Big City

After a week of safari life, and at the point of feeling truly chafu (dirty), we packed up camp and headed into Arusha—a tourist hub in Tanzania, and also the site of the International Tribunal for Rwanda. In Arusha I realized the true beauty of the postal system (write me! Box 6007, Arusha, TZ), attended a health lecture, and got myself mixed up in an immigration mess.

At the health lecture from a Tanzanian physician, I learned, “Don’t get connected until you’re protected!” – Thank you Dr. Isaac.

I also learned that Sarah Palin is even more unbelievably outrageous than I had imagined.

And then the immigration drama began. Night one in Arusha I was sitting with one other student, the program assistant for SIT, and her roommate Julius. It turns out that their third roommate, Z, had been arrested that day for an expired work permit and attempting to get a fake TZ passport—she herself was from Kenya. So that night we went to the jail and brought her dinner. Man, I would not want to spend time in Tanzanian jail. We saw some crazy shit—including people walking in bleeding from the head. (Of note, Tanzania does not have the same kind of anti-corruption suggestion box at police stations as they have in Kenya).

It looked like the prisoner was going to have a rough time getting out of jail, but no one expected immigration to go after our program assistant, Doreen, who herself is Tanzanian and merely Z’s roommate. The police claimed she was Kenyan, took her passport and intimidated her.

I’m not sure how I became involved, or what my role was, but the next week Doreen called me and told me that if anyone asked I should say I was at Mt. Meru hospital on Friday night for a stomach illness and that I had been visited by SIT staff. I think it was supposed to be an alibi- but I’ve never had to follow up on it and no one asked. Good thing because I am a terrible liar and this would be one easy alibi to disprove.

At this point the passport is still MIA but Z found someone to pay her bail and is out of prison….

Vocab word of the day: Wawowo= ass
Lesson of the day: Stay out of Tanzanian jail
Bongo Fleva artist of the day: AY