Oh My,
It is particularly overwhelming to write a blog post after a while because I have lots to write and can't really remember it all. I guess just more motivation for me to write more consistently!
Everything is going really well. Last week was a pretty normal week except that Dan, a friend from my Swahili class at Stanford came to Dar and stayed with me for the week. Its nice to have guests and he was a totally easy addition to the family. We went to a really amazing pizza and Indian restaurant on Wednesday (Tanzanians don't tend to really understand the idea of segregating different food ethnicities). Otherwise the week was pretty normal -- went to the orphanage and the school.
On a more serious note, this week my friends (not me) saw something totally intense. In Tanzania, since the police aren't necessarily around all the time, if someone steals something, someone will yell "mwizi!" (thief) and basically everyone around will make a mob and beat the thief, sometimes to death. Often after a while a police man will take the thief to the police station, where he may be beaten there as well. We had a lot of interesting conversations after my friends saw one of these mobs because it seems so terrible, since we were not brought up to consider stealing equal in severity to death. Almost all Tanzanians really support this type of "mob justice." Just a bit of a culture shock I thought I would share.
On a less serious note, this weekend we went to a beach town called Bagamoyo. It is a notable historical site because it was a stop along the East African slave trade route. We stayed in a pretty nice hotel (with hot water!) and had two very overpriced but tasty meals. The beach was nice, we saw a zillion crabs and collected a few pretty sea shells. The museums were not so exciting but it was interesting to learn a bit about the missionaries, who are pretty much considered heros to the Tanzanians, which is opposite of what you would expect.
Yesterday I went to the orphanage and had a great chat with the women there about witch doctors and religion. It is really difficult to explain Judaism, but as long as I say I trust in God, they don't have too many concerns. Here it is much more of a concern that you HAVE a religion and less important which one you have.
This weekend we are going to Zanzibar! I am very excited. Today we are going to hear a talk by a UN woman...not sure if it will be interesting or not.
Sorry for the delay.
With Love,
Rachel
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
So I'm thinking they might have this mob-justice thing over here on the west coast as well. As much as it pains me to admit it, I've taken some solace in the fact that if a guy runs off with my wallet I could shout "Thief!" and six guys would take off after him with me.
Anyway, I did, however, see a negative side effect of this mentality when waiting for a bus to Kumasi (Ghana's second largest city). We were sitting on a bench while a bus going to Ouagadougou was loading up a full crew. One of the girls I was with had a seizure (she's fine now). No joking matter, to say the least. What's the worst thing you can do to a woman who's just had a seizure, you might ask? Ohhh... maybe have fifty shouting people crowd around her, like a loud, sweating eclipse? You might have called it "mob-medicine." Needless to say, we got her the hell out of there. The moral of the story: mobs should be used sparingly, and only when there's a thief to beat.
Hope you're having fun. You look like a natural with that baby strapped to your back. Now you just need to learn to balance him on your head while talking on your cell and carrying groceries.
Post a Comment