Time in Tanzania

Weather: Arid yet Hot, I am in Dodoma, TZ an "arid disconsolately nowhere" and capital of TZ

Swahili Word of the Week: Kiti Moto: Pork, direct translation of fire chair. "Why?" I asked my Mwalimu (teacher). Because the meat is so good that you keep jumping from your chair to grab some more, like the chair is on fire...

Special Shout Out: Happy Birthday Maggie!!!

TIME

Time has been an interesting concept for me this week, especially because I am not a time conscious person. I always try to cram too much stuff in a day, or an hour and I never seem to be on time, it is a battle in my life (shown by the many flights I have missed). I feel like its opposite week as time seems to be on my hands indicated by many occurrences throughout the week.

In Tanzania time is just complicated, pure and simple. We'll start with the concept of "swahili time". Swahili time is from dawn to dusk, so 6am is when the day begins and 6pm is when the days ends. So if you wake up at 7am, you are actually waking up at 1, 8am is 2 etc! Take this concept and then add in trying to say it in swahili while doing mental calculations on what time it is "swahili time" and you can see why I get flustered. My mwalimu simply says Hakuna Matata...Hah.

I obviously had not made a complete fool of myself at the Kitchen Party on Saturday night, as I got invited to the Send Off party on Thursday. This had promises of being bigger, grander and inclusive of men so I was excited, and yes got a new dress made to match the silver and red theme! I was prewarned at the kitchen party to not arrive on time. The party was supposed to start at 4pm and I showed up at 530 and was probably one of the first 5 people there out of 150. So, I thought, I will not make that charlatan mistake again. The send off was supposed to start at 6pm. At 6pm I was still playing tennis made it home by 7, taxi at 8pm and arrived at the send off by 830. I was literally the first guest, they were doing sound checks and the lights were off. I ordered myself a Tusker and laughed at myself. The send off was great, again lots of dancing, including a traditional Rwandan tribe who did Kupiga Vigeregere-the high wail with a reverberating tongue, if that doesn't get a send off party going, I don't know what does. Late morning in the office after too much Tanzanian Wine (did you know they had vineyards here, I didn't...) and then off to Dodoma on Sunday which rounds out the blog of the week.

We were heading to Dodoma for a curriculum forum and to do some site visits of a university and a lab. In my invite letter I was told the bus was leaving at 730 am and to "please keep my time." I was a little perplexed at what time I should actually show up, considering my experiences the previous week. I decided to play it safe and show up at 730, I was the first but not by much and soon everyone was there and we began the long (8.5 hours) bus ride to the middle of nowhere. As our bus tootled out of Dar, one of the Deans stated Muwa mua Muzungu, Asante Sana. I was told it translated to Thank you all for acting like a white person, ie she was thanking everyone for showing up on time for the bus (I guess that's what Muzungus are known for).

Work is good, making great progress. Doing some site visits tomorrow. Mum arrives Thursday and we are off on some adventures.