outside, crows are calling each other in the early morning air. my ceiling fan wobbles and throbs, and my foot itches. i think i must have accidentally stretched in my sleep and thrust it out of the confines of my mosquito net. good thing i've got my doxycycline
. today i'll read from 6:30 to 7:30, then breakfast, then at 8:30 we all go to the University of Dar es Salaam for more classes with Fatma Alloo, Smitu Kothari, and Tundu Lissu, a prominent Tanzanian human rights lawyer who is notorious for taking on the government over land rights issues. his work with Lawyer's Environmental Action Team has helped push the atrocities of extractive mining practices into mainstream media here in Tanzania. hopefully today the jetlag won't impair my ability to stay fully awake during class.
these last few days have been great fun, full of activity and Kiswahili practice and roaming Dar and eating beans (maharagwe) and rice (wali) and the local "stiff porridge" (ugali). rather than trying to tell everything i've done in full, i'll just recount a one particularly memorable experience:
on Monday a small group of us met up with Benedict Pius Tomas, the man who took Ina and Katie and me around town on Sunday. he seemed a little surprised to find me with so many new sisters, but it all worked out for the best. as we meandered through the potholed, sun-baked streets, dodging cars and dala-dalas
(the ubiquitous local minibus transit), the girls chatted with him as best they could. Caroll, friendly as always, got to talking with someone as we were walking and he decided to join the party. i later found out that he is a student from a rural area, a young man named Msafiri. we walked for about 15 minutes through town until we arrived at the "beach," which was actually fenced off and covered in debris. so we didn't go out there. there is a main road that runs parallel to the shore, and between that road and the beach fence there is a large embankment where people have set up outdoor kitches, shops, and other ad hoc structures. i'll admit i was a little cautious when we finally got through the dense diesel fumes and speeding Land Rover-filled thoroughfare to pass through a rusted wrought-iron fence that looked menacingly exclusionary, but once we got to the area with the plastic tables, it felt a bit moree familiar. as soon as we approached, 6 or 7 women in white dresses jumped into a frenzy of service, setting up chairs and beckoning us to sit down. none of us at this time had realized that where we were was anything resembling a restaurant. but it had a good view of the peaceful harbor (Dar es Salaam was named for this valuable resource - in Arabic it means "Peace of Heaven") and Benedict seemed sure, so we all took our places and began the futile effort to explain to the women that some of us are vegetarians. "mimi sili nyama" - "i don't eat meat," we said over and over, but apparently some of us veggies are confused souls in need of a little civilizing, so we got meat (tasted like goat) and fish anyway. oh well, hakuna matata, and we ate the food anyway. it was delicious.
. today i'll read from 6:30 to 7:30, then breakfast, then at 8:30 we all go to the University of Dar es Salaam for more classes with Fatma Alloo, Smitu Kothari, and Tundu Lissu, a prominent Tanzanian human rights lawyer who is notorious for taking on the government over land rights issues. his work with Lawyer's Environmental Action Team has helped push the atrocities of extractive mining practices into mainstream media here in Tanzania. hopefully today the jetlag won't impair my ability to stay fully awake during class. these last few days have been great fun, full of activity and Kiswahili practice and roaming Dar and eating beans (maharagwe) and rice (wali) and the local "stiff porridge" (ugali). rather than trying to tell everything i've done in full, i'll just recount a one particularly memorable experience:
on Monday a small group of us met up with Benedict Pius Tomas, the man who took Ina and Katie and me around town on Sunday. he seemed a little surprised to find me with so many new sisters, but it all worked out for the best. as we meandered through the potholed, sun-baked streets, dodging cars and dala-dalas
(the ubiquitous local minibus transit), the girls chatted with him as best they could. Caroll, friendly as always, got to talking with someone as we were walking and he decided to join the party. i later found out that he is a student from a rural area, a young man named Msafiri. we walked for about 15 minutes through town until we arrived at the "beach," which was actually fenced off and covered in debris. so we didn't go out there. there is a main road that runs parallel to the shore, and between that road and the beach fence there is a large embankment where people have set up outdoor kitches, shops, and other ad hoc structures. i'll admit i was a little cautious when we finally got through the dense diesel fumes and speeding Land Rover-filled thoroughfare to pass through a rusted wrought-iron fence that looked menacingly exclusionary, but once we got to the area with the plastic tables, it felt a bit moree familiar. as soon as we approached, 6 or 7 women in white dresses jumped into a frenzy of service, setting up chairs and beckoning us to sit down. none of us at this time had realized that where we were was anything resembling a restaurant. but it had a good view of the peaceful harbor (Dar es Salaam was named for this valuable resource - in Arabic it means "Peace of Heaven") and Benedict seemed sure, so we all took our places and began the futile effort to explain to the women that some of us are vegetarians. "mimi sili nyama" - "i don't eat meat," we said over and over, but apparently some of us veggies are confused souls in need of a little civilizing, so we got meat (tasted like goat) and fish anyway. oh well, hakuna matata, and we ate the food anyway. it was delicious. 
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