Chasing Elephants???

So... I know I told most of you that I was returning to the US on the 18th of May. BUT my plans have changed. My friend Chris (Chris Rice- another Oberlin student, a different Chris from the one that I have been living with) and I applied for stipends to stay in Tanzania to do an internship with the wildlife conservation society of Tanzania. We're going to be living and working at the Ruaha Landscape Program outside of Iringa, Tanzania until the end of July. I am so ridiculously excited that I can hardly contain it! I definitely miss a lot of people, and will be excited to come home at the end of the summer, but this opportunity seemed too amazing to pass up. So, if any of you have any plans to go on summer trips, I strongly advise you to consider coming to Tanzania. :) I think we'll be doing some sort of analysis of elephant tracking data and "bushmeat consumption", which can only mean exactly what it sounds like...

For the past few days I have been on a mission: a mission to buy a postcard. It sounds like kind of an easy task in such a tourist-y place. There are postcards everywhere you look.... BUT, this was a little more difficult. Chris and I were looking for a specific postcard. It had to have giraffes on it, because it was for a specific person who as a very strong love for giraffes. The only problem is, there are no giraffes in Zanzibar. I don't know why I didn't realize that... if you want a postcard of a boat, no problem. A sting ray, no problem. But it has been about 2 weeks since I started keeping my eye out for giraffe postcards and we have yet to see one. UNTIL today. AND, not only was there one giraffe postcard, there were many of them to choose from in a shop that we meandered in to. It was almost like divine intervention. And then I looked on the back and saw that it was from the place where we will be living this summer- Ruaha National Park. Then I knew it was divine intervention. :)

Chris and I moved back to Unguja Island a few days ago. We felt confident that not only had we met every single man in the city we were living in on Pemba, but we were pretty sure that they had all proposed to us. And by us I really mean that they would ask both of us to marry them at the same time because men are allowed to have 4 wives according to Islam. It got to the point that Chris described marriage proposals as a kind of "courtesy" to extend to someone, and that we should be slightly offended if a man didn't propose. So after refusing all of the proposals, there were many angry men after us, so we had to leave.

But our time in Pemba was amazing. I moved back in with my host family for a few days, which was wonderful. My host mom (who was only 26) is absolutely wonderful, and I love all of her friends and family. It was so great to see them again.

When we got back to Unguja we decided that for a change of scenery/to save some money we would move into the house where some of our friends have been living for the past two weeks. So we hopped a Dalla Dalla, along with another 32 people crammed on the inside and 8 dangling merrily off the back, to Paje (another town on the east side of the island). We arrived an hour or so later, where our friends met us and brought us back to what they have appropriately named, "The mansion". THe house is UNBELIEVABLE. A red cross worker owns it- it's right on the beach, with at least 4-5 bedrooms, 3 of the biggest bathrooms I have seen in my entire life (think 1.5 dorm rooms), a courtyard in the middle, and guards sitting outside 24 hours a day. I can't really get used to it, but it has definitely been a posh last several days. We spend days working on our projects, and our evenings lounging in hammocks overlooking the beach, playing cards, and cooking amazing food in their amazing kitchen. I think I'll have to snap out of it soon.

Ok, well my time is up, but I can't wait to hear from you all! Thanks for all the letters and emails, etc. I'm going to a wedding on Friday, and I think it's going to be quite the experience, so I'll be sure to tell you all about it.

A Car!

Since I have been in Tanzania, I have ridden in cars exactly 2 times, and once was this morning. We ride on Dalla Dallas, the Zanzibari form of public transportation, fairly often- maybe once every two days- but there are very few cars here. It's so ridiculous to think about the cold Feruary days in Minnesota where I got in and out of a car 6 times, or maybe even more. Now it has been nearly three months, and only twice have I gotten into a car. I'm sure that's why everyone is so healthy and strong here.

Let me describe the experience on a dalla dalla a little more to you. Most of the dalla dallas here are pickup trucks with benches all around the edges and a top/canopy thing that they stack high with anything and everything. A few days ago Chris (Chris is actually Christine- she goes to Brandeis University. I realize that many of you thought I was talking about Chris Rice, but it isn't him) and I got on a dalla dalla that had maybe 25 people on it. Everyone squeezed in on benches that face the middle of the truck. If there's a centimeter of empty bench next to you, someone will say "sogea" and then booty-bump you with impressive force over to the person sitting next to you to make room for someone else on the other side. As we looked out the side of the dalla dalla, we saw that the one next to us was piled high with all kinds o things- one one roof we saw an entire bedroom set- bedframe, two chairs, table, bedstand, mattress, and small bureau-chest-like thing. We also saw a 10 gallon bucket, about 10 about 8-foot long metal poles, several potato sacks full of charcoal, and my favorite thing, a banana tree. All of this one one small pickup truck. Sometimes they pass with no less than 30-40 mattresses stacked high, another one of my favorite sights.

When the dalla dalla stops, which is usually indicated by the person hanging off the back banging on the side of the truck with a metal stick or a large coin and shouting a string of words in swahili, you never know what people will take out from underneath the benches where you are sitting. The other day, when we stopped, someone got off the dalla dalla and asked where his chickens were. Everyone looked under their benches, and not one, not two, not three, but at least 5 live chickens appeard, tied up in plastic bags, from under the benches where we were sitting. As he left, he yelled that he was still missing one, and sure enough someone reached under and pulled out another bagged chicken and passed it down the line until it got to the last person in the dalla dalla, who passed it out the back to the man. I love riding on dalla dallas.

Ok my internet time is up. Talk to you all soon!

Hamna breki!!!

I often think language barriers are completely unsurmountable barriers to establishing relationships with people here, but yesterday someone came whizzing past us on a bicycle, screaming "HAMNA BREKI" and as they bounce over a nearby speed bump, I remembered... I bet we understand a lot more than we think we do, without speaking the language. It was funny to see this man's friend greet him with "peace be with you" and hear only his cries of panic as he couldn't slow down his bike. More later.

Grocery Shopping

In order to turn our small little chyumba (room) in to a full blown nyumba (home), Chris and I have gone shopping several times in the past few days to get things like food, tupperware, etc. Here's a list of what we bought.
Day 1:
2 lb pasta
1/2 kilo small potatoes
1/2 kilo lg potatoes
3 tubes tomato paste
2 rolls TP
1/4 kilo sugar
1 L oil
2 limes
3 tomatoes
bottle of sweet basil essential oil
1 mango
1/2 kilo cabbage
small package of whole black peppercorns
dishsoap
2 carrots
curry powder
ginger powder
6 eggs
1 head of garlic
2 packages of cookies
2 packages biscuits
salt
1/2 kilo rice
2 red onions
1 coconut
1/2 kilo kidney beans
1/2 kilo mystery beans
2 bananas

Our total for the first day was about 16000 TSH or about $15.

Day 2:
15 bananas
5 mini-doughnuts
bar of soap
1/2 kilo laundry detergent
1 cucumber
4 limes
2 hot peppers
1 mango
1 avocado
cinnamon
sponge
4 tupperwares

Our total for the second day was about 5000 TSH or $4.

The cost of living here is unbelievable. Ok, must go. Love you all.

I fear drowning in the streets...

It is definitely the rainy season here. Every day, for at least 1-2 hours, it pours buckets. Today, as my friend and I walked to town, we had to plow through areas of many inches of carrot-juice colored flowing water. I think we are quite the spectacle, two Americans, me wearing a bright yellow raincoat and her wearing an ankle-length green poncho, trudging through small rivers while everyone leans out their windowns screaming at us, welcoming us into their homes. I can't help but laugh at what they might be thinking.

It is now time for us to choose anything we want to study individually- we have finished our marine biology classes and have all split up all over the country. My friend Chris and I returned to Pemba Island, where we were before, to come live at the Essential Oil Distillery and learn to make different essential oils. Our little home is very cozy- with bright green walls, blue doors, yellow plaid sheets and little wooden shutters. Right outside of our front door is a jasmine plant, two toads that hang out near our doorstep, a field of lemnongrass and a field of sweet basil. I really love it so far.

We took the night boat to Pemba- it left arouind 10 pM and arrived around 6 AM. It was a surreal experience. I mostly remember a lot of thick fog, mist, spray, some huge waves, freezing cold air conditioning, and people coughing the entire way. I got up and went outside around 4 AM and couldn't even see to the end of the boat. I felt like we were in The Perfect Storm. :) While I might have slept, I really have no idea whether I did or not.

Last night we tried to cook our first meal in the kitchen- but when we arrived it was locked. After several phone calls and several visits from strangers, a man arrived with the key. Unfortunately, we absolutely could not communicate with this man on any level. After he left, we made a delicious soup, and just as it was almost finished, he returned with someone who might have been his son (?). We quickly found out that the only word that we knew in common with each other was "Roast" because he took one look at our soup and assumed it was a roast. I bet he repeated that word at least 20 times before our conversation was over, and I think that to this moment he still thinks that we had made a roast last night. We offered him some to try, so that he would believe us that is was, in fact, something other than "Roast", but I think he feared our American concoction. It was really funny...

One of the things that still amazes me after living here for more than 2 months is the fact that every single person that we see wants to greet us. CHris and I befriended a hotel manager who offered to put us up for free in his hotel the other night. We accepted, went and spent an awesomely luxurious night lounging in a seaside pool and listening to drums on the beach, and the next morning rented bicycles and rode across the island. It was so funny to ride through little villages where I swear every single person who saw you would not only greet you, but scream greetings at the top of their lungs until you a) responded, b) were out of sight, or c) they ran out of breath. I wish I could record the sound and play it back to you- it is unlike any sound I have ever heard in the US. It's also funny to think about how they greet you- I'm not sure if it is a cultural difference or a language barrier- but the way that people greet us is so hilarious. For example, a common one, "Hello how are you i love you welcome!" or "Hello how are you welcome home come closer". We receive at least 3-5 marriage proposals a day, and now have an impressive set of reasons that we could recite of why it is better to marry a Zanzibari man than an american man.

Well, my half hour of internet is up. I miss you and love you all... Big decisions for summer plans are pending. I so far have 0 job options, 1 offer for a marine ornithology class in Alaska, and several options that I'm still waiting to hear back from. Later, gators.

Tickle Ferns

Have you ever seen a sensitive plant? You know the plant that when you touch it the leaves close together? Well, they grow everywhere here. Sometimes they are the main "weed" that you walk through as you walk through a vegetated area. The other day we were walking through a big patch of them and we started talking about what everyone called them. My two favorites, though, were: 1) "fake death plant"- I thought it was fitting. 2) A friend on the trip - her name is Elly- grew up calling them "tickle ferns". That one is definitely my favorite.

Today we went on a spice tour. I can now say I know where nearly all of those little jars of powder in our kitchen come from. It was so cool to see nutmeg, vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom, anatto, black pepper, cacao, mace, and all kinds of other exotic things growing just like any other plant. We also tasted what are supposedly the hottest peppers in the world. One little lick and my tongue was nearly numb. Two of the students at whole ones (they are really small). I thought they were going to die. They just thought that they had eaten fire.

After the spice tour we went to see an abandoned slave chamber and go to the beach. There was beautiful coral and shells all over the beach and a little cliff to jump off- so much fun!

We have a meeting in a few minutes. I just wanted to say hello. Tutaonana baadaye(translated: we will see each other later).

I have malaria...

April fools! I'm fine... But unfortunately, two of my dear friends on our trip have been sick all morning. Here, if something bad happens to someone you say, “Pole sana.” They have both gotten that many times today, I'm sure. That was a mean april fool's joke. Sorry, mom and dad.

Once again it has been a long time since I have written, but I'd like to think that's because we have been doing so many exciting things that there hasn't been any time for frivolous blog writing. In reality, it might just be because we have been out in the wild rain forests of Zanzibar where there are no computers, let alone internet. :)

The forests were so amazing. The first one, Ngezi, has been protected for decades and is home to dozens of endemic species. It was really cool to walk around with a guide who, after pointing out a tree or a nut or bird, would say, “That does not exist anywhere else in the world.” The same thing happened again in Jozani Forest (which is actually a National Park). In Jozani, there is a population of 5000 Red Colobus Monkeys, and based on how frequently you see them, it seems unfathomable that they are endangered, let alone scarce in this world. It makes me wonder what these jungle and bush territories must have been like before all of these animals were endangered. I can only imagine the Lion King times 10.

One night several friends and I went out looking for the endemic Pemba Flying Fox, thinking that we had a pretty good chance of seeing it. We didn't see any, and had nearly given up because the sun was setting and apparently it's really dark at night on islands with no electricity. But as soon as we got to the top of a hill, we looked up and saw thousands of these massive flying foxes right above us. It was so surreal. They really look like miniature batmans, and their winds are slightly translucent so you could see the bright colors of the vibrant zanzibar sunsets through the wings. Unbelievable.

We also spent a few days learning about all kinds of agriculture on Pemba Island. It's really funny to think about how many products I use without giving any thought to where they might come from. For instance, we drove past this huge plantation of trees, where all of the trees had diagonal, circular slashes through the trunks, white goo oozing out, and, small, half coconut cups tied to the trees collecting the white goo. If you went up to the tree and doused your hand in the white glue, it came out with a texture strangely similar to Elmer's Glue. It turns out that's how rubber is harvested. We drove for miles, and along the road there were rubber pieces, about the size of washcloths, hanging on lines to sundry. It was really cool.

We also visited several local cooperative farms. It's really funny to me that in the US cooperatives seem so counter-culture, because here, just like in Latin America, coops just make so much sense and could almost be considered the norm. Why not share capital costs- at one of the farms they were so proud of the fact that because they worked together they were able to purchase an oxcart to bring their produce to the market. It's really cool to see what they grow- huge bunches of bananas (think at least 100 to a stalk), eggplant, beans, tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, papayas, and a lot of crazy looking things that are completely foreign to me. :) I really loved seeing how things are run here- crops are grown with drip irrigation, and a big farm is only 2 hectares. Animals are tethered to what seems like twigs stuck into the ground, and all the poultry prefer to stay on the roofs of buildings. In some ways it seems so different, but in other ways, it's very much the same as farms in the US.

I have definitely been continuing to make a lot of new friends. Everywhere we go we attract so much attention, it's pretty unbelievable. I don't feel like I've gone anywhere in the past 2 moths without being watched at every moment. Despite all this attention, I'm still in a state of disbelief about how much people here will call you. For instance, if you don't answer your phone, the person who just called you will keep calling until you do. If this means calling every two minutes on the minute for one and a half hours, that doesn't stop them. If you leave your phone for 20 minutes, you might have 10 missed calls from the same person. I have almost stopped answering any calls because it drives me nuts! The most puzzling thing to me, though, is right after you answer, many people will immediately hang up and call them because phones are expensive. So someone might call you 17 times consecutively, and if you decide to answer the 17th time they will immediately hang up when they hear your voice. It's so ridiculous.

Because calling is so expensive/ridiculous, I usually text message people. I like to write in Swahili, and many of the people like to write back in English. It's SO funny to read what they say, though. Let me give you soe examples of text messages that I have received:
 “Yester day u sent 2me 4 where they kept me from worrying but, 2day u sent 2me 100 msg where kept me from fear”
 “gond night.and don't let the bed bugs bite you too”
 “how'ere you my frand. evening to day it coming big ran fall”
 “Hallo! do you araived? I need to ask you soe question. are you have boy frand? Plaes answer my quest”
 “I wish I could came there to hug out with you. have a nice dream. take care of you”
I think they're funny to me because most of them are so genuinely trying to be sweet, but saying predominantly nonsense. :)

Well, I should probably get off the computer. But I hope that everyone is well. Nathaniel and Haley I got your postcards- thank you, they were so great! I'm going to be on this island for another week, and then I've decided that for my month long independent project I'm going to go back to the other island to learn how to distill essential oils from all of the spices that are produced here- clove, lemongrass, cinnamon, eucalyptus, vanilla, ylang ylang, jasmine, etc etc. Love you. Baadaye.