First Thoughts from TZ - 07 Agosti 2001

[These comments are the original from my journal of the trip. I'm going through my thoughts 6 years ago and evaluating them in light of knowledge I have gained since this trip.]

It appears that life would be better if things had been left as Nyerere had had them. Ethnic splits, class divides, everything like that has gotten so much worse. I guess with the debt of the nation and the way the IMF and World Bank controlled things they had to change. Money sucks. [Tanzania, at the end of the period of direct colonial control, was run by a man named Julius Nyerere. He organized a program called Ujema (familyhood). This was essentially a socialist/collective effort at development. However, due to the erroneous debt left from colonialism international policies forced Tanzania to switch to cash crops. This resulted in much more social divisions as well as economic hardships and starvation. For more information on Nyerere see here]

I'm surprised by how much the Arusha area reminds me of Mexico. The wealth level appears similar. The houses look a little nicer and things are much more spread apart. The people treat Americans similarly as well. The wealth is recognized but people are friendly. [Up until this point in my life the only time I have been somewhere where there was poverty was on church trips to build houses in Mexico. While I guess it is natural to compare places, it seems to me that I was kind of romanticizing poverty. I do it a lot more later. Below is a photograph of Tijuana and Arusha].




Driving to Arusha today was very interesting. It is very disappointing to me that the commercial aspects of the US spread so much. Billboards and slogans are all over the place. I was also surprised at the lack of creative use of waste. In Tijuana people used garbage for everything. (We should all be so resourceful). Here I saw a tire as a plant holder, but that was really it. [Here again, romanticizing poverty. I don’t even think I need to explain it further, it is pretty obvious. The other interesting thing is that I don’t seem to make the connection between globalization/WTO/etc and the spread of American media].

Food here is really good. Combinations such as carrots and corn are things that are really delicious. [I have no idea what I was talking about here].

Dancing was really really fun. it is so amazing that so many people share something like that. In the US we tend to share fastfood/television/music/movies. The dancing was wonderful. I find that I'm not very coordinated though. [Here too, I do some exoticing...]

After dancing I played soccer with some of the Tanzanian and visiting boys. It was a lot of fun. They were really nice to me and only laughed a little when I messed up. They passed me the ball and encouraged me even more than people tend to at home. It was really neat to play even without the same language. It is also very frustrating. I can't wait to be able to communicate better. I'm trying. Soccer reminded me a lot of playing it in Mexico, especially with the language barrier. [Here too. Notice that I seem to expect that people in Tanzania would be somehow different then me. There seems to be surprise that everyone was kind and encouraging. There is also a lot of 'they' which indicates a possible difference (us vs them)].

Email Home from TZ

OK guys - so I'm in Africa. Sorry Jojo, its nothing like the rugby pitch at school, you were wrong. So, let me tell you what I've done, and then you guys can write back and tell me what you've been up to, and then I'll be happy and I'll keep writing.
I've only been here for one full day. The plane ride was really long. The people I'm with are super nice there are four boys and four girls. Everyone gets along pretty well.

Let me tell you about the animals I saw. First of all, there are these monkeys. The boys have blue genitals. Jojo, maybe you would want to invest it that, or Dusty: that seems something you would like. The girl monkeys really go for it.

There are also these animals, they call them bush babies, that live in trees. I guess they resemble koala bears, but they scream at night. Sometimes I guess they drink palm wine and get drunk and fall out of trees.

We got to learn some Tanzanian dancing yesterday, so that was fun. I'm pretty uncoordinated. Then, I played soccer with two of the american guys and a bunch of Tanzanian kids. I was pretty bad, but they were really nice to me. I really wish I could speak swahili now, its so hard to communicate. (A lot of people do speak english though.)

We also went into town, Arusha. Arusha is a lot like Tijuania in Mexico, with people on the streets selling things. They tell me that this is the only place like that inTtanzania, because Arusha is a touristy place. I can see mount kilimanjaro and mount mero from here.

The weather is quite cool because we are at a high elevation, and there are very few insects. I guess that will change when we go to dar es salaam as well.

Today we will be visiting a school and shopping in town. Tomorrow we are visiting a cocoa farm and a women's shelter type thing. So that stuff should be fun as well.

Today is farmers day. So things are really relaxed, its a pretty big holiday.

Thats really all i know right now. I hope you guys are having a great summer, and I can't wait to see you or at least hear from you all.

miss you guys,

krissy