the short list

Here is my list of things I need to learn:

- Kihaya (or Ruhaya, depending on who you're talking to)
- historical linguistics
- anthropological linguistics
- historical linguistic research methods (ditto anthropology)
- how to cook fearlessly on a propane burner indoors
- how to say "power rationing" in Swahili
- what the shelf life of various foods is when the power for the fridge is off
- what the muezzin are saying at 11:34 on a Saturday night as they call/pray*
- how to design my own clothing, esp. skirts
- collegial diplomacy
- how to get along better with expats/NGO-ers (file also under: why my friends here are German/Swedish/Tanzanian)

And...

French.

Just your basic French. Because I now have a correspondence running with the father in charge of the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) archive in Rome where I write in English and he writes in French. Their lingua franca is, well, French. I can read enough French to get it, and to get the diaries I've got for my research, but, um, dude. Receiving emails in a foreign language where I can't even start to conjugate a verb is unsettling.

Today I also: plotted research and correspondence after waking up at 6:30, negotiated a safari package, negotiated a day trip with a taxi to Bagamoyo, raised funds for Obama, did not mingle, got a doxy-sunburn (like a real sunburn, except with all the pain and none of the color change), fantasized about the clothing I would design with Tanzanian fabric if I had time/talent, and bled money for taxis doing all of the above.

The word for tonight is: yow! Thank god tomorrow is Sunday and I can rest.


* it occurs to me that the neighborhood muezzin might be making up for the hours of 6-8 p.m., when there is usually general recitation of verses over the loudspeakers (only during Ramadan). Today, their loudspeakers didn't have power between 2-11 p.m., either, like me and the rest of my neighborhood.