Wa fahamu ki Swahili? (Do you understand Swahili?)

Ha pana, ni fahumu ki Swahili (No, I do not understand Swahili)

This is about all the Swahili I’ve learned so far. I thought more people would speak English in Dar es Salaam, but for the most part they know only a little bit, but not enough to communicate with me beyond the very basics. I also learned how to say to our taxi driver, Abel, “That price is not fair.” Abel has been driving us everywhere; he’s very friendly and basically just laughs a lot, but of course still always tries to overcharge us. He was very excited when I offered him a chocolate chip granola bar today that I had brought from home, he kept laughing when he was eating it so I think he liked it!
Today I saw a crippled person begging on the side of the road, and I could clearly tell he was had polio. It was interesting because we have studied polio in class and seen movies on it, but I think it’s the first time I have seen someone and recognized that they had polio. My teacher was very impressed as I recollected that for each person who becomes paralyzed by polio, there are two hundred more people that have the disease, but are asymptomatic. She was of course impressed because I learned it in her class last semester, but the truth is it stuck with me because it’s such a scary fact.
This morning we attended the CARE meeting and actually were recognized in a speech by the president of CARE USA. We met all the CARE board members from the USA which are basically very wealthy people who are the main funders for CARE USA. After that we rushed off to an afternoon at the beach, as the others in the group won’t have any other chance to go to the beach as it is there last time in Dar (I and one other will stay on for a month in Dar after our three week research with our professor). We took a boat to a small island with an extremely beautiful and pristine beach. It was my first time at the Indian Ocean and I was so excited that when the boat got near the Island it stopped, as we had to take a smaller boat the rest of the way, but instead of getting on the smaller boat, I jumped off the big boat and swam the rest of the way to the island. It was further than it originally looked, but the water felt great and I had a mask on and was able to see through the clear blue waters. A man on the island asked if we wanted fish to eat and we all said yes, and two hours later he returned with fish. You know the joke that one may say in the states after food taking two hours: “what is he doing, going and catching the fish himself?” Well, that joke doesn’t work here, because yes, he did go catch the fish himself and then cooked it for us. He brought us each a huge chunk of barracuda and it was delicious…I think it was my first time eating barracuda….although my piece looked like it came from a very large barracuda which made me a little nervous about how far I had just swam in the water!
Jeremy has thankfully figured out how to call my hotel room, and yesterday we had just gotten back from an outing and were still sitting in the taxi outside the hotel trying to sort out the price with the driver when one of the hotel staff came and specifically got me out of the car and said I had a phone call. “Are you sure it’s for me?” I asked. “Yes yes.” I went inside and sure enough Jeremy was on the phone. I was completely baffled because all Jeremy had ever done was call the hotel and ask to be connected to room 318. So, how did they know out of all five of us in the group and anyone else in the hotel that it was me? Karen, our professor, confirmed, “Oh yeah, they know everything about us!” They have memorized which of us are in which room and can recognize us. I was really surprised and thought it was funny.
Anyways, tomorrow we leave on a small plane to Mwanza, where we begin our research. Apparently the flights are often delayed several hours or cancelled altogether, so I’m bringing my patience with me to the airport. Africa requires a lot of patience for us Americans, which is challenging at times, but I know it’s good for me to slow down and just relax. I still only have great things to say about the people here, everyone is so nice and very friendly. We even went to an outdoor craft market and I was taken aback that no one was pushy or trying to pressure us to buy things, they were very laid back and polite…I was shocked because in Jamaica I absolutely hated to go to the craft markets because the people were so aggressive and overbearing. Anyone who has gotten off a cruise ship in Jamaica or the Bahamas know what I mean! Anyways, I am doing relatively well despite being across the world from Jeremy and Punkie. It definitely helps knowing that almost as soon as I get back I will be marrying Jeremy, but of course I really miss him and in many ways hope that these next 7 weeks pass very quickly!

***Also, check out the front page of the Georgia State Institute of Public Health’s website: http://publichealth.gsu.edu/ . The link of the article will lead you to everyone else’s blog which may be interesting. Actually, I just read Karen's blog and found it funny that she is terrified of the driving here, I think it's heaven compared to Jamaica....I haven't been scared at all! I completely understand where she's coming from though!