We had a fantastic trip to Ethiopia. Our trip coincided with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church's Easter. We focused on the historical cities in Ethiopia's north: Gonder, Bahir Dar, Lalibela, and Axum. Click here to see our Ethiopian Photos.
We went on a little camping and hiking trip in and around
the mountainous
I'm in my room on the campus of MS-TCDC (Training Center for Development Cooperation), where I'm studying Swahili. I’m enrolled in a two-week intensive course. The center’s campus is really beautiful. There are all sorts of tropical flowers, grey monkeys running across the iron rooftops of the classrooms, and gigantic cranes with a wingspan of maybe 5 feet!
The classes have been going really well. I've been reading and writing Swahili for nearly 7 hours a day for 9 days now. That adds up to equal all the previous time I spent studying Swahili… almost. I've noticed a big improvement in my Swahili. I feel much less worried about trying to communicate. I've spoke with some Tanzanians in the school's dance and drum troupe for about an hour and a half last week. They didn't know any English and I was able to hold a conversation (albeit a shallow one).
Libby took the bus up from Moshi on my birthday. She met me here and then we took a taxi into Arusha. We saw a Japanese sushi bar the last time we went to Arusha and were both skeptical and intrigued by the idea of sushi in Africa. It looked very out of place in the neighborhood of the normal city shops and bustle of people, but inside we felt immediately at home.
They had tuna (maguro) on the menu, but the waitress (Tanzanian) said they didn't have any. Instead she recommended that we have our California roles with marlin. When it arrived it looked very recognizably as the inside-out rolls were used to. It was delicious! After that we just started ordering everything we recognized off the small menu: okonomiaki, misu soup, pickles, more ngiri rolls. We left feeling the pleasurable levity of a post-J-meal in our bellies. The pleasure of the meal was intensified by many months of rice, beans, lentils, bananas, goat and chicken.
The owner came in while we were eating and I said "Konichiwa!" to him. He rolled his eyes and snickered. At the end of the meal he came back over and I said "Thank you very much for your hospitality" - the only real stock phrase I've retained, because the only interaction I get with the language are in restaurants. He kind of looked up and smiled, but didn't say anything.
Afterwards, we tried to walk over to this place called the Greek Club, a hang-out for tourists and other wazungus ("white people"). But, the guards at the gate smiled and said tonight they were closed by making his forearms into a big X. We started to walk back down the street and saw a really fancy looking hotel with a bar in it, so we dipped in.
Arusha has a huge wealth gap, with a huge population living in shanty communities next to elegant hotels and restaurants where the better off play. Hundreds of nongovernmental organizations are based here, including the United Nations. There have been many international lawyers here since the beginning of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where leaders of the perpetrators of the genocide during the 1990’s are being tried. All of this money means there are some pretty swanky places scattered throughout Arusha.
Inside the East African Hotel it looked like it had just opened. The big leather chairs didn't even have creases on their seats. The flat-screen televisions were crystal clean and the grandfather clock ticked in time as the air-conditioning began to blow. We ordered off the cocktail menu (one Sidecar and one Pina Colada) and then helped the bartender make the drinks. I spoke a little Swahili to this guy, but I could tell he wanted to speak in English to us.
Later, the barman helped us get a taxi, which had a special price for the tourists who didn’t realize they were right around the block from their destination. We went to Via Via and had drinks and listened to a live band. There are lots of young, white tourists and then younger Rastas from Arusha. We ended up hanging out with a couple of the Rastas for a while and we spoke with them in Swahili. After a few drinks I was feeling very confident about my language ability.
It was a really great birthday. Libby gave me a couple of new (second-hand) jeans, a shirt, a backpack, and a knob-kerrie, a wooden weapon used by the Zulu tribe. I’ve been asking for one for a while. My biggest gift was waiting for me in Moshi though. She said she had gotten something unusual. When she brought it out of the storeroom at the bar, I was shocked – a mounted Impala’s skull and horns. It’s twisted black horns are totally rad! Apparently the gift also includes the papers to get the thing back into the States with us next year.
Valentine’s Day at the bar was busy. James and I bartended for about 70 people and Libby, Heaven and Muro made dinner for 36 of them. We were exhausted at the end of the night.
James, our roommate, working his magic.
The Boss at the bar.
Saving the world, one drink at a time.
Living in Africa
However, up to the end of December my life had become a little too predictable. While volunteering at Amani was very fulfilling and took up some of my time, I still found myself at home, alone, and bored quite often. So when we heard that our favorite bar would be closing down because the two Swedish managers were heading home, I thought, “Maybe I could do that.” Two days after sending an email to the owner expressing my interest it was official: I was the new manager at The Watering Hole, only the coolest bar in Moshi!
The Watering Hole is just a few minute walk from our house. It is a kind-of “member’s only” bar, which mainly means that there is no sign out front and we don’t advertise. We have an email list of about 200 people and apart from that we rely on word of mouth. We share the piece of land with the owner’s main business- a hunting safari company.
This past month has been a whirlwind of renovations, menu planning, shopping and cooking. On site (for the safari company) there are carpenters, welders and masons, and since it is their off season I’ve been able to get them to help me with countless projects. We’ve rethatched the bar roof, installed new lighting, planted a garden, cleaned out a horrendous store room, connected a generator, replaced refrigerators, cemented the outdoor kitchen floor, moved the movie screen to allow for a bigger audience, created a parking lot, and countless other little things.
Joe and James (our current roommate and professional bartender) helped me create an awesome new cocktail menu and have been huge helps to me behind the bar. Moshi has never seen bartenders like this. Our opening night was incredibly busy and the two of them worked like a machine!
Previously The Watering Hole only served food if you ordered ahead of time. This was first on my list of things to change. We now have a small menu (hamburgers, chicken salad sandwiches, quesadillas, bruschetta, baked macaroni and cheese, brownies…) which you can order anytime. We are still working out the kinks of how much to prepare and have regularly been selling out of food.
I have three employees (not including my barmen); Mama Happy who does the cleaning, Heaven, my chef and J.C., who does everything else! They’ve all been working for the safari company for years and are some of the best employees they’ve got. I really could not be doing this with out Heaven and J.C. They are on top of everything and really know how to get things done!
We’ve got three weekends (we’re only open Thursday through Sunday) under our belt now, and each one has been better than the last. Things are getting into more of a routine now, Heaven knows how to cook everything and doesn’t need me in the kitchen as much and we have less projects going on during the week (although still some! A new sound system, sun umbrellas, a pizza oven?!). Monday was my first full day off all month. Tuesdays I’m still going to Amani to do art with the kids.
There's is little to do in Moshi on the weekends. You can count on one hand the number of places that we feel comfortable/enjoy going to. One flower in this dusty dessert has been The Watering Hole, an absolutely tranquil spot about 4 blocks away from our house, on the Karanga river. It's owned by a German family in the area and has been run by a couple of Swedes for the past year. We've spent our fair share of time there this year. Every sunday they show movies on a big screen that we rarely miss.
Sadly, we received an email a couple months ago, letting us know that our little oasis was closing up because the managers were heading back home. We, like many of the regulars, were crestfallen. Libby and I passed along the news of an opening for a manager to a few people would jump at the opportunity. Last week, Libby had a new idea - she'd like to run it.
Starting in the middle of January, Libby will be running the coolest bar in Moshi. She's got lots of great ideas for the place - a new menu, new drinks, new hours. Here's a few photos I took on Saturday night:
The bar is on a large compound shared by a hunting company (also owned by the Germans). This is the entrance way into the bar.
This is the stairway down from the main bar area, which leads to the outdoor seating and restrooms. The canoes (hanging from the bar's ceiling) are very old hand-carved canoes from Lake Victoria.
The walkway leading to the restrooms and outdoor seating. It's just a gorgeous place. Add to that the sounds of the Karanga river and the place is just sublime. Libby telling her folks the news of her new job.
Libby in front of some dead animals.
Libby behind the bar at the Watering Hole.
More info to come soon, I'm sure...
Last Thursday I turned 29. To make the most of this landmark occasion Joe and I celebrated all week long. Starting on Tuesday, we had a group of friends over for a Japan-style party. We had brought some Japanese treats back from the States with us. I spent all day preparing the food- we had miso soup, rice balls, roll-your-own veggie sushi, teriyaki chicken, soba noodles, ginger and mint iced green tea, sugar coated sweet potatoes, Pocky, pineapple and watermelon. What a feast!
We took the table top off of our dining room table and placed it on the living room floor. We set the couch cushions on the floor around it to make things authentic. It was so much fun sharing some of our favorite foods with our friends.
Joe and I have been slowly setting up one of our spare rooms as a yoga/relaxation room. We recently got a carpet and some floor pillows for it. Having known this, Danielle, Laura and Malte (three of the Amani volunteers) brought me a plethora of presents to complete the room. Five potted house plants, two beautiful wall hangings, and two decoupage candle holders! It was super thoughtful and just what I wanted.
Wednesday evening the festivities continued. Joe had arranged for us to have dinner at the Watering Hole (our favorite bar which happens to be a five minute walk from home) followed by a special screening of a movie just for us (they have a projector and big outdoor screen)! We had a fantastic barbecue meal with our favorite group of Amani volunteers. Then we settled in to watch Hitchcock’s North by Northwest on the big screen! Midway through Matthew and Valerie arrived, bearing a pan of brownies lit with birthday candles! Plus I got to keep the pan as my birthday gift!
Thursday morning Joe told me I wasn’t to go to work and that someone would be picking me up at 9am. Before he and James (Amani volunteer who is also our new roommate) headed off to work James gave me a bottle of gin and a guns ‘n’ roses T-shirt, both always good to have!
At 9am our friend Jenn arrived in her Landrover. Despite Joe’s secrecy I had a pretty good idea of where we were headed (there are only so many things to do in Moshi!). She confirmed my suspicions by telling me that we were going to the TCP sugar plantation where a lovely woman named Caroline lives and does massages at her home. It was a beautiful drive into the plains through sugarcane fields and when we arrived at the house I could have sworn we were in different country (South Africa to be exact, where the house had come from!). I went first and thoroughly enjoyed a fantastic massage with tree-scented aromatherapy oils. Afterwards while Jenn was getting hers, I went for a swim. It was a truly relaxing and beautiful experience.
That night Joe made us a spaghetti dinner. We shared a bottle of wine and watched a movie. And he gave me a muffin tin! (You have no idea how much I’ve been wanting one.) Quiet night in to continue the relaxation theme.
Friday is my usual day off so I went into town to use the internet and spent the rest of the day doing word puzzles (a new Games Magazine arrived from my mom, appropriately, the day before) and working my way through Atlas Shrugged. The instructions for the day were to pack for an overnight stay and be ready and dressed up at 4:30.
He arrived after work in Matthew and Valerie’s car (thank you, guys!) and we headed off into the sunset towards Arusha. Our destination was a beautiful lodge set in a coffee plantation just outside of Arusha.
The plan was to check in and then head to a different nearby restaurant for dinner. But upon arrival we were so impressed by the relaxed atmosphere at the guest house we decided to stay there for dinner too. The setting was amazing. The grounds were huge, with a large lawn and swimming pool surrounded by winding paths through flower gardens leading to individual cottages. It was a shame we were only staying one night.
In the morning we enjoyed a very generous buffet breakfast and then took a walk on a path through the property. It was still quite early and we weren’t ready to go home yet so we headed into Arusha to do some shopping and other important things like eat ice cream.
Although this was the official end of my birthday celebrations, it kind of felt like it continued on through the weekend with macaroni and cheese and poker Saturday night and swimming and Trivial Pursuit on Sunday!
So yeah, I totally am spoiled. It was a fantastic week and thank you so much to everyone who had a part in it! Particularly to my awesome husband :)!
On Monday I submitted my final essay for the final course in my master's degree program. The course was titled Globalization and the North-South Relationship and dealt primarily with Industrialized nations' trade, aid and military relationships with sub-Saharan Africa.
While studying as an external student in Tanzania has been challenging (the library in Moshi can't quite match the millions of books and articles found in the library on campus), I did have the advantage of perspective, living and working in a sub-Saharan African country.
My final essay analyzed the impact of Tanzania's relationship with the World Bank, which claims to be the world's largest development organization. The World Bank requires that countries receiving their low-interest loans accept structural changes to their economic, social and political systems. These changes are intended to improve the gross domestic product of countries, but often have deleterious effects on countries by abolishing minimum wage requirements and making governments charge for water, education and health care. The fact that those most often benefiting from the World Bank's structural adjustments have been large international corporations has been noted since the early eighties.
Tanzania ranks 159th (just above Guinea and below Nigeria) on the UNDP's Human Development Index, which ranks countries on human development indicators, such as life expectancy (51), access to sanitary drinking water (47% of the population) and gross domestic product per capita ($744).
My grades will be submitted on December 19th and barring any unforeseen problems, I'll receive my master's degree in International relations then.
If anyone is interested in reading my final essay about Tanzania and the World Bank, you can download it here:
Download IRPG855-03-41085442.doc
My research for this essay was stolen with our computers, external hard drive and flash discs. I had to re-download and re-read many of the articles I used in my analysis. Luckily, I was able to finish without attempting to gain an extension for the assignment. I'm so happy to be finished. Juggling a job full-time and a graduate level course was almost overwhelming. I'm breathing easier these days - just in time for Libby's birthday next week (20 November)!
