Zanzibar

I’m discreetly posting from work. Shhh. Having internet access on these computers is a mixed blessing. On one hand, it makes getting World Bank documents and recent statistics a lot easier. On the other hand, there is just so much else to do on the internet…   In other news, we discovered a canteen at work that serves rice and beans and curries.

 Right now, I am doing research on the distributional consequences of the EAC within Tanzania. Right now, I’m trying to look at the mechanisms other regional groups use to distribute costs and benefits. It’s been very interesting but I am not sure I am at all useful. ‘Direct service’ might be more fun, but it wouldn’t make much sense because unemployment is so high. I think the way in which I could be the most ‘useful’ is probably writing grant proposals for ngos because there are so few people here who can write well in English. At any rate, I’m learning a lot. Tim and Caitlin are researching the cashew industry in Tanzania– the country exports a lot of cashews to India, a major processing center, but efforts to increase domestic processing have been difficult. Eleuthera is researching the effects of language policy in Tanzania.

We went to Zanzibar the weekend before last and spent one night in Stone Town and one night on the beach. Most of the women there covered their heads (only about 40% do in Dar) and a lot of women wore buibui (like burkas). They still found ways to decorate and express themselves– sequins on hemlines, henna all over their hands. I can understand the appeal of the buibui; people seemed to treat them with a lot more respect than other women. I think laws that enforce burkas as a dress code are repressive but am becoming more sympathetic that the clothing itself could be empowering in some societies.

We ate dinner at a street market on the Indian ocean, where one could buy lobster, shrimp, and other fancy things from the ocean like octupus for less than fifty cents. I had a “Zanzibari pizza” — sort of an omelet inside a chapati– which cannot compete with ‘American” pizza. (Ohh, cheese…) We drank sugar cane juice (extracted by crushing the cane) flavored with ginger and lime juice. It was surprisingly delicious. There were laturns and small fires everywhere.

The night we stayed on the beach, we went swimming in the Indian ocean at midnight.

Tim’s parents are visiting right now. Having them here makes me miss my parents. They were in South Africa for a few weeks– Tim’s dad was lecturing at a linguistics conference and they came up here to visit for a week.

I think Dar might be a hard city to visit for a short period of time. There are some cities that are obviously beautiful, and then there are other cities where you have to look a little bit harder to find the beauty. Dar is a run down city without impressive or elegant buildings where nothing looks new. Unlike so many of its neighbors, Tanzania hasn’t suffered under self-aggrandizing leaders who erect monuments to themselves. There’s no Taj Mahal. The beauty in Dar is definitely in the people.

Like good Tanzanian residents, we’ve all become obsessed with the World Cup. Now that it is over, we spend a lot of time reading rumors about Zidane in tabloid-y papers. The last game made me sad. I was also hoping Italy would go offsides more because it was funny. If anyone wants to suggest a premier league European team I should support in the fall, I’d appreciate it. I’m trying to figure out post-graduate plans that will enable me to help Tanzania AND accidentally wind up in South Africa just in time for the 2010 World Cup. Suggestions?

Update: Last night, as a World-Cup-Substitute, Caitlin read the Da Vinci code aloud for three hours. Eleuthera and I had never read it before. Tim’s mother had brought it to Tanzania with her and hurried to finish it before leaving so we could read it. Although it feels less geo-political and there are no penalty kicks, it is equally gripping.

Dragon, Dodo, and Safari

Sorry about the amount of time since the last post. So much has happened! Two weeks ago, we were on safari in northern Tanzania, and I think I can safely say that it was one of the best trips any of us has ever taken. We stopped briefly in Arusha, a northern city, and then went to Serengeti National Park, then to the Ngorongoro Crater, then to Lake Manyara, and then back to Arusha for a couple of days before returning home. It was wonderful enough that I don’t really know how to begin to tell you about it, so I’ve decided just to provide a list of highlights. In no particular order:

1. We saw a lot of animals, and some of them walked right by our safari vehicle. It must have been the season for baby animals, too, because we saw families of lions, elephants, zebras, cheetahs, warthogs, and wildebeests. I may be forgetting a few. The baby elephants in particular were very cute, since they were so (relatively) tiny, although there’s something to be said for baby warthogs, which look exactly like regular warthogs but are about half as big. And the baby zebras were adorable (see below).

2. Every time we saw a baby zebra, Eleuthera said, “Oh, they’re so cute!” Eleuthera also explained that she identified with the baby zebras, since they are brown and velvety when they are younger, and Eleuthera herself used to have light brown hair which is now much darker. Very zebra-like.

3. Bree, Eleuthera, and I all really liked the way zebras stand next to each other facing in different directions (presumably so that they can see predators coming). We practiced standing next to each other zebra-style.

4. In other zebra-related news, Tim wandered off one evening and Bree postulated that he had been eaten by zebras. Eleuthera sang “Got eaten by zebras” to the tune of “On top of spaghetti.”

5. We went camping! It was my first time camping, although everyone else had been before, and it was amazing. You should all try sleeping under the stars in the Serengeti. The sky was one of the clearest I have ever seen. We think we saw the Milky Way (not sure though) and the Southern Cross, and I saw a shooting star. We were actually in very warm tents, which was good because it was cold and damp at night, particularly in Ngorongoro.

6. We were accompanied on safari by a high school girl named Lillian, who got booked on the same tour with us, and by a guide and cook who we thought were named Dragon and Dodo. When they wrote their names down at the end of the trip, we discovered that Dragon’s name is actually Reagan or something similar, but Dodo’s name really is Dodo. They took terrific care of us and we would highly recommend them to anyone who is going on safari in Tanzania.

7. Dodo was a terrific cook. Our food on safari was actually better than our food here in Dar. It was also accompanied by his commentary. Dodo’s English was pretty good, and he would sometimes use unusual phrases that made us very happy. On our first night, he told us to wait because soon it would be time of soup. The soup turned out to be great (something involving leeks, I think), and we tried to get him to say “time of soup” whenever we could. He also once told us that before he cooked, he had to go wash his bod. Basically, he was a sweet guy and really good at his work, in which he took obvious pride. We were impressed by the range of food he made while we were on safari, and every night we got bread and soup as well as a main course. We think he should open a restaurant in the U.S., on the theory that people would come to hear him talk as well as to eat his food.

8. Dragon (sorry, I can’t call him anything else) was equally terrific. He had to have a variety of skills in order to do his job—he had to drive rough safari roads, speak English, and know enough about the animals to find them and tell us about them. He spoke Spanish as well as English, so Eleuthera and Tim wound up speaking Spanish with him. Just a very nice, mild-mannered guy. We miss him.

9. I should mention at this point that we were in a real safari vehicle with removable roof panels, so we spent a lot of time standing on the seats and standing halfway out of the truck, looking around us at the trees and animals. It was sort of like being in a convertible but much more so, and it made the experience that much more vivid. (Parents: Dragon was a very safe driver and we were totally okay.) 

10. We camped out on the lawn of a hotel one night, and we wound up talking to some of the salespeople who do business with tourists. They were interested in whether or not we knew American athletes and musicians. Tim told one guy that he knew Elton John and had rice and beans at his house. Another man asked me if I knew Snoopy.

11. Yet another man offered Tim money for his socks.

12. In general, the salespeople wanted to trade us for things from the U.S. We didn’t have much, since it was near the end of our trip and pretty much all we had were dirty clothes and bug spray—although one guy offered to trade for my bug spray.

I’m running out of time, so I think that’s all I can post for now. There will be more updates later, since more happened on safari and in the meantime we have started our jobs and been to Zanzibar.

Also, a very happy birthday and lots of love to my Aunt Connie.

~Caitlin

Dragon, Dodo, and Safari

Sorry about the amount of time since the last post. So much has happened! Two weeks ago, we were on safari in northern Tanzania, and I think I can safely say that it was one of the best trips any of us has ever taken. We stopped briefly in Arusha, a northern city, and then went to Serengeti National Park, then to the Ngorongoro Crater, then to Lake Manyara, and then back to Arusha for a couple of days before returning home. It was wonderful enough that I don’t really know how to begin to tell you about it, so I’ve decided just to provide a list of highlights. In no particular order:

1. We saw a lot of animals, and some of them walked right by our safari vehicle. It must have been the season for baby animals, too, because we saw families of lions, elephants, zebras, cheetahs, warthogs, and wildebeests. I may be forgetting a few. The baby elephants in particular were very cute, since they were so (relatively) tiny, although there’s something to be said for baby warthogs, which look exactly like regular warthogs but are about half as big. And the baby zebras were adorable (see below).

2. Every time we saw a baby zebra, Eleuthera said, “Oh, they’re so cute!” Eleuthera also explained that she identified with the baby zebras, since they are brown and velvety when they are younger, and Eleuthera herself used to have light brown hair which is now much darker. Very zebra-like.

3. Bree, Eleuthera, and I all really liked the way zebras stand next to each other facing in different directions (presumably so that they can see predators coming). We practiced standing next to each other zebra-style.

4. In other zebra-related news, Tim wandered off one evening and Bree postulated that he had been eaten by zebras. Eleuthera sang “Got eaten by zebras” to the tune of “On top of spaghetti.”

5. We went camping! It was my first time camping, although everyone else had been before, and it was amazing. You should all try sleeping under the stars in the Serengeti. The sky was one of the clearest I have ever seen. We think we saw the Milky Way (not sure though) and the Southern Cross, and I saw a shooting star. We were actually in very warm tents, which was good because it was cold and damp at night, particularly in Ngorongoro.

6. We were accompanied on safari by a high school girl named Lillian, who got booked on the same tour with us, and by a guide and cook who we thought were named Dragon and Dodo. When they wrote their names down at the end of the trip, we discovered that Dragon’s name is actually Reagan or something similar, but Dodo’s name really is Dodo. They took terrific care of us and we would highly recommend them to anyone who is going on safari in Tanzania.

7. Dodo was a terrific cook. Our food on safari was actually better than our food here in Dar. It was also accompanied by his commentary. Dodo’s English was pretty good, and he would sometimes use unusual phrases that made us very happy. On our first night, he told us to wait because soon it would be time of soup. The soup turned out to be great (something involving leeks, I think), and we tried to get him to say “time of soup” whenever we could. He also once told us that before he cooked, he had to go wash his bod. Basically, he was a sweet guy and really good at his work, in which he took obvious pride. We were impressed by the range of food he made while we were on safari, and every night we got bread and soup as well as a main course. We think he should open a restaurant in the U.S., on the theory that people would come to hear him talk as well as to eat his food.

8. Dragon (sorry, I can’t call him anything else) was equally terrific. He had to have a variety of skills in order to do his job—he had to drive rough safari roads, speak English, and know enough about the animals to find them and tell us about them. He spoke Spanish as well as English, so Eleuthera and Tim wound up speaking Spanish with him. Just a very nice, mild-mannered guy. We miss him.

9. I should mention at this point that we were in a real safari vehicle with removable roof panels, so we spent a lot of time standing on the seats and standing halfway out of the truck, looking around us at the trees and animals. It was sort of like being in a convertible but much more so, and it made the experience that much more vivid. (Parents: Dragon was a very safe driver and we were totally okay.) 

10. We camped out on the lawn of a hotel one night, and we wound up talking to some of the salespeople who do business with tourists. They were interested in whether or not we knew American athletes and musicians. Tim told one guy that he knew Elton John and had rice and beans at his house. Another man asked me if I knew Snoopy.

11. Yet another man offered Tim money for his socks.

12. In general, the salespeople wanted to trade us for things from the U.S. We didn’t have much, since it was near the end of our trip and pretty much all we had were dirty clothes and bug spray—although one guy offered to trade for my bug spray.

I’m running out of time, so I think that’s all I can post for now. There will be more updates later, since more happened on safari and in the meantime we have started our jobs and been to Zanzibar.

Also, a very happy birthday and lots of love to my Aunt Connie.

~Caitlin

Tumerudi

We’re back, everyone! Unfortunately, this is not the long post that we promised you: so much happened on safari that it’s going to take a little while longer to write that. But we thought we’d let you know that we’re home, we’re safe, and we had a wonderful time. We’ll post all about it later this week.

Go Portugal!

~Caitlin