Let The Rains Begin!

It's officially been two weeks since I arrived in Tanzania and I'm pretty settled in now. Part of me feels like I've been here for months and the other part knows full well that I don't know anything. I'm going to take pictures around the city this afternoon... I know I've said this before, but my camera is kind of obvious and I'd rather not show it off. I think I'm just going to hop on a dala-dala and hope it's not full so I can take some pictures out the window.

I guess I should elaborate on the dala-dalas. They are Tanzania's version of the "shared taxis" that are found in most developing countries. They cost about 500 Tanzanian shillings (less than 50 cents) vs. a regular taxi that costs about 5,000Tsh. Dala-dalas are basically these vans that have a few rows of very small seats and could probably fit about 15 people at max comfortably. Anyway, there is a man that hangs out the sliding door to spot people that need a lift and then he stuffs as many people as possible in the dala-dala and collect their money. Now dala-dalas have no clear routes. They have them, but there are no signs. They aren't marked in any way that would tell you where it was going so it's always an adventure, because you never know for sure which one you should take. Oh, they're also covered with pictures of Barack Obama, Bob Marley and rappers like Jay-Z and Ludacris.

I rode in one for the first time last week with my friend, Matt, who's been here for 4 months and his first comment was "Wow! This one's not too full." There were 32 people in the dala-dala (I counted) and we had to stand on the side hunched over, looking down on the people sitting below us. Now, I'm sure you'd think that any sane person would say they'd just pay the 4 extra bucks for a regular taxi, but I really love the dala-dalas.

We rode one to Makumira University this week for a music class. The dala-dala stop was a few minutes walk from The Center (where I take classes) in the opposite direction than we usually travel. We were followed by a crowd of children smiling and waving at us. I'm really not sure if they'd ever seen this many white people walking together, but regardless, they thought it was very entertaining. Don't get me wrong, it's not just children that are entertained by us. Alainna and I were walking home from the Center last weekend and we were serenaded twice as we walked down the street by random men saying "whitey-people! whitey-people!" in a sing-songy voice. They just thought we were so funny so they stood up and did a little jig as we kept walking. Anyway, back to the dala-dala. We hop in (very snugly) and this man walks up to the sliding door and pulls out his phone and starts taking our picture! Now, it's not like people here have never seen white people. There's loads of tourists here, but they never ride on dala-dalas so I think we were just a sight to see.

We made it to Makumira for our music class. I'm not actually enrolled in this class, but the professor allowed a few of us to come and learn about traditional African music. I learned drum beats and learned how to play the amadinda (like a giant xylophone) and had so much fun. It started pouring while we were in class for the first time since I got here. Let the rains begin! It has rained every day since then and I still love it. It smells so fresh and it's so cool that the sun shines while it's raining so there's usually a giant rainbow after. Amazing!

I also went to a dance class this week. Our teacher, Tina, is from Madagascar and seriously looked, sounded and acted like she came from some sort of magical land where she lived in a tree. She would explain the steps and instead of asking us if we had any questions she would say "yes yes yes no yes yes yes?" very quickly and scurry off to turn on the music. Our class was outside on a covered patio at sunset and we did all sorts of dancing from traditional African moves to yoga-esque to some distant relative of the electric slide. Anyway, we had a great time and met some new people, which is always nice.

The night life here is very exciting, but it’s unfortunate that we have to take a taxi anywhere after 6:30 which leaves us in our hotel "compound" on most week nights. Matt took us out last weekend to this place called Via Via on Thursday night and then to this place called Maasai Camp on Saturday and we had a great time, though some of our group had a bit too much fun. Anyway, Matt went back to England yesterday so we're on our own exploring the rest of the nightlife that Arusha has to offer (and daytime stuff too, for that matter). I'm sure we'll figure it out. We have so far, as everyone is so nice and helpful here. One of the guys in my program, Josh, has befriended this Tanzanian named John who wants to take us to a waterfall on the side of Mt. Meru tomorrow. It's an 8 mile hike there, so it should be interesting but I'm just glad to be getting out and seeing the beautiful landscape that surrounds Arusha.