Going to the Market

We started classes on Thursday this week.  The class is called Human Rights and Capacity Building in East Africa, and,  as the title implies, it's about Human Rights in Africa.  I have been worrying about this course for a while.  We got the syllabus a while back and there were like 5 or 6 readings for every class day.  Each reading was around 10 plus pages.  On Wednesday everyone in the house spent the whole night trying to get our reading done for the first class.  It was pretty miserable, especially since all the reading was super dry.  They were all different U.N. charters that essentially say the same thing.  I was actually kind of treading class on Thursday after doing all this reading.  What the heck was this course going to be like?

On Thursday we went to class and met our teacher Charles.  He is a younger guy who is still working on getting his PhD in London, but he is from Tanzania.  One of the first things he told us was "I know you have like sometimes 110 pages on the syllabus for each night, but I just want you to read what you can and what you are interested in."  I liked him right away!  Class was a lot more relaxed than I expected.  It's more conversations about our thoughts, ideas, and interests than lecture.

After class on Thursday, one of the native Tanzanians who take the class took us to some of the local markets.  The first market we went to was the Masai market.  This market has a lot of the "locally made" jewelery and goods for sale.  I was a little wary when people told me they had made the sculptures themselves, but I did see the women actually making jewelery while I was there.  This was clearly the market for tourists, or for the mzungu.  The sellers were a little overwhelming all yelling "Sister! Welcome! Come see my shop!".  They obviously saw we are not from here and tried to over charge us.  Haggling is definitely a must in Tanzania.

Next we went to the real market in Arusha.  The market that the people at live there go to.  It was totally overwhelming.  There were so many people there I was afraid I would get separted from my group.  People are selling vegetable, fruit, meat, and fish all over the place.  I sorry to say this, but I was a lot more comfortable in the mzungu market.