Week 2

Goings-On:

-We tried a new place for lunch the other day. At most little lunch places the menus don't mean much because if you ask for something they will tell you, "Oh, we don't have that," and you eventually realize it's better just to ask what they do have. Vegetarianism has gone temporarily partially out the window. At the new place we tried the waiter told us just to come pick out what we want. He brought us back to where they actually slaughter the animals and pointed to chicken, beef, and goat. We picked out a whole chicken that we wanted and he brought it to our table.

-We went to a soccer game and at the stadium and I was the only woman in the entire place until my friends showed up. I think there were two Tanzanian women there. As I get used to things I'm becoming hyper aware of the fact that women have very specific roles in society here and ways that they are supposed to act.

-I'm exhausted all the time. I think between walking every where, needing to talk to everyone (people don't walk with ipods or cell phones...it's wonderful but I'm also needing to retrain myself to talk alone time in other ways because it's not like i can just go on a walk and listen to music), the sun, and taking in so many new things, I'm just so tired!

-Yesterday I washed all my laundry by hand. It was the most exercise I've ever gotten and I went ot bed at 9! The hotel has a laundry service for a small price, but basically that means someone else hand washing my clothes. I figure they are mine and I should wash them, plus it's good to learn the actual work behind the things I take for granted.

-Some of the other people in the group went to a big Valentine's thing at this club on Satuday and I really didn't want to go to anything loud. Sara, Rose, and I decided to go to a restaurant where my music professor was playing jazz. The problem was that we just layed around talking until 10 and then decided to go. Then the next problem was that neither the hotel nor the taxi driver knew where it was, and the taxi driver only spoke Swahili. Because the place we were going was an expatriate hangout and owned by an Australian, we dressed fairly Western and stood out even more than usual. So we stood around trying to decide whether or not to get into this taxi without any idea where we were going and eventually just got in and told him it was near this other hotel. At the hotel I got out and asked the guy at the desk where it was. Our conversation basically consisted of my asking where it was, him telling me it was around the corner, me asking for the directions, him telling me to get a cab, me telling him I had one and asking again for directions, him saying he needed to talk to the cab driver, and me running out to tell the driver to go in. The cab driver was like, "yes, yes, ok" but then stayed in the car because he had no idea what I was saying. So I ran back in and told the guy in the hotel that I can't speka Swahili well enough and asked if he could jsut tell me. He was like, "No I need to tell him something," which really weirded me out. He told me to say some Swahili word that I don't remember. I did and the driving was like, "OH," and ran inside. Then he took us to this place that was not at all "right around the corner" and it was empty and all the buildings has big red Xs painted on them. We pulled up and the driver talked to guys that were standing out front and then it was like a chorus of, "Mzungu? MZUNGU!" Mzungu is the Kiswahili word for white person. Finally the driver brought us down this scetchy back road and we found the back entrance and ran inside. My teacher had just finished playing and we missed the whole thing. What an adventure!
-I don’t mean to generalize, but so far the men here seem to say that they love you after knowing you for a few days/hours. You can tell when someone has been taking American movies too seriously because in the past week I have heard the most poetic professions of love ever to actually be spoken outside Hollywood. They won’t only say that they love you, but they may even call you 3-14 times in one day, or come wait outside your hotel because they didn’t get to see you all day and “won’t be able to sleep.” I have never felt unsafe, but I kind of wish I did because it’s a lot easier to tell someone to screw off if they aren’t really nice and polite. Never give your phone number to anyone that you don't want to talk to every day.
-We went to a dance class at Umoja Arts down the street from our school yesterday. It was African Contemporary and it was awweesoomeee. I’m pretty much devoting my life to becoming good at music and dance, and this class is going to be a wonderful thing to have. Tina, the teacher and one of the founders, is from Madagascar. She seems excited about me wanting to volunteer, and I’m going to teach a Lindy workshop there sometime in the next month or so.
-My music class is SO sweet. Once a week we will be taking th Dala-Dala (these vans that function like buses and pack in like 30 people in a 10 person van) to a college North of town to learn drumming and other instruments with students there. It's really, really cool.

I miss you all! The internet has been going out a lot so I'm not on much. I still love it here, but I definitely need to make some friends that aren't trying to marry me.