Saba Saba

By Megan, Dar es Salaam

Tanzania has an inordinate amount of national holidays. July 7, Saba Saba (seven seven) is a worker’s day, with a national holiday and a big international trade fair. Against the advice of Mama Leah, our program coordinator, who said it was boring, we took a bus and Dhala all the way to the fair.

The countries I saw represented aside from Tanzania, include Iran, China, and Pakistan, but as the other students in my program pointed out, everything seemed a little tacky except for the fabrics, jewelry, and carving. Still, I bought a beautiful blue Kitange for my mom, heard music, and watched roller skaters carrying blue kite in a circle (this seemed to be a show, but I didn’t quite understand), so all-in-all, it was worth the trek. Of course, the Coca-Cola chairs at every restaurant were a reminder of the ever-present forces of American consumerism, even in a supposedly socialist country.

But my more momentous celebration of this worker’s day was doing laundry. I never again want to hear anyone at Amherst complain about laundry. I lugged my clothes from 5^th floor (in Tanzania, they start counting at 0, so really the 6^th floor) and across a courtyard to a water spiget. I soaked the clothes in soap for a half hour, before individually scrubbing each piece of clothes by hand. The nice thing was, my incompetence was a conversation starter. I chatted with a nice Tanzanian journalism student in Swahili and English after she observed that this seemed different for me (I think she meant difficult).

I appreciated the chance to talk in Swahili because I get frustrated always speaking English with the group. When we’re in public others speak more quickly than me because my Swahili is the weakest, so I’m studying hard, but not getting enough practice. Hopefully, I’ll get more confident soon.