I am trying to acclimate myself here in Tanzania, and although most people can speak English, their native language and what is most commonly spoken on the streets is Swahili. Most of the students here take a Swahili language class twice a week, but since I am a full-time intern, I am learning my Swahili "polepole" (which means slowly) and from other people. The most pleasant surprise for me was when I found out that people here really do say "Hakuna Matata" just like in the Lion King! And, just like in the Lion King, it means "No Worries" which is a really appropriate philosophy to life in Tanzania.
Some other useful words and phrases are "Jambo" which means hello (although people will actually more commonly use "Mambo" instead) and "Habari" which means how are you or what's up. I am learning to respond by saying "Nzuri" or "Nzuri sana" which means well or very well. People welcome you everywhere you go, and they do that by saying "Karibu" or "Karibu rafiki" which means welcome and welcome friend. Yes, the word for friend is "Rafiki" just like the baboon in the Lion King (I guess Disney really did their research for the movie…)
The two last Swahili phrases I'll put up today are ones that I find most useful. The first is "Sawa Sawa" which means OK, and I pretty much use that whenever I don't know what the person was saying to me. The other one, and a phrase everybody should learn in every language, is "Wapi Choo?" which asks where the bathrooms are (obviously, this can come in handy).
I have only been here for four days so far, but it actually feels like much longer. I am trying to come up with some sort of schedule or routine, but it is proving difficult to do so far. What's not proving difficult so far has been hanging out with everyone in the house, making friends, and going out in Arusha. I went to my first bar/club on Thursday night to Via Via, which kind of reminded me of a small-scale, African version of Seacrets in Ocean City. There is an inside and outside bar, a stage for concerts (and if no concert, then a dance floor with a DJ), and actually a karaoke screen at the outside bar. I went out with almost all 15 people from the house, and have to say that I greatly enjoyed myself and had a good time checking out the nightlife in Arusha. The clientele was surprisingly pretty diverse, or at least different from what I had anticipated. There are a lot of Europeans in Arusha, and a lot of Germans. We even ran into some other Americans at the bar, and some Canadians. There were also really local Arushans and Masaii people at Via Via. It was definitely a fun first night out and I am interested in what some of the other bar and club scenes will be like.
On a note of success, I finally am getting (most of) my bearings and can make my way around Arusha (at least, to the two or three places that I really need). The area that we are in and where we mostly go is all within walking distance. I went on a bit of a hike when I walked with some girls over to the Shop Rite, which is a pretty far walk (you really have to take a cab back with all the bags you carry). It's nice to have a Shop Rite to pick up some essentials, since we have to make our own lunch every day. Trish and I stocked up on yogurts, cheese, bread, and apples and peanut butter. It's been really getting us by so far, and I just rely on our cooks to provide me with traditional African cooking. I know my limits when it comes to skills in the kitchen, and I've figured out that if I do the dishes, I can get Trish to cook anything that's deemed somewhat fancy (like grilled cheese or eggs, which are both way beyond my means).
Although I have really enjoyed my first half-week in Tanzania, next week is going to be a big change, as I will be starting both of my internships. I had a meeting today to meet with the director of Kamamma Integrated Development Initiatives, a local NGO that focuses on community empowerment and capacity building, with specific emphasis on education. I don't want to say too much about the meeting, but I will say that if ever I were to have a breakdown while here in Africa, it would have been today (since the breakdown didn't happen, hopefully that means it never will). Let me just say that the meeting was bizarre and uncomfortable, and I probably would have cried if Trish had not gone with me. The office is only about a five minute walk away, but for some reason, we were taken to their second office which is located in an area of Arusha that is, let's just say, on the other side of the tracks. However, even though the meeting was not really what I was expecting, I am still excited and hopeful that the internship will be meaningful and that things will fall into place. It seems like I will have a lot of freedom to plan and implement my own development project, and will be splitting my time between working out of the office here in Arusha and going on site (which is about 30 kilometers away) to implement my project. It is a good opportunity to be thrown into international development and realize the difficulties of pursuing development goals in an underdeveloped area. It will definitely be a challenge, but I am hoping I will rise to it.
http://www.kamamma.org/
Tomorrow morning I have a meeting about my other internship, which is with an NGO called Future Stars Academy. This seems like something that is less demanding and that will be more obviously rewarding and fun, as it is a youth soccer program. FSA seeks to use soccer as a way to develop Tanzanian youth into not only better athletes, but better individuals, using soccer as a means to teach children all of the rewarding things that playing for a team and working towards a goal can teach us. I am really looking forward to helping with FSA, and even to coaching a girls team (although I am obviously worried that my soccer coaching skills are not up to par; however, I remember that if my mother could coach soccer, I'm pretty sure anyone can…) :-)
http://www.futurestarsacademy.org/the_academy.html
I hope everyone has a good weekend! I am planning on waking up at six tomorrow morning so that I can stream the US men's soccer game vs. Costa Rica (they are playing in California so I am 11 hours ahead)…let's hope the technology can stand it. So far, I've had a better internet connection here than I ever had at home (but that's probably because I lived in a house with dial up until 2010…)
Missing everybody!! Hope to talk to you all soon, and I am also really hoping that I get better at blogging and can start telling funny stories soon, because if you are as bored reading this as I am writing it, I will understand if you stop checking in. I will hopefully be back to my old shenanigans soon enough and will provide you with a healthy dose of hilarity.
Hasta luegoooooo (just until I learn how to say this in Swahili…)
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