Hi, I’m Ashley and I’m an international student.

This fact is really good and really hard.

Here are some more details about school and my days.

The SUZA campus we are at sits right in town and is the Center for Language. Our Walimu (teachers) are two older Tanzanian men, Omar and Hasan, and are absolutely fantastic teachers. The first full day here we toured our campus and visited another that sits right on the water and met probably all of the staff. In the first week we were learning as one group in one room besides three girls who hadn’t taken Swahili in Spokane. The second week we broke up into three smaller classes. So now I have class with four other students and Mwalimu Omar. We don’t have any other students with us in class but interact with them a bit outside in the courtyard. At the end of the month we will have an exam and receive a grade, which is a little intimidating, but hamna shida (no problem). SUZA is considered one of the best places to learn the language and Swahili and Arabic, we just learned, has made its way to the top of the most important languages list, cool!

Since we get out around noon we normally have the rest of the day free. When there aren’t lunches or outings planned by our house mom, I go home for lunch and sleep for a while, do homework, play with the kids a bit or read. Some days we go out, walking around the market (soko) or going down by the water to do homework or swim. We have one path through the market to the water that we know very well. The market we like to go to runs along the main road and leaks into the alleyways behind it. These small streets create a maze of shops, shaded by the tall buildings. There is a coffee house I really enjoy as well called Zanzibar Coffee House. It’s fairly touristy, if people can find it in the streets, but it makes for a nice get away. There are certain venders and artists we found we like to visit also.

The main waterfront is a place called Forodhani. Its very touristy but also has a ton of Zanzibar culture surrounding it. You can always find boys jumping over the edge into the water and there are places to grab a soda and watch the ocean. There is the occasional vender giving you a good deal on scarves or a charming young man wanting to exchange help with Swahili for help with English. A beach lined with a few hotels sits next to Forodhani and it’s a beautiful place to watch the sunset. Nighttime is when this place is most alive. The large area over looking the water holds dozens of individual vending tables light up by lanterns come night fall. Here people can pick out plates of seafood on sticks with Tanzanian bread and full crab arms. Or get some “pizza” (its more like an omelet) or watch them make Tanzania Mix for you (a local soup that is probably one of the best things I’ve had). Or go to the fruit table and get a large chunk of pineapple. And of course there are multiple booths selling the infamous sugarcane juice that you watch them press right in front of you. I have been out after dark way more here than in Arusha, always in groups, and it has been very safe and very fun. Sometimes we’ll walk to places near our house with our family to get chips (French fries) and meat kabobs for dinner.

My roommate and I have also taken many little trips to visit the extended family of our host family who all want to meet us. On multiple occasions we’ve been eating food and our host mom says, “Oh, my father brought that for you!” or sister or aunt or someone we’ve meet. We even went to have lunch at our housefather’s sister’s house, just my roommate and I and our two little siblings. We had a true meal there, eating on the floor without any silverware. Also, something in my soup looked like a shellfish but I guess it was part of a chicken. It’s been a fun adventure getting to know the town as our home.

As far as language, the whole ‘student’ part, I am picking up new Swahili fairly well. It’s funny when I don’t know a word in Swahili but my mind knows I’m not supposed to be speaking English, suddenly my Spanish from years ago kicks in, words I forgot I even knew. It’s fun, but doesn’t actually help anything because it’s still not Swahili. Despite the fact that it’s amazing how the brain retains things. I can easily make conversations with people in the stores or tailor shops but when I think about all the slang, all the little ways we speak differently in America and knowing that those differences exist here too, man I have so much to learn. And they talk so quickly with unfamiliar words. My biggest struggle so far has been listening and picking up on what people are saying. In class our teacher speaks slowly, but in the real world the pace quickens and I can’t quite put all the things I hear into place. I’ve gotten down the formula for putting my own sentence together but if I’m talking to someone who doesn’t know some English to fall back on, i.e. the aunt who we had lunch with the other day, I feel out of luck. This has been really hard. You can continue to have fun and laugh and play across language barriers, but after a while I do want to get to know people more and without conversation it is hard. It makes even starting a conversation difficult. I also don’t want to say anything wrong or respond to them in the wrong way. I might think, “Shoot, did I just tell them I want to go somewhere I actually don’t by the way I responded?” It can be frustrating and tiring, but is also more reason to study my Swahili.

The other day we received conversation partners from SUZA so I will be meeting and hanging out with my new friend, Sleiman, quite a bit. I was pretty scared to be partnered up with a local student at first, but I got over it and know that it's going to be one of best things I have. 

That is mostly outside of school. For in school, picture this: the majority of the school is locals, so mostly Africans, and Muslims, which means all the women are covered and some of the men wear traditional Islamic dress and hats. And then here I am, only 12 others like me among a few hundred. I feel exposed, literally. Think this could give me perspective for cultural interaction upon returning to Spokane? I think yes. There are a few German students we have meet but they are beyond us in Swahili and carry conversations with the local friends they’ve made over the last four months. We have found friendship with two American couples though and a German couple who are possibly more in love with American football than a large percentage of Americans. They actually planned our trip to a sports bar about 2km outside of Stonetown to watch the Superbowl replay Monday night. Yea Giants!! Both of them actually play on German teams, men’s and women’s. I told Batza I think it would be fun to join the women’s football team that just started in Spokane. She probably thinks I’m really cool now. They have been volunteering in Tanzania for a few months. The four Americans are about two years into their 10-year plan to be in Tanzania. They are being sponsored by individuals and a church back down south somewhere and are learning the language and making friendships before figuring out what God wants them to do exactly. Sadly both these groups are leaving within the next week.

In addition to our teaching, SUZA takes us on field trips every week, Wednesdays and Saturdays. We’ve been to a Museum, a white sandy beach and Jozani Forest where we saw Colobus monkeys and mangrove tress. Planned we have a spice farm, a few villages where we’ll spend more time on the beach and one trip on the schedule says “swim with dolphins” (!!) but I have to remember TIA (see TIA blog post if you haven’t). We’ve also been able to feed sea turtles and hold lil’ baby turtles. I wasn’t expecting these great experiences!

So yes, there are difficulties. It’s hard to be different. Sometimes I want to go home and have a hardy conversation with my friends. I hear about the happenings of Whitworth and Jan-term breaks and wish I could be there. I miss my family and my familiar church (p.s. trying churches here has been a great experience). But then, in reality, nothing in me wants to leave this place yet. It is still hard to believe that I am here, making connections across the globe, walking around the streets of Africa and learning a language I plan to become fluent in. You know those pictures of white sandy beaches and clear, turquoise waters that stretch out, turning dark blue, a few wooden boats scattered here and there with white sails? That is a piece of my reality this right now. You know those stories people tell of the days they learned how to manage the other side of the world? I’m just starting to write them. You know the people who have Facebook friends around the world and you’re like, “Do they really know that person?” I get to say yes. Point being, there’s no where I’d rather be right now and it’s all because of God’s peace and my trust in his plan. It’s all God, because, you know those times when you just want to cry, or be alone! Yea those have been happening too.

There is so much God is doing in Spokane and I wondered why he wanted me to leave now. I knew somehow there would still be connection and according to the news I recently heard, there is. That part of my blog was read at my church was reassuring, encouraging, humbling and so, so much of a blessing. Thank you to all those supporting me. The Lord has great things in store. I can't wait to see them revealed.

Hi, I'm Ashley, and I'm becoming part Tanzanian.