Miscellaneous Tanzania

An African Funeral

Getting ready for the ceremony

Sadly, the grandfather of my friend and roommate died this past week in a village about 2 hours from Arusha.  The funeral was Thursday, and my friend invited me to attend with him, as he thought it would be good for me to experience an African funeral.  I must admit that considering this was going to be a traditional African funeral held in a very small and rural village, I was expecting some unique tribal rituals or songs and dances or something.  But it was a pretty traditional Christian funeral, almost the same as the two I’ve been to in the United States.  I even recognized several of the hymns, including a few of my favorites How Great Thou Art (sung is Swahili) and Blessed Assurance (sung in English).  The minister gave a very passionate message, which I couldn’t understand since it was spoken in Swahili and Chaga, the local language.  But I’m sure it was nice because people were smiling, laughing, and occasionally calling out responses. 

Burial in the Banana Trees

There were a few differences, however.  First, the ceremony was held outside in the yard of their home among lots of banana trees, the main source of income and food for the village.  Second, he was buried not in a church cemetery, but just a few yards from the home next to other family members who had gone on before him.  The actually mixed up cement and buried the casket during the funeral while a choir sang what seemed like traditional songs in Swahili and Chaga.  Finally, family members put wreaths and flowers on top of the grave, and continued back to the house for a delicious meal.  It seemed like nearly the entire village was in attendance, and there was enough food for everyone with some the spare!  I felt a little awkward taking pictures, but I did manage to snap a few with the permission and encouragement of my roommate.   

Biking for Tanzania

Last night, I attended a presentation by a man named Elvis from Arusha.  He is an avid biker, and he spoke about his recent bike trip from Cairo to Cape Town for the Tour de Afrique and also about his next bike trip, Chile to Kili, where he plans to bike around the world to raise money for schools in Tanzania and also for the Conservation Resource Center.  I think it is such a cool idea, and I am kind of jealous!  If you want more information, you can check out his website at www.chiletokili.com.

Six dollars of produce

The Market

Grocery shopping is always an interesting experience here in Arusha.  I typically like to get most of my things at the ShopRite because it is a “normal” grocery story with items marked with prices.  However, for produce, the best place to go is definitely the market!  However, to get the best prices, a white girl like myself cannot go alone.  At the market, along with many other places in Arusha, there is a local price and a mzungu (white person) price.  So I usually try to make sure my roommate is with me for all produce shopping!  It is shocking to me how cheap produce is, compared with how expensive other things are.  As you can see in the photo, we bought all of this produce for $6!!  However, gas here is about as expensive as it is in the US, which is crazy when you think of the standard of living here compared with the US.  And I went to the grocery story last night and bought two small bags of miniature candy bars and toilet paper, and paid almost $20!!  I suppose it is good for me that produce is so cheap and candy is so expensive!  Unlike Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat Pray Love I am definitely not gaining any weight here!!  If anything, I’ll need to buy smaller clothes.

Laundry

Well, I am becoming quite an expert on washing my own clothes.  Yesterday, I noticed that I was down to my last pair of clean underwear, so it was necessary to wash clothes again today (underwear is now about the only thing that I won’t wear multiple times).  I went through my rather large pile of previously worn clothes (I don’t call them dirty clothes anymore because that would imply that they need washing, when many of them simply don’t!) and smelled each individual item to determine if it really needed washing or not.  And I didn’t even consider washing the pants, those are totally fine for another two weeks (possibly another six weeks!).  I ended up folding about 2/3 of the clothes and putting them back into my suitcase and only washed a very manageable load of mostly underwear and a few t-shirts and tank tops J