables. I drank African beer (Tusker from Uganda and Savannah Cider from South Africa), and watched the football (soccer) game. Meca explained the rules to me and told me about some of the players. Not being in the habit of drinking, I got a little buzz on. We ate big plates of spaghetti Napolitan and plates of mixed fruit (part of the benefit of being in the “VIP room” was that I got free treats like that every night). I called Ken when I got back—another call from his wife on Skype while she’s intoxicated on the other side of the world (there was another call from Bangkok back in 2008 when I had too many passion fruit martinis).

Thursday morning I was up very early (to no electricity) to catch a plane back to Dar es Salaam. The flight was only about 2 hours, thankfully. The woman sitting next to me, probably in her early 20s, chatted me up. It seems as if many people are interested in knowing what I am doing in Tanzania, if I am married, if I have babies, and why my husband is not with me. At least this trip I don’t have to explain to everyone why I am not married. Now I just have to field questions about babies. The woman’s English wasn’t great, so I had a hard time talking with her, but I managed to figure out she works in an office in Mwanza but is originally from Dar. She was traveling back for 4 days to visit her parents. She told me she wants to have a baby right away, but doesn’t have a boyfriend or a husband.

I handed her my card before we got off the plane, and she was thrilled. I expect I’ll get an email from her in the near future. When we went to claim our luggage, I saw her again with a bucket, one of many that had been carried onto the flight. I asked her what it was, and she said, “Fish! You want?” No, thanks. Apparently a lot of people bring fish back when they visit Mwanza because they are big and freshwater, giving them a different flavor than what you find in Dar. There must have been several dozen buckets on the conveyor belt.

Martin (my favorite driver so far from the JHU crew) picked me up at the airport and drove me straight to the office, where I was scheduled to meet with a translator who is potentially going to be working through all 60 of our interviews. We then jumped back into the vehicle with Rob and a couple of other COMMIT project staff to go to White Sands Hotel to listen to presentations of a group of Tanzanians who were just completing a leadership in health communication training put on by JHU CCP staff.

The White Sands is beautiful! There truly is white sand going out to the blue and green water. We ate a buffet lunch (which was some of the best food I’ve eaten in Tanzania so far) gazing at the water. Too bad it’s so far from the office (a good 30-40 minutes) or else I would book a room there the next time I came for work.

After sitting in the presentations for 5 hours(!), I met my friend Mari for dinner. She and I met in Kathmandu when I was living there. She worked with an anti-trafficking NGO I was also working with on occasion. We had dinner together at least once a week, trying the different restaurants in Kathmandu, commiserating about the pollution, the traffic, and our longing to go back home. After being back in Japan for a year, she then came to Tanzania to teach Women and Development and HIV/AIDS at the college level. It was so wonderful to see her again, and she said, “I feel like I just saw you yesterday, even though it’s been two years.” I felt exactly the same way, which means she is a good friend.

We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Osaka, which was delicious. I actually had good sushi and gyoza, and we watched the hibachi chefs perform. We talked about Tanzanian culture, corruption, men, and plans for the future. It was like old times, and it was lovely! She was supposed to spend a weekend in Zanzibar with me, but a travel warning was released because the election is coming up. There is lots of campaigning going on (trucks full of people driving by yelling and singing), but apparently those rallies have been known to get out of hand in the past. Since she is working for the Japanese government, she was not able to go because they released a warning as well. But luckily we will get a few dinners in.

And how lucky that I managed to form some sort of a social life! I was feeling lonely sitting in my hotel room alone every night, battling bug bites and the poor reception of satellite TV, eating off of the same menu every night (although the food at my hotel is very good). One of my job hazards, I guess. At least now I will have some friends to contact when I get back.

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Comments

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The "Are you married, do you have kids, and why wasn't your Husband with you" question seems to be common to both Africa and South East Asia. While you were in Nepal this question popped up a lot in your post and appeared in your South Africa post as well. Are you finding that this is just a common theme with under developed countries? Usually in the U.S. is and maybe Canada and Europe it's more where are you from.