Summer Trip - ***Hate America Msg***

[ikon2003]

[*** Okay, latest post, a unique perspective that shows why so many people around the world really hate America. Feel free to post what you think....***]


[**Page 2 on my most recent post has a few car pix. Hope you like them.**]


[*I finally was able to post the thumbnail code for my pics... more info on page 2. Lots of the photos have really interesting background stories behind them too, but for now I only have time to post a few pix. Comments and critiques are welcome.*]


Duno if neone has noticed, but I've been gone from JW for the past 2 months or so. I had exams (when i resist JW temptations lest I fail out), and then I went straight into my crazy summer schedule and haven't had a chance to check JW till now.

In short, I'm hitting over a dozen countries worldwide starting at home in the US and going east to the far coast of Asia, then turning around and going home.

For those that are interested in this kind of stuff, I'm copying and pasting emails that i've sent back so everyone can learn from my experience. (And cuz the emails are insanely long, I'm putting each email in a separate post. I kno it's against the rules, but it's for your benefit and sanity; I couldnt care less about the post-count right now.)

Also, I've tried editing them to delete real names etc, but if some of them still appear, admins feel free to censor. and if there are other infractions that my emails may contain (as i've noticed JW has gone thru some major rennovations in the past couple months), do w/e u need to do to fix it.

I will try to check JW again in a few days to see what ppl think, but after a week I'm going back to Africa and will only have email access (if i'm lucky), so if you have any comments or questions for me, you can best contact me thru email at [email protected]

enjoy the read....

[ikon2003]

This is my first email since starting my summer trip back on June 6th. Most of the people on this list have probably been expecting this email for a while, while others I’ve decided to add along the way cuz I thought they mite be interested. In short, I can say that I’m safe, and I’m having an awesome time thus far. I realize these types of emails can get rather lengthy, so I’ll try my best to summarize the key points. If you’re in a rush, you might want to save it for later, or skip the sections that don’t interest you. And if international adventures just isn’t your thing, I won’t be offended if you skip it entirely. Enuf tautology tho; here’s what’s happened during the past two weeks:

Country #1: UK
My (very) brief visit to London consisted of a mad dash through Heathrow terminal no. 4 in an effort to catch my connecting flight to Paris. My plane from BWI arrived nearly 2 hours late due to a thunder/hail storm in Washington. As soon as I disembarked in London, I heard my name amidst a list of people for the “immediately departing BA flight to Paris.” Of course, my gate was on the exact opposite side of the terminal. All in all, I spent less than 300 seconds running thru Heathrow.

Country #2: France
I arrived in France after successfully catching my connecting flight. I could have easily waited for the next flight 90 minutes later, but I didn’t want my luggage hanging around Charles De Gaulle unattended. Naturally, one of my two bags didn’t make the connecting flight, so I had to wait in CDG for over 2 hours till it arrived.

First impression outside the airport: The French public transport system is amazing. With a train station directly below the airport, I jumped on the RER to Paris, Luxembourg station. During my 3 days in Paris, I frequently used the Metro system to get to places when I was in a rush, or traveling a long distance. 1.5Euros flat rate per trip isn’t the typical European extortion either.

I stayed in a wonderful apartment near the Luxembourg palace with some family friends. A great location with some familiar people, it was a good warm-up for traveling on my own for the next 3 months.

Most of the time I walked: Paris is a fairly dense city, and is wonderful to just get lost. Often times I’d ditch the map and just wander around, seeing what attracted me. One day I walked all the way from the 6eme arrondisement, and after a busy day all around the seine, ended up all the way at the Basilique de Sacre Coeur in the 18eme. During the two full days I was there, I easily walked over 20 miles.

Language: My French turned out to be surprisingly fluent, considering I hadn’t really used it in 2 years. The French are very particular about their language, and if they detect an American accent, they will almost immediately change to English. I know this was a big problem for some of the American students I knew that wanted to practice their French. Luckily, having lived in Switzerland for 3 years as a kid, my accent was rather acute, and I never ran into this problem. My grammar and vocabulary were lacking at times, but it wasn’t enough to give away the fact that I was an American, which allowed for 100% of my communication to be done in (passable) French. In short, knowing French helped me appreciate the Parisian ‘joie de vivre’ so much more, and it definitely opened up the hearts of many stereotypically snobby Europeans.

Cars: Most people know that I’m a gear-head, so I have to add this short section. Cars in Europe are tiny…. As in ‘wow that Mini-Cooper is huge’ tiny. I even saw a few cars that could parallel park on the street perpendicularly to the traffic-direction because they were so small. Diesel is much more common here, as are small fuel efficient engines. This was a perfect microcosm exemplifying the extravagance and wastefulness of Americans when compared to the rest of the world.

Photos: I lugged along most of my camera equipment, including my tripod, in order to get some quality photos. The tripod came in handy for a few nite shots, especially along the seine. Unfortunately I didn’t get the nite shot of the Eiffel Tower that I wanted. I’ll have to get that when I return. During my stay in Paris, I took over 1,000 photos in large (8.2 megapixel) JPG mode. When I get to a high speed internet connection next month in Singapore, I’ll upload a few of them online.

People: One evening, I met up with about eight other Princeton students that were staying in Paris (plus some that I didn’t even know would be there, including a teammate on the track team). It was rather odd seeing familiar people in a foreign city, but somewhat comforting for the couple hours that it lasted.

Other highlights: Musee de Picasso, Jardin de Luxembourg, arc de triomphe, palais de chaillot, le pantheon, and some wonderful weather. (I didn’t get to do many of the main things I wanted to do…Louvre, d’Orsay, St. Chapelle etc… maybe on my return, and Versailles if I have time).

Country #3: Holland/Netherlands.

I took the Thalys train from Paris gare du nord to Amsterdam. All the student rates had been reserved by the time I bought my ticket, so I had to pay full price, which stunk, but I got there safely at least.

On the way over, all four people traveling to Amsterdam in my booth-area were American. A couple from Texas, and two college grads from New Jersey/NYC. The couple (late 20s) had been all over Europe doing the ‘cultural tour’, living very conservatively, and spending most of their time in idyllic Italy. The college grads were headed to Amsterdam to do what most young people do there: get high on legal marijuana.

Schipol Airport: Due to some unexpected travel issues, I spent nearly all my time in Schipol, rather than in downtown Amsterdam as I expected. Half of the problem was that I ordered my ticket online thru the KLM website, via the student-rate section. While it saved me a fair amount of money, it meant waiting around in multiple lines for a very long time. The other half of my problem came with my baggage. I’m traveling w/ one carry-on backpack and one belly bag (except for the BA flight, where I had to use this makeshift box cuz my carry-on was too heavy). While this may seem ‘light’ for 3 months, total weight of everything is around 50 kilos (shoes, books and cameras are killer). This time my belly bag was overweight, by 8 kilos, and after a long deliberation period, KLM gave me two options: pay 350Euros to carry the extra weight on board, or pay 150Euros and have everything shipped to Kenya in 4 days. Naturally, I took option number three, and headed towards the nearest rubbish bin I could find, and returned within allowable weight limits. (Note: stuffed cargo pockets and multiple layers of clothing while passing thru security were also involved.)

On the plane: I’ve actually gotten pretty lucky this trip w/ good seat-mates. On one side sat a delightful middle aged Norwegian woman who was meeting her husband in Zanzibar. On my other side was a pair Canadian nursing students. And when the Canadians told me that they were charged over $2,000US for their weight-limit infraction, I felt rather lucky. But because they were coming directly from Canada, and their bags were filled with humanitarian aid equipment (for the rural clinic they were to work in), they managed to talk their way out of the fine.

Country #4: Kenya

I spent only a day in Kenya, mostly hanging around Jomo Kenyatta airport in Nairobi. I had enough time to get out of customs, walk around a bit, get swarmed by the hundreds of unwanted taxi drivers, luggage carriers, money exchangers etc. After the short excursion, I entered the airport again with my connecting ticket to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, and hung out w/ the Canadian nurses while they waited for their flight to Malawi. All in all, the return to my birth country was too short, but an apropos choice for re-entry to the dark continent after a 7 year hiatus.

Country #5: Tanzania

As I write this, I’ve been in Dar Es Salaam for one week, yet it already feels like home. 15 years since I’ve been here, yet things seem surprisingly familiar. Everything is very much as I expected, but with all the fuzzy memories now replaced with vivid details that saturate all the senses. Tho I must admit, there are a few things which did catch me off guard.

Firstly is the growth of the muslim community. I’m told that the split is nearly 50/50 Muslim/Christian here, and Islam is by far the faster growing religion. Just 5 years ago, Christianity had a fairly solid hold as the majority, but with an influx of money from Saudi Arabia and surrounding regions, Islam is slowly buying the minds and spirits of the local people. (In fact, there’s a huge mosque right next to my appt window, and the daily prayers & singing at 5:20AM never fail to interrupt my sleep).

Secondly is the number of internet cafes here. They charge about 50 cents an hour, and it the quality is hardly worth that. They’re slow, unreliable, and on every street corner. I would much prefer if there were fewer cafes charging more money and with better service. Although there are high speed cable networks set up, it seems as if the entire city is sharing a single 100MBS connection, and seriously clogging the line.

Thirdly, and probably the biggest surprise, is the cell phone network here. Tanzania, and Africa in general, has a very advanced cell phone network that’s extremely easy to use and also reasonably priced. Straight up, it puts the US cell phone network to shame. That’s one of the advantages of third world countries: when they can finally get access to the latest technology, they do it right, cuz they don’t have to dismantle infrastructure and upgrade the entire country – they can leapfrog that entire process and open up the country to near-perfect competition with hoards of eager customers.

This trend can also be seen on the streets, where every free space is taken up by a vendor of some sort. And a surprisingly large part of the items being sold are directly from first world countries – not locally made products as many expect. Luggage, $2 silk ties, Britney Spears paraphernalia, insta-express-super-capuccino makers…some of the most random products you can imagine.

One example: I was in need of Listerine mouthwash and Purell insta-hand wash. Having not found it in any of the bigger supermarkets, I started searching the smaller shops. As my mom said, “those would be luxury items in the Dar I remember” and probably impossible to find. Anyway, after a day or two of looking, I found them in a small Indian shop a couple blocks away from my apartment. Of course, being Africa, there was only the nasty flavor of Listerine, and my Purell was some imitation-Indian brand which had expired 2 months ago and was only legal for sale in India and Nepal. Needless to say, I bought them both in a heartbeat.

These infectious black-markets (or highly efficient free-market economies, depending on what perspective you choose to take,) seem to have super-saturated the city, and some our bound to shut down soon enough. From what I’ve been told, TZ was very socialist up till 1990, and there was no economic progress. In the past five years however, the government has liberalized and opened itself up to freer trade and international investment. Surprisingly tho, with the exception of some drilling and extraction companies, Americans seem to invest very little here. Local, middle Eastern, Asian and European companies seem to be involved in all the action, while the Americans’ influence remains mainly in supplying the local black-markets with its excess supply of once-loved consumer products.

Hospital: One of the main reasons I’m here is that I’m volunteering in a hospital. My next email will be more about what I do around there. For now, suffice to say that it’s the most advanced private hospital in the area, and not a single person on this email list would be caught dead in it. (Pardon the pun.)

Tigers in Tanzania: The first full day that I was here, it was suggested that I go to Bongoyo island in the Zanzibar Archipelago as many ‘mzungus’ (white people) go there for a short day-trip, and perhaps I could meet some fellow Americans. Little did I know who I would meet here. Upon embarking the first tiny shuttle boat with only a score of people on it, I hear a voice to my right hesitantly utter my name. Low and behold, in this 3rd world African country on a tiny boat in the Indian Ocean, I see another Princeton student. And not just any Princeton student, but a classmate in my Environmental Science class with whom I did my final project/presentation. It turns out she’s working Habitat For Humanity here in Dar and will be here till the end of the month.

But it gets even more coincidental: Once on the island catching up, someone overhears we’re from Princeton, and says he knows of some other people on the island that are from Princeton too. And for the second time that day, I am flabbergasted by seeing Tigers in Tanzania. The 3 grad students are in Woody Woo working with the Clinton Foundation on HIV/AIDS drug distribution, and taking a break on Bongoyo Island. 5 Princeton students coincidentally meet on a small tropical island many thousands of miles away from the states….small world eh?

Bongoyo Island: Words can hardly describe this luscious tropical oasis that I visited. Imagine the most paradisiacal white-sand beach in the Caribbean, mix in some warmer equatorial water, more exotic marine-life, and a less toursity/westernized influence, and then you’ll have an idea as to what this place is like. After just one day on this island, my skin tanned (with SPF36 sunblock too) overnight without a single burn-area. I awoke the next day with a glowing skin-tone that closely resembles the Skippy peanut-butter that’s sitting on my desk. I had forgotten the power of the tropical sun-rays, and I warmly welcomed my long-lost image. Little did I know how useful it would be during the coming week…

Language: If I had to decide whether my French or Swahili was more developed, my vote would go to francais. But if I had to choose which one is more pragmatic, Swahili definitely takes the cake. While my French came in very handy in France, it wasn’t necessary. Nearly everyone there is educated and speaks English. (Random fact: in my globalization class last semester, a survey I read found out that 2 out of every 3 french citizens believe it’s essential to know English in the 21st Century.) Here in Tanzania it’s much different – there’s a lack of education among the poorer classes, and Swahili has a stronghold as the main language among the local citizens (often acting as lingua-franca between different tribes). When I arrived at my apartment near the hospital, and I met Mr. Juma (a staff worker who helped move me in), I quickly found out that my 2 years of formal Swahili was much better than his lifetime exposure to limited English.

Indian Culture: I have a friend back at Princeton, an Indian-Tanzanian, with whom I’d often practice my Swahili. Although she is in Italy right now practicing her 6th or 7th language (I’ve lost track of how many she knows), her parents have been extremely kind, and they’ve made sure that I get well acclimated to the Dar of 2005. I’ve been lucky enough to eat at their house on numerous occasions, and have enjoyed the most authentic Indian food I’ve ever had. Although they keep checking to see if it suits my palate, I reassure them that it’s absolutely delectable, and undoubtedly the best Indian food I’ve eaten; both of which are true. (And the sheer variety of Indian food always astounds me… their culture is so centered around cooking and eating that they’ve come up with an incredible amalgam of different foods using relatively few ingredients and no artificial preservatives or chemicals. For example, I’m told that there are over 200 different types of Chapati, the basic bread that is eaten with every meal. Amazing…)

Muslim Wedding: The Indian community here in Dar is fairly small, but they’re very tightly knit. In spite of the many different languages they speak, or the contrasting religions some subscribe to, they manage to get along very well. And I was lucky enough to be invited to an Islamic-Indian wedding by my friend’s parents (who are Hindi). Luckily I blended in with my black hair and new tan; If I had blonde hair and blue eyes, I think they would have reconsidered extending the invitation to me, as I would have stuck out like a sore thumb. This was also the first time that I had ever entered a mosque, which was interesting in its own right. The wedding itself was fairly subdued, but with some intriguing & hypnotic prayers being sung. Although I could not understand what was being said, there were English subtitles via an overhead projector, which helped. The fact that interested me the most tho was that the men and women were entirely separated for the entire procedure. I was in the mosque with a hundred or so other black-haired males, and not even the bride was present. The following night at the reception, it was the same deal: no females allowed. I sorta felt like I was in a 3rd grade ‘girls have koodies club,’ except that the whole event was taken very seriously. I was assured that a Hindu wedding is much more exciting…

Now that this ridiculously long email has come to an end, and I’ve had some time to think about the past week, I realize that I’m not missing the US that much. Things are far more interesting over here, and for a lack of a better word, much more ‘authentic.’ Later this week I’ll email some more info about my place here in Dar, the Hospital I’m working in, and some new Canadians that I’ve met. I’ll also be pondering where I’d rather live: France or Tanzania. Hmm…Tough call.

[ikon2003]

Monday June 27th, 2005.

This is my second shorthanded (yet still very long) email to family and friends back at home, and all over the world. I meant to send it out a few days ago, but because I didn’t have electricity all weekend long, I couldn’t finish writing until now. And due to technical difficulties online here in Dar, a large portion of my email list wasn’t included in last week’s email, plus I’ve added a few people. Therefore my first email can be found below this one. Now for the highlights:

I’m still in Tanzania (Country #5 on my Summer Trip). I’m in the de facto capital Dar Es Salaam (translation: Haven of Peace) and have been working in a downtown hospital for the past two weeks.

The Neighorhood: I’m living downtown in the Mchafukoge section, a block away from the hospital. It’s not the best area of the city, but it’s not the worst either. (I found the bad area [Kariakoo] by accident one morning while going for a run w/ one of the Canadian med students. After jogging two blocks in, we instantly knew we weren’t where we wanted to be, so we bee-lined our way out of there.) It’s also rather dirty here – dirt, dust and trash inundate the streets. And soot and particulates gets caked into pores and nostrils after just walking on the street for a few minutes.

People: Here in Mchafukoge and the surrounding city regions, it’s among the poorer places. People are packed in pretty densely, and lack many basic public services. There’s also a very strong black majority around here. All in all, I see fewer than 5 Mzungus (white people) per day amidst the thousands of people on the street, and normally they have security escorts (not due to violent crime threat, but to keep the myriad hawkers and vendors at bay).
For the first few days, this took getting used to. I definitely don’t have a security escort, and I stick out more than slightly when walking down the street. I must say, some very peculiar visceral emotions are exhumed when you find yourself to be the tiny minority in a given area, and particularly when everyone is speaking an estranged language.

More people: In general, everyone here is pretty friendly and light hearted. Often times though, they’re just a bit too friendly. It can be difficult trying to walk down the street without being accosted by a local wanting to know your name, where you come from and simultaneously be your best friend. (I always tell them I’m a student from Nairobi, and I give them my Swahili class name). Before long tho, they’ve transitioned to telling you all themselves and their life problems, and how money can solve everything. My new favorite phrase has become: Mimi ni mwanafunzi tu, siyo mtajiri (~I’m just a student, not a rich person).

Hospital: I’ve been at the Mandal hospital for the past two weeks. It’s a semi-private hospital owned by the community, and it has the most advanced HIV/AIDS research center in the country (which is why I’m spending most of my time here). In short, I’ve seen some incredibly unique medical cases and have learned a whole lot from the many very smart and very brave people working here. While the general facilities would be considered an abomination back in the US, they’re considered to be among the best in the country. (At first, I was appalled by the conditions these patients were in, and how little care they were being given. But then I went to the local state hospital [experience will b in next wk’s email], and it makes Mandal look like a luxury resort. I also remembered the Canadian Nursing students that I sat next to on the plane from Amsterdam: they’re working in a single room clinic, no bigger than my Princeton dormitory, in rural Malawi seeing over 200 HIV/AIDs patients per day. Somehow I felt lucky.)

The first week in the hospital I spent shadowing different doctors in different clinics. TB, OPD, Ward Rounds etc. Some of the patients here have some really unique afflictions that are entirely alien to the western world (mostly cuz they get treated before they exacerbate to the degree that one finds here). For example, I saw a patient with a hemopneumothorax (blood and air in his lungs) and he was suffering from near complete renal failure [kidneys] – and on his Xrays, his entire left lung didn’t even register, as it was all fluid or air. His operation included draining 1.5Litres of blood from his lungs – a very substantial % of one’s total blood in the body.

The second week I was working primarily in the HIV/AIDS lab, observing all the different procedural techniques. Very cool tests done, including some on the only gene sequencer/Drug resistance machine in the country. The processes involved are tedious and long, but very interesting.

A Dozen Canadian Med Students: Also here at the Hospital. They’re all really nice people, and I’ve been hanging out with them quite a bit. In the hospital, they translate a lot of medical terms for me, and on the street, I translate Swahili for them. It works out rather well.

My living area: I’ve been staying in a very basic apartment about a block away from the Hospital. It would not pass any US sanitary inspection, but for Dar, it’s rather nice. I’ve got a big bedroom w/ a double size bed, a living room area, an unusable kitchen, plus a bathroom and extra bedroom (for 2 more people, which I use as a reading room since I’m the only one here). Hot water and electricity are chancy – If I have one, it’s unlikely that I have the other. All in all tho, I’m getting a good rate on the apartment, about ½ of what the Canadians are paying, and my cockroach stories are not nearly as engrossing as theirs.

Dreams: I’m on Meflequin (Larium) for my Malaria medication. It’s among the stronger anti-malaria prophylactics, and it also has the strongest side effects. The reason I took this instead of a more common med is cuz I had taken this before when I was in Zimbabwe, and didn’t have any adverse reactions to it. (I met a german student here who’s having some pretty bad reactions to meflequin, and he’s not a happy camper). For me tho, the only thing different which I’ve experienced are some pretty vivid dreams. It’s hard for me to compare, cuz throughout the school year, I’m on a 6 hr sleep schedule and don’t have time to get to the latter stages of REM. Now that I’m getting a full 8 hrs of sleep, I’m remembering my dreams…. yet never in my life have I experienced dreams as realistic as some of the ones I’ve been having.

Photos: I’ve not taken nearly as many photos as I would have liked. I’ve seen some absolutely amazing things around here, but whipping out a Digital SLR in the middle of Mchafukoge is not the smartest of things to do. [See below for camera theft stories]. What I really need is a compact hi-rez digicam. I found one before I left, but I couldn’t justify buying it…now I wish I had it.

Appearance: I quickly learned that external appearance is very important here. Not just skin color, but what clothes you wear. The first week I was here, I would often go straight from the hospital and onto the streets for the afternoon/evening w/out changing clothes. My collared shirt, combed hair and generally professional appearance was a disaster. I attracted scores of unwanted vendors, taxi drivers, and ‘slightly-too-friendly’ locals. My choice of attire when walking around the streets has now become whatever is the most tattered and dirty looking thing I can find. So far, my ripped up shorts from sophomore year high school, and stained and holey Reebok shirt from even longer ago have proved to be the most useful outfit.

Race: The importance of something as superficial as skin-color still baffles me. I’m living fairly close to the Asian Quarter, so I presume most people think I’m a local Asian wandering around downtown. With my now very tan skin and black hair (and tattered clothes to boot), my image confuses people enough that I can pass by without much brouhaha. Some locals have even come right up to me and asked “what are you,” as they were confused by my darkish skin and my semi-developed swahili. Most guess that I’m Mwarabu (Middle Eastern), Mhindi (Indian), or of the orientals, Mjapani (Japanese). But the most bizarre response I got was at the local fish market, where I was the sole light-er skinned person there. Upon entering the market, a fish-gutter sees me and then starts shouting “Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda” to everyone in the market. (Al Qaeda has known terrorists cells all over East Africa, and they were responsible for the Dar and Nairobi US Embassy bombings in 1998. Apparently this fish-gutter thought I was a terrorist trying to blow up his fish stand or somethin….) En fin, in the neighborhood that I’m living in, the darker you are, the safer you are. And whenever I hear someone in the US complaining about ‘racial discrimination’ or ‘social immobility,’ I’m tempted to tell them how easy they really have it….

Language: Swahili is by far and away the language of choice around here. As I write this, outside my window there’s an Islamic holy man proselytizing to a large audience in Swahili over loudspeaker. Although I wish I could say my Swahili has improved by leaps and bounds, I regret to say that it’s floundering in metastasis. Even though all of doctor to patient communication at the hospital is done in Swahili, the patients are often too sickly to enunciate or carry on long conversations whereby I can benefit. The best conversations I’ve had are with taxi drivers and street vendors. While it’s fairly easy for me to express myself or any need that I have, understanding the other person can be challenging. People here speak very quickly, and there’s always at least that one word which I’ve just never heard before. Nonetheless, it’s been good getting to use my Swahili in real-life situations, and it’s doubtlessly the strongest bargaining chip I have with the locals (whether that be haggling over the price of fruit, or telling someone I’m late for a meeting and I don’t have time to listen to how their third wife died and they have malaria and need lots of money right now….)

Food & Drink: I’m eating extremely well here, and havne’t gotten sick yet (many thanks to chewable pepto bismol too).
-I’ve never tasted a better coca cola than in Africa. The cold glass bottles + hot, humid weather – excess carbonation found in cans = the most refreshing drink you can buy for 25 cents. (And also, they use real sugar in the mix, and not high fructose corn syrup like in the States. I prefer my quixotic analysis tho…)
-Thai: the most luxurious restaurant I’ve eaten in was a 5 Star Thai restaurant on the 9th floor of the New Africa Hotel w/ an excellent view of the ocean and sunset. Yet in spite of the delectable food, awe-inspiring view, and sumptuous prices, I only spent $9US for the whole meal – easily the most I’ve had to pay for any single meal since I’ve been here.

Cars & driving. Roads here (even the paved ones) are in bad conditions. Most look like cratered sections of the moon that have been excavated and relocated.
-Road rules and driving etiquette are optional. In general, whenever you want to go at an intersection, pass someone, etc, you just honk your horn and apply the throttle. (Right of way generally goes to the larger automobile…a surprisingly efficient system, albeit rather dangerous.)
-I’m much more likely to be incapacitated from being hit by a car or being involved in a car accident than by malaria, dysentery, yellow fever, or tuberculosis combined.

Crime in general: Dar es Salaam actually has very low violent crime…. For an African City. Like most places in Africa, security companies and protective-wall building companies are big bizness. The suburbs of Dar are actually very safe, with minimal crime. The city, however, is where nearly all of the crime happens. (cue mother’s paranoia.)

Neighborhood watch: A GW grad student I met was telling me about this - In the suburbs of dar, they have a very unique version of ‘neighborhood watch.’ Groups of 10 houses will gather together to form a community that hires local street people to protect their houses. And whenever a thief tries to rob one of the ten houses, these security-mercenaries will jump the robber, and if they’re feeling nice, apprehend him and turn him over to the police. More often though, the attempted robber gets beaten to death, either with sticks, stones, or whatever else is handy. While it’s not legal to kill a robber, the legal repercussions for doing so are apparently pretty lax…. Needless to say, crime is pretty low in these hoods.

Unfortunately for me, I’m not living in the suburbs – I’m in the city. And quite a bit of crime occurs around here.

Crime stories:

-kariakoo market: The Canadians decide they want to see Kariakoo market, and we all leave in one big group. Little did we know how bad this would be: the place was absolutely packed with people, many of whom were just waiting to prey on the ignorant mzungu that came waltzing in. We were like a herd of blind gazelle walking into a hyena den….and within 5 minutes, nearly everyone had grabby little hands trying to pickpocket us left and right. Left and right were people trying to distract you, and then have a friend slash your bag open while you weren’t looking. And sometimes it wasn’t even as if the locals were trying to hide it – they would blatantly come up to you and just reach in your pocket or try to cut your bag open. After walking only a couple blocks, ½ of the Canadians decided they didn’t want to be groped anymore or lose anymore personal belongings, so they left. I stayed there w/ the few strong-hearted and street-smart Canadians, and we were fine. Of the 12 of us, the only 2 that didn’t get hassled were the two girls w/ skirts, as there aren’t any pockets to pick!

-Camera story 1: of those 2 girls tho, 1had her camera stolen, and not in the market, but in the street in broad daylight. She had her digicam zipped up in her bag, and latched. When she wanted to take a photo, she found her bag unzipped (yet still latched!), and her camera gone….

-Camera story 2: A Dutch grad student studying biomedical science here had her camera snatched right out of her hands when she was trying to take a photo. She ran after the thief, and actually caught him. Yet before she could get the camera back, he gashed her leg open with a sharpened bamboo stick.

(I’m now very cautious about pulling out my chunky DSLR and taking photos…. Just a bit too risky for me, after listening to my friends’ stories.)

-The GW grad student was jumped by 8 men on Ohio street (not 4 blocks from where I live) while walking at dusk with a Tanzanian girl. They both escaped unharmed as they quickly ran into a nearby hotel.

-The Jambazi Victim: I was at the large state hospital, and one of the patients I saw was attacked by jambazi (gangsters). Miraculously, he survived the attack, which included being stabbed in the chest that missed his heart by only centimeters. Tho cuz he hadn’t seen a doctor since his operation, it’s likely he’ll die of infection…. Ironic.

- I carry my own 4’’ lockblade on my hip… just in case.

[sameerrao]

Wow! Amazing trip so far! Thanks for taking the time to jot down your experiences.

Awaiting pics when you get to S'pore ....

[ikon2003]

Friday, July 1st 2005.

Before I get to the core of this email, a quick update on things that have gone on recently. In general, it’s been a good week as I completed my research and work at Mandal Hospital and was able to take a more relaxing routine at the uber-modern (for Africa) Aga Kahn hospital. This allowed me to have more time to do some more enjoyable things. This is also my longest email yet, so allow adequate time if you want to read through it all.

Sunday the 26th of June, I went down to the southern beaches & Kipepeo resort w/ my former env sci classmate. 3,000 /= entrance fee (about $3US) kept out most of the riff-raff, and the money could be used towards food or drinks at the bar – not a bad deal at all. Perfect weather, perfect water temperature, perfect scenery. Overall, a wonderful day-scape to paradise after a week in the lab.

This week has also been much better for my Swahili. I’ve had more time to myself to wander the streets and chat w/ the locals. I try and turn each bartering session or random encounter into a mini-language lesson. It’s good practice, and definitely outlines the areas where I still need to make some/a-lot-of improvements.

Haven’t been mugged yet. Pickpocket attempts much more common, but none successful (that I know of). I think this surprised my friend’s parents here as they’ve both had some undesirable incidences downtown and probably thought I would experience some of my own. I’ve still got one more day tho; knock on wood.

One more crime story: my env sci classmate, when she first got here, was driven into a dark alley by a corrupt taxi driver where he demanded that she give him $100USD on the spot. Fortunately, she was able to negotiate her way to loosing only $20. In another African city, she might not have been so lucky.

Reading: I’ve had time to do some pleasure reading, which is a nice change. I just completed James Gustav Speth’s Red Sky At Morning. A Yale prof’s very insightful and thoroughly researched book on the US’s stance in the global environmental situation. I would be lying if I said it was an invigorating and exciting read, but it succeeded where it was supposed to: giving a very balanced synopsis of how humans have affected the Earth. While Speth easily could have highlighted the egregious examples with apocalyptic statistics ‘n trends, he restrained. Worth the read, IMO.

As I mentioned in my previous email, pollution here is pretty bad. But to go off track for a second, my experience doesn’t nearly compare with where one of my friends is right now: Beijing. Just to steal a quote from one of his mass emails: “

Some facts on China from Time magazine June 27, 05:
- Educated Urban Chinese w/ College degree: 5.6%
- Rural: 0.2%
- Est # of rural ppl who’ve never brushed their teeth: 500 million.
- China hosts 16 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world.
- Average est. life expectancy of Chinese city traffic policeman: 40 years.
- Approx. 12% of China’s GDP is lost due to the extensive env degradation.

Now back to Africa: Below is a general summary of 3 different hospitals here in Dar.

Hospital #1: Aga Kahn Hospital.

This is where I spent the first 3 days of this week. AKH is the most modernized hospital in all of Tanzania, and is far beyond the affordability of most people here. Nearly all patients admitted are well insured or have vast amounts of personal wealth. While still cheap by western standards and not quite as advanced as the top US or EU hospitals, nothing here can even compare to the quality of care and professionalism at AKH.

Unlike most western hospitals, however, AKH is situated on a highly desirable piece of real-estate that looks right out onto the tropical Indian ocean. Patients are in air conditioned rooms – the first time I had seen this in Dar – with TVs, modern furniture and comparatively very high tech equipment at their disposal. Patients on one side of the building receive a stellar view of sunrise, cool ocean breeze, and the calming sound of waves crashing on the white sand beaches. On the other side of the building, each patient has a view of swaying palm trees and the well maintained tropical gardens suffused with bright equatorial colours.

It is also the only Hospital with an ISO9000 quality standards here in TZ. Yet because it lacks a core hospital computer network, cannot get further certification.

It also houses the only MRI scanner and CT scanner in the country.

Unfortunately, the desire for sterility has rubbed off onto many of the people’s personalities, giving them a tinge of arrogance and elitism. They run their hospital not quite like a professional clinic designed to treat real people; It closer resembles a highly regulated and bureaucratic corporation meeting the profit-driven demands of the board. Incidentally, all CEOs of this fully-privatized institution have been either American or European, and the board is mostly comprised of wealthy westerners.

Nonetheless, if I were to need hospitalization here in Dar, you can bet your dollar that I’d want to end up at AKH. In sum, it could almost pass for a deracinated American hospital that found its way to tropical Tanzania to make recovery all the more enjoyable.


Hospital #2: Shree Hindu Mandal Hospital

This is where I’ve spent the majority of my time here. While I could say a number of different things about my experiences here, the most efficient way might be to just mention some of the people I’ve met plus what they do. Before that tho, a quick overview: Mandal is a semi-private, community owned hospital that locals can only enter if they are referred and approved by their local health clinic. Therefore it gets some of the more complicated medical cases, especially the HIV/AIDS ones. Through mostly international donations, it has built up the most advanced HIV lab in the country. The hospital has 4 floors inside one main building in downtown Dar with a view of little else than other semi-maintained edifices. While most doctors here were trained internationally and could practice overseas making many times the amount of money they make here, for one reason or another, they’ve chosen to work at Mandal.

-Dr J: Only been working 6 months here; general practitioner w/ side projects in HIV/AIDS. In charge of ward rounds; conducts them quickly and efficiently, always making friendly comments or jokes w/ the patients. Has been extremely welcoming to the various med students and me.

-Dr K: a consulting physician and arguably the head doctor here at the hospital. Been working at Mandal for 24 years; schooled in Bombay; fellowship in UK. He is also the chairman of the International Diabetes Federation Africa Region, Treasurer of the Association of Physicians in Tanzania, Task Force member of the Ministry of Health HIV/AIDS core treatment (and the list goes on….). When he’s done seeing patients during the day (some of whom will wait many hours just to see him – I once had a meeting with him at night and I had to wait till he was done seeing patients at 11:30pm), he works on the various independent projects that he’s involved in. His normal working hours are from 8:30am till 12 midnight or later – I would be hard pressed to think of a more dedicated professional.

-Dr V: OPD & has an astounding turn-over rate of patients. Within the first hour of sitting in his office, he had completed seeing 19 patients and was on his 20th. (In some hospitals, 3minutes face time with a doctor is a luxury – here it was an exception.) The first words out of his mouth, often without looking at his patients, was “Shida gani?” (translation: What’s your problem?). He would often default diagnose malaria as the cause of the symptoms, and would usher the patient to get tested after a minute or two of chatting and ‘evaluation.’

-Dr. H – In charge of the Tuberculosis and Leprosy Clinics. A hypertensive diabetic; his wife died a few years back from similar conditions, he now raises his kids alone. He has to wake up at 4:30 am and walk 4 kilometers to the bus stop in order to reach his office by 8:30 in the morning. Always says “God Bless” to his patients.

-Nurse D: Dr. H’s nurse, she administers the treatment for Tuburculosis. Been a nurse for over 30 years and in dar for 24 years after moving from the Kilimanjaro region. Had never seen a ‘high five’ until she saw two of the Canadian med students perform this alien ritual. She also had one of the most touching stories of anyone I’ve met. Here are her words:
“Our house is very close to the ocean, and [my son] would like to go there everyday. But he could not swim up to here [waistline]…no deeper than that. So on the day of the tsunami, he was using [an inflatable] tube in the water. He used it for security. But on the day of the tsunami, when he saw the wave, he gave the tube to a friend who could not swim at all. Then the water came and swept my son and his friend into the ocean. I can only imagine them seeing the water and trying to run away…and then just being washed away.
“The friend was okay…for three days he was not okay [because of water inhalation], but after that, he was okay.
“But my son was not okay. Someone came up to me and asked me ‘Where is your son?’ and I said ‘I do not know.’ He said, ‘your son is not on the beach anymore and no one can find him.’
“At that time, I knew that the tsunami had got him. Later on, I found his dead body washed up on shore.”

Donatta’s son had just finished his O-Level Examinations in school and had made a down payment on a piece of property to build a house. When he died, Donatta’s son was only 19 years old. The same age that I am right now….


Hospital # 3: Muhimbili State Hospital

The following is a copy of my notes from my experience at this state-run hospital, modified mainly for grammatical and comprehension issues. While I was tempted to rewrite the experience in formal prose with embellished details, I think it stands out well enough as is:

Muhimbili Hospital
Wednesday 15th of June, 2005.

Took about a 15 minute cab ride w/ d (Canadian med student at shree mandal hospital with me) over to the muhimbili hospital. Cost of 1500 /= to get there. Cab driver got in fight with a middle-eastern bus driver in middle of road after a near-accident: I found the interaction rather interesting. D expressed some concern.

Arrived at the college 1545hrs; it’s a university w/ medical students as well as the largest state hospital in Tanzania. One of 4 main hospitals in the country (one in each main cardinal direction).

Massive expansions planned: The hospital is overcrowded and many new buildings are being built. Unfortunately, I’m told that the new buildings will become as dilapidated as the current ones within 10 years due to poor maintenance,.

Full doctors w/ MDs and residency get paid about 180-200 dollars per month at Muhimbili Hospital; Among the better paid doctors at TZ health institutions.

Met up with “Tom” who knew D from before. Tom is a 2nd year med student at muhimbili – very amiable guy with good English. Also met a prof of Tom who was familiar w/ the Duke students who had been in Mandal the year before, and he assumed I was a Duke medical student too.

Tom met up with Al, another 2nd year Med student at Muhimbili College. These two acted as our guides through the huge campus of the hospital. They also acted as translators for dave and me. (although my Swahili is decently conversational, the lethargic and depleted nature of the patients hindered their enunciation, and subsequently my comprehension. Dave does not know any Swahili.) Tom and Al were both very proud of their chosen careers as future doctors, and were delighted to be showing two foreign students their place of work.

1) Started off with the general pediatrics ward
-the place was generally uncrowded. There were free beds, and only a few patients.
- 4 wings of the buildings. Can fit 25 (or 50 max) children in each wing.
- saw a few interesting cases: a girl w/ malaria, and needed IV. Also saw probably the strangest skin disease I’ve ever seen – unsettling to say the least. It was a child w/ hundreds of swollen welts all over his body with a large concentration around his face, accompanied by mucus secretions from various broken legions. Apparently this case was caused by a severe reaction to ARVs (Anti-Retro-Virals) which the child (2-3 yrs old only) had taken. The mother was sera-positive (HIV+), and had transmitted the disease to her child. In an effort to staunch the viral onslaught, the child was given medication, but being so young he had a horrible reaction which left his skin horribly deformed. I’m sure there are many other systemic complications below the epidermis…


2) Next went to the Psychiatrics ward.
- No photos were allowed inside here.
- the women were kept in one separate wing, the men in another
- we visited the women first. They lived a horribly depressing life in this institution, but were mostly put in there by their family members for their own protection. Although mostly quiet and living in their own hallucinatory worlds, the arrival of two light(er) skinned people (ie: d and me), caused them to jump into a routine of bizarre speech and mannerisms. One claimed to be family of dave and me, and said she had lots of family from Europe (even though neither of us look European). Another started following we 4 through the wing, and when we left, started screaming (in Swahili) that she couldn’t take it in here anymore and that she had to leave for home… Al promised he was leaving to go get her release forms and would be right back to fill them out, but the woman realized the ploy and it only made her more hysterical.
- the mens’ psychiatric wing was much less sedate. The men were caged, literally, in a ~500sqft room. They all gathered around the barred windows upon our arrival, so it was hard to judge how many were in there. At least 30, but more likely 50+, were packed into this one room with a single jail-like door as an entry/exit, plus 5 or so barred windows on each side. They tried reaching through the bars to shake our hands or grab our clothes, to which our guides were accostomed, but left dave and me unsettled.
- I asked how many people could fit in these psychiatric wards, but tom would not give a number, as I suspect he realized the appalling conditions and did not want to affirm it with any quantitative assessment.

3) General Wards
-We went to various buildings with many long, confusing hallways. I had entirely lost my sense of direction, and had no idea where the exit to the compound was.
- The general wards consisted of many large rooms (600sqft?? Hard to tell; human density skewed perspective). Each room had a door for entry and exit at each narrow end, and many windows on the lengthy sides to try and aerate the room. There were over 40 patient-beds in these rooms, or as many as they could fit, and over a 100 people squeezed inside. It was entirely overcrowded and the fact that family members would often wait with sick family members only made the situation worse.
- the general wards on the lower levels (the public access ones, where it is free to enter as the Tanzanian Government with its socialist roots gives free of charge): These were “very congested” as our two medical-student guides kept repeating. This was a gross understatement.
- Every single bed in the general wards was being used.
- If the patient did not need to lay down, the bed was used as sitting area, where as many as 6 people would fit on a single mattress waiting for one of the never-present doctors to arrive.
- Most people had been waiting for over a day and had not even seen a doctor yet.
- If there was no room on a mattress, people slept on the floor. This was not an uncommon sight.
- The stench was gut wrenching. Bile, vomit and many other unidentified forms of human excretion wafted throughout the entire ward.
- No photos were allowed in here, which was particularly unfortunate as they would have made some of the most striking photos.
- Lots of malaria and IDS cases. Also lots of bacterial infections.
- Some of the less common cases:
- A Masaai man with what was presumed to be a urinary tract infection. He had been waiting in the hospital for nearly 2 days and hadn’t seen the doctor. Alfred and Tom were as close to a doctor as he had come to see. He was accompanied by 4 fellow Masaai tribesmen. The 5 of them really stood out with their brightly colored cape-like clothing and extensive body jewelry.
- A man stabbed in the chest by a knife when he was jumped by “jambazi” (gangsters). The knife came within centimeters of his heart and a main artery, but he survived. He was recovering, but was at serious risk of infection, and his breathing was very labored. More than likely, an bacterial complications will kill him.
- A 40 yr old man needing to have his leg amputated even higher. He had it nearly chopped off in an accident, had it amputated just below the knee, but because of complications (most likely infection), he needed to have it cut off higher. He had been waiting for many days and hadn’t seen a doctor or been scheduled for operation. He also had an ineffably noxious odor and was undoubtedly the worst smelling person I met that day.
- D found the general wards fascinating. I was rather turned off

4) Private Wards
- These were on the top floors of the large ward buildings, and had only 3 or 4 patient beds per room. As always, there was family to accompany the sick people, so the rooms were still slightly crowded, but luxurious by comparison to the gen wards.
- cost of a private “First Class” ward was 30,000 /= per day (~$30USD)
- it had a TV inside for the people to watch.
- These patients almost always saw a doctor on the first day, and were mostly in their beds for recovery.

5) Gynecology Wards
- among the less crowded of places.
- actually found 3 vacant beds adjacent to each other. The only instance I saw this in the entire hospital area
- almost all the cases were of infections. One of the rarer ones was of a woman who had a rupture during the latter stages of pregnancy, which resulted in amniotic fluid seeping into her bowel system. I tuned out the rest of the explanation, but I remember that the baby lasted only 40-some days before dying.

6) Maternity Wards
- air conditioned and private, these were fairly well maintained.
- met a woman after giving birth to a child just yesterday, and was already walking around and was about to be discharged.
- went into the labor room just 30 minutes after a woman had given birth. The nurse was still cleaning up with all the bloodied rags as we entered. Met the woman who just had her child. Would be released next day most likely.

7) Orthopedics
- was being renovated. Did not get to see any cases cuz the professor that Al and tom knew was not present.

8) New Children’s’ Wards
- part of the renovation area, this was new and in very good condition.
- comparatively spacious, but still filled with patients. Almost all of the cases were children that had been burned at home, either by hot water or around cooking materials. The burns were rather severe, and resulted in lots of bandaging. Many children were entirely covered in bandages, from head to toe, resembling little mummies with moving eyes that peered between the white strips.
- the most shocking case here was of a young (~10 yr old) girl that had been in an automotive accident. The only non-burn case I saw in this section, she also had one of the worst injuries. From my understanding, she had been run over by a truck while playing in the street, broke both of her legs (femur bones) in multiple places, and then was dragged along the ground as a limb had got caught in some mechanical piece on the undercarriage. She had been in the hospital for 2 months after repeated surgery, and was only now looking better. Just this past week she had massive skin grafts done to try and patch up her legs. In spite of this, her blood and coagulating fluids seeped through the quasi-developed skin & multiple layers of bandages. She kindly allowed me to take a photo of her in this condition.

Muhibili update: Friday June 24th, 2005 – This entire week, the doctors of Muhimbili have been on strike. It started Monday the 20th when general doctors and resident workers all chose to strike against the abysmally low wages they were earning, and the fact that they had not received the payments in months. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the specialist doctors decided to throw in the towel as well, as they were severely overworked and could do little to remedy the situation by themselves. Only a few brave nurses have been at the hospital trying to keep affairs in order.
Official reports are very inchoate as the TZ government does not want to admit any problem with its hospital system. Word on the medical grapevine declares that the death-rates have sky-rocketed, and that myriad long-since-dead corpses are just laying in beds or on the floors without anyone to remove them.

__________

Various people have emailed me asking if I’m a Pre-Med student. My answer is a definitive ‘no.’ While I highly respect the profession and it’s fascinating to study, I have no desire to actually practice medicine. My research here is mostly in HIV/AIDS and other epidemic and infectious diseases, which cross over into the environmental science and sociological fields due to the extent of the impact.

Having wrapped up my work here in the Dar, I leave tomorrow afternoon, and return to Tanzania in late July. My next email should come from Singapore sometime next week.

[ikon2003]

Sunday July 10th 2005

Africa to Asia, Rags to Riches

It seems very egocentric to be writing this type of email in light of the recent terrorist attacks, but I know family members are waiting for it, so heregoes:

Last Friday: (Still in Tanzania, Country #5)
-Woke up sick; relegated to my bed w/ killer stomach ache and cramps. 4 hours in the fetal position + 4 pepto bismol and then I could get out of bed. I’d been very careful about using only bottled water to drink, brush teeth etc. musta been something I ate.
-Saw a Very cool African Dance show. All percussion and rhythm; fast & wild dance moves. Only the third group had any sort of melody (xylophone). The flagship group was able to hold a constant 140BPM rhythm as well as any European trance DJ could. With the exception of Dutch Gabber, it’s the fastest & most vibrant dance music I’ve ever heard.
-Had a very sketchy ‘all too friendly’ cab driver drive me home. Kept trying to drop me off a few blocks away from my flat saying he ‘couldn’t go any further’ or ‘the road was blocked.’ Luckily I knew the area well enuf by then to direct him exactly to my building. I’m sure he had his cronies waiting in one of those dark alleys….

Shopping: I got an email from Singapore saying I would need suits and dress clothes. I had asked them before I left if I needed anything like this, to which they replied “normal school attire.” Of course, I forgot this was Singapore, and was severely unequipped. I had to do some shopping. Being a college student on a budget, there was no way I was going to the boutiques; I hit the streets & used my Swahili bargaining skills. Some of my purchases (in US$ equivalents):
-Full leather, black hard-soled dress shoes: $15
- black leather ‘from italy’ belt: $3
- 3 full button collard dress shirts (1 short sleeve, 2 long sleeve): $17
- 4 Ties: $1 a piece.
If you want to learn Microeconomics, forget the classroom; Go to the streets of Africa. Supply & Demand….Opportunity Cost….Cross Elasticity…. Marginal Decreasing Benefit…Subsidized Distortion….it’s all here.
As for the suits? Well, I’ve been told that southeast asia has some excellent tailors….



----From here through the month of July, I’m going to new places that I’ve never been to, namely the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Europe and Africa have always been a staple in my life, which is probably why I felt so comfortable in those areas. I don’t know quite what to expect in these countries...-----

Country #6: UAE (Dubai)
-3 hour layover in the super-modern airport.
- Bright lights, bustling commerce (even at 2am)
- Super clean
- Hundreds races and languages in one place w/ unique cultural fusion spurred by the economic explosion in the area this century. (Fully clothed muslim women standing in line next to tawdry Americans in perfect harmony. In the music store: The Hindi section is just as large as the Hip-Hop section).
- More commerce-driven & consumer-pandering than any American mall. The meticulously crafted artifice was mind boggling (and this was still only in the airport).
- Welcome to the future.
- I was suffering from pretty strong post-third-world shock. For me, reverse-cultural shock is always much worse. Unsanitary food, no electricity, omnipotent poverty – that’s fine. It’s the return to contrived superficiality that gets you.
- Culture shock mixed w/ the sleep depression & altitude changes my body had gone thru, I was feeling pretty wretched. I stayed near a trash can, chugged a litre of water & boarded my next plane.

Country #7: Sri Lanka
-1 hour layover; just enuf to get fresh air, stretch legs and take a few photos.

Country # 8: Singapore (Singa Pura - “The Lion City”)
In a phrase: Outside of Switzerland, it’s the cleanliest & most efficiency-obsessed city I’ve ever been to.
-I’m here for 3 weeks w/ the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) University Scholar’s Programme (USP) and the Singapore Institute for International Affairs (SIAA) for their summer programme on inter-regional cooperation.
-Translation? Political Science and Economics. (in Sing, the 2 disciplines cannot be separated. It’s a tightly regulated commerce city-country led by the almost totalitarian People’s Action Party (PAP). Unlike Africa’s totalitarian states, corruption here is not a problem.)
- Southeast Asians love acronyms
- If you want to know how to run a company, study the Singaporean government.


Food:
Fried Rice and Noodles are served breakfast lunch dinner. Really exotic fruit too.

Race:
76% Chinese, 14% Malay, 8% Indian, 1% White, 1% Other. From a racial point of view, I blend in fairly well here. Cultural-assimilation is a different matter. Apparently I “don’t look very Asian” to the people here. (This contrasts with the Africans who would sometimes greet me with a friendly ‘Koniichi-wa.’ Especially when I had my camera with me) Top guesses by locals? Latino and Indian/Pakistani. So far, no one has guessed American. The African tan probably throws people off….

Language:
Malay is the national language. English is the Lingua Franca. Chinese is the street language. [I don’t know any Malay, Mandarin-Chinese or Cantonese-Chinese, although I’ve started swapping Swahili lessons for both Chinese dialects. Every time I try buy something in Chinese, there’s a gaggle of laughter as I’m undoubtedly pronouncing the words incorrectly – I have no sense of tonality (4 tones for Mandarin [ ‘a’ ‘ah’ ‘ahh’ ‘aah’], and 9 for Cantonese).] [For Dubai, even if I can understand a few words in Arabic (cuz Swahili is ~30% Arabic), I have no idea how to read the text.] We’ll see how much I can learn in a few weeks…

-Everything is automated or electronically activated: Sinks, Toilets, escalators, lights, subway and rail transportation systems. I’m still waiting to see automated/mechanical chop sticks.…



The Programme:
- 34 Students, ½ from Singaporean Universities, ½ from overseas
- most international students are from southeast asia, but there are 2 from Europe and 3 from the US (including another from Princeton. It seems no matter how far in the world I travel this summer, there’s always a princetonian nearby)
- The first day, we all introduced ourselves at dinner, then afterwards, we were told to work with the other people at our table (4 others) to try and remember everyone’s name. Between the 5 of us, we could name 32 of the 34. Other tables were able to name everyone after hearing our names just once. Personally, I could only remember 2 other names. I guess when you need to memorize over 7,000 characters just to read a newspaper, memorizing 30 names in one sitting is a piece of cake.
- Apart from me, every single student is at least conversationally proficient in a South-East Asian language.
- Everyone speaks (fairly fluent) English & all classes are done in (reasonably comprehendible) English. I’ve yet to get used to the ‘thick local twang’ as my NUS roommate (a very affable Chinese Singaporean) calls it. one of our first conversations was as follows:
Me: So what’s your first language?
Ben: English
Me: No, I mean what language do you speak at home…
Ben: Um…ya, English.
Me: Oh….okay. Well, do you speak Mandarin too?
Ben: Haha, nope. My Mandarin is terrible. [his mandarin is actually pretty decent]
Me: How about your parents?
Ben: No, not really… they both speak English.
[I was so accustomed to American foreigners/tourists that have a thick accent, poor English, and rarely can they understand you. Ben’s sharp wit and splattering of five-syllable words quickly elucidated that he wasn’t the one with the comprehension problems…]
- About ½ the time is in class for lectures, workshops, presentations etc. the other ½ of the time is attending tours, listening to guest speakers, interviewing important people etc.
- In the same way that the US has too many Fortune 500 CEOs void of moral discipline and Corporate Social Responsibility, SEAsia has too many double-master, PhD professors that can’t construct a grammatically correct English sentence.
- Lectures are in 1.5Hour blocks. [The worst is when both the morning session and afternoon session are classroom oriented. Thursday was 11 hours of lecture/workshop time. I’ve yet to acquire the zen-like-patience required to get thru a full lecture w/out losing concentration. ]
- Highlights: Touring Singapore at night (


Ironies of Singapore (from an American perspective):
- People are exceptionally grateful and generous & will never split a check. Yet answering your cell phone in the middle of a movie or opera is perfectly acceptable.
- Legal age to buy alcohol is only 18, but drug possession is punishable by death.
- Pornography is illegal, yet ‘rent by the hour’ hotels are common. [girls in the programme have experienced trouble hailing a cab on the side of the road. Horny old bizness men will often arrive before the taxi does]
- It’s a very environmentally conscious nation, yet there’s almost no land (~600km^2) for them to preserve.

Music: They love cheesy pop-80’s music here more than anything else. Like Europe though, there’s a strong electronic music contingency here, which suits me well.

Cars: Well paved roads, expensive gas taxes and even more expensive automobile ownership.
-It costs about $15,000-20,000US just to buy the rights from the government to own a car in Singapore. They don’t like traffic and they don’t like pollution.
-Of the cars that are here, they’re mostly small displacement, highly efficient Japanese or European cars. (I think higher displacement engines get taxed more too.)
-No wonder ricers are so common here – big wings, crazy body kits, turbo-charged/intercooled straight or horizontally opposed 4 bangers with excessively loud blow-off valves…. Sometimes I feel like I’m in a bad Hollywood movie….
- Mercedes, and your odd Porsche can be found, but the most popular lux auto is BMW. The top-of the line 7 series is the most common….as a 730i model! As in flagship 7 series with a tiny 3.0Litre straight 6 petrol injection engine.
-By comparison, the base model 7 series in the US is the 745i (V8 4.5 L), and the lux version is the 760i (a gas guzzling 6 Litre V12).

As a part of the NUS USP/SIIA programme here, I’ll be traveling to other places than just Singapore. I’ll be heading to 2 Islands in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Those will all be in my next email. And because this is Singapore where everything is government subsidized (which is both a wonderful and debilitating thing, depending on what perspective you take), I’m getting this 3 week programme for a very reasonable price: All lodging, travel expenses, tuition and food for 3 weeks in 4 countries in southeast asia for ~$300US. Not bad eh?

[ikon2003]

Originally Posted by mrmojo77 Interesting story, but is this the right forum? I'm going to come back and see your emails.

perhaps, perhaps not. it's worldy, it's debatable, and it's quasi-political. admins can change it at their discresion. haven't slept in a long time, so i'm going to bed now. will try to check back in a week or so.

[RC45]

This is ok here.

An interesting read.

[ARMAN]

Thats alot of read, pretty interesting. Thiefs story fits sometimes situations here in Pragues Metro/underground. Lots of foreghners are robbed here like this

Thanx for letters sofar Ikon2003, gotta read them now

[SFDMALEX]

Thanks for sharing that. I read it all, very intersting.

[666fast]

Definately looking forward to more of your emails, very good read! I wasn't expecting African Hospitals to be all that great, but damn.

[ikon2003]

Okay, I'm back in singapore right now after 3 days in Hong Kong. If i get my computer hooked up to the internet here, i'll add the latest email.

- Thanks to whoever put this this in the right category. JW has changed a lot since I last used it, so I'll have to get used to the new format when I have time.

- I got research money from Princeton to cover my living expenses while in Africa. Airfare and all the touristy things are out of my own pocket.

- Assuming all works out, a big batch of photos will be up in 2 or 3 days.

[Wutputt]

Man this is one of the most awesome reads I did here on JW. Your trip is really breathtaking. Thanks for posting everything!

[stmoritzer]

Thanks for the long read, I'm at mail 2 so far

Keep up informing us and thanks for the reports , they are very interesting

[ikon2003]

Friday 22nd July, 2005


I’m back in Singapore after a week in Thailand. Watching news on the 2nd London terrorist bombing on TV. Lots of stuff has happened past couple weeks – I’d like to write all about it, but this is my first time w/ a couple consecutive hours of free time in over a week, and I need sleep. Just some highlights:

Singapore: Country #8 – 1st world country trapped by developing neighbors
Indonesia: Country #9 – Huge archipelago, extremely diverse & densely populated
Malaysia: Country #10 – Singapore wannabe
Thailand: Country #11 – Land for compulsive shoppers and sex addicts.


General Info:

- been w/ the univ program traveling around seasia. Great learning experience overall. SEAsia is a really cool place, and it’s a shame I’ve only got a short stay.
- Gotten to kno a lot of the ppl in the programme. I think I mita said everyone is bilingual b4 and I was mistaken: everyone is at least trilingual.
- The official language of the programme was advertised as English. This has turned out to be false – the dialect they speak here is called ‘singlish.’ Strong accent, weird vocabulary, and I still don’t understand everyone.
- In typical Singapore fashion, this programme has been run very rigidly and strictly. Average of 14hrs/day is officially accounted for w/ the programme, and they give us lots of research work to do in our scarce ‘free time.’ Very little flexibility & supremely annoying.
- I’m still surprised at how polite everyone is. w/out even asking, girls will serve the guys their food at dinner, and guys will carry girls’ luggage to and fro as it’s expected. This politeness transfers into our group discussions and it makes consensus & progress extremely laborious and very inefficient.
- They’re sparing little expense for this summer programme. It’s the first of it’s kind and the government is really pushing it. total expenses for the 3 weeks just under $100,000US. [apparently in Thailand, we paid our tour operator & guide over 3x the normal rate for the stuff we did. No wonder our guide was so friendly and always treated us to free luxury dinners.]
- Culminates this Saturday w/ a big show/presentation for lots of university profs and high school students. Lots of people are really nervous about it, especially those that have English as a 2nd (or 3rd, or 4th) language and are not too keen on public speaking.
- Most people here have a mystical notion of the far off land called “America.” . [In Thailand, when one of the profs at the univ asked if anyone was American and I raised my hand he said, “oh….only one. Very powerful.” I’m still trying to figure out the context of this statement…. (there’s a girl in the programme that has split US citizenship, but she rarely tells people. There have been more than a couple occasions when I would have liked to have had this flexibility too… Americans aren’t the most liked people in the world these days.)]
- They’re influenced by US culture in so many ways, and are more American than me in some respects, yet few have actually ever been. They know more about US pop culture than I do. Overall, they have a fearful respect of the US, and they really loathe George Bush.
- Singaporeans love to spend money. There’s not much else to do on the island… If their govt didn’t have a well regulated social security fund for them, everyone would prolly be broke or deeply in debt….just like their American idols.
- Singaporeans are also extremely pampered. Their government charges some outrageous fees and taxes, but they put the $ to good use. They can do things a larger country could never even dream of. (they just changed the entire real-estate tax law overnight… literally. It’s in an effort to get more people to invest in the slumping property market here in Singapore, especially foreigners. What the government wants, the government gets.)
- Going back to pampered Singaporeans: they’re really smart, have a high standard of living (higher than the british, their former colonizers. Mite be higher than the US too, I dunno.) They’re also very sheltered & dependent on the easy lifestyle. Going to Malaysia and staying one night in a 1 star motel was like listening to a young child go to the dentist. (The hotel here in Singapore is ‘only’ a 3.5 star hotel, and the one in Thailand was a 4 star hotel. I can’t imagine them traveling to Africa….)
- One eg. When we arrived in Johor Baru (Malaysia), we entered our hotel rooms, and when the lights didn’t turn on automatically, the Singaporeans got confused and perplexed. They started waiving their hands at the walls trying to get the non-existent motion sensors to detect their presence. In the end, the lights had to be turned on and off by this oddly shaped plastic lever affixed to the wall next to the door. That’s sooo last millennium.


Things to note when attending lectures and presentations:
(excerpted from my programme booklet…just to give u an idea of how things are run in Singapore).

1. Participants must be in full professional attire

2. Prior to asking the question, the participant should address the panel/speaker and state his/her full name, home country and affiliation.

3. The participant than may ask one relevant and concise question. To ask follow-up questions, moderator must first permit the participant to re-direct.

4. When a speaker is answering a participant’s question, that participant will remain standing until the speaker has finished. At that time the participant will thank the speaker and return to his/her seat.


Land of Paradoxes & Ironies
-Singapore places huge emphasis on its military and national defense. [Every male student is required to go into the army for minimum 2 years.] Yet cuz Singapore is only ~600km^2, a few well placed ICBMs (or even a single nuke) would obliterate the entire country.
- Even in the humid tropical weather, restaurants serve piping hot tea instead of ice water.
- “Outraging Modesty” is an official crime in Singapore. According to the national newspaper The Strait Times, “Outraging Modesty” was up 17.7% (537 cases to 632 cases) in the 1st six months of ’04 vs ’05 respectively.
- Thailand is officially a democratic monarchy. (They’re on their 16th constitution in 68 years & have gone thru 22 political coups/upheavals.)
- Thailand is also torn between liberal and conservative movements. Transexuals are everywhere & well accepted. But guns, nudity (even buttocks) and swearing are all censored by on TV by government.


2nd World Countries:
There are numerous economic definitions & divisions of so called 1st, 2nd, 3rd, world countries. 1st and 3rd world have always been pretty easy to identify, but 2nd world always escaped my understanding. I think these continually transmogrifying definitions can be summarized more accurately w/ more cultural things. One example:
- Typical Public Restrooms –

The 1st world has nice porcelain or plastic toilettes w/ flushing mechanism.
The 3rd world has a hole in the ground.
The 2nd world combines the two: a hole in the ground w/ plastic or porcelain encompassing aforementioned hole plus a flushing mechanism.


W/out going into a dozen examples, I conclude that the 2nd world is a giant tease. They tempt you with certain luxuries found in the 1st world only to slap you in the face w/ 3rd world inefficiency.

Altho there are niceties w/ being a pampered tourist w/ everything organized for you from breakfast till bed-time, it’s not my preferred way to travel. Rushing one place, get herded off the bus like a Japanese tour group, taken where someone else wants you to go, for how long they want you to be there, getting taken advantage of by all the hawkers…. and worst of all, you get absolutely no understanding of what the legit culture and way of life is like.

I hate feeling like a tourist.