“Nimefurahi kukufahamu.”

That’s “Nice to meet you.” We had our first Kiswahili lesson yesterday, and I think they will be a challenge! We have four hours in class every day for the next few weeks, in addition to three hours of Research Methods a week. Our instructor seems good so far, though, which is promising.

Yesterday afternoon after class, we were all wiped! After showers and naps, we spent about an hour at Mwenge market. I bought a kanga (type of fabric that can be worn as a skirt of shawl, usually with very bright colors and patterns) from a lady who proceeded to give me some free henna!

I never got the chance to blog about Saturday! We went to Bongoyo Island, where I was very excited to have the chance to jump off the top of a boat into the Indian Ocean. We snorkeled over a small reef as well, which was a lot of fun. We also took a  nature hike around the island, and saw: eels, crabs, starfish, a giant python, fish, snails, and probably more that I am forgetting. Our fish lunch was amazing, and ridiculously fresh, and the whole day was just incredibly relaxing. I’m definitely looking forward to the rest of our weekend field trips!

Orientation Week in Dar

There is too much to write about! Bullet points will have to suffice for now, because otherwise I will definitely write waaay too much.

-I tried Ethiopian food in Dar for the first time, and it was amazing!

-We went on a nature hike around campus in a dried out lake yesterday, which was pretty cool.

-It’s very hot outside now, but apparently it is winter. Summer in December will definitely be interesting!

-Members of the US Embassy in Tanzania are sometimes intimidating, but probably also bro out often.

-We had lectures for orientation week on safety, health, Tanzanian culture, and Tanzanian gender issues. The latter two were far more interesting than the former two, but it was very cool to sit in on all of them.

-We had our first class today! Research methods should be fun. We are all very excited to start Kiswahili on Monday.

-Tomorrow morning we are headed to Bongoyo, an island that we haveto take a boat to get to. I am pumped for all of our field trip adventures!

-There are very frequent power outages in Tanzania! A bunch of us hung out in my room tonight with about four headlamps to be able to see anything.

-Also, sometimes the water stops working in the dorms, especially on higher floors. Yesterday morning I took my first bucket shower. After my first few moments of freaking out from the cold, it was actually pretty nice!

-I am starting to learn how to haggle better in Mwenge market. It’s important to try to get “rafiki” (friend) price rather than “mzungu” (foreigner… I hope I am spelling that correctly…) price

-This country is beautiful. 🙂

Sorry for my incredibly short attention span, but I am trying to get all the major points down… I am pretty sleepy here, I think it has something to do with the fact that it becomes pitch dark by around 7 PM. Good night!

Dar es Salaam!

I made it to Dar yesterday! After many hours in transit, I was met at the airport by James Godde, the program director, as well as another student, Hani. We drove to Paulina’s (a program assistant from UDSM) house, where we met her family and had dinner with her, James, Trudy (his wife), Brennan (his son), and another student named Zack. Everyone has been extremely warm and welcoming this far, which is really nice!

We stayed the night at Paulina’s house since the dorm wasn’t ready for us to move into yet, and in the morning headed over to the Goddes’ house. We walked to the main cafeteria for breakfast, back to the house, and then into our very first dalla dalla ride to Ubungo (I think…) market. It was filled with such amazing art! There were fabrics with tailors ready to make custom dresses and skirts, wood carvings, jewelry, masks, paintings, chess and mancala sets, and tons more! I didn’t let myself buy anything quite yet, since I would rather wait a few weeks and figure out how much things should really cost.

When we arrived back at the house, we got lunch at another restaurant… whose name I forget…. but it was delicious! We napped for a few hours, left for dinner, hung out (Zach had the new Winnie the Pooh movie on his computer, which was pretty excellent), and finally moved into the dorms.

 

Photos!

… internet isn’t working well enough for photos, i will post later hopefully!

 

En Route!

I’m leaving today! I am SO NERVOUS. But excited. After 12.5 hours on a plane, I will have a little less than three hours to explore the Dubai airport before boarding a 5.5 hour flight to Dar es Salaam. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone from the program! As of right now, I am still a little sad from all the goodbyes! But I honestly think that these next 4 months will fly by.

10 days left!

I am leaving for Tanzania in ten days! I am taking part in the ACM Tanzania program, which is a semester long and will last from August 13th (which is when I fly NYC–> Dubai –> Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) until my arrival back in the USA on December 11th. I’ll be taking courses in Swahili, ecology, evolution, and research methods. Though we are all starting the program staying in dorms at the University of Dar es Salaam, we will also spend one week with a host family, the following week on fall break (during which I might climb Mt. Meru! Which is almost as cool as Kilimanjaro, but much cheaper and with less of a chance of getting severe altitude sickness), the following six weeks camping in tents in Tarangire National Park, and the last few weeks back with the host family. Somewhere along in there I believe we will see the Serengeti as well as Ngorongoro crater.

I am excited! But also nerous! I’ll try to update this often, hopefully with lots of pictures. Hopefully you will cut me some slack for my lack of writing skills, since I am a bio major, but maybe I will improve along the way!