One Month....

August 30th, 2008

Rosie, the 18 year old daughter of my host family is home for the next 2 weeks from boarding school. Today we went to see "Don't Mess with Zohan" because it was better than the other movie that was playing. I have to say, it was actually pretty funny. But this might just be coming from my previous experiences with Israeli men from when I worked at the kiosk. Today, Rosie and I also went to the market and bought some clothes. I needed a new sweater since I only brought one and it is cold every night and morning. The end result is that I never wash my only sweater and now it smells like dog.

Earlier in the week when I was walking home with Irene, one of my students, some men called out something to me. I typically just say "nzuri" if I don't know what was said (this means good and it is most often the right response). After responding, "Nzuri" to the men who I assumed to be friendly I was told by Irene that one of the men had said to the other men that I was his fiance. I think they get quite a good laugh out of this regularly as this exact process happens almost daily. I am very good entertainment.

Yesterday I was proposed to on the street. A man saw me in my kanga and asked me if I was learning Swahili. I said yes and he proceeded to ask me to marry him. He was actually fairly serious. I have learned that the proper response here is not ''I'm a lesbian" because that is a word that few Tanzanians know. I told him that I was married and this solved my problem.

Today I went to a different church service with my host mother, I expected for it to be an hour long or so, but it turned out to include a wedding and be 4 hours long. I took this time as an opportunity to collect my thoughts, and then it lasted for 2 more hours and I was out of thoughts. This service had a good bit of singing and dancing. The wedding was between a man from Michigan to a Tanzanian woman - missionaries, I think. There was also possibly the ordination of a faith healer. I like to think of this service as preparation for the next level: the pentacostal church that I have been invited to go to with Masha from work. Given the Christian dance videos that we watch during lunch when we aren't watching people be healed on Dvd, I may really need to prepare myself. I have found that it is easiest to tell people that I am a Quaker.

I have come to think of living in a country like this as an act of submission. I have gone into a very different culture, bowed down, and said, "I am your student, teach me about your ways.'" It requires a lot of openness to do this. and a great willingness to compromise (which I am usually not too good at), but I think that this is necessary to really learn. A lot of what I have learned is about myself. I don't find myself asking if I "can" do things here. I just assume that I can and I will, I just need to figure out how. This is how I have approached teaching, learning Swahili, and also educating myself about NGO's and volunteer work in Tanzania. In some ways learning like this is difficult, but it is also liberating because you are free to take your time and experiment because no one really tells you how to do things here - you just have to be flexible.

I received a very nice compliment today. I was told that wherever I go I will always be welcomed because I am willing to live by the ways of the people. Shitting in holes doesn't bother me and neither do frequent inexplicable power outages or bucket baths. I haven't found anything here that I find horrible or unmanageable yet. The only things that I find a bit trying at times are the restrictions on nighttime activities due to security and the burning of trash. They burn trash everywhere at all times of the day and it smells horrible. They are burning some next door now.

I really like teaching adults. I am increasingly interested in learning basic microfinance, getting certified to teach English as a foreign language, and getting certified to do AIDS education. I think that if I either received certifications in these things or found a masters degree that achieved these goals that I could really help people.


Oh yes...and in case you were wondering, here is a little blurb on how medicine in Tanzania is:

I had an eye infection last week and amazingly I was able to go to a pharmacist and get antibiotic drops hassle free for 5 dollars. It was awesome. That said, you really have to watch it if you have to go to the hospital. I talked with a girl in the hospital program last week and she had seen some interesting things. Apparently, the hospitals make more money if you get a C-section instead of a normal pregnancy so they do a lot of unnecessary C-sections. Sara also saw a doctor remove part of a man's testicle due to an infection. The doctor proceeded to remove the offending nut and put something else in to replace it while the man was unconscious. The doctor did this saying that the man would never know the difference and since he wasn't going to be told about the removal. That way he would continue to feel like a man. This doctor (at the best hospital here by the way) also asked the medical students, "so why wouldn't a woman want to be circumcised?" In general, anasthetics are a convenience. At one of the rural hospitals one girl saw a leg in a bucket in a hallway. Respectable doctors believe that condoms just don't work. I have come to see that the key difference between peaceful first and third world countries is medical care quality. Just so you know, if I went to rural Tanzania and offered to help out in hospitals I could do surgeries.

My new room mate is in the medical program, more stories shortly anticipated. I want to spend at least a day in the hospital (volunteering). It sounds horrifying, but the stories are awesome.