Yesterday was a good day, so I think I'll tell you about it before I tell you about today which was a little more difficult. Three little boys from across the street came over. Sharife, who is 4 and adorable and very funny, kept saying marahaba everytime I talked to him. Marahaba is a greeting an elderly person gives a younger person after they say "shikamoo". So I would say Shikamoo monkey, shikamoo baba, etc. He was there with his friend Abi who lives with him. Abi told me a long story about a dog, mbwa. But I couldn't understand the rest. He was very expressive though. Then Sharife's brother Alifeh came over. They asked me if I had seen Lion King haha, and then they say sang hakuna matata. But they'd seen lion king in swahili so they sang all of hakuna matata in swahili. Very cute. Then they asked me about Harry Potter. Haha I put on “yuri yuri” for them, a very popular song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZtoU7WWUwI and they danced bongo moves that they called piki piki, which means motorcycle. I'll put up a video of it sometime, and you'll see why. Alifeh is an amazing dancer. All of them were good though. Alifeh could moonwalk and breakdance. The kids here seem very well behaved. These kids just came over here. They didn't have to ask anyone permission or even if they could hang out here. They just came and hung out. It was very fun with them. They also love Akon and 50 Cent.

After the boys left, I hung out at the house. Eva made pillau--- a Tanzanian rice dish. It was very yummy. Then, Debbie, Ibrah's girlfriend, came over and took me to her house at Moshi Technical, the university that her dad is what I think is the groundskeeper at. The university was very lush and green but there was a lot of overgrowth of plants, that looked fine, but would never be seen in an American university, where tidieness is essential. We walked around and as per usual people starred at me, whatever. Her house was ok. The walls were dirty but had once been white. On the TV when I came in, Tom and Jerry was on. We watched Tom and Jerry with her sister, Naomi, she's 12, and then they put in a dvd of bongo music videos. She brought me Fanta that was passion fruit flavored—delicious. Fanta is really popular here. It comes in tall, skinny glass bottles, like all soft drinks here. Anyways, the music videos were mostly Bongo but some were Ugandan. Ugandan music videos are very heavily influenced by American rap and hip-hop videos and music. Debbie asked me at this point, because of someone in a video's chain, what Ghetto was. That was funny to describe. After I thought she finally got it, she said, “Like your hair!” I don't know what that means, but a note on my hair: People are fascinated by it. Is it real or rasta? How did you do that to your hair? One thing I noticed very American at Debbie's: Her dad doesn't like Ibrah and so when he asked how I knew Debbie she was very careful at instructing me what to say and what not to say. She knew how to lie to dad about boys. We Americans are not that different than Tanzanians.

After some time, Debbie and I left Moshi Technical and went to meet Ava who was at her Aunt's house. We walked there, of course passed a herd of cows led by small boys, and reached a very nice neighborhood. I think her Aunt and her family have a lot of money, but it is hard to tell in Tanzanian homes. This home was particularly nice though. I met Eva's cousins, whom she calls brothers and sisters. One is named Consolata, one of the most beautiful people I've ever seen. She's 17 has very short hair as all Tanzanians do and is light skinned, kind of close to my complexion, and has beautiful eyes. Then I met Junior, I think he's like 10, another sister (forgot her name) maybe like 12, and a really cute little boy, Eric. After them, I met Raymond who is 20. He is a very attractive Tanzanian, as are most. He also climbed killi last year, and him, like everyone else, is making me have second thoughts on climbing. He wants to go again and said I could join their group. Maybe...Raymond drove us to the Highway Supermarket after we left. Highway Supermarket is a big-ish roadside store that I would say is the equivalent to a Tanzanian Walmart, except it is not similar at all. Eva bought me a delicious hazelnut ice cream cone, and she got one too. Later that night, we watched a Bongo movie. Bongo movies are about the same quality as an episode of Cops and are terrible, so terrible they're funny. You know those movies? During the movie, Ibrah and I got into an intense debate about homosexuality which is illegal here. He said because it is illegal there are less of them. In the U.S. there are a lot because people are choosing that lifestyle. Of course, that opened up a huge discussion. I should have just kept my mouth shut. Let me go back to the walk home with Eva actually, (my mind is a mess. Sorry). We walked back with our ice cream, and on the way, I loved Tanzania. I wouldn't say I love Tanzania all the time, but in the moment, I really loved TZ. We passed some wealthy Tanzanians probably going to a wedding, as the women had very elaborate head scarves and dresses, and they were all packed into a Range Rover. Then we passed a Massai woman and man with very stretched ears and walking sticks. Then we passed a lone goat walking around, later we saw his herd. We also passed a huge group of wazungu. Weird seeing them in these parts. Then we passed a woman in a burqa and some kids playing catch. We stopped by them to get fresh roasted corn. The corn was growing tall behind the man selling the corn he was cooking over coals. The road home from Highway Supermarket to Soweto, is the Tanzania I love. Women in crazy, printed batik, goat herds, free, amazingly cute kids and fresh roasted corn. However, today I saw another side of Tanzania. A side that makes me sad.

My organization has given me a bit more guidance, but I've really had to just do things on my own. Today, I went down the muddy road to talk to some WEECE members. These women had come to WEECE to seek legal counseling. Jaqueline, the 15 year old granddaughter of my supervisor, although probably not the biological granddaughter since everyone calls everyone their relative, came with as a translator. The Americans who work with my organization asked me to collect stories of the women being helped in WEECE so that they could use their information for presentations and to help in a documentary they want to make. The first woman I met was named Tiffania. She had needed legal counseling because she had built a home with her boyfriend, who was at the time soon to be her husband and father of her children, and her brothers, sisters and mother came without permission and moved in. Culturally, they had every right to that home since TIffania was not married. They threatened her husband constantly because they only saw the house and Tiffania as wealth and not as a home. According to Tanzanian law, Tiffania had rights to the home, but even that is not enough for the government here. The culture of oppression towards women wins. We also met a woman who came to Moshi for the day from the village because she had a child out of wedlock and was already a poor, uneducated girl living in the slums. After her child was born, the father refused to pay, even though according to Tanzanian law he only is required to pay 10 tsh a month. This is literally nothing as 1,000 tsh is about $1. Instead, she is blamed for having a child without a husband. The father agreed to pay about $40 a month to WEECE to give to her, Johanna, but has not shown up since January. So, every month Johanna takes the bus with whatever money she can scrape up and arrives at WEECE in Moshi hoping that he has come with money to support her baby. There is never money, so Mamma Mrema, my supervisor, gives her bus fare and sends her on her way. She is frail and sad looking, and Mamma Mrema says she has lost about 50 pounds and was always thin, since he stopped paying her. Johanna's eyes are constantly teary and her light pink and brown konga is clearly heavily worn. I do not love this Tanzania.