Flying Monkeys

Yesterday, a monkey stole my breakfast.

I sat down outside with a delicious chapatti (flat tortilla pancake thing) and out of nowhere a monkey comes barreling up behind me- he must have had wings or something. All of a sudden he's at my shoulder grabbing my food. Unfortunately, my yelling at him didn't make him give me back my breakfast. Stupid monkeys. They're cute until you're sitting at a table with no chapatti.

Mixed Feelings About a Tropical Paradise

I spent my Easter break on a beach in Zanzibar, which is not such a bad way to spend the holiday. The first time I went to Zanzibar, I was taken by the beautiful beaches, the rich culture and history of Stonetown, and the pockets of the island that smell like spices. The trip this weekend was beautiful, relaxing, and yet somehow very odd. There were eight of us (American, Canadian, and Finnish), and we went to a beautiful beach hostel in the northern part of the island. The beach was completely white, and the water was some of the clearest I’ve ever seen, but something about the place really bothered me.

Zanzibar is generally very rural and undeveloped. Driving down the road, all you see are villages with mud and cinderblock huts. The simplicity of life in those villages is a little appealing, but it’s really weird to see them set right next to a 4-star hotel. Even the backpacker lodges are fairly nice, and they are much more expensive than necessary. It seems that out of all that money that gets dumped into these lodges, very little trickles back into the local economy.

When I got to the resort, it was like culture shock all over again. Everyone staying there was white, and the only Tanzanians were the wait staff. No one tries to speak to you in Swahili, and everyone just lies on the beach all day perfecting their tan. I couldn’t help but wonder if people come to Tanzania and this is all they see. It just seems weird to come all this way and then seclude yourself from the culture. Or maybe they are just on vacation like me. Either way, it was very different from school. As frustrated as I sometimes become trying to get used to Dar es Salaam, I don’t think I could ever get used to life on a beach resort.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about my weekend in Zanzibar. I had a blast. Some of us went SCUBA diving on a few nearby reefs, and that was great. The coral was fantastic and the marine life was really cool. We even saw a couple of sea turtles! Still, it was difficult to reconcile my weekend on the beach with my experience of Tanzania for the past 2 ½ months. Next break I might go to the mountains instead…

Still Rockin' and Rollin'

Hello! It's been a while, so I thought I'd add a little update. I can't believe it, but I've already been here for 9 weeks--the semester is almost halfway over! I've got midterms this week and Easter break this weekend, so I think a group of us will be heading to Zanzibar for some R & R.

A few weeks ago, our group went to Mikumi National Park to frolic with the wild animals. No lions, but we did see wildebeest, buffalo, elephants, giraffe, impala, and lots of baboons. We also went to a snake park and got to play with some slithering serpents.

I've been exploring Dar on the weekends. Last weekend, I went to a beautiful beach, and to make it even better, there were water slides. This is Africa, so lifeguards aren't really there to save your life, so they don't mind if you pile 6 people on two rafts to see just how fast you can possibly go. Sweet.

It is still incredibly hot here. Sometimes it is too hot to lay in your bed doing nothing; you have to move in order to think about something other than the heat. March is supposed to bring rains and slightly cooler temperatures, but I have seen no such precipitation. I finally decided I couldn't handle long hair anymore, so I cut it off. I've never had hair this short in my life, but it is so nice to get it off my neck!

Hope everyone back home is doing well!

National Scandals and University Activism

A lot has been going on in Tanzania, not so much for me personally, but it’s been really interesting to see all of this unfolding. In February there was a big government scandal that made people pretty angry, especially since a similar thing has been going on for about two years. There is also an interesting relationship forming between President Bush and TZ’s President Kikwete that has some sketchy vibes. And here on campus we’ve had our own protests and crazy campus politics. Here’s the rundown…

2005- 2007

· $131 million was swindled from the Bank of Tanzania. Five or so banks (local and international) were involved in laundering the money by using forged documents; most of it ended up in foreign banks, and the rest was used to buy land, houses, cars, etc. in Dar es Salaam. As of last week, they’ve supposedly recovered a third of it.

2007

· Sometime in 2007, Tanzania reports the possibility of vast oil reserves as well as uranium deposits in the Southwest. It is estimated that by 2015, Africa will supply the US with a quarter of their oil.

· Bush creates Africom (around October, but it's planned to be fully up-and-running in September this year). It’s a combatant command under the Department of Defense and is responsible for all military operations in Africa.

2008

· Jan 31: Kikwete was elected as the Chairman of the African Union

· Feb 6-8: Prime Minister Lowassa resigned and the entire cabinet was dissolved. Severe drought in 2006 had left many people without power, so the prime minister and the cabinet signed a contract with a Texas-based company to provide electricity to Tanzania. Turns out, they were really just embezzling tons of money (something like $175 million, which could do a lot here).

· Feb 17: Bush comes to Tanzania (I can’t escape!). He signed an aid deal to provide $700 million to build roads and infrastructure (a record deal between the US and TZ, I believe). He and Kikwete seem pretty buddy-buddy. The students weren’t too receptive to his visit, and there was an organized protest by much of the Muslim population in Dar (peaceful, of course—I don’t want to spread any false stereotypes). A lot of Tanzanians think that Bush is trying to get on Kikwete’s good side so that he can either build a military base here or get their oil. I'm sure they're right.

· Feb 22: On campus, the water has been turned off for days. Friday night, the students protested. They marched down to the Vice Chancellor's house, drumming on buckets and chanting “water!” in Swahili, and broke the chains on his gate. They marched all around campus rallying people and tore down one of the water tanks. It was pretty crazy. The next day there was a more organized rally where they addressed concerns for the lack of water, proposed tuition increase, etc. Students here are way more politically active than students at home.

· Feb 26: Students gave the university a two week period to make a decision about the tuition increase. They are proposing to increase it by 80%, and people here really can’t afford that. Last spring this happened and students went on strike right before exams. The university was closed until the issue was resolved in the summer. They are supposed to make their tuition decision by Tuesday, and if the students don’t like the answer, they say they will go on strike again. Should make for an interesting Tuesday…

So that’s what’s in the news in these parts. I’m interested to see how it all develops. Hopefully the students will prevent tuition increases and the US doesn’t come mess everything up in Tanzania in search of oil. I guess we’ll see…