Harusi ni Pemba!

Habari!

I hope this post finds you all doing well and hopefully enjoying a nice spring. Right now I'm in Stone Town and returned yesterday from Pemba Island for my sister Hildhat's wedding. I arrived on Thursday afternoon after a bumpy (to say the least) ferry ride up from Unguja. To put it nicely, I realized what the small plastic bags that were handed out were for when everyone started to turn green in the face. Anyways, sitting at the port in Stone Town waiting for my ferry I was in a group of probably 100 people, many of whom had fresh henna and were all dressed up, and I learned later, when I got to my house in Pemba, that I was "related" to most of them. They all recognized me as the only mzungu on the ferry, and embraced me warmly as their own. When I arrived at the port in Pemba, in the city on the south end of the island called Mkoani, I survived the stampede of passengers and porters and successfully found my way to a dala dala up to Chake Chake. Upon arrival to my house, I was greeted by my family and about 50 relatives that were at my house, they were all very happy to see me and I was very excited as well. Highlights from the weekend include (but are not limited to, this is the shortlist):

-Being in a room full of women in a circle, watching the mzungu knead bread dough, and entertaining the masses. They then physically took my hands and taught me the "correct" way.

-Being introduced to my host family's oldest son Anuwar, who I'd never met because he lives in Dar, and then him telling me that he likes me and asking if I had a husband. I'm now in an unofficial arranged marriage, and was referred to by every family member that I met after that as "the one who will marry Anuwar".

-Another marriage offer by one of my neighbors for her son. Who I was told is very smart and very strong.

-Being coaxed by two 80+ year old women who were my host grandma and great aunt, into dancing with them. They know how to cut a rug.

-Approval from all of the women in my style of dance (as communicated by screams of joy), they wrapped a scarf around my waist, which is a sign that they think you dance well (shake your butt well).

-Mass food production in preparation of the wedding

-Sleeping with a girl in a twin bed who I didn't know, we introduced eachother right before we went to sleep.

-Being taken by my host aunt to her house, not knowing at all where I was going, being forced to shower and change out of one dress into another for the second part of the wedding. Then they did my makeup. I have pictures.

-Finally, we arrived at what I thought was the wedding reception, which turns out was for women only, and being dragged repeatedly to the dance floor in front of all of the guests, and dancing in front of them all.

-Transport to and from the reception venue were two dala dalas from the town of Chake Chake. Women inside, and men on the roof.

There are so many more stories that I could tell, but that would take forever. That gives you all a little taste of what I did this weekend. Saying goodbye yesterday was extremely difficult, and really made me feel like the end of our adventure is getting closer. I think that saying goodbye to my family in Pemba will be one of the hardest, if not the hardest goodbye I will have to do, besides saying goodbye to my fellow students. I'm reminded again that I am horrible at goodbyes! I can't imagine never seeing my family here again, and have promised myself that I must return one day to visit.

I will now go live at a art community center/house for about a week or so to volunteer and teach some art/work in the gardens/do anything i can do to help. Next Friday, the whole group of students will go to the wedding here in Stone Town, of the daughter of one of our Kiswahili teachers, Bi Asia. A group of us are then thinking about going up to Northern Tanzania, near Arusha, to check out the Ngorogoro Crater area. I'm not sure if I will go or not, depending on if I get my research project done this week with my paper written and all. Hope you made it to the end of this long post well! Thanks for reading!

best,
laura