Photographs and Ticket Stubs

Salama rafiki zangu! Ninakaa Afrika!
I’m in Africa!

I have been here a full week now and am finally getting the hang of things. It’s still surprisingly hard to comprehend where I am. East Africa. Worlds away from anything familiar. Here, trees grow out more than up, there are monkeys instead of squirrels, toilets never work, and greetings are the most important part of communication.

We started Swahili lessons this week – 4 hours a day – so I am learning quickly. The grammar in Kiswahili is surprisingly simple, but the vocabulary is hard to memorize. It’s strange being in a country where I am not comfortable with the language. I am realizing how lucky I was to have learned Spanish because it allowed me to waltz into any Spanish speaking country and be independent immediately. Here, it took me about four days to be able to order my own food. Now I am functionally comfortable, but my Swahili is by no means conversational. It’s pretty funny, really, because I keep getting myself into challenging conversations with Tanzanians. I can hold my own through the greetings and introductions so they think I actually speak the language. Soon, they launch into topics I cannot understand and I have to explain that I’ve only been here a week and I don’t actually speak Swahili. Nasema Kiswahili kidogo. Nimesoma. Samahani. I speak Swahili a little. I am learning. Sorry. I have 6 weeks of these classes, though, and 5 months in the country. I have high hopes for my language ability.

This week was devoted to orientation and Swahili education. Except for an excursion to the Indian Ocean one afternoon and a trip to the US Embassy a couple days ago, we haven’t really left the campus (which is on a hill outside of the city). Our coordinator wants us to explore little by little. We’re actually getting quite tired of campus, though, so I think several students will try to head at least partway into town this weekend. Tomorrow is Nane Nane day (August 8^th Nane means eight in Swahili), which is a day to honor the farmers. It is a national holiday, so we have nothing planned for the whole day which means… three day weekend! Yay for Nane Nane day!

Everything shifts into full gear on Monday. Aside from drafting our research project proposals, we will begin our other two classes: Ecology of the Masaai Ecosystem, and Human Evolution. It should be fun, but it will also be exhausting. But first: the weekend. I’ll keep you updated!