Mzungo Wapi? And the Black Panthers...

It’s a Sunday night in Arusha, and I have been sitting up at our school’s Peace Center trying to get a ton of work done, since next week we are going away for a week.  (Side note, and then I won’t complain about this anymore: we were supposed to be going to Zanzibar for a week.  We had an amazing itinerary, including going on a spice tour, snorkeling in a coral reef, and swimming with dolphins.  Everyone was as excited as they could possibly be and we were counting down the days until we got to go.  Then, we found out the trip to Zanzibar was cancelled because a travel warning was issued due to Somali pirates in the area.  Obviously, it’s not worth dying or getting kidnapped by Somali pirates, but let me just say that everyone is severely disappointed that we don’t get to go to the coolest place in all of Tanzania.  This only means that I will most definitely come back here one day, sooner rather than later, to swim with dolphins in the Indian Ocean.)  Okay, the good news is that we still get to go away for a week, and we will get to see the Indian Ocean.  We are going to Dar es Salaam for the week, which is on the coast, and we will get to do a bunch of cool day trips from there.  So it will still be awesome.  In the meantime, the undergrads have midterms this week, so since the house is in a study-mode, it’s been a good opportunity to catch up on a lot of the stuff I have been neglecting (mostly my thesis).  However, I find that I need a break from that, so I figured I would get a blog post out there before things get crazy this week.

Last week was a really good week, for four particular reasons.  First, it was Molly’s 21^st birthday party, and we had a really great, all-American house party for her, complete with a clown (a friend of mine from Arusha, Sammy, is a part-time clown, so he made it happen).  It was a great night; we even located ping-pong balls and plastic cups, so you know it was a good time.  

The morning after the birthday bash, I had to get up pretty early for my internship.  It was a special day, and instead of meeting with Alfred for the usual stuff (which mostly consists of how to get grants, how to develop the program, and how to get more grants), I got to go on a school visit.  I love going on these; it’s really entertaining to see my players at their schools, and see who is shy and who talks to me and whatnot.  The areas where my players live are not the best, and the one town, Majengo, is actually the worst I’ve seen so far around Arusha.  It is really dilapidated; the houses are extremely small and made out of whatever materials people can get a hold of.  Many of the houses are really low to the ground, and they are crumbling and on top of each other.  The roads are (obviously) not paved; kids that should be in school are sitting around outside all day, and really little kids (two and three year olds) run around playing by themselves.  Needless to say, it is basically the projects of Arusha.  We got dropped off at the entrance of one of the neighborhoods and then had to walk about 20 minutes to the first school, and for part of the walk, the four other coaches that were with me actually formed a protective perimeter around me.  It wasn’t totally necessary, but I was actually in an area very different from where I live in Arusha.  Mzungos (aka white people) do not frequent Majengo, so I had to be a little careful at first.  However, the people there are actually incredibly friendly and I ultimately had nothing to worry about.  (Side thought: before I came, Jennifer got me a really great travel journal for my trip, which I am trying to maintain while I am here.  Every few pages have a travel quote, and while some are cheesy, some are actually really accurate.  One of the first quotes in the travel journal says that ‘Foreign countries aren’t there to make you feel comfortable.  They are there to make their own people feel comfortable.”  That’s what I was thinking on my walk around Majengo.  I felt extremely uncomfortable at first, especially walking through the village.  I thought of how hard it would be to live there, how difficult it was to communicate with people there, and mostly just how awkward I felt at first.  But to everyone who lived there, it was home and they created a workable community that works for them.  By the end of the afternoon, I felt, not wholly comfortable, but much more comfortable, and I think I realize, much more now, the importance of respecting and appreciating situations such as this.  End of side thought.) Anyway, we made it to the first school and met with the head teacher.  We went that day for a specific purpose – someone had donated a bunch of uniforms to FSA, so we went to bring them to the kids at the school (each school has about 60 of our players at it).  We got to the first school and I had no idea what was going on, because we sat in the head teacher’s office for twenty minutes waiting for something (everyone was speaking in Swahili, so I had no idea what we were waiting for).  In the meantime, I talked to the head teacher a lot about the school (which is a public school) and what some of the problems were.  He said class size is the biggest problem (sound familiar?), however, I will have to say, his class size problem is a lot more significant than anything I’ve heard of back in Maryland (they have between 75 and 100 students in each class).  They also have a significant attendance problem, and a problem with failing students (actually, one of the reasons FSA includes school visits as part of their program is to ensure the students who are our players are attending school and passing classes).  Finally, we were ready to get on with our presentation, and I went out side and found out what we were waiting for – a reporter and videographer from the newspaper.  If you remember, obviously the night before was a 21^st birthday party, and you can only imagine that I wasn’t looking my best that morning.  No problem, I thought, I can just hang on the side and smile, and nobody cares about the mzungo anyway.  Well, that was wishful thinking, because I soon found out that I was supposed to present the uniforms to the school, each teacher and player, and give a little speech about FSA.  Which was all recorded with a video camera.  I think I managed to say something (it was translated into Swahili) and people laughed and smiled at the end, so maybe it was okay.  After that awkward presentation, I actually had a few minutes to hang with the students, so I sought out some of my players and they took me around their school and introduced me to their friends and teachers.  I will say, I felt pretty popular after that, and all the little students ran around yelling “Mzungo Mzungo!” trying to see me.  So I would yell back at them “What?!  There’s a mzungo here?  Mzungo wapi?!”  And they would laugh and point to me and be pleased that they found the only white person in the area.  It was actually pretty entertaining.  From the first school, we had to walk another 20 minutes to the second school.  Except the walk actually ended up taking much longer, because I had to stop at every house on the way to talk to people.  Like I said, this area really does not get a lot of white people, so it was pretty exciting for the kids to see one (so lucky for them it was me.  I often think that if I had to see only one person, I would obviously want it to be myself).  So on the way up the kids would run up and yell “Mzungo, mzungo!) and I would pick them up, high five, pat them of the back, hold their hand for a few minutes, whatever they felt like.  Oh, other thing, this 45 minute walk was up a pretty steep hill, and between natural exhaustion and effects from the night before, let me just say that I was sweating like crazy and not feeling my best at the top of the hill.  I had no time for recovery, because at the top of the hill, the whole second school was waiting for me and got to see a tired, sweaty mzungo, who got to have more pictures and videos taken.  I’m not gonna lie, I found the whole thing very entertaining, and aside from my physical state, I think it was an absolutely awesome day.  I’m really excited to go back on more school visits; many times the school visits are negative because we have to check on a problem someone is having with one of our players, but it is always more rewarding to celebrate successes, and I think it really lifts the players up when they see that they have the support of their teachers and principals.  You don’t get a lot of that over here, which is really unfortunate.  It’s hard for people here, and extra time, especially for the people in Mejengo, is pretty difficult to come by, so we don’t really get parents or teachers out to watch the kids play soccer.  Another side note, it makes me very appreciative of the support I always had when I played sports, especially volleyball when the team had all of Eldersburg come to our games to cheer (I love it when I can slip in a side bar about being a two-time state champion – shout out to Stac and Locks!). 

Moving on to the third awesome thing this past week (which I will try to write a lot less about; I feel like I rambled a bit in the last part), we got to go on a (surprisingly) awesome field trip to the UAACC.  It is the United African Alliance Community Center, and it’s run by Pete and Charlotte O’Neal.  Google their names, because what I didn’t know about them (and found out when I got there) is that they are former Black Panthers from Kansas.  In fact, Pete was actually the leader of the Kansas City Black Panthers all through the 1960s, and the reason he left the country was political exile.  Without being incredibly naïve, I wasn’t sure what to think when I found out they were Black Panthers in the 60s (I feel like my strongest images of the BPs are from Forrest Gump and a lot of negative news clippings), so I was completely blown away by Pete and Charlotte and the work they do in Tanzania.  They run this entire community center, and have a whole bunch of programs that operate out of it; they have a home for children, music and art and theatre, English lessons, skills learning, and sustainable living.  It is a really incredible place.  I’m going to try to go back for a few days before I leave here; meeting Pete and Charlotte and hearing them talk a little bit about their lives and their work is really fascinating, and I have a ton more questions to ask them.  They glossed over a lot of what they experienced in the 60s, and seem to be doing what they’re doing now as some sort of reaction to what they experienced there; they are actively pursuing peace and solidarity, and it is pretty impressive what they have done.  Pete is actually still not allowed back in the US, but Charlotte goes over many times a year to speak at colleges; she is a motivational speaker as well as author, poet, and artist.  I would never have expected to meet anyone like them here, so it was a pretty awesome day.  Here are a few pictures from the compound (even though there is much more there than this smattering of what I’m showing). Also here is the link to their website, something I think is worth checking out! 

http://www.uaacc.habari.co.tz/index.html

The last thing about the week, to wrap this up, was another FSA soccer game.  This past Saturday was a game day, and as always, it was a fantastic day.  Maka and I really love our team more and more.  The girls are really shy at first, but the better we get to know them, the more I learn about them and really enjoy them.  They are such a great group of girls, and a few of them are incredibly funny.  It was a really cold, rainy morning (the weather here continues to be completely random), and we were huddled together watching the game (and doing a little goofing around).  One of our girls, Pendo, is actually hilarious.  She speaks the best English of anyone on the team and does a lot of translating for us, but I never knew how funny she was until Saturday, when she does these impressions of Americans.  She acts like she is a reporter and asks American tourists questions about Africa (her favorite is to say, ‘So what do you think about our hair situation in Africa’ and ‘Oh I’m sorry Mr. American, I simply can’t understand you’).  You would probably have to be there to actually think it was funny, but she really is.  We also broke out some stickers, and Maka got her iPhone out so we could listen to the girls’ favorite songs (Justin Bieber is popular everywhere, let me tell you, also Celine Dion).  Not that winning matters, but we also continued with our perfect record, and won our third game of the season.  Way to go, Future Stars! 

That seems like enough for now - I hope everyone has a great week!  I started really missing everyone back home this week (which is weird, usually I don’t think about any of you).  This is probably because I emailed about 50 people this week and didn't get any responses - I really hope none of you are having fun without me.  Also, news made its way across the ocean that Justin Bieber is coming out with a Christmas album - if any of you think I won't be listening to that on a loop when I get back, you are obviously crazy.

75 days until Christmas!  :-)