Orientation Week in Dar

by liz

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!