Tanzania Tidbits: Day 3

This morning, I awoke to the Islamic call to prayer.  I’d heard the night before that there was a new mosque nearby with a good speaker system, but didn’t realize how good…or how early (around 5:30 AM).  It was beautiful, but then the guy kept talking.  His monologue may have been reading the Koran, but it didn’t sound as melodic.  I actually appreciate it being so early, because it meant I could go back to sleep afterwards.

When my alarm finally went off, I nervously primped for my first day of teaching.  I’ve assisted various staff one-on-one numerous times and even gave my girlfriends a brief intro to GIS once, but never did anything like this before.  I consciously chose to wear the lavender blouse that an old roommate from BYU, Josie Johnson, had given me.  Josie was the best roommate I’ve ever had, and was killed when a car hit her while riding her bike a few years after we graduated.  Somehow I’d like to think she’d appreciate this adventure and is cheering me on.  Boniface came to pick me up a few minutes late (“Tanzanian time”) and when we arrived, had a bit of time getting everyone there and the projector set up.  My class consisted of Boniface and Japhet (the two faculty who worked on the change detection analysis), as well as Ludovic, Emmanuel, and a few students who came part of the week.

Mercifully, they were able to set up a network GIS license so they could all follow along with my demonstrations and then experiment with it on their own.  This is such a better way to learn than just following my presentations.  The curriculum I’d decided on was parallel tracks in Thematic Cartography (i.e. the theory behind mapmaking) and an Intro to ArcGIS 9.2.  They were familiar with GIS concepts, but the version they were using was so old it had a completely different interface and it not capable of producing high-quality cartographic products.  This way, they would learn the principles behind good map design, and how to do that using this software.  The problem was that I’d only had enough time to prepare the first 2 modules, and only test 1 of them, before leaving DC.  Again, mercifully the delays meant that I had time to prepare some more material, which I got through completely that first day.  One of the participants requested exercises, which was a brilliant suggestion because it meant that they had more hands-on experience and I wouldn’t have to prepare as much material. 

After teaching, I insisted on walking home with Conrad and Julie rather than being driven so we could enjoy the beautiful weather.   SUA is at the base of the Uluguru Mountains, so in terms of its location I guess that makes it almost the BYU of Tanzania.  As we walked up the road towards the guest hostel where we were staying, you could see fires on the mountainside as they cleared more forest for farming.  Only the tops have native vegetation, and it gave a renewed sense of purpose and urgency to what the SUA staff and my colleagues are trying to do.  I must admit, though, I was impressed they were able to work on such steep slopes.  I loved that our hostel was off a dirt road and involved walking past a small grove of banana trees.  It consisted of 5 separate rooms and a kitchen/common area surrounding a courtyard.  After a brief pause, we again set out to meet up with old friends of Conrad’s.  The walk took us through small groves of trees, down rural (to me) tree-lined lanes, past cows and a soccer field, and past the small single-story buildings where the locals lived.  We heard the evening call to prayer and saw the sky get gradually darker.  The walk wasn’t long, but it was a late start so by the end we were walking down dark roads, shielding our eyes from any passing cars.  Our first stop was Joel’s house, which was also on the hillside in an area of nice compounds and houses owned by foreigners.  Joel works for a tobacco company, and after over 10 years in Morogoro is about to move to Switzerland.  A Frenchman whose nickname was “Slash” then joined us, and his work involved rural produce markets.  As they reminisced, I could sense that things changed quite a bit in the few years since Conrad had left and others had as well.  I think that’s inherent in any transient area or situation: you go through effort to make friends and enjoy the most of the situation, but when those people move and new people won’t be there for long either, it’s difficult to muster the enthusiasm to try and engage with an ever-new crowd.  By the same token, rarely can you recreate a situation—going back to the location isn’t enough.  Better to take advantage of the moment and enjoy it while it lasts.

Dinner was at a relatively new place owned by some locals that were friends of Joel’s.  The guy had gone to school in the Netherlands and married a Dutch girl, but was determined to return and brought her with him.  Sounds romantic, but by the same token I don’t envy her position of a new culture with little job prospects on top of a new marriage.  Our meal was Mishkaki, small pieces of meat roasted on a metal skewer and served with lime juice squeezed on them.  They were tasty and each one only had a few bites, so I lost count of how many I ate.  I’d intended to make it an early night to prepare the next day’s lectures, but it was late by the time we even got our food and I lost track of time.  It didn’t help that no one else was in a hurry, but I soon realized I needed to leave before the others.  I asked one of the guys to call me a taxi, but when it didn’t show they made another local guy drive me home.  Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but he didn’t plan on being the designated driver and Tanzania apparently has nothing against drunk driving.  Possibly the most unnerving thing was how experienced he seemed at doing this.  Thankfully Kristian, one of the Norwegians, also came with me.   As the guy drove us, glass of beer in one hand, we heard his life story and his regret of not getting all the education he wanted.  As we were getting out of the car at the hostel, Kristian said a few encouraging words to him that hopefully made him feel better.  This started a conversation with Kristian where I learned he was a devout Lutheran and had even been a missionary at one point.  There’s something about conversing with someone who also has a testimony of Christ that creates an instant bond for me, and I told him a little about my church before I needed to call it a night to (finally) begin work on the lectures.  I decided to call it a night when Julie returned, which necessitated getting up uber-early the next morning.