School holiday and eating bonanza

So, it’s been awhile since I’ve posted, and I apologize. I got into a letter writing frenzy and I just completely forgot to update the rest of you on my life. Before I begin, let me say check out the videos in the last post. Crazy. Goes to show that some of my april fool’s entry was true (I think i mentioned jumping off cliffs). Also, here are some links for some photos of my current vacation. I’ve already been to Zanzibar again, and right now I’m in Dar es Salaam, and soon I’ll be off visiting Bagamoyo and Tanga regions, which are both north of Dar on the Indian Ocean coastline. I’ll make sure to keep updating photos. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2446819&l=0f005&id=6803262

Since my last post, school has been mostly the same, except with some very recent news. My students had some more tests and class, and ended up the semester with a final exam, which i also made like a mock examination. Hopefully, while I’m on vacation, i’ll swipe some mock examinations from other districts/regions of tanzania and we’ll use them at my school for more exam preparation. I must say, I remember taking a class or two in high school that was very highly oriented for taking national exams, but I have never been at a school that is this insanely focused on exams only. Luckily i have spent countless classes stressing critical thinking and concept understanding while still using it for their exams, but really students are just worried about the actual exam itself. It’s probably really stressful for them. I kind of understand it since my plans right now are focused on retaking the mathematics subject GRE which could decide different things for me.

After the exam, I graded all my papers, and headed out on my vacation, which I am still on. I started out by heading to Dar es Salaam where I spent a few days, and began my buffet tour of Dar. I feel kind of ‘bleh’ to be stuffing my face at a buffet, especially since my life and its food choices have turned so healthy and organic (and practically vegetarian-hope John Tuley isn’t reading this. please don’t hurt me. haha). But, when I’m in town, and in a place with tons of good food, and when I know i won’t eat this kind of food for a long time, and i know the price is ridiculous high, i just say screw it, and enjoy myself. I went to the renamed (yet identical looking) hotel that used to be the holiday inn. The peace corps mindset at a buffet can be very different, because they know what is rare or expensive or gourmet. I was hitting up all the expensive things getting my money’s worth, and laughing at the touristy family next to me who were talking like ‘oh my god, these eggs are really good. i just got like 2-3 of them’ or ‘oh man, this piece of fish is good, i could eat so many’ etc. Basically, their meal and everything they eat in terms of village life amounts to about 1/5 the price they paid or less. An egg is like 25 cents, but their meal was like 12 bucks. ok, whatever, but it’s funny to see tourists these days.

Also, a common thing that happens to me when I’m in dar and a good 2 days travel from my site is that when i’m walking around and usually wearing my school shirt (sometimes not), I meet people who are of the Nyakusa tribe and we chat up a few greetings and basic Kinyakusa on the streets and they go crazy. After the mentioned Holiday inn meal, I heard two taxi drivers behind me talking in Kiswahili: “hey dude, hey dude, look, he’s from <my site>, look his shirt says <my site> - hey white man- Twa Mbombo!” and I answered “tununu” and they went nuts. Never fails. Another guys wife was from my area, i met a former student from my school (that was crazy, we met on public transportation), and last night i chatted up a guy at a bar from my area. It’s funny cuz i get really annoyed with the tribal stuff in my area sometimes when i’m at site, but when i’m in dar or another city far away and i get to talk to ‘my tribe’ i feel like i’m connecting to my home.

After hotel hopping in dar (i didn’t call ahead, so i just kept going from the ymca to the ywca every night scrounging for spots), I headed to zanzibar for some much needed rest. I arrived in stone town, but then made my way off into the village with sarah, another volunteer. She was still in school, so while she went off to school for the day, I spent time going around to different beaches around the island. I went to several different beaches in the north of the island, but I still think the best beach i’ve been to was the one all the volunteers were at for new years. Don’t get me wrong, they all have their good and bad points, but I feel like that was the best time (which of course could mean i just liked being at a beach with a ton of people). Also, while on zanzibar, I hit up stone town and got a ton seafood on the street and argued like hell with the locals. They ended up hating me and sarah because we kept bargaining in kiswahili like the locals, while the whole time they are staring at us like tourists. It’s true, the whole place is tourists trying to be all cool and try seafood (which we kind of technically are), but we definitely knew the score and correct prices on the island. I also got a chance to check out jozani forest the day before I headed out. We walked around the forest and then got to hang out with colobus monkeys, and i took alot of photos. When we first came up on them, two groups of monkeys were fighting over territory and making a scene and it was pretty cool. Oh, and a monkey definitely peed on me and sarah. We felt droplets and we were wondering what it was, and realized it was a monkey high in the tree. Go figure. Not as evil as flying monkeys of Oz, but mildly aggravating.

After zanzibar (which i do have tons of information, just not alot of time to write it all out, just ask me questions and i’ll put more), I headed back to dar to hang out while alot of volunteers were in town for a conference. I hit up another foreign buffet, which was actually very very cheap and had lots of amazing indian, chinese, pizza, turkish, etc food. This morning, a group of 6 volunteers went to a breakfast buffet and stayed for about 2.5 hours eating and chatting and drinking fruit juices. Delicious. Last night was pretty great also, which of course it should be since its vacation. We headed to Mlimani City, a big huge store/mall place that feels like America, and we went to see a movie. We, in true American form, bought tons of candy, soda, and chocolate and snuck it into the theater, but bought some popcorn also. Sat back and enjoyed the new Indiana Jones movie. Not the best movie by far, but the overall experience of being in a theater with an alright movie was well worth it all.

The plan for today is to use the internet, sit back for a little bit, and then head to Bagamoyo to the north and then after a night or two there, head further north to Tanga.

Alright, i’m sure there is more and when I think of it I’ll write, but that’s it for now.