Day 38 - Back to Work!

It has not been an easy transition since returning from Zanzibar. We were all aware of the schedule before leaving, but it has been hard to refocus on constant studying after returning from, quite literally, paradise.

Apologies for the lack of updates in the past week and a half, although there hasn't been too much to report. We have returned to living on campus at TCDC during the week but continue to stay with our host families during the weekend. We are also getting ready for next week - reminiscent of Finals Week in college - as we have two papers, two presentations, an oral proficiency examination and a final written examination. Working on those projects has required much of my time but I did manage to have some interesting experiences during the past week and a half.

Last Thursday, we went to Usa Market, which is a smaller non-tourist market by our campus. I wasn't too thrilled about going, since we have had a lot of practice speaking in markets already. I also didn't see many things I wanted to buy - used t-shirts, watches, backpacks, fruits, vegetables, etc. didn't interest me. After an hour a group of us were about to leave when I walked by a particular vendor on the fringe of the market. I noticed he was selling belts with a rectangular buckle of the American flag. As I came closer to the buckle, the picture changed to President Obama. It was most definitely a hologram of the flag and Obama. Naturally, I bought it. Tomorrow we are going to go to the ICTR - International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which should be extremely interesting. We are encouraged to wear formal clothes - I will be wearing brown shoes, khaki pants, blue shirt and tie, and the Obama belt.

This past weekend with our host family was also enjoyable. Saturday, Hugh and I went into Arusha to run some errands and visit the Maasai Market. We successfully made it to the market (which is geared for tourists) and went around shopping. It was very reminiscent of Zanzibar - constantly getting hounded for business. After we returned we went for a short hike with Beda, our 14 year old host brother, down to the nearby river. It was evident that it was the hang-out for the village kids, as about 10 kids were by the river swimming and playing on the rocks. We ran with the kids for a bit, which entailed them laughing as Hugh and I struggled to keep up. Either way, it was a lot of fun. We returned in the evening and spent the evening at home.

On Sunday Hugh and I explored more of Moivaro (the village where our host family lives). We walked about 15 minutes down the road to find "Moivaro Lodge and Coffee Plantation." We had heard many stories about this place, mostly pertaining to its cost ("A beer is five U.S. dollars!!") so we decided to check it out. We walked through the gate and came to find it encompassed a large area of land. We then walked back into the 'plantation' and found the central building and restaurant. Needless to say, it was wazungu central, but it was indeed nice. We stopped into the gift shop (it's always nice to speak in Swahili with Tanzanians in overtly tourist locations, since they are so used to speaking English only) to find that the prices were in U.S. dollars (always a bad sign for overpriced goods) and they were at least 5 times the amount a tourist can get away with at a local market. We left after a short conversation.

After we returned home, I helped Beda with some of his math homework. It was a fairly basic lesson but it had been too long since my last math class! I think I helped a small degree, but it was a little frustrating. We then learned the process of coffee production. Eastern Africa (northern Tanzania in particular) is famous for its coffee, so this was a treat. Our host dad has a coffee business in addition to his regular job at TCDC, so he owns several areas of land in the area for coffee production, but he also has some coffee plants by the house. We didn't experience the process of picking the seeds, peeling them and drying the beans, but we did basically everything else. It was a process of crushing the seeds to find the beans (the picture below is from this step), separating the seeds 'husks' from the beans, cleaning the beans to ensure no husk is remaining, and then roasting! It was a lot of fun - not to mention the treat of having the coffee for breakfast the next day!

After coffee, our host parents took us to Lake Duluti, which is another conservation area near Arusha. It was a beautiful lake and reminded me of some of the lakes in Montana (minus the Rocky Mountains in the background). We spent several hours there, watching the sunset and having dinner. After we returned, we spoke with our host dad about a possible gift to the family. Hugh previously knew that slaughtering a goat was a celebratory event for the Chagga (the ethnic group my host family is apart of) so we offered to pay for the process as a gift when we leave. Little did we know that, since it is still fairly soon after the funeral for our host dad's brother, the slaughtering of a goat would culturally also be included with the funeral celebration (after so many days, usually a goat is slaughtered to celebrate the end of the mourning period). In other words, what was initially a small gesture of appreciation, to be experienced by our immediate host family, myself, and Hugh, has now become an extended family (and perhaps friends, village, etc.) affair. Our host dad made sure we understood that "this would not be a small gathering." In my mind, that makes it much more enjoyable and worthwhile. He was saying how much his family would appreciate us doing this and how it much it would mean to them. It is being planned for Saturday afternoon - I will be sure to let you know how it goes!