When I first arrived in Arusha, I was sharing my house with Laura and Michael. They had arrived in Tanzania a week and a half before me. Laura worked in D-Lab at MIT, so I got to know her pretty well my senior year. Michael joined D-Lab after I left MIT, but we had a lot of friends in common.
My first interaction with Michael was in the barber shop right outside our house. A lot of the kids in the area were calling him Bruce Lee (he is Asian and a lot of the kids like kung-fu movies and don't have a whole lot of other exposure to Asians), so he was going for a new look. They convinced the barber to let Laura use the shaver in order to get the look right. When I came back twenty minutes later, I was pretty sure that he wouldn't be called Bruce Lee anymore. He was sporting a huge mohawk. For the rest of his time in Tanzania, people were calling him Jogoo (kiswahili for rooster). He definitely embraced the name.
Laura and Michael really helped me get settled in the house. They got along with Mike and Mass really well, which helped me feel more comfortable. They managed the kitchen really well (kept it stocked and organized, washed dishes, prepared meals) and didn't complain about my experimental cooking ventures (I still need a bit more practice). They were also much better at keeping the house clean than I (Michael is a squeegee-wizard). Most importantly, we could hang out and talk late at night, which I didn't get to do very often last year.
They also worked really hard while they were here. It was always funny to listen to them as their brains were whirring. More importantly, they were very adventurous, so their presence definitely helped whether we were going to a club or going on a massive hike (I'll talk more about this soon too). They helped us with driving the pick-up (an old truck with the gearshift on the other side was an adventure to learn), they prepared lots of amazing vegan meals, and we could stay up and have really intense games of Taboo.
Now, Laura is back in UAE where she is working on her masters and Michael is back at Tufts finishing up his last year. I wish them both the best of luck and hope I get to see them both soon. I'm going to add Laura's blog to my sidebar soon.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Mike and Mass (a.k.a. the B-Boys)
I live in a quiet area of Arusha up on one of the hills. The building where I stay is divided into three small houses. Our next door neighbors are some of the coolest people that I have ever met.
Mike and Mass are both 24 and they are professional break-dancers in a group called Contagious. I've seen their group live and it's a pretty amazing show. They mostly perform in Arusha, but they have a good reputation and are sometimes invited to other parts of Tanzania for big shows.
They keep incredibly different hours from us. On Saturday, we can hear them waking up around midnight and heading out to the club (there's a pretty nice club right at the bottom of our hill) and then coming back around sunrise. They always say they are going out to "church" and if the music is no good, they complain about the "pastor".
They are way serious about what they do and spend hours exercising and practicing everyday. Sometimes they even do crazy stretches on our porch. They don't use any drugs or drink or smoke. Their show is break-dancing, but I've also seen them fire-dance and I'm pretty sure that they can do some ridiculous gymnastics too.
They hang out at our house if they are awake at the same time as us. They speak really good English (not always the case in Tanzania) but they also let us work on our Kiswahili with them and they help us a bit and ask us for help with their English. Their house doesn't have electricity (that'll probably be fixed soon), so they come over to charge phones and iPods and sometimes they bring food for us or they'll help us finish the extra food that we've made.
They sometimes buy movies from street vendors and we all watch them over here. One time they were watching a kung-fu film (Heroes Shed No Tears) and some of the neighbor hood children came over to watch too. All of a sudden, there was a sex scene in the movie and we all frantically tried to fast-forward. Let's just hope this hasn't gotten us in trouble with the neighborhood parents.
Mike and Mass are both 24 and they are professional break-dancers in a group called Contagious. I've seen their group live and it's a pretty amazing show. They mostly perform in Arusha, but they have a good reputation and are sometimes invited to other parts of Tanzania for big shows.
They keep incredibly different hours from us. On Saturday, we can hear them waking up around midnight and heading out to the club (there's a pretty nice club right at the bottom of our hill) and then coming back around sunrise. They always say they are going out to "church" and if the music is no good, they complain about the "pastor".
They are way serious about what they do and spend hours exercising and practicing everyday. Sometimes they even do crazy stretches on our porch. They don't use any drugs or drink or smoke. Their show is break-dancing, but I've also seen them fire-dance and I'm pretty sure that they can do some ridiculous gymnastics too.
They hang out at our house if they are awake at the same time as us. They speak really good English (not always the case in Tanzania) but they also let us work on our Kiswahili with them and they help us a bit and ask us for help with their English. Their house doesn't have electricity (that'll probably be fixed soon), so they come over to charge phones and iPods and sometimes they bring food for us or they'll help us finish the extra food that we've made.
They sometimes buy movies from street vendors and we all watch them over here. One time they were watching a kung-fu film (Heroes Shed No Tears) and some of the neighbor hood children came over to watch too. All of a sudden, there was a sex scene in the movie and we all frantically tried to fast-forward. Let's just hope this hasn't gotten us in trouble with the neighborhood parents.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Yesterday was awesome
Yesterday was a big day here in Tanzania. It was my friend Jodie's birthday, it's Michael and Laura's last day over here (I'll write more about them soon, but they really helped me get settled here) and it was the last binary day (1/11/10) for almost nine months (I was not the one who made this observation).
The morning was a standard day of trying to be productive (I would even say I was pretty successful in those efforts). Then in the afternoon I had a lot of small errands, most of which involved procuring food items for the dinner party (Laura and Michael sent me to a really cool spice store which is probably my new favorite place in town). As is always the case, errands took a lot longer than I hoped (shops closed for lunch, me trying to find places with correct prices, etc). The most entertaining part was definitely my endeavors to get business cards for a colleague. Apparently the place I went to has a little trouble cutting their business cards all the same size. We all had a pretty good laugh over the final product (all perfectly readable and everything, just a bit odd with the variety of sizes and shapes).
I got home at the same time as Michael, Laura and Jodie, so three of us set to cooking while we left the birthday girl to play with her new soccer ball (that attracted a lot of neighborhood kids). We made a big pot of guacamole and beans and tried a mango salsa recipe from my Peace Corps cookbook. The salsa recipe was supposed to be Mexican, but our modifications (didn't have the exact spices and Michael modified some proportions) definitely made it Indian. While Michael and Laura worked on that, I set to work on desserts. I made some banana bread the other day, so I was feeling pretty confident that I could pull that one off under these conditions (no measuring devices, cooking on a stove top and one or two missing ingredients). I was pretty happy with how well it came out (and surprised that maybe I've finally developed the ability to estimate). The next challenge was the brownies, which I haven't made over here. Also, Laura is a vegan, so I wanted to make a dessert she could eat (banana bread has eggs). This was my first time making brownies from scratch, there were still no measuring devices and I was trying a bold experiment (substituting bananas for eggs in the recipe). Calling them delicious would be far too charitable, but I certainly wasn't the only one who enjoyed eating them (texture wasn't quite right, but at least they were extra chocolate-y).
We invited the neighbors (super-awesome people, more info on them coming soon too) over and had a very festive dinner. Jodie brought home a case of soda for the party (I think my soda addiction may be claiming a new victim). Well, after we ate too many chapati burritos and sang to Jodie and ate dessert, all that was left was the entertainment. Michael and Laura are both fire-dancers, so they pulled out their kit and lit up. They put on a pretty good show. Then our neighbors asked if they could give it a try (they are professional performers). Michael and Laura were skeptical at first, but then the neighbors showed using unlit wicks that they knew what they were doing. So after a pretty sweet act from them, I asked if I could give them a go. Thanks to a wonderful sister and cousin (love you, Ade and Suzanne) I had learned a few basic maneuvers. I never actually mentioned that this was my first time doing this with fire. Oh well, no one seemed to notice. I didn't light myself on fire and the consensus seemed to be that it was not bad for a novice. I'll definitely take it.
I know, I know, I'm missing a lot of the meat of my life over the past month. Know that I'm really busy, but healthy and absolutely missing my new life, and I'm hoping to pick this back up real soon.
The morning was a standard day of trying to be productive (I would even say I was pretty successful in those efforts). Then in the afternoon I had a lot of small errands, most of which involved procuring food items for the dinner party (Laura and Michael sent me to a really cool spice store which is probably my new favorite place in town). As is always the case, errands took a lot longer than I hoped (shops closed for lunch, me trying to find places with correct prices, etc). The most entertaining part was definitely my endeavors to get business cards for a colleague. Apparently the place I went to has a little trouble cutting their business cards all the same size. We all had a pretty good laugh over the final product (all perfectly readable and everything, just a bit odd with the variety of sizes and shapes).
I got home at the same time as Michael, Laura and Jodie, so three of us set to cooking while we left the birthday girl to play with her new soccer ball (that attracted a lot of neighborhood kids). We made a big pot of guacamole and beans and tried a mango salsa recipe from my Peace Corps cookbook. The salsa recipe was supposed to be Mexican, but our modifications (didn't have the exact spices and Michael modified some proportions) definitely made it Indian. While Michael and Laura worked on that, I set to work on desserts. I made some banana bread the other day, so I was feeling pretty confident that I could pull that one off under these conditions (no measuring devices, cooking on a stove top and one or two missing ingredients). I was pretty happy with how well it came out (and surprised that maybe I've finally developed the ability to estimate). The next challenge was the brownies, which I haven't made over here. Also, Laura is a vegan, so I wanted to make a dessert she could eat (banana bread has eggs). This was my first time making brownies from scratch, there were still no measuring devices and I was trying a bold experiment (substituting bananas for eggs in the recipe). Calling them delicious would be far too charitable, but I certainly wasn't the only one who enjoyed eating them (texture wasn't quite right, but at least they were extra chocolate-y).
We invited the neighbors (super-awesome people, more info on them coming soon too) over and had a very festive dinner. Jodie brought home a case of soda for the party (I think my soda addiction may be claiming a new victim). Well, after we ate too many chapati burritos and sang to Jodie and ate dessert, all that was left was the entertainment. Michael and Laura are both fire-dancers, so they pulled out their kit and lit up. They put on a pretty good show. Then our neighbors asked if they could give it a try (they are professional performers). Michael and Laura were skeptical at first, but then the neighbors showed using unlit wicks that they knew what they were doing. So after a pretty sweet act from them, I asked if I could give them a go. Thanks to a wonderful sister and cousin (love you, Ade and Suzanne) I had learned a few basic maneuvers. I never actually mentioned that this was my first time doing this with fire. Oh well, no one seemed to notice. I didn't light myself on fire and the consensus seemed to be that it was not bad for a novice. I'll definitely take it.
I know, I know, I'm missing a lot of the meat of my life over the past month. Know that I'm really busy, but healthy and absolutely missing my new life, and I'm hoping to pick this back up real soon.
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