Ian Gets a Tanzanian Mom

Yesterday the wanafunzi wa ACM moved out of Hall 3 and into the homes of our host families. We had the opportunity to meet them on Friday, but it didn’t quite prepare me for the experience of moving in. Before the move, we got a little talk about living in a Tanzanian home from Paulina, Dr. Roberts’ assistant at UDSM. It’s like being a teenager all over again – we’re expected to divulge our whereabouts when we come and go, no shoes in the house, and no drinking alcohol in front of parents! *gasp*

But I’m not complaining. Mama Kwame’s flat is a delightful change from our beloved yet grungy Hall 3 – and the grub is top-notch. Paulina predicted that many of us would be served pilau (spiced rice, usually with meat) on arriving, as it is a standard meal prepared for guests by many Tanzanians with origins in the Kilimanjaro region of the country. Mama Kwame’s pilau is the best I’ve had so far, and there was plenty of it. She migrated to the couch to watch a prime-time Tanzanian soap opera during dinner, but if anything started to run low, a rapid order in Swahili would summon more to the table. She has eyes like a hawk, and is apparently “breaking in” a new maid. Many of the university faculty and staff live comfortably enough to employ some help around the house. In some cases, like ours, that help is a young girl who is treated kind of like an additional family member. I don’t much about the system, but I’ll undoubtedly learn more.

The homestay will definitely help my shoddy Swahili, though it can be a little embarrassing to hack through a sentence with the knowledge that my hosts all speak perfect English – my host brother speaks great English with a quasi-American accent (with the occasional bits of British vocabulary), which is going to trip me up for a while. However, they’re more than willing to help me learn. I’m going to learn lots more, too: there’s a Swahili proverb about taking great care of a guest for two days, but on the third, you put him to work!

Karibu Zanzibar!

Pole sana for the delay since the last post. Internet here can be very irregular, and I have been very busy with my classes in Research Methods, Ecology, Human Origins, and Kiswahili. It's been a while since I had to take more than one class at time... uffdah. But I went to Zanzibar last weekend!

To go to Zanzibar, you have to take a ferry out of Dar Es Salaam. We were on one of the faster ones, so it only took about 90 minutes. The ride gives you great views of the coast, and fog on the way there gave us a really eerie perspective of all the freighters hanging out away from the mainland, waiting for permission to dock from harbor control. Unfortunately, the light made some of it impossible to photograph.

We spent most of our time in Stone Town, Zanzibar's main port. Stone Town is perhaps best known for its architecture, which represents an eclectic mix of Arabic, Indian, and Swahili styles. Stone Town is not organized in neat grids. For a visitor, it is very confusing. Only a few major roads cut through and around the maze-like design of the city. I tried some creative shortcuts to get to a spice market, and wound up getting totally lost. Fortunately, the major roads are very easy to navigate, and even a totally confused mzungu can make his way back using them.

Zanzibar is famous for its ornate doors. There is great diversity in the elaborateness of the designs, but even some of the most modest dwellings have a distinct entranceway.

Mti mkubwa, or Big Tree. This 99-year old ficus is marked on most Stone Town maps, and is a great reference point for idiot tourists like me. I should admit up front that our weekend in Zanzibar was pretty touristy. But we work super hard the rest of the time, I promise :)

Most of the original Stone Town buildings are a couple hundred years old (or older). Beneath an outer layer of plaster, most of them look this. These buildings are literally made out of rocks.

The balcony of Emerson Spice Hotel, an especially swank joint that is still under construction, but looks fabulous.

The darajani (Bridge) Market. This is the main market in Stone Town, and people come here to buy produce, spices, meat, and especially fish.

Some octopus in the fish market section. It reeked like dead fish, but the atmosphere made up for the overpowering stench. People in Zanzibar eat a ton of fish. It's local, fresh, and delicious. Unfortunately, certain types of fish that are popular among tourists are sold at a premium that local residents cannot afford. Zanzibar's tourism sector is extremely developed, and it's great to be a guest there. However, the large demand from hotels and restaurants catering to tourists has inflated the cost of many types of fish and shellfish. Buying a small skewer of lobster or kingfish costs about TSH 4000, which is only US $2.67, but some Zanzibarians would be lucky to make that in a week. Regular joes are left with the fish that tourists don't want, which are affordable but monotonous. The fishermen themselves are also very poor, and only retain a fraction of the value of the fish they catch, usually because they are indebted to sponsors who have supplied them with nets or other equipment. These guys have guts. You can spot them as far as a mile or two off the coast, sailing in tiny one-man boats with only a paddle, let alone a sail or, god forbid, an engine.

A kanga featuring our beloved commander-in-chief. I've seen some great variations that say things like "elected by God" and so on.

A catholic church on the site of the former Zanzibar slave market. Before aggressive missionary action in the 19th century, Zanzibar was the hub of East African slave trading for several hundred years.

Another cool church.

Freddie Mercury's birthplace! He was born in this Zanzibar house before going to India for boarding school. Our tour guide some other native Swahili speakers usually refer to him as "Queen Freddie Mercury."

The national museum. It looks great, even though I believe it was almost totaled in a sea-to-shore bomdardment.

We had a wonderful tour of a Zanzibar spice farm. Zanzibar is renowned for its spices, and we got to see, smell and sometimes taste cardamom, lemongrass, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and many more. This is black pepper growing on a vine. I bit into it, and cried a little.

One of the spice farm employees climbed this huge tree to get us coconuts. He sang at us and kept yelling hakuna matata and karibu Zanzibar the whole time. He used a little rope to keep is ankles together and justed inched up the tree. From the top, he just hurled 'em down. Fun fact: more people are killed by falling coconuts than lightning.

A delicious meal served at the spice farm. On the plate, you see pilau, sweet and savory bananas, plantains, and cassava. Needless to say, it featured a lot of spice.

We made a brief trip to Jozani forest to see the Zanzibar Red Colobus monkey. They're adorable, and don't give a toss about people around them. You walk right up to them and hang out. Kind of like college squirrels.

Sunset from the coast in Stone Town.

Yours truly in front of what is, in my opinion, the coolest door in Zanzibar. The arched top is not typical; this is the door to a Hindu temple, and has more Indian influences (as well as Hindi engraving) than others. The grid of brass spikes is ornamental, but originally comes from doors designed to deter war elephants from smashing them in.

The Stone Town coast from the ferry going home to Dar. Baadaye.

Eating a Tanzanian Breakfast

Two posts in one day? Whaat?

I also wanted to include some of the groovy food I'm eating. Rice, beans, meat, and cabbage can get a little monotonous, but breakfast is pretty exciting (albeit a little artery-clogging)

Above you see (clockwise from the bottom of the plate) half keki (a tasty breakfast cake thing), andazi (fried dough), chapati (Swahili flatbread), and a beef samosa. Pretty much all of the breakfast options besides fruit (usually bananas, papaya, watermelon, or oranges) is fried. Awesome! Hard boiled eggs are also popular.The cup has chai ya rangi (black tea) in it. I usually take my chai with milk (ya maziwa), but dairy renders my malaria meds ineffective if taken together. Also, when you get coffee or tea with milk here, it's all hot milk, no water. Even instant coffee tastes great that way. Despite the fact that Tanzanian is a major kahawa producer, it's difficult to get anything but AfriCafe, the popular instant brand. I'm holding out for some legit places in Zanzibar :)

That plate of grub in the picture cost me 1900 TSH, which is a bit over $1 US. Eating at the main university cafeteria usually costs me less than half of that (this was from a fancier cafe on campus). As I post more, y'all may begin to get an idea of weak the Tanzanian shilling is.

Baadaye!

Learning the Language

My Swahili is gradually improving.

At this point, I know a lots of greetings, I can introduce myself (or somebody else!), and buy stuff from people without getting completely ripped off. I’ve learned lots more words, grammatical strucutres, and expressions of course, but the trick is using them at the right time (duh). In conversation where I’m at a loss, I usually get a couple seconds’ grace period to stare blankly and search for words before the other party takes pity (either on themselves or me) and switches to English. English is the language of government and higher education in Tanzania, and most people on the UDSM campus can speak it. I can’t get into any real linguistic pickle unless I leave campus, and even then you can find people who speak kiingereza fluently. Some of the Tanzanians I’ve met indicated there can be some degree of prestige taken in fluency, and many strangers at the University cafeteria, on buses, and around Dar have taken the opportunity to curiously interrogate me in my native language.

I should mention that I do try and use Swahili everywhere I go. A couple people have given me the fish eye when I start serving them their butchered national language in a stew of “um”, “er” and “Oh wait, I know this one!”, but the vast majority of Tanzanians I’ve met have been willing, if not downright amused, to help me learn and practice. Learning a language is pretty fun when native speakers don’t eat you alive.

Kiswahili class is kind of blast. It’s long – four hours per day, consecutively – but our professor and our diligent language tutors are pros. Dr. Mutembe has taught in the USA, and is quite familiar with American students. His knowledge of both Tanzanian and American idiosyncrasies can make class pretty amusing. He also possessives considerable euphemistic powers, and has a knack for figuring out which mistakes we’re most likely to make. The dangers are manifold: an English speaker learning Swahili is quite prone to counting from 1 to [a really nasty gender-specific epithet] instead of ten, and can easily make a trip to the porcelain shrine instead of drinking a glass of water.

While my knowledge of Kiswahili has grown, my concept of personal space has shrunk. After a few rides on a daladala (minibus), my bubble has been burst for all time. These things aren’t much bigger than a Honda Odyssey, and the drivers start getting antsy if there are less than 20 people riding. Of course, they also work on commission, so I guess I can’t blame ‘em.