Outside Arusha

So, I'm in Arusha, Tanzania and it's pretty crazy. Everything actually, though totally foriegn to me seems rather normal, I'm not sure whether it's because I studied it all so long or my mind is just asuming this is all a dream. I felt simalarly while at sea and upon returning the memories are all a bit fantastic and surreal. Tanzania is sort of everything and nothing I expected at the same time.

I've just now gotten back from a village a couple hours outside of Arusha where they were holding a village meeting to discuss female genital mutilation. The NGO I'm here with, Aang Serian ("Peace Village" in Kimaasai), has been organizing these meetings and having other Maasai women come and talk about reasons why they shouldn't do the female circumcision anymore. It's really interesting because the maassai women are able to talk about it terms the other women understand and as a result they agreed to give it up! It's so much more effective than a bunch of white people going in there and saying you have to stop doing this it's barbaric. It was quite a powerful thing to witness and not something most people could ever see. There was a group of Women from another village who had come dressed in the full ceremonial regalia singing a song they had made up to teach about FGM and AIDS. When we first arrived we were greeted by about 200 small children who sang us all these call and response songs and it was about the cutest thing I'd ever seen. The women's singing and dancing was beautiful too and I can't really believe I've just seen it all. When we were leaving the dancers sort of surrounded us and were dancing and singing a different song and shaking our hands. I wish I could understand what they were saying but I was touched nontheless. It's also nice to be invited there and with a group who does understand because I hear that at the tourist Boma's ("homesteads") the "Maasai" will perform these "traditional" dances where they're singing "welcome tourists give us your money".

We've done dance and drumming lessons, visited the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and watched a bit of one of the cases, visited a bunch of other local non profit NGO's, and toured Arusha's various markets and sights quite extensively now. The house we are staying in is in the style of a traditional Maasai mut hut and as a result is rather like sleeping in a cave, it's very cold, damp and the walls are actually moldy but the experience is great and I'm enjoying myself immensely nontheless.

Come Monday we're heading out on our first official field trip (the visit to the village today was last minute) and we'll be going to a Chagga Agriculturalist village called Machame. We'll be having a couple of other village field trips and at the end a two day safari to Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti nat'l Park to the see the expected lions, elephants, zebra's and wildebeast and whatnot. The food is amazing, and a little like Costa Rica actually because they grow a lot of the same things, no doubt thanks to the colonial occupation. Really only Lionel will understand what I mean about the food. Suffice it to say it's very tasty, lot's of fresh fruit and rice and beans. The other 9 girls in the program are all English except for one from Japan who studies in Vancouver so I think my vocabulary is changing and I'm developing a bit of an English accent. Something I'll try to solidify when I spend the week in England.

In any case, I'm alive and well fed and I miss you all. I'm also surprised the internet has been so obliging so I'll have to quit now while I'm ahead. Please do email me back if you like the computer is at the house so when it is working I can check the email quite easily. If you want anything Tanzanian let me know because it's all rediculously cheap once you've honed your bargaining skills which I;m definately improving at. See you all in August, hope to hear from you sooner. Cheers!

Morgan