Fresh Prince of Bagamoyo

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith stopped by the lab today. Will is going to be a spokesperson for Malaria No More, an international non-profit to fight malaria through distribution of mosquito bed nets and other activities. They brought them here for a briefing about malaria and to get some video footage before they head off on their holiday. So Brandt and I were just sitting out on the porch with our laptops, they walked out to admire our ocean view and were whisked off for their hospital tour. We played it cool so we didn't talk to them. Although I'm kind of regretting that now. It's not everyday that you get to meet Will Smith in Tanzania. Oh well. It was still better than any celeb sighting I ever had in the 2.5 years I was in Santa Barbara. The IHI communication guy got some nice photos- in spite of the insistence of Will's entourage that no photos were to be taken. Hopefully Brandt will be able to get his hands on one or two eventually.

This blog has been hijacked! (actually, hijasoned)

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Birthday in the Bush

I had a spectacular 30th birthday extravagenza! Friday was a Tanzanian national holiday, Nane Nane, which conveniently made a long weekend getaway possible for the employed members of our Dar family (Cathryn, Chris and Nicole). We packed up Chris’s Land Rover (which was celebrating it’s 20th birthday this very weekend) until after midnight Thursday night. After a few hours sleep, Chris, Nicole, Cathryn and Brena (California’s latest emigrant to Tanzania) headed up to Saadani National Park. Brandt and I stayed behind to pick up Jeff and Gabi, two friends from Santa Barbara, who were flying in for a 5 week holiday in Tanzania. They were total troopers- from a 30+ hour flight straight to the bush for 4 days without a shower! Saadani is Tanzania’s newest national park unique for having both wildlife and beach all in the same park. Chris, who (a la Boogie) recently nicknamed himself The Kingpin, came through with the connections and got us permission to camp at the site of a future lodge that he and Cathryn will eventually be landscaping and saved us $20 per person per night(!!) on camping fees inside the park. The Santa Barbara crew rolled up in the afternoon to find the Land Rover unpacked and equipped with a cooler of cold beers ready to go for a game drive. We jumped right out of Nicole’s car and hopped onto the top of the Land Rover (there is a benefit to the completely lack of traffic laws in Tanzania) and headed off to the park. The game viewing wasn’t spectacular but we did manage to spot a lot of baboons, a few giraffes and a variety of hoofed critters.



We returned to “lodge” to find our path blocked by 15 Tanzanians unloading huge sacks of charcoal from a truck and carrying them to the sea for transport by dhow (traditional Swahili sailboat) to Zanzibar- a fairly suspicious activity to be going on in an isolated village that happens to be completely surrounded by a national park. Charcoal is the only source of fuel available to the average Tanzanian and it takes 4kg of wood to make 1kg of charcoal. The resulting deforestation is a huge and growing problem over here.



We enjoyed a delicious Braai (South African for BBQ) for dinner and chatted by the fire. Chris got us all going with a tall tale that when he went in to pay our park fees, the officials were concerned that we weren’t camping at an official campsite with an armed guard and that once we put the fire out and went to bed we shouldn’t get out of our tents for any reasons because there would be lions and hyena around. Poor Gabi. Brandt and I already had her worried about their belonging with our (true) tales of thieving and now Chris had her thinking she could become lion food if she had to pee. Welcome to Africa. We managed to work out that he was kidding before we went to bed so no one lost any sleep. I have to admit, I was strangely disappointed that there wouldn’t be lions roaming through our campsite. Saturday morning we were up early and off to a nearby safari lodge for a morning river safari. We cruised up the Wami River checking out hippos, crocs and loads of birds including the apparently rare and uniquely vegetarian palm nut vulture. This information also came from Chris and so needs to be verified by a credible source. The river was great! The only disappointing aspect being that we paid $40 each for what was advertised as a half day river cruise but was only 90 minutes on the water. Oh well. Africa Wins Again.

After lunch we went on another game drive on overgrown “roads” through beautiful countryside. There were signs of wildlife everywhere- matted trails through the grass, tracks in mud and lots of droppings but the grass was tall and we didn’t spot much. Up until recently this area was a game reserve with a huge poaching problem so the animals there are not as cooperative as they are in Serengeti where they know people and vehicles are not a threat. We did spot some giraffes and warthogs and the grande finale was a few elephants heading off into the bush as we were heading back to camp. I even got my birthday spanking in the form of a tree branch to the head while we were cruising around- I guess that's what I get for sitting on top of a Land Rover and looking the other direction.

Sunday morning we had a champagne birthday breakfast. My mom, always over the top when it comes to a party, mailed Jeff 4 packages of birthday loot to bring over to Tanzania. The birthday party was in full effect complete with Tanzanian and American presents and me decked out like a fool! Thanks again Mom for all the party favors.

Then it was time for Chris, Nicole and Brena to head back to Dar for work on Monday while the rest of us went out to the beach for a relaxing afternoon on the warm Indian Ocean. Monday morning it was time to break down and pack up camp. The Land Rover was fully loaded when Cathryn went to start it up. The battery was dead. Ahead of where it was parked there was a very very gradual and short slope to the mangrove-lined creek. If we could push it out of the sand it was currently parked in and get it rolling down the “slope” maybe Cathryn could pop start it. It was a pretty big IF. The four of us couldn’t budge the thing. We called over the 3 villagers that had been serving as our watch guards for the weekend. Nothing. Jeff dug out the sand from in front of the wheels and we advanced the car as far as he dug. With my new Swahili skills, I’d been acting as our spokesperson for the weekend. I asked them to bring more friends to help push. With I don’t know how many people, we got the car crawling down the “slope”. Jeff looked at me- there’s no way this is fast enough. I agreed. Cathryn rapidly running out of ground yells when do I try? Ummm…now? The Land Rover made a pathetic noise- this isn’t going to happen and then it miraculously reved to life. Birthday wish come true! We shouted and celebrated with high fives all around as Cathryn carefully navigated the grass trying not to stall the thing. We piled into the truck, gave a bag of candy to the villagers that helped us (wrappers immediately littering the ground) and were off.

The last task of the trip was getting Jeff and Gabi on a bus to Arusha so they could go on their tour-operated safari to the big parks. I assured them it’d be no problem flagging a bus down on the main road. We’d done it and we’d seen it done on every bus we’d been on and there are a lot of bus going between Arusha and Dar so I wasn't concerned. We get out to the main road and pulled over. The first few buses whizzed by without so much as slowing. Desperate for a shower and to sleep in a bed, Jeff and Gabi looked at me incredulously. Those buses were probably just full. Don’t worry, we’ll get one we confidently assured them. Sure enough, the next bus that came by pulled over. Let’s just say it was not one of the nicer buses I was hoping to get them on but it was going to Arusha and I didn’t want to take any chances waiting for another one. So in an unnecessary amount of hustle and bustle (the crazy mzungu had drawn a crowd from the village while standing on the side of the road trying to wave down buses), people were “helpfully” taking their bags and herding them chaotically into the bus as I negotiated the price with the ticket guy. Gabi looked back at me like a deer in headlights. It’s fine. Don’t worry, I shouted to her as I yelled the agreed upon price to Jeff. In a flash, they were gone. Brandt and I look at each other. They’ll be fine, right? Yeah, they’ll be fine. Back to the Land Rover- next stop, Bagamoyo.
After a shower and a nap, we rapped up my 30th birthday by unpacking the duffle bag of crap that we had had shipped (yay for www.CVS.com!!) or asked Jeff to buy and bring over to us. I’m sure it’s not normal to be sooo excited about deordorant, Kraft parmesean cheese and Hidden Valley Ranch dressing. We were so thrilled about all our American treasures that we arranged them up on the kitchen counter and took photos. Cathryn thought we had gone completely mad and maybe she’s right.

Birthday Girl!

On August 11th, 2008 Robyn will be celebrating the big 3-0!!   Make sure you drop her a quick note razing her about joining the over 29 crowd (and finally joining me in the wonderful 30-39 age bracket). Robyn won't be reading this blog for the next 5 or 6 days, because we will be heading up to Sadaani National Park for four days of camping with the hippos, crocodiles, monkeys, and lions. My job is to keep Robyn from stumbling into a croc pit or wandering into a lion's den.  

Happy birthday baby!!!

Riverside Swahili School

When Robyn and I first knew we were going to move to Tanzania, we decided to get the Rosetta Stone computer software program to learn some Swahili. Learning a bit of the language before hand would make the transition easier (how little did we know what was coming!!). We said we were going to practice three times a week. Well, three times a week rapidly declined into 3 times a month, and we showed up on Tanzania’s dirty doorstep (Dar) knowing how to say really useful things like the dog under the table and man and woman are walking. Since then, we’ve picked up some more practical bits and pieces and we were managing to get around on the dalas, give a cabby directions and buy fruit and vegetables the market, but that was about it.

At the end of June, knowing that the following two weeks were going to be slow at work, Robyn and I made plans to go to a Swahili school recommended by my Swiss co-worker. The language school is run by Tanzanians teachers and is affiliated with the Riverside Campsite, which located right on the Little Ruaha River about 20km outside Iringa. At $230/person/week for classes, 3 meals a day and a tented banda, the price was right and we were off on another journey. The experience was so refreshing, fun, enlightening that we decided to break this experience into a multi post blog on the surroundings, the people we met, and the trip home. This one pertains to the class stuff only.

The classes started at 8:10 am and went until 1:00PM, with a small chai (tea) break at 10:30AM. The teachers were used to teaching people who would be there least one month (missionary families stay for 4 months), so when Robyn and I showed up and said we wanted to learn as much as thy could cram into two week, they were kind of reluctant to accommodate us. This was a real problem at first-it wasn’t going to do us any good to take the first two weeks of a 4 month course. But after a couple of days realized that these Wamerikani (Americans) weren’t going to stop complaining and they gave in and adjusted.

I haven’t been to school in years and I guess my brain forgot what it was like to be pushed to its limit for 5 hours a day. I had a dull headache the whole time. I had so much stuff swimming around my head I could hear the water slosh. Regardless, I learned a ton. I hate to admit it, but Robyn rocked the house. She was a day or two ahead of me at all times. Even the teachers were impressed- asking her if she’d studied lingustics or something. I guess that that degree from Cornell might really mean something.

It was a great experience. Even though we had 5 teachers over ten days of class, all the teachers were great. They were friendly, patience, and knowledgeable. The patience is a necessary virtue, as they listen to foreigners butcher their native language 5 days a weeks, 50 weeks a year. I simply couldn’t do it without breaking multiple objects. So a big shout out to our teachers—Sayi, Mayi, Moshi, Ishmail, and Tunku. Extra props to Tunku, as he was the one who was stuck with us and taught us over the last four jam-packed days.

After two weeks at Riverside, I could proudly complete a 3rd grade level reading comprehension exercise and speak in simple sentences in past, present and future tenses! I still have a tough time understanding when a non-teacher speaks to me in Swahili, mostly because the words are slurred together and feel like they are coming at me at 100 mph. However, give me some time and practice, I will be an old pro.

Despite the obvious advantages of being able to function in the native language of the country I now live in, I think the best part about learning Swahili is that when Robyn and I are back in the States and we want to say something around other people and not have them know what we are talking about, we can bust out our sweet Swahili and say whatever we want. Slander in a foreign language—awesome!! Rafiki beware!