I felt the rains down in Africa

3/24/10

Today the rains started. I have been lucky the past week and a half because the weather has been unusually sunny and warm. When it rains here it impossible to walk outside without rubber boots. I slipped and fell in the road and got covered in mud the first day it rained and I tried to walk outside without boots. The floor of the school is covered with mud by the end of the day. The mud is full of clay so it is incredibly slippery. The ride home from school was scary because the Land Rover was slipping and sliding down the road, narrowly missing trees. I thought we were going to flip over the vehicle. No one else was scared because it is the norm during the rainy season.
The bugs here are enormous. I hear them slapping loudly against my bedroom wall at night, and I close my eyes and tell myself that I am safe because I have a mosquito net. I have gotten 10 or 12 mosquito bites, but I take a daily malaria pill so hopefully I won’t get sick. I’ve seen a few little lizards in the road. The staff house has a rat problem, but I haven’t seen one yet. I’m just glad I haven’t seen any tarantulas.
For my birthday, we had a dinner party at our house. Ben brought over a chocolate cake that he had bought in Arusha that day. He braved heavy rains, a dala dala (bus) accident, and a dala dala driver fistfight. Lisa cooked chicken alfredo with beans and green peppers. It was delicious. We drank Kilimanjaro and Safari beer.
The dala dalas are the main form of public transportation. It costs about 1200 shillings (roughly $1.00) to ride them. The dala dalas in Monduli all go to Arusha, and from Arusha you can travel elsewhere. Basically, you board the dala dala and the driver waits for it to fill up. This could take hours. While you wait for the bus to fill up, vendors come up to the windows. They sell anything from candy bars and drinks to watches and jewelry. The trick to finding the right bus to ride is to ask the driver where they are going first instead of telling them where you need to go. Sometimes they tell you that they are going where you need to go when they aren’t. They cram the bus with as many bodies as they can. It is a rather uncomfortable ride most of the time, and sometimes there are so many people that they open the door and hang out the side.
I am constantly entertained by the American influence here. While walking in Arusha and Moshi, I’ve seen many Tanzanians wearing American baseball caps and t-shirts. I saw one man wearing a shirt that said, “Show me the money.” A lot of dala dalas have portraits of rappers painted on them. My favorite one had a huge picture of Jay-Z on the back and said, “Jigga Van.” My friend Junior showed me some really awesome African reggae that I hope to get before I go home. Junior knows more about American music and pop culture than I do. The bars and restaurants play American hip-hop, and everyone seems to know every word. I was shocked to see a young female student at Orkeeswa with an “Undertaker” backpack. The picture was of this huge, evil looking guy. Apparently, The Undertaker is an American wrestler who is really popular here. The girl let me take a picture of her and her backpack. A few students have Barack Obama backpacks. Everyone seems to love Obama here because his family is from Kenya, Tanzania’s neighbor to the north.
Since I am only able to be here for 2 weeks, there are many things that I can’t do. If I ever get a chance to come back, I want to go to the island of Zanzibar off the Tanzania coast. It is a 10-hour bus ride from here to the coast, and then you have to take a boat. I also want to go to Nairobi in Kenya and Dar es Salaam, the biggest city in Tanzania. When I first got here I thought it might be possible to go on a two-day safari. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a group together so that it could be cheaper. All of the teachers here have already gone on safari, and to go by myself would cost about $500! The tourism industry here is booming. I also would like to climb Mt. Meru, Tanzania’s second largest mountain after Mt. Kilimanjaro. Ben, Lisa and Scott all climbed Mt. Meru the weekend that I got here. From what they told me, it took about three days and it was amazing.
I can’t wait to take a hot shower and use a toilet! I am kind of getting used to being filthy, though. B.O. is part of everyday life here, and no one seems to care. I also can’t wait to have a burger. The food here is good, but I feel like I have been eating the same things over and over: beans, rice, boney chicken, avocados, bananas, grisly beef, and ugali (corn meal and water). I have also developed an intense addiction to pineapple flavored Fanta soda. I never drink soda at home, but here I have to have a Fanta almost every day. The avocados here are the best I have ever tasted. They have a very buttery taste.
I think I will try to look for teaching jobs near here. I really love it, and I think I could live here. Junior has been telling me about places in Africa that are relatively safe and might pay well. For example Botswana, Rwanda, Mozambique, and Morocco. If anyone knows anything, let me know!