Sunday, October 30

It's been a crazy week. I'll be honest, sometimes I question my sanity for coming here. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving it-- I'm just not exactly sure WHY I'm loving it. Let's start with the fact that it's ninety-some degrees all the time and I can't wear shorts. Running in pants with 500% humidity is not fun. I've just gotten used to being constantly soaked with sweat, and I stopped wearing deodorant about three weeks ago-- Everyone else stinks, I might as well too. I have been bathing out of a bucket for the past month because even though we usually have running water, it's just much easier and more efficient to fill a bucket with water. Honestly, the thought of a hot shower is so completely foreign at this point that it doesn't even sound appealing (though that could be due to the constant heat). The electricity is subject to go out at any time without warning, and when it does, there is no way of knowing whether it will be out for twenty minutes or twenty-four hours. This can be interesting for lectures, especially night classes-- it gets dark around 6 here, which conveniently enough seems to be the time the power usually likes to go out. Best to hope for a good rainy season, because I'm told much of the power is hydroelectric, and if the rainy season isn't good, we can probably expect much more frequent and more lengthy power outages. Even without the power outages, lectures are an exercise in concentration. If a lecture hall is lucky enough to have a sound system, it usually doesn't work, which means you are constantly straining to hear and at the same time decipher the professor's accent. The halls are open to the outside so you can hear everything going on around and there are usually birds swooping down over your heads. This was especially a problem during the anniversary celebrations, because there was a tendency for marching bands to sporadically make appearances around campus, thus disrupting entire lecture periods. On top of that, the "African book famine" is a legit thing; getting the proper readings for class is nearly impossible and usually entails photocopying an entire book from either a professor or the library. If you're lucky enough to have a professor make readings available online, you're at the mercy of A) the electricity working and B) the internet working--- both of which have a tendency to fail.
But onto my crazy week-- Here's what I have learned: If there is an event with a promise of anything free, avoid it at all costs. Last Friday-- free transportation to a university-sponsored bash at a beach= people mobbing the buses to get on, jumping through windows, trying to jump on before the bus came to a stop. This should have been my indication to be weary of another university event Monday night- This one not only promised free transportation, but free food and drink as well as free entertainment. So we once again experienced the craziness of actually getting ON the bus, but then the bus tried to charge people for the ride when it was promised to be free, so I thought there was about to be a lynching.... They wouldn't open the doors to let people off because no one would pay, so people just started jumping out the windows. On top of that, the free food and drink were late, causing a stampede of people mobbing the tables once the food actually arrived---- Flying fanta bottles and broken glass, people sprinting away with cases of water and soda under their arms, bags of stolen chicken being consumed under secluded bushes as we observed the rioting from a distance-- It was quite the experience. (Let me clarify that the chicken was not actually stolen considering it was supposed to be free to begin with, it just took a certain amount of stampeding skill/ability to dodge flying objects that I did not want to discover if I possessed, so my group hid under the bushes as one of the Tanzanians made repeated trips into the war zone and came running back with goods that he shoved into our laps before running back into the chaos). It was truly something I wish I could have documented on film because there are no words to describe it.

I've also had some interesting bajaj experiences this week. The preferred transport is the daladala, which are basically oversized passenger minivans that are dirt cheap and extremely crowded. The problem with these is that they have specific, limited routes between certain places, and you cannot usually get one late at night. So if you have to go somewhere not on a daladala route, or you are traveling past 11-ish, you have to either get a slightly more expensive bajaji (below) and try to negotiate a decent price, or take a taxi-- the most reliable form of transport, but also the most expensive.

If you sit on top of each other, you can actually get about six or seven people in a bajaji which helps split the cost. You never know what you're going to encounter on the trip though. One night a group of us was coming back from the beach and the bajaji broke down in the middle of nowhere (reason # 1 why it's always a good idea to travel in large groups, preferably including guys, and definitely including Tanzanians), and we had to help push it to a petrol station AND pay for the petrol. Then last night on our way out, the university gate guard stopped the bajaji and after about fifteen minutes of holding us there while we tried to figure out exactly what the problem was, he made the driver pay 3,000 Tsh (the equivalent of $1.75) to let us pass because the bajaji was "overcrowded"--- complete bogus, he just saw white people in the vehicle and wanted a little extra cash for himself. Never a dull moment.

Like I said though, I am loving it here and am learning a lot-- mostly in the way of patience, but learning nonetheless. Also, I paid to join the university gym this week (which basically consists of a couple machines and some free weights, but it does the job) and bought an exercise ball (which I have yet to find a way to inflate), a kettle so I can actually boil water to drink from the tap, and coffee-- so my life has improved 1,000 times over.

Oh, side note: one of the guys who doubted my ability to wash clothes is now requesting that I wash his clothes for him. Looks like guys here are no different from guys in the U.S. Can't even do their own laundry.

Love