Maji, Chakula na Kazi

(Water, Food and Work)

My taps have been dry for about a week and a half now (I honestly come home, turn on the taps, and stand there being depressed by the thought of the long stretch of pipes with no water in them). I don't know Dar es Salaam's water system, if most of it comes from the rain, or a river, or is desalinized from ocean water (water water everywhere...). Apparently the whole city is having shortage problems. I think it's just following me. Other people didn't seem to have problems, while I did for a week, then I went to the Slipway and that day there was no water, then I go to the mall to use their washroom and they're out of water too. I'm moving at the end of the week, and mark my words, their taps will go dry conveniently as I show up. 

Well, I've gotten used to washing my hands, doing dishes, and bathing my self using a cup and a bucket of water (though the tank I scoop the bucket up from is nearly empty, hmmm....). Kai's family has their own tank which apparently has more. It turns out you can do these chores with much less water than you'd normally use. I can fully wash my hands with less than 1 cup of water. The real water waster is flushing the toilet - it takes up the whole bucket of water. But you can't skimp on toilet flushing, for sanitary reasons involving fruit flies (though you can go to the bathroom less).

Partly because I'm lazy and partly because I wasn't sure how to wash dishes without tap water, i let the dishes sit for a long while and have just been eating out or skipping unimportant meals like breakfast. Though I did the dishes, tonight I didn't have much in the way of food so I decided to check out a little bar on the road near here that I pass by every day that looked like it had food. Now my host has advised me not to go out at night, but others have advised she's just being paranoid. My judgement call is to not make a habit of it but to not let it stop me from doing something. So I headed out, it's a very short walk, no problems either way. I went in and asked what food they had. They said 'chipsi na mayai' (fries and eggs). There was a carton of eggs which I assumed were hardboiled, so I asked for chips and an egg. So he throws the chips into a frying pan over a charcoal stove then cracks the uncooked egg over it, making a nice little french fry frittata! I was willing to accept this, and threw some pilipili (hot) sauce and ketchup over it. I asked the server if there was a fork I could use, she walked into a back room and honestly for at least 40 seconds straight all i could hear was clanging and crashing and things falling and clunking against eachother then she walked and said there was no fork, so I grabbed a spoon. It was not bad, and I washed it down with a small Serrengeti beer. There were some guys playing pool who I was tempted to challenge to a game (as I was reccomended to do) but I wasn't feeling it.

Today I had my first interview with a civil society organization, which maybe I'll only talk about briefly. The funny thing was that I called at 10am this morning and asked for an appointment for sometime before Christmas. He director of the organization asked me if I could come in immediately, as he was leaving for Dodoma (out of town) at noon. So I threw on my clothes, gathered the questionnaire and recorder, and speed walked to the mall to catch a taxi. Something you should know about Dar es Salaam is that most locations only loosely have an address. The listing for this oganizations said the block #, which I'm not sure how to find, but it said it was opposite a certain market. So I told the cab driver which market, he said fine, 10,000 shillings, and we took off. About 2/3rds of the way there he stops and asks someone else where this market is. So we got there and I was able to call and get pulled into the organization's office. 

The interview went well, I got lots of information and was able to speak with the director and with other employees of the organization. I have a questionnaire with about 40 questions on it, and it's very hard to give the questionnaire in the form of a survey. They aren't yes or no questions, so if you ask something the interviewee might launch into a big answer which ends up answering other questions. Because it's more of a dialogue, you don't want to tire the interviewee by recovering ground. Anyway it went very well for a first try, and I will hopefully learn each time.

Well I'm off to bed,  lala salama tout le monde!

Learning Kiswahili (plus a lesson for the grammatically curious)

Warning: this will probably only be interesting to language nerds

Having recently had a couple one-hour Kiswahili sessions with a private teacher, I have to say, at the end of a language lesson I’m left mentally exhausted, with a small headache from the sheer exertion of active listening and from the inability to form complete thoughts or sentences. A language teacher truly sees people at their most incapable: blustering with simple phrases and awkward social interactions in the target language. Communication is the fundamental way we exist in the world, and learning a new language is the purposive act of obliterating one’s ability to communicate in the world, moving back to the infant stage of communication (without the benefit of their incredible linguistic acquisition abilities) and learn not through natural repetition and observation but by memorizing lists of words on paper and codified grammatical rules.

There are many stages of language learning, depending on how you go about it. For me, the first period isn’t so painful. You can spend weeks, months, or years reading through a textbook, making word lists and flash cards, doing grammar exercises, listening to audio dialogues, doing simple back and forth conversations like ‘hello, how are you, what did you do today, I’d like some coffee please’. But eventually, you’ve learned a sufficient number of verbs, nouns, adjectives, and those crazy prepositions, conjunctions, and grammatical rules that hold them all together that you’re really on the verge of being able to communicate a practically infinite number of things by combining your knowledge of the language in different ways. This is what’s necessary to have real conversation, not just formulaic exchange. And yet, you’ve never ever had to do that! And when you try, you realize you’re missing all sorts of vocab, and grammar, and other things that you need, and you simply can’t think fast enough or remember enough of your flash cards to get out a whole sentence.

I think there’s a threshold which is a somewhat difficult one to cross, where you need to, through practice and effort, force your mind to combine all these things into something which is an integrated language and gives you the basis of fluent communication. I think of it as a basic matrix from which you can add more complexity. You can learn all sorts of words and phrases without having this dynamic matrix capable of rapidly generating communication in appropriate ways. Right now I’m somewhere in the midst of this threshold (and thus the headaches from the language sessions). I’m able to communicate in novel ways only with much effort, but as I make that effort I make progress and am able to integrate more of what I’ve learned.

I think it’s interesting that when I was learning French, by the time that I was beginning to form this sort of basic matrix of fluency I probably had a vocabulary of about 1000 words and had been working on the language for nearly 2 years. With Swahili, I’m reaching that point with only maybe only 2-300 words. This is not because Swahili is more simple or has a small vocabulary, just that I now have the capacity (and possibly confidence) to try to communicate at an earlier stage of vocab acquisition. Also, once you know some verb grammar, a single word verb can be conjugated to say a lot of different things.

So for the grammatically curious, I’ll write out a little Swahili grammar lesson, using one verb, a noun and an adjective or two, two tenses, one case, and two subjects.

Ok, let’s take a verb, let’s say, ‘to want’. Verbs don’t stand on their own like they do in English, they get conjugated with a whole slew of pieces of information (in fairly straightforward ways, unlike French). So every verb in itself is a verb root. For ‘to want’, this is: -taka

In the most basic conjugation of a verb, you have a subject, then the tense, then the verb root.

Let’s take two subjects, I and you. I is ni-(pronounced 'knee') and you is (conveniently) u-

Now lets take two tenses: present –na- and future –ta-
So already we can put these together to say a few things:

Ni – na – taka: ninataka I want
Ni – ta – taka: nitataka I will want
U – na – taka: unataka You want
U – ta – taka: utataka You will want

Now if we add a noun, let’s say… shoes. Ok, so in Swahili, nouns work in a class system. All human and most living nouns exist in one class. Everything else is split into several other classes. Shoes is in a class called the ‘ki/vi’ class, for a reason now to become apparent. Shoe is kiatu and shoes is viatu.

So put them together… Ninataka viatu – I want shoes.

Adjectives go after the noun, as they do in French (shoes red, not red shoes). Some adjectives just stand on their own, but just for fun lets choose one that doesn’t. Let’s talk about our new red shoes! New is -pya and red is –ekundu

To talk about new shoes, you have to make the adjective agree with the ki/vi class noun. A new shoe is kiatu kipya and new shoes are viatu vipya. Red, because it starts with a vowel, changes the prefix a little bit. Red shoe: Kiatu chekundu, red shoes are viatu vyekundu.

You gonna want some new red shoes???
Utataka viatu vyekundu vipya?!

I want a red shoe:
Ninataka kiatu chekundu

I should stop there, but as a bonus, how to say, I want ‘it’/I want ‘them’ (referring to the shoes). Real simple. You take the prefix (it’s actually the subject prefix not the noun prefix, but in the case of ki/vi, they’re the same), and you insert it between the tense and the verb root.

So to say I want it (the shoe), you say: Nina – ki – taka: Ninakitaka
and you will want them: Uta – vi – taka: Utavitaka

Hooked, want some homework? (Pete you’re the only one I expect to do this). The verb root for ‘to like’ is –penda, the infinitive form of ‘to eat’ is kula, and the adjective for ‘blue’ is –a buluu (it changes the ki/vi prefixes in the same way –ekundu does). The past verb tense is –li-. Now, how you do you say in Swahili: ‘I liked to eat blue shoes’ (NB. Infinitive verbs follow conjugated verbs in the same way they do in French).

It’s a neat language! And as you can see, it’s really extremely logical and straightforward once you learn the necessary elements.

Wako, Wacko

Neil

The Slipway

This, is The Slipway.

It is, as my professor put it, a 'white person paradise'. It's a clean, comfortable bastion of consumerism where everyone knows enough English to serve you. It has a pub, an Italian and a Japanese restaurant, a small deli and a small supermarket. It has a book store with mainly western books (I went in to another branch of it and asked if they had any book on Tanzania, they were unable to show me any). And of course, it has tons and tons of curios.

There's a new addition to Slipway, a curio market set up outside the main buildings, stuffed with vendors. You can find curios all over Dar es Salaam, I assume they are mainly for the benefit of tourists, though I'm unsure the extent that the local population might buy items to wear or decorate with. There's generally a wide variety of limited types of items: bracelets, necklaces, footwear, cloths, cushion covers, shirts, dresses, skirts, paintings, wooden sculptures. They're attractive because they represent what most people think of 'African culture', though I'm sure most people recogize its a highly commercialized version of it, but are willing to accept that, understanding the economic position of vendors of African culture.

What strikes me when I walk into this new Slipway market is the sheer volume of vendors and curios available. They're just stacked up, piled on top of eachother, table after table. It's a completely unabashed display of mass-manufactured representations of traditional African art and culture. When you find a little booth with a limited number of items elsewhere in town, the vendor might be able to persuade you that the paintings were done by a fellow tribeswoman and the carvings are done in his homeland. People love the idea of authenticity. They want souvenirs of the ancient continent, of primordial, animistic cultures, land-based cultures. And this is exactly what most items try to convey.

But I should stop myself before I get too cynical. I'd be very curious to learn more about the curio sector, and who makes different items. When Courtney and I were in Kenya we became somewhat cynical about it. One vendor sold us paintings on cloth, telling us his Luo step-sister made them. Of course, we found the exact same paintings in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, and Zanzibar. There are a lot of items where you find the exact same thing sold in every shop and naturally distrust any story told about them. Many of the 'African' shirts sold have tags that belie their origins (Thailand, China, etc...).

Yet someone makes all this stuff, and much of it does come from Tanzania, or the region. I spoke with the man selling the above masks and I asked them where they came from. He told me he buys them from different tribes in Tanzania, and told me which tribes made which masks. Could certainly be true right? The below man was sitting outside a shop selling paintings, in the process of making a painting of some Masai. There was a lot of similar art inside the store. That's a transparent production chain!

I have the sense that a lot of the stuff sold is still made by hand, and while there's a lot of it, they aren't really cheap knockoffs (with some definite exceptions... most clothing is made with cheap and uncomfortable fabric, for example. But of course you just need to pay more for better stuff). The art is indeed hand painted. There's also a lot of curiosities. I like the crafts which are made of found material like Fanta bottle caps, which say more about modern African culture than a kistchy (sp?) bracelet.

By the way, I should mention I donned a tourist mantle to get these pictures. I've taken very few pictures since I got here because it's difficult to find shots that don't have people in them, and as much as I'd love to share some of the sights with people in them, I don't believe that people are just on display for the tourists' camera. I'd want to get permission before taking pictures, and its generally hard to do hat. However, tourists do just that, especially at touristy spots. So I swallowed all the Swahili I knew and pretended to be a sightseer with camera in hand asking if I could take pictures. Which I should actually do more often!

The Blog Has Landed

This post is kind of late, I had internet issues but we're good now so I'm just going to post what I wrote earlier. Welcome to my blog! My intention is for it to be part travelogue, part reflection on the academic and research questions I’m pursuing here. As I just landed today in Dar es Salaam, this post will definitely be on the travelogue side.

                My flight was three hours late (there was a problem with the plane we were supposed to have), and I stupidly lost my notebook in Heathrow, but we touched down 10am this morning no problem. Moving from the new Heathrow Terminal 5  to Dar es Salaam is a stark transition from privilege to poverty. Kai picked me up from the airport and drove me in to her family’s compound, where they have built guest houses. There was a lot of construction on the road, and most of it was nicely tarmaced. My room has a bed, couch, table, desk and chairs, as well as a microwave, mini-oven and electric stove. No running water though, only a bucket which I can fill with water from a water tank nearby. I realize that this is how most people utilize water in rural Africa, but I have no idea how! I went to the store and bought a package of cups so I could pour water over my hands with them and wash things separately. There’s a small trickle of running water now though and apparently it should be fixed shortly. But I’ll learn how to get by with the bucket in the mean time!

                My current place is next to a new shopping centre which is extremely convenient, just a 10 min walk. It’s got a grocery store and two other stores which might be equivalent to Hart and Giant Tiger, with a lot of clothes and other essentials. There’s also some cafes, specialty shops, a book store, and an internet café though I haven’t found it yet (though obviously I will have by the time this is posted). I picked up a cheap cellphone, I’ll give my number to anyone who wants it, just message me. I’m being tempted to buy a cellular modem for my laptop, which has quite good speed internet mobile access (note to mom: that means I could connect with my laptop from anywhere I could use a cellphone). They’re way ahead of Canada here with that stuff!

                I was pleasantly surprised that nobody yelled ‘mzungu’ at me while I walked through the neighborhood today, or even conspicuously ogled me! This was very common in Kakamega, Kenya, last year, though it wasn’t something that bothered me so much. Maybe I’m going to miss the attention!

                I’m munching on a bowl of beef/plantain stew right now, it’s pretty good. Bananas are cooked before they’re yellowed, and they have a consistency and taste much like potatoes. Kai brought me over a bowl of it. Once the stove (and water) is working I’ll be able to cook more for myself. I don’t think I’ll have any trouble doing this. I already picked up some garlic and onions, beef stock, oil and vinegar, and soup mix. Once I have a fridge I’ll get more veggies and meat and be able to do all kinds of culinary magic.

                It’s a little intimidating being here. I’m a little nobody in a big city. I’ll admit to a couple ‘oh jeez, what have I gotten myself into?’ moments, but I’m pretty confident overall. It will be very interesting once Arja is here and she introduces me to some different sectors of the society. Until then I’ve got some reading and exploring to do, and some Swahili to practice.

                I may as well keep my blog posts short or else no one will read them! More later. Goodnight world.

Neil