Hello again,
I am using my laptop in the dark for as long as it lasts to keep me occupied; we've lost power. Initially we assumed it was because the electric company will cut power whenever they are low, but we just learned it's actually because we ran out of electric credit...fail. Oh well, the benefit is, I'm making the time to send out a mass e-mail because it's too much of a pain to study or play games in this light.
We got to celebrate Jane's grandson (Nikki's) 12th birthday with the family a little. It was a standard family get together, nothing too exciting and I had actually met all of her family before I met her. Maybe I should explain the house situation a little better. Her late husband was a member of Tanzania's parliament and the director of the country's national parks, during the time that Julius Nyerere was president (he was the first when the country became Tanzania and is extremely well loved). Anyway, her husband was given a plot of Nyerere's land and that's where we all live. It's a compound with 3 houses, one is her's, one is her son's and the third is where her son's first wife lives. Her son also runs his boat making business out of the compound. Erica, Jay and I are the only ones in Jane's house unless she or some other guest is passing though. So we've gotten to know the whole family already, in particular, Nikki because he's actually interested in hanging out with some silly wazungu. In fact, Erica has taught Nikki and his cousin Francis "American Uno" which is a game she made up where they grab an uno card out of the deck and have to perform some crazy random activity. I heard about the game from Erica before I met them, so as an American, I was able to confirm that it is indeed a real game that we play. It's actually really fun and it's great to watch these kids get excited about all of the different challenges we give them. "Dead goat" or "graveyard" is the best, especially because they clam to practice at home.
I mentioned earlier about the foreign concept to Tanzanians of American lifestyle and I don't want anyone to think that I go around shouting out the differences and might therefore get in trouble. In fact I want very much to live as much like the locals as I can; to avoid being singled out but also to be able to appreciate the culture from the best perspective. There are in fact many other things that set me apart though they are standard for us. Not being married is a good example. Here, if you are a woman not married by about 25, there is something wrong with you. There is no choice involved, you're not normal. And having a small family is looked down upon as well. When we went over the terms for family members in class, we each took a turn describing our families. My teacher was very sad for us to have such small families. The most significant difference for me to deal with is timing. People here are late for everything and it is accepted as normal. From what I understand, it stems from a culture where the time revolves around the people and not the other way around. Harvest time is when people are harvesting, not a specific time or day or season. In fact the first hour of their clock starts at 7am because the day doesn't start until you are awake and doing something. So this means that people also tend to do one thing at a time until completion and then move on to whatever is next even if it means they are going to show up 2 hours late for a club meeting. That will probably be our biggest struggle in adapting to life here.
My time since I last e-mailed has been spent in much the same way as before. I'm still in swahili class and we're all getting fairly good at it. There's a ton that we'll never learn but with practice and the books that I have I should be able to continue teaching myself a little bit. We finished our Tinga Tinga class this week, I was able to do 2 paintings and though it was awesome to do and learn about it had made my day just that much busier so I'm glad we're done. I haven't seen any new tourist spots lately but on Thursday we should be going to Kariakoo which is a huge market surrounded by shops, and also to Mwenge which is where a lot of famous wood carving is done. I have discovered that Erica loves to play cards so we've played a few rounds of cribbage and I've done a fair amount of reading. A few weeks ago Erica found a chimpanzee skull in one of the bedrooms which the researchers were really excited to find out about because it might have been "Satan" one of the early chimps that Jane studied. I think the most amazing thing is how much everything has become normal to me. Walking by shacks on my way home, piles of trash burning on the streets, bajaji's driving in the dirt to get around traffic, $2 meals, cold baths, haggling to get a $0.50 mango, being chased by little children and more. It's only been about 2.5 weeks but I'm already very used to it. I do miss the people from home terribly though. Everyone here is great and friendly but it'll be a while before I truly feel at ease with the people around me.
On a random note inspired by Molly, I have magically not had to go though any traumatic stomach sicknesses. Though I have successfully peed in a hole in the ground! That may seem odd to talk about but if you've never tried it, you don't know how difficult it is to do with aim. My first try was at a school and I panicked and held it for the rest of the day, haha. Thankfully in the city, everything is fairly modern I haven't had many chances to try. I am certain things will be different in Moshi, so wish me luck! Although I'm excited to hear that I'll at least have hot water there. I'm confident that there's not much that is less motivating to get out of bed than the prospect of having to pour cold water over my head. I'm sure there's much that I wanted to mention but forgot so this will have to do.
P.S. sorry I don't have any new pictures, I've only taken a couple more and I can't load them to my laptop when there's no power anyway so I'll have a whole bunch for the next one.
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