| the old pond / frog jumps in / plop! – Matsuo |
In the spring of 2012 I spent a life changing semester in Tanzania, studying ecology and human origins. We explored mountains, walked the paths of the cradle of humanity in the Great Rift Valley, and ate all kinds of good shit.
My girlfriend at the time gave me the perfect gift: a journal! I never had one before and kind of went crazy with it. I used it to chronicle almost every day of my life in Tanzania. That hemorrhagic spewing led to a 65 story blog, all of which is now consolidated here
Some of my best writing from this youthful time:
The Footprints of History, The Mountain of God, Cooking Maasai Food with Maasai People, Animals in a Boma, Giraffe Hunt and Goat Slaughter, Maasai Greetings and Stories, Goat Races and Bob, ‘Kilimanjaro’ and the Fish Market.
Below is the journey in reverse chronological order. Enjoy!
Well I just finished up another week of classes! It was my last week of hardcore Kiswahili, much to my relief. I’ve learned a lot of the language but spending so much time studying it in class compiled with constant attempts at speaking it with people (not to mention the amount of time spent each…
This past weekend was full of rest, history, exploration, and much picture taking! We travelled via dala-dala up to Bagamoyo, about two hours up the coast from Dar. It is a famously historic town in East Africa because it was a hub for the slave trade. Traders would bring their captured slaves here before Indians…
Yesterday we had another Kiswahili test (every Friday) and it was by far the toughest one yet! Oh well. I’m not really worried about any of my classes… I’ll be alright. Nothing else really happened yesterday that is of note. I went to Mlimani City to exchange another 150$ for shillings with Jake and Bob,…
So yesterday, during Kiswahili class, I performed a song (in Kiswahili) for everybody! Our teacher, Daktari Mtembo, commissioned me last week to write a melody for the song written on page 78 of our Kiswahili course book. It was really well received! He took a video of it and said he was going to put…
This last weekend was pretty great, full of hard work and interesting times. On Friday we went to eat as a whole group at an Ethiopian restaurant. We sat, four around a small circular table, as they brought out huge circular dishes with our meals on them. Lining the bottom of the dish was a…
Right now I am sitting on the balcony of my 6th floor dorm room, looking out at the Indian Ocean in the distance. Dar es Salaam is spread out before me, with its fish markets and street vendors near the coast. I am eating some chocolate cookies with creamed centers. They are called “Crembia: Chocolate…