- Food. You pretty much have three options at every meal: rice, ugali, or chipsi mayai (i.e. a French fry omelet). Ugali is made from corn meal and is similar to grits, only more solid. You get a mound of ugali plus a bowl of something like beans or okra. You grab a chunk of ugali, roll it around in the palm of your hand, and squish it up so that you can use to scoop out the beans. It’s not particularly tasty, but it is a staple (along with chipsi). I personally get very excited over rice and beans.
- Dorm life. I’m pretty used to the trek up to the 6th floor and the fact that we only have running water about 50% of the time. Generally, as long as I have a bottle sitting around to wash my feet with at night, I’m ok. Surprisingly, we actually have power about 90% of the time. We don’t have a kitchen, lounge, or laundry facilities, but we do have a kickin’ view. I won’t lie… I’m really not a fan of bucket laundry.
- The heat! It’s about 90 degrees every day. The classes don’t have fans—definitely not AC—so it gets pretty steamy in there with 100 other people. I’ve completely forgotten what it is like not to be sweaty.
- Bureaucracy. Trying to register for classes has been quite the experience. You have to take a little sheet around to each department and get permission to take a class with them before you can actually register. It’s three weeks in and I’m still not registered. This may also have to do with the fact that I’m not technically a student. Somehow, my paperwork got processed late, so I haven’t actually been admitted to the university. Therefore, I have no student ID, registration number, or any goodies like that. I’m really hoping that one irons out…
- Being a foreigner. Unlike in the
- Free time. At home I spend my free time on the quad, studying, or doing various unproductive things. Here, if I have free time I am usually running around campus trying to take care of some unending paperwork. Lately, I’ve also been spending a lot of time in Mwenge—a small area a short daladala ride from campus. It’s basically a market and is pretty well known for its woodcarvings. I go there every night to teach English to a group of woodcarvers and shop owners, and I love it. These guys are some of the friendliest, most appreciative people I’ve ever met, and everyone has a story. One of the other teachers is also a shop owner from
- Personal space. People here don’t value theirs as much as I value mine.
- HIV/ AIDS. Everyone is aware of it, but they still have random, unprotected sex. There was some free testing initiative at the hospital a while back, and apparently few people went because no one wants to know if they are positive. There is definitely a stigma against it, and no one wants to be shunned by their friends and family if they find out they are positive. I haven’t really talked to any students about HIV (though it comes up frequently in discussions in Mwenge), so I’m not sure what it’s like on campus; apparently multiple professors died from it last year though.
- Language. Swahili is simple in the sense that it doesn’t have many exceptions and is generally a pretty vague language, but it’s not intuitive at all and is nothing like English. In town, some people speak English but others speak none (just rapid Swahili). On campus the classes are in English, but some of the students are better than others. My roommate, for example, seems to have a lot of trouble with it; part of the reason we don’t talk is because it takes us so long to get an idea across. I’m hoping my Swahili will start to improve more now that I’m putting a little more effort into it.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Top 10 differences between life at UNC and UDSM
Friday, February 15, 2008
If only I had an invisibility cloak...
The university is in full swing now, and I am desperately trying to keep up. I feel like I've been running around all week getting my residence permit, opening a bank account, trying out classes, etc. Classes officially started last week (when I was in Malawi), but apparently no one, not even the professors, show up during the first week. This week I started going to class on Wednesday, and even then most of the professors didn't come! I think things start to really pick up next week.
I went to one class today, and it was huge. The professor said he had to cap it at 400 because there were too many people. So here I am, the only white person in a 400+ person class, thinking maybe I won't stand out quite as much if I'm squished up next to the wall. The professor says that we will elect two class representatives and asks for nominations. Some guy on the clear opposite side of the class stands up, points my direction, and says "the mzungu in the corner!" Mzungu (plural: wazungu) means European/ white person, so suddenly there were more than 400 students craning to get a better look at the foreign kid. The teacher starts rattling off in Swahili for everyone to be serious (because wazungu aren't real people!), and asks for more nominations. Then the entire class starts saying "mzungu, mzungu!" It was horribly uncomfortable for about a minute until some girl stood up and nominated herself. God bless.
When I was in Malawi, it was the rainy season so there were very few tourists. Katie & I got a lot of stares and whispers there--everyone is surprised to see a pasty white kid walking down the road. It feels like being in a zoo. In Dar es Salaam, people are used to seeing us foreigners. You still get stares of course, and people yell "mzungu!" all the time (not in a mean way, just pointing it out in case you weren't sure that you're white). All the foreigners stand out like a sore thumb, but on campus no one really cares, so I wasn't quite prepared for a return to the zoo feeling when I went to class. This will take some getting used to.
Something else that will take getting used to is the fact that people seem to instantly fall in love with you if you are a mzungu. I've had plenty of people profess their love to me on the street. Once again, this doesn't really happen with students who are used to having foreign faces in their midst. But as I was eating a delicious ice cream cone after class, trying to forget the feeling of 400 pairs of eyes on me, it did. Of course, it caught me off guard again. What usually follows is "Are you married?" and then "What religion are you?" (By that they mean "Are you Christian or Muslim?" There's really no other option). So every time I have to make up a fiancee and a church. Lying to people is exhausting... I really don't enjoy it.
You also have to be very careful about being friendly around men because many of them interpret pleasantries as interest (then come the marriage/ religion questions). It took me a while to figure out that men and women are generally not friends here. On campus people are a little more western, so you do get inter-gender friendships, but it is still not as common as it is at home. This is unfortunate because I haven't met many girls. My roommate is nice but doesn't speak and is hardly ever here. I've met a lot of people hanging out at Daruso (like an outdoor student union/ cafeteria), but they are never women. Ever.
So it seems I have a lot to get used to. Now that the students are back on campus I am learning a whole new social dynamic and trying to find my niche. It is interesting, and at times frustrating, but always an adventure.
I went to one class today, and it was huge. The professor said he had to cap it at 400 because there were too many people. So here I am, the only white person in a 400+ person class, thinking maybe I won't stand out quite as much if I'm squished up next to the wall. The professor says that we will elect two class representatives and asks for nominations. Some guy on the clear opposite side of the class stands up, points my direction, and says "the mzungu in the corner!" Mzungu (plural: wazungu) means European/ white person, so suddenly there were more than 400 students craning to get a better look at the foreign kid. The teacher starts rattling off in Swahili for everyone to be serious (because wazungu aren't real people!), and asks for more nominations. Then the entire class starts saying "mzungu, mzungu!" It was horribly uncomfortable for about a minute until some girl stood up and nominated herself. God bless.
When I was in Malawi, it was the rainy season so there were very few tourists. Katie & I got a lot of stares and whispers there--everyone is surprised to see a pasty white kid walking down the road. It feels like being in a zoo. In Dar es Salaam, people are used to seeing us foreigners. You still get stares of course, and people yell "mzungu!" all the time (not in a mean way, just pointing it out in case you weren't sure that you're white). All the foreigners stand out like a sore thumb, but on campus no one really cares, so I wasn't quite prepared for a return to the zoo feeling when I went to class. This will take some getting used to.
Something else that will take getting used to is the fact that people seem to instantly fall in love with you if you are a mzungu. I've had plenty of people profess their love to me on the street. Once again, this doesn't really happen with students who are used to having foreign faces in their midst. But as I was eating a delicious ice cream cone after class, trying to forget the feeling of 400 pairs of eyes on me, it did. Of course, it caught me off guard again. What usually follows is "Are you married?" and then "What religion are you?" (By that they mean "Are you Christian or Muslim?" There's really no other option). So every time I have to make up a fiancee and a church. Lying to people is exhausting... I really don't enjoy it.
You also have to be very careful about being friendly around men because many of them interpret pleasantries as interest (then come the marriage/ religion questions). It took me a while to figure out that men and women are generally not friends here. On campus people are a little more western, so you do get inter-gender friendships, but it is still not as common as it is at home. This is unfortunate because I haven't met many girls. My roommate is nice but doesn't speak and is hardly ever here. I've met a lot of people hanging out at Daruso (like an outdoor student union/ cafeteria), but they are never women. Ever.
So it seems I have a lot to get used to. Now that the students are back on campus I am learning a whole new social dynamic and trying to find my niche. It is interesting, and at times frustrating, but always an adventure.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
More from Malawi
Well I’m back in Dar.
Driving through the mountains of
Hotel Hepatitis. This is where we stayed in Mbeya on our way back from
This is the view from our room at sunset. Pretty rockin, I’d say.
Driving up to Nyika Plateau, a national park on the border of
The Nyika village kids loved us because we gave them cookies.
There is one road into/ out of Nyika, and it is a dirt road in pretty rough condition. Since it is the rainy season, we took a bit of a gamble going there (it’s easy to get stuck and not be able to leave the park). There are these cargo trucks that are 2 wheel drive that can spend a week going 60 miles. We got to one particularly bad hill and there were three semis that had been parked at the base for two nights. We spent two hours on that hill while our guides helped to push three giant trucks to the top (yes, Katie and I stayed put since we figured we’d be more of a hinder than a help). At least we got to watch a cool sky for two hours. Our truck made it up on the first try.
Nyika is famous for its orchids. There are over 100 species there! In some places I felt I was doing an injustice to the world because it was all I could do not to step on them. It was weird, though, because there were also clover, dandelions, rosemary, and blackberry. What caught me off guard the most was the pine forest behind our campsite. I did not expect pine trees in
The park is at 5000 – 6000 ft, and it is full of beautiful open spaces, perfect for watching wildlife frolic through the grass. It’s one part
Kwacha. It looks and spends like Monopoly money and made me feel like quite the pimp.
This is the view from our tent. We literally had the whole park to ourselves—there was no one in the lodge or hostel and we were the only ones in the campsite.I barely made it back in the country. My visa expires on Friday (I was unaware of this), so I had to sweet talk my way back into Tanzania. Luckily some unknown and very kind person put up the money for my residence permit while I was gone, so I'm not going to be an illegal alien. Woohoo!
Monday, February 4, 2008
Buses, Rastas, and a Tropical Paradise
Greetings from Malawi!
The past 3 days have been one of the biggest adventures of my life. Thursday, my friend Katie and I decided we should skip the first week of class and go to Malawi. It takes a bit of finesse to get to here. A 12-hour bus ride across Tanzania, a night in the world's smallest hostel room, a daladala ride to the border, a ride on the back of a bicycle across the Malawi/ Tanzania border, a taxi ride with 6 people and a baby in a sedan, another 5 hours in a bus smushed between two veluptous African women and another baby, and an hour in another daladala and you're there! It's like teleporting, only opposite.
Despite the fact that the journey here took two solid days, it was pretty cool. I got to see some amazing scenery and parts of rural Tanzania that I've been missing in Dar. You don't have to get too far out of the city for the landscape to become very lush and green and dotted with tiny villages and mud huts. We drove through some beautiful mountains and a few rain storms (too bad our bus was one of those water resistant, not waterproof types).
When we finally arrived in Mbeya (still in Tanzania) where we would stay the night, it was freezing. Everyone told us it would be cold in Malawi, too; how did we not know this?! The first thing we did was buy jackets, but being confined to the bus station, our options were limited. I ended up with a fuzzy red one that looks like a newly skinned cow hide that hasn't been washed. Katie got an extremely oversized puffy jacket fit for the arctic that swallows her completely. We looked like fools. Lucky for us, it's not at all cold in Malawi. It is in fact the perfect temperature.
Crossing the border was an adventure in and of itself. The daladala dropped us off nearby, and we were escorted by a parade of about 50 men to immigration. They convinced us that it was 2 kilometers between TZ and MW immigration, so we ended up each riding on the back of a bike with all of our luggage for a distance much shorter than 2 km. It was one of the more ridiculous moments of my life. It could have been scenic; we were riding along with tropical mountains on either side. But don't forget, it's Africa. So here I am on the back of some stranger's grubby bicycle with a giant pink bag hanging off the edge. I'm carrying my cowhide-like jacket (it's scorching hot now), and I can't see Katie or her giant marshmallow coat anywhere. I'm trying to peek around the "driver" to see if she's in front, but every time the bike almost tips. Meanwhile she is using her knockoff gucci glasses as a spy-mirror to see if I'm behind her. The guy I'm riding with explains to me that the distance is 2 km if you walk, but if you're on a bike it's actually only 1 km. So luckily, it wasn't a long ride.
After two days we arrived in Nkhata Bay. It's beautiful! My room has a balcony looking across a small cove to a village nestled in the tropical hills on the shores of Lake Malawi. I can actually look across the entire lake and see the mountains of Mozambique! The people here are immesley friendly. Last night at dinner we met a group of Rastas that are the happiest people I've ever come across. They have crazy names/ nicknames like Captian, Chicken Pizza, John Banana, and my favorite, Cheese on Toast. I'm not even kidding.
So in summary, I'm in Africa on a gorgeous lake in the mountains with people that ooze happiness. Life is pretty good right now.
The past 3 days have been one of the biggest adventures of my life. Thursday, my friend Katie and I decided we should skip the first week of class and go to Malawi. It takes a bit of finesse to get to here. A 12-hour bus ride across Tanzania, a night in the world's smallest hostel room, a daladala ride to the border, a ride on the back of a bicycle across the Malawi/ Tanzania border, a taxi ride with 6 people and a baby in a sedan, another 5 hours in a bus smushed between two veluptous African women and another baby, and an hour in another daladala and you're there! It's like teleporting, only opposite.
Despite the fact that the journey here took two solid days, it was pretty cool. I got to see some amazing scenery and parts of rural Tanzania that I've been missing in Dar. You don't have to get too far out of the city for the landscape to become very lush and green and dotted with tiny villages and mud huts. We drove through some beautiful mountains and a few rain storms (too bad our bus was one of those water resistant, not waterproof types).
When we finally arrived in Mbeya (still in Tanzania) where we would stay the night, it was freezing. Everyone told us it would be cold in Malawi, too; how did we not know this?! The first thing we did was buy jackets, but being confined to the bus station, our options were limited. I ended up with a fuzzy red one that looks like a newly skinned cow hide that hasn't been washed. Katie got an extremely oversized puffy jacket fit for the arctic that swallows her completely. We looked like fools. Lucky for us, it's not at all cold in Malawi. It is in fact the perfect temperature.
Crossing the border was an adventure in and of itself. The daladala dropped us off nearby, and we were escorted by a parade of about 50 men to immigration. They convinced us that it was 2 kilometers between TZ and MW immigration, so we ended up each riding on the back of a bike with all of our luggage for a distance much shorter than 2 km. It was one of the more ridiculous moments of my life. It could have been scenic; we were riding along with tropical mountains on either side. But don't forget, it's Africa. So here I am on the back of some stranger's grubby bicycle with a giant pink bag hanging off the edge. I'm carrying my cowhide-like jacket (it's scorching hot now), and I can't see Katie or her giant marshmallow coat anywhere. I'm trying to peek around the "driver" to see if she's in front, but every time the bike almost tips. Meanwhile she is using her knockoff gucci glasses as a spy-mirror to see if I'm behind her. The guy I'm riding with explains to me that the distance is 2 km if you walk, but if you're on a bike it's actually only 1 km. So luckily, it wasn't a long ride.
After two days we arrived in Nkhata Bay. It's beautiful! My room has a balcony looking across a small cove to a village nestled in the tropical hills on the shores of Lake Malawi. I can actually look across the entire lake and see the mountains of Mozambique! The people here are immesley friendly. Last night at dinner we met a group of Rastas that are the happiest people I've ever come across. They have crazy names/ nicknames like Captian, Chicken Pizza, John Banana, and my favorite, Cheese on Toast. I'm not even kidding.
So in summary, I'm in Africa on a gorgeous lake in the mountains with people that ooze happiness. Life is pretty good right now.
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