Well, its been a while. And I'm about to go to the field, so it'll be a while again. Hopefully I'll update again between now and then, but no promises. So, because I am an utter failure as a blogger, here is a brief list of what I have done so far (Its mostly chronological, but occasionally memory fails me).
The second weekend, we went to Pugu Hills nature reserve, a forest about 15k south of Dar. Apparently it is a failed conservation area (it used to have things like wildlife, and now it doesnt), but its certainly a successful tourist spot. It consisted of a big tatched roof enclosure, dimly lit, with three large tables, many comfortable chairs and a few reclining mats (nap city). Oh, and swimming pool also. And a great view. Needless to say, I actually loved it. And we had Pilau for lunch (spiced rice- think rice with lots of cloves, cardamom, and ginger), which was wonderful, The best food I had had up to that point. Then we went on a threeish mile hike, to a gravel mine. This kind of shocked me, because a more apt description of the gravel mine is a big hole where mind blowing poor Tanzanians use hammers to beat huge rock into lots of tiny rocks (gravel). And when we got there, I learned that they did this from 6AM-6PM everyday for 6000 shillings, which is approximately 4 dollars. And on top of that, they can't afford bottled water, so they go the whole day without water. I think that, quite literally, I would die if I had to do that. When our group arrived at the “mine” they workers wanted our water, and I found as much water as people were willing to donate and gave it all to the workers, who thanklessly chugged it all. And I didn't care that they showed no gratitude: had I been in their situation, and a bunch of Americans had come up to use me a tourist attraction, I would not have been to happy either.
After that experience, the day breezed by. It was a good one, but I don't remember the details. One more things about the gravel mine, however. Water costs us between 15 and 50 per liter, an absolute pittance. However, when you are making 4 dollars a day, that 50 cents is a lot more expensive. I would have carried the biggest bottle of water we can buy, which is 12 liters, to those workers if I had known ahead of time. As it was, I gave them my (and several other people's) water that I had intended to use for the hike, as I decided that I could survive for an hour and a half without water, especially given that they would be without water for much longer. Many of my several students did not share this opinion with me though. In particular, I remember one person looking right at me, with a full 1.5 liter bottle and totally ignoring my request. She was unwilling to spend 66 cents and go thirsty for an hou and a half to help people that need water much more that her and could afford much less of it. I was appalled by her total selfishness and lack of empathy. So I left Pugu with both a redesigned idea of poverty and hardship (something that has happened again since then), a really sour opinion of that girl and, most importantly, a little less faith in humanity.
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