Day to day in Tanzania

Nothing too overly exciting is going on this week, just more of seeing the city and getting to explore Dar. Yesterday we went to Slipway, a local tourist hot-spot, which has some marketplaces to buy things at. I bought some really nice jewelry and got pretty decent prices, but I can definitely get things cheaper in the local markets. We also had lunch there which was a nice treat - I had real pasta. So far anything that is described as Italian that I've tried in Dar has been a culinary disaster.

I also got my grade back from my first Swahili test. I got an 86 and was a little worried until I heard the Tanzanian grading scale. 70-100 is an A, 60-69 a B, and 50-59 a C. I think we need to adopt this scale at Georgetown! It would certainly make my life a little more relaxed.

Today we went to check out this gender advocacy group in Dar, the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme. We heard a brief presentation and got to ask some questions and I found it really interesting. It was started in1993 in order to get Tanzania engaged in the Beijing Women's Conference and has grown from there. It is a pretty progressive and critical force in the country yet it can't/it refuses to take a stance on abortions and GLBT rights. Being homosexual and getting an abortion are both illegal in Tanzania (as in many African countries save South Africa) so there really is no movement at all related to these issues because as the presenter explained, the government would very openly squash this form of advocacy. It was interesting to see the unique ideology that the center took on (Nyerere-esque socialism and anti-imperialism) and how they worked with the local women's and youth groups around the country. I wish I had the chance to check it out more, but we had to go. I plan to look into it further in the future.

I think tomorrow I am heading to the Egyptian embassy to attempt to get a visa. Hopefully Andrew and I will not be stuck in the Cairo airport for a week! Wish us luck!