First day of school!

TCDC – Monday 6/17/2013

Mama packed us matching lunchboxes.  Really takes me back.

Kristen and I decided to walk to school rather than taking the daledale.  The daledale is the main form of public transport in Tanzania.  It's a large van that fits about 20 people.  It doesn't actually seat 20 people, but there's a Tanzanian saying that the daledale is never full, the daledale can always fit one more.  Tons of daledales drive up and down the main highway here, picking up and dropping off at each bus stop.  Our stop, Makumira, is just one stop away from school, so it’s almost not worth squeezing ourselves and our backpacks to stand hunched over in cramped van.

It's about a 30-minute walk, 20 minutes if we walk fast, but we enjoy it.  We walk single file either on the shoulder of the highway or on a narrow footpath that runs along the side of the road.  We pass a lot of college students walking to the nearby Makumira University, young professionals (it's comical to see them dressed in business casual while navigating the dirt path), some farmers, and children heading to school.  A lot of daledales, trucks, and boleboles--motorbikes--fly past us.  They drive uncomfortably close.  It seems like mass transport is the norm around here, because there aren’t many personal cars on the road.  Some of the trucks honk at us, which is kind of alarming, but I think we’ll eventually get used to the all the sounds, the gusts of dust and exhaust, and the starting feeling of being blown aside whenever a huge truck rushes past.

The school where we'll be taking classes for the next month is technically a training center.  It's called the Training Center for Development Corporation, TCDC for short.  The locals call it the Danish, because it was started by a group of Danes and retains some Danish influence.  It offers a variety of courses and facilities with the goal of encouraging local development and educating visitors, and it serves as a liaison between the local Tanzanians and visitors like me.  It almost feels like an island, an ideal learning environment, with so many classrooms and amenities.

Our classroom

This morning we were given an orientation to acquaint us with TCDC and they brought up some useful points about Tanzanian culture and acclimating in Tanzania.

• Tanzanians are warm, welcoming, hopeful, peaceful, and tolerant of other cultures.  Their kindness does not stem from ulterior motives.
• Tanzanians are oftentimes too polite to disagree.  We might have to work to receive any constructive criticism, which will be especially pertinent once we arrive at our hospitals.
• Also because of the politeness, it can be hard to tell the difference between “yes” and “no”.  In fact, Tanzanians rarely say no to an invitation.  A Tanzanian “no” sounds something like: “well…yes…maybe I will come”.
• The three most important asp
  ects of Tanzanian culture: time, relationships, and language.  We should try to learn as much Swahili as possible, in order to show respect.  And it’s important that we develop a sense of Tanzanian time and that we place high value on relationships.  Tanzanians value relationships over time, meaning that it’s more important whom we are with now than whom we are about to meet.  In this sense, it’s acceptable to be late to appointments.
• And here’s my favorite:  “In Africa, we say, we believe:  Adults are never late.  We are just delayed.”

 At lunchtime, we all gathered around with our little lunchboxes and got to know each other.  Our lunches are surprisingly similar, but we still took the chance to trade food amongst ourselves.  It was comical to see a group of twenty-somethings acting like kindergarteners again, and quite a contrast to our more serious motives for being here.

And then there was chai… Chai, or tea time, is a big part of the culture here.  We have a break in the morning and one in the afternoon to gather in the chai banda, have a snack, and most importantly, chat.  Chai provides the essential time to engage in conversation in order to develop trust and friendship with those around us.  It is what creates such strong bonds in Tanzanian communities.  It seems trivial, but chai will be a crucial tool for us next month, when we must develop strong relationships with the hospital staff.  Without such relationships, we won’t be given any equipment or any insight into the needs of the hospital. Without their trust, we’d be helpless.  But for now, lunch and chai breaks are just a good opportunity to meet everyone.  I think it’s shaping up to be a great group.

Hanging out at the end of the day

When Kristen and I got home this evening, we sat at the kitchen table doing our Swahili homework and reading the lab manuals assigned for tomorrow.  Ruth sat with us, doing her own homework, and helping us with our Swahili.  It’s funny that she’s more capable of helping us than we are of helping her.

Right now, Mama’s cooking dinner, and Ruth is playing with my hair.  All in all, a good first day of school.