(not even) one night in Bangkok

Twelve hours of flying and I was in Thailand. My first smell as I stepped off the plane was fried food, an interesting omen. I arrived quite late and had an early morning flight, so here were my impressions for the few hours I was there:

• The king’s portrait is everywhere, but at least they have a variety of shots—some young, some in traditional dress, some with the queen, etc. The political factions are passionately divided between the "red" and "yellow" parties, but everyone seems to genuinely revere the king.
  
• Second to the king's portraits, there are 7-11 stores everywhere (I couldn’t help but think of Devan and David). I want to try a Slurpee, but ice is generally off-limits for health reasons (you don’t know the purity of the water it was made with).
• Traffic “guidelines” more than “rules”—I’m just grateful I wasn’t traveling at peak times to see it in full swing! As in India and Tanzania, I feel safer with a local driving because it’s like a dance and they actually know the steps. Still, I was surprised by all the traffic considering it was after midnight and wonder what it’s like during commuting hours. Oh, and the taxi meters are often conveniently "broken"--but negotiating a price beforehand makes everyone happy.
  
• They use orchids in their landscaping like we use daisies—so jealous!
• All the immigration workers at the airport were wearing masks. Not sure if it’s policy or a personal choice against swine flu, but I was tempted to fake a coughing fit just to see their reaction.

Bangkok will be my hub for the next month so I’ll have future chances to see it, but I headed straight north to Chiang Mai for an upcoming festival.

I come from a land...up over?

(written from Australia, sent from Thailand)
G’day from Australia! It’s been quite a week here and it’s hard to believe it’s already over, especially since I worked for most of it. My work has an office in Atherton, Australia up in the northeast, so I was able to fly into Cairns a few days early to play before getting down to business. As always, it was never enough time but here were some highlights and other memorable moments, mostly in chronological order:

• While walking around downtown Cairns my first morning, I looked up to discover fruit bats flying overhead. They love the huge mango trees by the library, and they became my archenemies by eating the mangoes before I could get to them.

• Going to the market to discover they have 3 local varieties of mangoes, and the season was just starting. Atherton is up in the Tablelands, where they appear to grow everything—avocados, potatoes, strawberries, peanuts, mangoes, and bananas to name a few.

• Tim Tams! I became addicted to these chocolate “biscuits” (cookies) when I visited NZ and Sydney in 2005, so buying a pack was the 2nd thing I did in Australia. After 24 hours of flying, a shower was #1 out of necessity…but I was thinking of them the whole time. They have several new flavors including hazelnut mousse—tasty, but the new filling affected its “Tim Tam slam” drinkability (look it up in Wikipedia). I averaged nearly a pack a day in an attempt to make the most of my short time here, and the only flavor I didn’t get to try was white chocolate. I’ve heard they’re now available in the US, so while my tastebuds are celebrating my waistline doesn’t want to investigate.

• Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef. I only had one free day to play, and chose to spend it snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. It didn’t disappoint! Our boat looked like the luxury yachts I kayaked past in Newport Beach growing up, and it raced us to 2 of the outer reefs: first Saxon, then Hastings. The ship’s racing, combined with choppy seas, made most of the passengers a little seasick and even I felt queasy by the afternoon, but by staying out in front or in the water I was fine. I loved seeing the variety of fish, but it was all the different types of coral that really captivated me. We found Nemo, by the way, and a few of the other varieties of clownfish. I can tell my 5 years of working with “professional treehuggers” has rubbed off, though, when I was disappointed by the lack of education the tour provided—it was only fun. I enjoyed it, but it was sad to see damaged coral from being loved too much.

• “…and ye shall know us by our basketball courts…”(our chapels are pretty recognizable and outside the US, the court is often in the parking lot) I love going to church abroad. You always meet great people and it makes any place feel a little less foreign. To boot, the Sacrament Meeting talks were exactly what I needed to hear.

• Roger’s hospitality. My colleague, Roger, was kind enough to play chauffer, tour guide, and host during my stay, a courtesy he’s extended to other visiting staff. The Tablelands are fairly rural, and Roger’s house was just outside the shire of Yungabarra on a hilltop with fantastic views over fields with rainforest on the surrounding hilltops. It was so pleasant to sit on the deck and eat breakfast, watching the cattle graze and the clouds roll by. Roger lived for several years in the Solomon Islands and has a deep love for PNG and all the islands of Micronesia. As a result, the décor reminded me of the Bishop Museum in Hawaii. I should probably mention at this point that he’s from NZ originally, and when I told him which church I was going to attend on Sunday I learned that most of his extended family is LDS. He was kind enough to leave a Book of Mormon they’d given him at my bedside, which made me feel like I was staying at a Marriott. It was because of him that I didn’t have to attempt driving on the other side of the road, ate regional cuisine, saw the wildlife, met the locals, and watched Aussie and Kiwi films. More on that to come.

• Local food. I was treated to a Sunday dinner that included kangaroo steaks. They tasted slightly gamey, but mostly charbroiled from being cooked over a fire in his backyard. I also saw kangaroo sausage, or “Kanga Bangas”, at the store.

• The wildlife I did see, and the ones I avoided. The rainy season will be starting soon, but right now it’s bone dry, making it all the harder to believe I’m on the edge of a rainforest. The fields are brown and the ground isn’t muddy. Apparently this is good, as it means I didn’t have to worry about leeches when we hiked through a bit of rainforest, and I’m relieved to say the only python I saw was road kill (Roger said that during the snakes’ mating season, he found 3 of them in the house!). I love Australia, but why does it seem like everything’s out to get you? Did I mention that the beaches of Cairns have saltwater crocodiles? Again, was happy to not have that nature sighting. So what did I see? Butterflies, birds, a kangraoo rat, and my highlight: a platypus. It was dusk at the time so I didn’t get a close look, but it was fun to see it glide through the water and under the weeds before disappearing again.

• Teatime with the CSIRO staff. CI’s “office” is actually just a few rooms at a field office of CSIRO, Australia’s equivalent of the US’s NSF. This office focuses on rainforest ecology, so while Conservation International doesn’t actually do any work in Australia, we have a technical partnership with them. It was interesting to chat with them, and a lovely tradition I wouldn’t mind bringing back with me to DC.

• My attempt at “Aussie rules” football. Roger invited me to join him on Monday after work for a local pickup game with various guys in the community—I’d say the ages ranged from 10 to 60. Like most sports of the Commonwealth, I don’t fully understand Australian football but I was willing to give it a shot. Basically, a team would kick the ball to their opponents who would then run towards them. You could only pass backwards and had to stop once you were tagged, putting the ball down and stepping over it for your teammate to pick up and resume play. Thankfully they didn’t take it too seriously, as I was the only girl playing and clearly the only one who didn’t know what they were doing. I was flattered when they tossed me the ball and so relieved when I actually caught it that I was easily tagged. My strategy was simple: stay behind my teammates and tag any opponent with the ball (years of chasing Devan made me pretty good at this). And since it was on a Monday, I’m counting it as FHE.

• Grocery shopping. I love visiting grocery stores when I travel to see what everyone else is eating, and my cart is as much about survival and nutrition as it is flavor and curiosity. For example, on my most recent trip I bought:

-Mangoes and bananas (both locally grown)
-“Tasty cheese” (that’s really the name—I’m pretty sure it’s just cheddar)
-Cadbury’s (the local stuff)
-Tim Tams (double coated), plain biscuits (cookies), and Milo for teatime
-“Late night Kebab”-flavored crisps (potato chips)
**note: the Commonwealth is known for unique flavors of potato chips compared to the US, and one brand is currently having a contest to pick a new flavor. One of the other flavors in the contest is Caesar salad. I didn’t get to try it, but I did try honey-baked ham before catching my flight.

• Visiting the pub in Yungabarra. It was interesting to meet some of the locals, who all seemed so happy living in a small town and were all looking out for each other. Speaking with a beekeeper made me think of dad.

So that’s it, and I thoroughly enjoyed the slower pace that week—except for the internet speed. Part of my work involved sending data from the Australia server to the DC server, and I quickly became impatient with how long it was taking. Coincidentally, they had a piece on the news about a competition to send a large amount of data (the movie “Duck Soup”) from a rural town to a Sydney suburb 130 km away. The contests were a pigeon, a car, and the internet. The pigeon won, with the car arriving about an hour later. As for the internet, it crashed twice and they finally gave up on it. I’m not sure how good pigeons are at trans-oceanic/hemispherical/continental travel, so I’m bringing it back on disc as a backup. Am I ready to pack up and move here? Part of me says yes, but I don’t know how well I’d handle the slower pace long-term—especially with so many places to see!

Hujambo! (TZ summary)

Hujambo!

What a trip this has been so far, and hard to believe I’ve been here nearly 2 weeks already. There’s so much to say, but I’ll just give you a few tidbits of my trip so far.

Background:
My work is part of a funding body called the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), which is concluding a 5-year grant cycle in Kenya and Tanzania with a 2-day workshop in Dar es Salaam. I’m in Tanzania to lecture and provide training for a week at one of their grantees, Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Morogoro. SUA and the science division at CI (my work) received a grant to perform a forest cover and change detection analysis using satellite imagery for 1990-2000. I made a map of that analysis, and the grant was amended for SUA to do a 2007 update and for me to provide training in cartography. This also required significant software training because the version they were using was not adequate, from a graphics standpoint, to produce a high quality cartographic product. Going from version 3.2 to version 9.2 kept the same concepts, but with a totally new interface and considerably different functionality.

Training at Sokoine
I’ve never provided formal training before, but in the end I think it went rather well. I wasn’t able to prepare my materials beforehand like I’d hoped, so it meant I’d teach for a full day, go to dinner with colleagues, and start preparing several hours of lecture slides. Thankfully they had computers with the software as well, allowing for them to explore and truly learn the software rather than just watch demonstrations. Each day I had just enough material for the day, a gift I attribute completely to Heavenly Father. It was so gratifying to see how much information I had to teach and how much they valued it. I even gave them a class project that will hopefully be useful for both them and me. I loved being in Morogoro—the weather wasn’t as hot, everyone was friendly, and it was a smaller university town with the potential for a tight-knit group of expats. Morogoro is at the base of the Uluguru Mountains, so in terms of its location I guess that makes it almost the BYU of Tanzania. We also had a chance to meet expats where we were staying and while going out to dinner. Everyone in Morogoro has such random backgrounds and they all seem to be here for a least a month. Oh, and Michael Bolton’s music is alive and well here.

Post-training
Once the training was completed, we returned to Dar to join colleagues from CEPF to do a site visit in Zanzibar. Zanzibar is actually 2 islands, but Unguja is the island to which most people refer. We visited a national park, the only patch of original forest left and a “blob” I’ve put on maps for over 4 years. Turns out there are trees and monkeys there! The site visit also included meeting representatives from isolated villages on the southern coast of the island, and some of our partners. One of them, Miza, also does GIS so we hit it right off. Then it was a few days relaxing on the beach in the north before returning to Dar for a 2-day workshop.


Overall impressions/moments
Going to church in Dar es Salaam on my first Sunday. Quite the struggle to get there because it turned out to be District Conference, but so worth it! I met the District President who’s mentioned in an article on the last page of this month’s Ensign.

Learning that one of the professors I was teaching did some of his PhD work in Berlin, so while we couldn’t converse in Swahili, we could in German.

Food: I ate “local style” most of the time I was teaching. A typical meal consisted of Ughali (like bland, stiff mashed potatoes made from wheat) that you form in a ball with your hand and pick up meats or dip in sauce. My beverage of choice is Tangawizi, a ginger ale with a stronger raw ginger flavor than we get in the US. The curries on Zanzibar were also good, but I think that’s more Indian Ocean than the island specifically.

In some ways, this reminds me of parts of India—tiles floors everywhere, the auto rickshaws (“tuk tuks” here), the overcrowded minibuses (“Dala dala”), the smell of charcoal and burning trash, roadside stands selling anything imaginable, etc. Things I haven’t seen as much before—goats and chickens wandering around (no cows spotted until we were outside Dar), open sewers (how did I miss those in India?), and the occasional Masai walking along in their traditional dress. I’ve learned that in this part of Tanzania (central and southern) they wear purple fabric, and that their dress has nothing to do with income. Many wear it to remind them of their heritage and are actually well educated. Others wear it because of the tourists. Case in point: there are no native Masai on the island of Zanzibar, but I’ve been harassed by several on the beach up here in the north. The women’s clothes are gorgeous everywhere, and everyone dressed up so much for whatever church they attended on Sunday in Dar. They may not have running water in their homes, but they still manage to look immaculate and spotless. The biggest difference from India is that we don’t have a local family to look after us. At least I’m not alone. Julie and I flew in together, and the next night Conrad arrived. He lived in TZ and taught at Sokoine for a few years, so it’s nice to have him show us around. The kids we’ve seen are cute and come up to ask, “How are you?” in English before running away. I tried to learn some Swahili phrases on the last leg of our flight, but being tired didn’t help it sink in. I can give a polite greeting, say thank you (“Asante”), tell them I’ve come from America, and I think I can ask where’s the bathroom (hopefully something like “Wapi Msalisi”).

Tanzania Tidbits: Day 7

Today was “graduation day” and we only had a half-day before I needed to catch a bus, so the time crunch really sunk in.  We started early and they made a battle plan of who would make a map of what area, which they were working on when Julie and Conrad returned from the Udzungwas.  The original plan was that we’d leave as soon as they arrived, but of course we were behind schedule.  We all tried to subtly move things along, but finally I had to insist that it was time for me to give them their certificates so we could catch the bus.  We went right outside the building and I handed them each their certificate in our brief ceremony while Julie took pictures.  Then we grabbed our stuff and I paid our bills at 2 separate offices on our way out.  The bill for the classroom was much higher than what we’d agreed to via email before I arrived, which had caused me to be resentful that morning after all I had done to help them by coming and teaching, but Boniface was able to smooth that out.  He also offered to drive us to the bus stand rather than calling and waiting for a taxi, which sped things up. 

On our way out of SUA, we kept running into faculty that knew Conrad so it was a good thing we hadn’t bought tickets in advance.  Our final drive through Morogoro allowed me to see what people do during the daytime—other than our lunch foray I’d only been through at night when most shops were closed.  There were no chain stores and it seemed like so many of the same type of store—stationary, tailor, pharmacy, cell phone, etc.  I think this is what happens when people don’t drive to stores.  Walking distance allows for more duplication to be closer to their customers.  I also saw lots of people on bicycles, and that everyone else was black, and most walls were painted with advertisements for cell phone companies or paint vendors.  The bus stand was such a chaotic place, as Morogoro is where the main highway branches to take passengers to the capital Dodoma or further inland to Iringa.  There were several bus companies with people trying to get you on their bus, not to mention all the vendors hawking their wares.  I was so grateful to have Conrad and Boniface there to ensure that both we, and our things, made it onto the right bus.  We were the last three to board and ended up squeezed into vacant seats in the last 2 rows.  For a bus in Tanzania I can’t complain.  It was cozy, but the seats were clean and I felt safe.  They even had a movie to watch during the drive called “The Raid Party”.  It wasn’t a good movie and I wanted to watch the landscape instead, but it was still hard not to watch it occasionally.  We also had in-ride entertainment from our fellow passengers/vendors.  Some sold drinks, some sold snacks, and towards the end one woman stood up and starting selling toiletries.  Rather convenient, had I needed soap or toothpaste.  I also took advantage of sitting next to a local to learn a new Tanzanian phrase—Duka La Dawa.  I’d seen it all over Tanzania, and learned it means Drug Store (Duka = shop).  I’ve learned a few Tanzanian words and phrases, but the grammar is so tough I’m content to leave it at that for this trip.

The bus arrived in Dar just in time for rush hour, so the taxi ride from the bus stand to the hotel felt like it took ages.  It doesn’t appear they have any freeways in Dar es Salaam so every road was clogged and side street shortcuts are just as clogged as the main roads.  We were going to meet the rest of our group in time for “sundowners”, but it was dark by the time we arrived at the hotel.  Still, it was nice to see familiar faces from DC—John Watkin (the ringleader of this trip, and the one who made it possible for me to be here in the first place), Kim, and Kristina.  They all looked so fresh, having arrived just the day before and spending the day relaxing in the air-conditioned hotel.  Meanwhile, I felt like the country bumpkin who was so excited to have electricity and flushing toilets again.  I took the longest shower and actually shaved my legs, which sorely needed it, before we headed out to dinner.  Rita, an old friend of Conrad and John’s who used to date another coworker and is currently living in Zambia, joined us.  It was tasty and good to connect with everyone, but the long week of little sleep made it hard to stay awake.  It didn’t help that I needed to repack and the next day would come too early.

Tanzania Tidbits: Day 6

Today I introduced the class project, and we got as far as them agreeing to it.  Lunch was the SUA staff cafeteria again, but this time I decided to eat “local style”.  The menu was always the same—either rice or Ughali with beef, chicken, or fish.  The beef was like beef soup but the chicken was scrawny and difficult to eat without using your hands.  Ughali is like stiff mashed potatoes made with maize flour and is as bland as it sounds.  You roll a bit into a ball in your right hand and use it to pick up your meet or dip it in the sauce.  Everything is served with lime wedges and thinly sliced chili peppers.  I actually liked it, but my hand isn’t that skilled so almost as much would end up on my palm as in the ball.  I do pretty well with our “refreshment” breaks, though.  In the mornings it is usually fresh fruit and chipati (like a greasy tortilla) that you use to pick up beef bits and deep in the broth—with lime as always.  They’re always drinking tea and today I thought I could at least drink the milk they put in their tea to blend in.  Turns out they like their milk hot, so I ended up drinking a cup of warm milk.  I don’t even like cold milk, so I added heaping spoons of sugar to make it palatable, but that wasn’t something I’d drink twice.  The woman who prepared our food all week had never said a word to me, but when she delivered the receipt for the driver I finally introduced myself and learned her name was Teddy.  When she returned with my change she left a note with her contact information in the hopes we could become pen pals.  So sweet, but so shy!  

Dinner that night was with Åschel (Kristian had left to return to Norway) and a new guest at the hostel, a former Peace Corp volunteer who was in Morogoro to interview people for her thesis about poultry vaccinations and its effect on people’s diets.  Ned Horning was kind enough to drive us to dinner, and at his suggestion we ate at the Morogoro Hotel.  The Indian food was fantastic, though I made the mistake of ordering too much without the means of enjoying leftovers since it was my last night.  The water still wasn’t back on, but to make things even more “rustic”, the power was out in my room.  Not the entire guest hostel, just my room.  Thankfully Conrad made this sound like a common occurrence in TZ so I’d packed a candle, but I was also grateful this was a 1-night novelty.  Bucket showers by candlelight are fun the first time, but I would gripe if it became an unscheduled, regular occurrence.  I also washed all my underwear by hand as best as I could.  I’m rubbish at hand washing so I gave my shirts to the hostel staff to do for me, but I feel like I can fake it better with my garments.

Tanzania Tidbits: Day 5

Again, the early morning drill to prepare course material and again, only enough material for the day.  These lectures are starting to feel like manna!  But in some ways, this has been for the best because it has allowed me to adapt the lectures to best meet their needs.  A comment from Conrad resulted in an extra lecture on quantitative symbols, and a question from them resulted in a lecture on georeferencing.  I’m sad to say it also helped that the sister of a colleague passed away, which necessitated them going to give their condolences and taking more time.   This was also the day when Julie and Conrad left me to go into the Udzungwa Mountains with another CEPF grantee, Francesco.  John had made him sound like Roberto Bernini, so I was surprised to see how mild-mannered he was.  I was sad to loose my DC support, but by this time felt comfortable with the SUA guys and actually a little protective of “my boys” and their education.

We had an extended lunch today for a field trip downtown.  The Dutch girl had given me the name of a boutique someone had recommended to her, and the guys offered to take me there during our lunch break in the hopes that I could find a beautiful outfit like all those Tanzanian women.  Alas, their focus was on western wear—the clothes either had a dated look or were formal enough to wear to prom.  At least lunch was a success!  We ate downtown at a place called the Blue Room, with some tasty food and a good view of daily life in Morogoro.  It was also nice to be inside during yet another short downpour, but the street didn’t drain as well as SUA’s campus.  After lunch we waded across the street to a stationary store so I could buy an anniversary card for mom and dad.  Conrad had mentioned they like cheesy greeting cards here and this store didn’t disappoint.  Unfortunately, the best ones were all romantic ones featuring sappy lines and pictures of couples from the 80’s.  Still, the one for my parents was pretty good.  This resulted in a late finish and I opted to stay where there was internet to continue working on the next day’s lectures until it was time for dinner.  They only have dial-up internet, which has been a real challenge to download files from our ftp site, not to mention checking email.  I suppose it teaches me patience, but since some of the lecture slides depended on it I really just learned frustration.

The guys treated me to a local joint on the outskirts of town called Glonnency 88.  The neighborhood is called 88 and refers to their Farmer’s Day, August 8th.  We ate tasty roasted goat, again with lime juice, but the entertainment will remain the most memorable.  I have nothing against Lionel Richie, but hearing “Stuck on You” performed by a guy and his keyboard with an original tempo was…special.  The rest of the music was mostly African so I can’t comment on it, other than to say it was a little to loud at some points and involved the synthesizer at others.  His cover of a Harry Bellefonte song actually wasn’t that bad.  It was nice to see the guys relax, unwind, and get into some more personal conversation.  I was also this close to getting a dance party out of Japhet, but it didn’t happen.  His car has a big sticker saying “Real Men Love Jesus” on the back, which led to some good discussions with him.  Again, something about the religious bond allows me to feel more comfortable.  I didn’t mind having the room to myself for the night so I could work late, but upon my return discovered a bucket of water outside my door.  Turns out all the rains caused them to shut off the pipes to prevent them getting mud-clogged.  I can appreciate that, but if I wasn’t already aware of all the water I consumed by drinking, I was now aware of how much I spent flushing the toilet—and how important that is to keep a room from smelling.  Good emergency prep experience, I guess, and I’m glad I had my facial wipes on hand for the night’s bathing.  

I opted to spend part of the evening counting out my millions—literally.  I needed to pay for the driver and the room we were using for the course in cash, so with the exchange rate of ~1/1,300 I was literally a Tanzanian millionaire for a few days.  If I hadn’t felt sketchy flying with that much money in $100 US bills, I did when the exchange bureau lady handed me a 2-inch stack of 5,000 notes.  Kinda ridiculous to have a pile of money to roll around in, and I must say the older notes had a funny odor and I didn’t want to know the cause.

Tanzania Tidbits: Day 4

This was an early morning for me, stumbling in the dark to the common room to prepare my lectures without disturbing Julie (we shared a room).  Turns out the guard sleeps in the common room, so he scared me and I scared him when I opened the door—too early for such shenanigans.  Wouldn’t you know, Boniface was early—what happened to TZ time?  Well once again, teaching went well and thanks to exercises and time for them to play with the software, I had enough material to get through the day.  A lucky break also came in the form of attending Conrad’s presentation, though we were late due to a short downpour.  It was quite intense, but they had an impressive drainage system so I waded through standing water going into the building but not coming out.

This night’s meal was at the Oasis Hotel (pronounced o-AHH-sees), one of the nicer places in town, with Conrad, Julie, and our 2 Norwegian friends.  The restaurant’s specialty was Indian and it didn’t disappoint.  It was also the first time I tried Tangawizi, a ginger ale with an intense flavor that comes in a brown bottle so you blend in at happy hour.  Kristian introduced me to it the night before, and he loved it so much he always ordered two bottles at once.  While dining I had an idea about a class project—together, we could make a series of PowerPoint slides for the CEPF workshop.  This would give them a goal and a useful product, not to mention helping me along.  This was a safer ride home, but sadly not much earlier so it was a late night again, combined with an early morning.  This time Åschel, the other Norwegian, joined me for the night shift.  As we sat and worked I kept getting distracted by the TV that was showing music videos.  Again, the American music they’re currently listening to surprises me—some recent things, but no fear of Michael Bolton.  There was also a healthy dose of African music, though I’m not sure which countries.