IF YOU WANT TO GET A BANK ACCOUNT IN TANZANIA

If you want to get a bank account in Tanzania, you start very early because you know that everything takes a long time in Africa.

You go to the bank with a person the bank knows so that he can introduce you.  But then you find that the forms for the co-signers were signed too long ago and are no longer valid.  So you scan blank forms and email them to the people in Chicago to sign again.

After a few days, you take the forms to the bank and you learn that the branch manager needs to approve the account, but he is not there.  So you walk back home again.

The next day you return, and the manager is there!!  He is very nice, but he tells you that since someone from your organization will not be in Tanzania every month of the year, you need the bursar at the university to write a letter of support saying that the bank can communicate with the bursar’s office if there are problems with the account.  So you walk back home.

The next day, after asking for help from your organization’s liaison with the university, you walk to campus to meet him and then go to the bursar with whom he has arranged an appointment.  But the bursar has been called to an unexpected meeting so you walk back home.

The next day, the same thing happens—you and the liaison go to an appointment with the bursar but he is at an unexpected meeting.  So you walk back home.

On the third try, you and the liaison find the bursar in his office.  He is very nice and writes the required letter while you wait.  Because the bursar has business at the bank, he very graciously walks with you to the bank to meet the manager who signs his approval on the form to get a new account!!

You take the form to the new accounts person, who smiles and says it will take a few days to process the form.

You return in two days, but the person has been very busy and has not been able to process your form.  By this time you know Rossallia, the new accounts person, very well so she gives you her cell phone number so you can text her to ask if the forms are ready rather than walking there each time.

A few days later the forms are ready!  Rossallia congratulates you on your new account!!!!  Success!!!

But wait!  There are now separate forms to complete to order checks!!  Oh no!!  Rossallia asks me to use the organizational stamp on the form.  Stamp??  I don’t have a stamp.  Where do I get one?  She doesn’t know, but knows someone who knows.  She calls that person who gives me directions on how to get to his business.

I go with a taxi driver to talk with this business person who can give us directions to the rubber stamp shop.  The taxi driver and I will go downtown to get the stamp the next day, but we need to get directions today.  With lots of arm waving and gestures, the very helpful businessman gives the taxi driver directions.  There are no street numbers in the city so directions are not easy and involve lots of landmarks.

The next day I get into the taxi and go downtown to get the rubber stamp.  After sitting in a traffic jam for a while and then moving slowly along through stop-and-go traffic, we find the rubber stamp store.  It is pouring with rain (but it’s the dry season!), and I run through the rain to order the stamp.  I write out the information needed on the stamp (the name of the organization and the address—pretty basic) and hand it to the owner who looks at it carefully to be sure that he can read my handwriting.  It looks good, and then he asks me for the articles of incorporation for the organization.  Articles of incorporation????  What??  This requirement protects organizations against forged rubber stamps.  Okaaaaaay; this is an interesting obstacle.  I need to get the articles of incorporation from a Chicago organization, and I need to get them very soon because the group I am leading will soon leave the city for six weeks, and I will not be able to get enough money for our travels if I don’t have the checkbook.  The owner says to bring the papers when I pick up the stamp the next day.

I think the necessary papers were scanned and emailed to me (the details blur in my mind), and I printed out every document the shop owner could possibly want and forge a signature on the letter authorizing me to get the stamp.   The next day the taxi driver and I return downtown through the traffic, and I present my papers.  The shop owner hands most of them back to me but staples two to his portion of the paperwork.  He hands me the rubber stamp, and I carefully examine it …… , and everything is correct!!

The next day I take my rubber stamp to the bank, use it once on the application for checks and then return home to carefully nestle it into a safe place.  It has taken more than one full day of time to obtain the stamp, and I never use it again.  But I like my rubber stamp because it means I will get a bank account so I can get money to sustain 25 people a third of the way around the world from the organization’s office.

I text Rossallia daily to see if the checkbook arrives, but it does not arrive before we leave the city.  I stock up on cash, propose that I write a letter authorizing someone known to the bank to pick up the checkbook, and arrange for that person to give it to someone else who will hand carry it to me in the field.

Three weeks later and hundreds of kilometers away, I am handed the checkbook!!!

I soon take the two-hour bus ride to the nearby city, walk into the bank, stand in the long line, and proudly (but wondering if they will find something wrong) present my check.  They give me money from the account so that I pay everyone associated with the program.  Whew!!

And that is how you get a bank account in Tanzania!!

But wait!!!!!  Then someone steals my computer, and because my password and secret key (I can’t tell you about that) are on the computer, I have to cancel the online access to the account, which is essential for the Chicago people to handle the account.  I request a password reset, but it doesn’t work, and  I can’t get the problem fixed before leaving Tanzania—oh no!!  Two months later, after multiple pleading emails, I regain online access to the account.

And that, nearly a year and a half after the process began, is how you get and keep a bank account in Tanzania!!

India

Tela and Carol visiting a Hindu temple

Jim at a street-side market in Bangalore

The final blog post of  our 6 month journey that began in Tanzania, then Greece and now INDIA!

Tela and Jim surrounded by curious Indian tourists at a Hindu temple

Tela exploring a local market

HIking with friends Abhimanyu, Aashutosha
 Prajval and Sharad

Enjoying a delicious home made vegetarian meal with friends
in their Bangalore home

School children getting a ride home in a rick shaw

Hindu temple carving of a dancer

Hindu temple carvings of elephants

It was great fun to be together again as a family, experiencing
India together

The largest Jain sculpture in India,
carved from one piece of 90 foot granite.

Tela and Jim at a Hindu temple in Delhi

Jim doing some heavy-duty bargaining for a rick shaw fee

Semi-precious gems inlaid in marble in the Taj Mahal

Qatar is a small country, wealthy with oil, situated on the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia on the Persian Gulf with its capital, Doha, being a large airport hub for international travelers.  Tela, just having completed her fall semester at Grinnell College met us in  Doha’s airport after the six month separation.  It was an exciting reunion filled with tales from our different worlds.  In 1973 Carol traveled through the northern region of India on her way to Nepal.  Then in 2007 Jim, Tela and Carol spent some time in Chennai, a bustling coastal city on the SE of India while traveling around the world with Semester at Sea.  So returning to India this time felt like a visit to a familiar place in some ways.  Yet how to begin to feel familiar with so much that is beyond our experience in the west?  The cacophony of colors, sounds, and smells overwhelm the senses.

We stayed for several days with close friends from our previous time in India at their home in Bangalore (Bengaluru) in the south central region of India.  They pampered us with gourmet vegetarian meals and taught us some survival skills before we launched on our own to visit some cultural sights several hours away by car.  Temples, temples, temples.  So much history it’s mind boggling.  Hindu, Jain, Seikh, and Muslim faiths all intertwining with places of worship, past and present, on almost every street corner.  It was fascinating to experience the depth of faiths being lived every day, all around us.  We were given a behind the scenes tour of a Seikh temple, guided through 900 year old Hindu temples famous for their intricate stone carvings over the entire exteriors and we hiked barefoot up a rock “mountain” to a huge Jain sculpture carved from one massive piece of granite.

Tela is the Facebook superstar by now, I’m sure.  Being a tall, blond  westerner, she was in constant demand for photos.  She’d often have a swarm of photographers asking her to pose with them, their girlfriends, their parents, their children…………we are sure her face is now broadcast throughout India, hopefully in a good way.  Children loved to practice out their English on us, and collapsed into giggles as they, with very British accents, said "Hello" and "Welcome".

We sadly left our friends and flew north for a must-see visit to the Taj Mahal.  WOW!   We were very lucky to have a fog-free evening for a special night viewing under the full moon then followed up with a lengthier visit the next day under clear blue skies.  It lived up to our expectations even though we’d seen pictures and read descriptions about it for years.  The detailed marble carvings and inlay work made it seem so delicate and lace-like.  Just exquisite but Jim felt slightly pressured to figure out how he was going to proclaim his love for Carol in any way that could measure up to the Taj.  He’s still pondering this dilemma.

So six months of adventures have drawn to a close.  More than we could have expected in so many ways and yet it’s good to be home with friends, family, two new kittens and our beloved Garden of the Gods just out the door which we visit daily for walking and cross-country skiing when there’s enough snow.

Happy New Year to you all with many wishes for good health, peace inside and out and perhaps a chance to visit in this coming year of 2015.  We’d love to see you and catch up on your adventures, be they local or abroad.

Love,  Carol, Jim and Tela

The world is so large, so wonderful and so eager to teach us life lessons!
It's been a fantastic journey.  Thanks for sharing it with us.

Tela overlooking Agra from the Taj Mahal

Winter in Greece

Here are a few photos with text down below.......................

Caryatids - gorgeous sculptures of Greek women supporting a temple at the Acropolis in Athens

Jim enjoyed being a student after months
of directing and teaching in Tanzania

Rain kept the tourists away and soothed our
overheated bodies.

The sun finally came out so we
could enjoy
our rooftop terrace overlooking Athens

Zeus's temple - huge pillars that dwarf the trees

The new Aropolis Museum was a fabulous place for seeing original
sculptures taken from the Parthenon to preserve them.

We had a gorgeous day for seeing the Parthenon

Having left Tanzania on December 10^th with mid-90 degree F weather and 90% humidity we were thrilled to arrive in Athens, shivering in its cooler, wet clime, devoid of tourists (they may have been the warmer, smarter folks but we were happier).  We delighted in exploring ruins, museums and eateries ready to woo us with traditional Zorba music, wine and delicious green salads.  We walked miles through the windy, cobblestone streets of old Athens, exploring structures that majestically told of the culture that had flourished well before the arrival of the Romans and Christians into the area.  It was fascinating to realize that the stone masonry so eloquently preserved a heritage that the Tanzanians had lost over time due to the use of different building materials. The island of Crete seduced us away from the city for a more relaxing time in sleepy villages on the sea.  Wild coastal hikes shared with goats, traditional food (think olive oil, goat cheeses, rustic breads and olives) mixed with backgammon games in front of a fire and hiking in a deep gorge all managed to soothe our spirits.  It was the perfect respite for us with no ability to do work without computers and only the day to day routine of easy paced exploring of a world we’d always wanted to visit.  The Greek people were friendly, eager to share their local lore, teach us some basic language skills and they were accepting of our eccentricity of traveling when all other tourists avoided their lovely harbors and villages.  On the northern coast of Crete we stayed in a Venetian mansion on a quaint harbor (Hania) as we sipped wine on our balcony.  We drove through the mountainous interior of the island to a small coastal village (Hora Sfakion) with two restaurants competing for our nightly meal.  It was a time to reconnect with each other and begin the slow integration back into the western world.  Delightful!  Our next blog post will take you to our final leg of the journey where we meet up with our daughter, Tela, for 3 weeks in India.

Love from Jim and Carol   (catch us in our next blog post in India)

Stunning mosaics and paintings
at Knossos

Reconstructed palace of Knossos on Crete

Dead-ended in the middle of a peaceful olive grove.

Ladders were used to get to the oil in these
huge amphoras

Sea breezes blowing away the strain of past 4 months

Hiking the cliffs of southern Crete

Wrapping up in Tanzania!

FINAL 3 WEEK COUNT-DOWN IN TANZANIA

Students working hard on their final research papers under the fan at our home on  campu

Jim beginning to see the light at the end of the
 tunnel as program draws to a close

Two of our Tanzanian colleagues essential to success
 of the program: Paulina and Dr. Kessey

Students Heather and Joanne at the final poster session

Since our last blog post the Tanzanian ACM program has ended.  We now have the challenge of integrating our experiences into our lives back home.  Following the 6 weeks camping in the field we returned to Dar es Salaam for 3 weeks of relative calm.  The students lived with host families spread around campus and busily tried to pull all their data together into some semblance of coherence.  Jim was kept on his toes helping them with their statistics, sentence construction, and asking the bigger questions such as “how will this research of mine contribute to furthering our knowledge on this subject?”.  The effort all culminated in a final poster presentation where the proud students explained to their host family members and University staff and faculty what they’d been doing all this time in Tanzania.  It was a grand moment in celebration of a journey well-traveled.

Students heading off to the airport with too much luggage in auto-rickshaw!

Then came the packing up and departing scramble, leaving Jim and I sighing with relief, knowing we’d done our best to provide guidance and encouragement and structure to these 22 students in a world apart from anything any of us had known before.  They left eager for chocolate brownies, smoothies, and fresh vegetables that didn’t have to be cooked.  They knew it would be hard to explain to loved ones what they’d just experienced for the past several months but were very ready to launch back into the world of flush toilets, hot water out of a tap and friends and families gathering for Christmas holidays.

Hand-made tool used to steal Jim's computer and Carol's phone out of our home on last night of the program.

Our moment of delight and sense of well-being after waving goodbye to our students was short-lived.  At 3:30 AM Jim was roused out of bed by our night guard as a robber had just cut through a window screen and stolen Jim’s computer and my phone.  Luckily the robber couldn't get into the house because of sturdy bars on the windows and no one was hurt but our guard was quickly accused by the police of being the primary suspect in the robbery.  Apparently this is the norm: to blame the most available person, but fortunately Jim was able to stop that silliness and ensure our trustworthy guard’s freedom.  Being without a computer put a wrench in Jim’s plans to wrap up the final grading of student papers and course budget (my computer had met an untimely demise a few weeks earlier due to humidity and the well-intentioned but unfortunate efforts of a repair man).   The heat really began to wilt our enthusiasm for more travel in tropical Tanzania so we rather spontaneously agreed that a cooler, northern clime sounded perfect for some emotional decompression before meeting up with Tela in India.  Off to Greece we flew.  (See our next blog post for photos of this next leg of our journey).

Tanzania has been an amazing experience.  It’s hard to wrap it up into a few short sentences but we hope the photos give a sense of what we've been doing these past several months.  We think the students had a great adventure, intense at times as they adjusted to a culture so very different than their own in the states, yet full of the vibrancy and open welcome of a people with so little materially who gave so much.  The Tanzanian people embraced us, taught us and laughed with us as we explored their world.  The 25% of the country set aside as Natural Parks was breathtakingly beautiful. We reveled in the herds of free roaming elephants, the night time yipping of hyenas on the prowl and the pastoral grazing of giraffes. We felt privileged to spend intimate time with the Maasai people as they explained their ways of being in a rapidly changing environment.  We learned of past slavery and experienced a present-day Muslim community on Zanzibar Island which was powerful for all of us, breaking down stereotypes and offering new understandings of our shared humanity.  Seeing fossils that trace our early ancestry gave a new perspective on our lives in the present, so fleeting.   Tanzanians are proud of their country and have done an amazing job of uniting many tribes into a vision of a nation with compassion for one another, education for all and hope for the future.  We are so very grateful for the opportunity to share in their daily efforts to keep their country moving forward.

Safari!

Cape Buffalo showing their intimidating strength

This pregnant mama cheetah casually strolled between our vehicles, offering us a spectacular viewing

Baby baboons always entertained us with their antics

Wildebeest on the move in search of water

Jim on point

After a week’s vacation in various Tanzanian delights, the group reunited in the northern town of Arusha, the launch pad for safaris and Kilimanjaro hikers.  Driving west towards the Serengeti, we saw parched, over-grazed land with barely any grass left-- the result of normal dry season, multi-year droughts, and too many hungry Maasai cattle and goats, Dusty villages scattered along the way sold bottled water, phone minutes and candy bars.

Maribu stork in our camp on rim of Ngorogoro Crater

As we crossed into Serengeti Park, we entered an area made green by the first rains of the wet season. Thousands of Thompson’s gazelles and zebras grazing on grass that had sprung up almost overnight created inspiring entry to the next two weeks of our journey through several national parks in northern Tanzania and then a month in a  camp where students did their individual research projects.  At the beginning of the wet season, over a million animals migrate south to the Serengeti to access the rich grazing there. Lines of wildebeest several kilometers long trudging single file with occasional surges of stampedes for no apparent reason were jaw-dropping sights. The wildebeest were often accompanied by hundreds of zebras and different species of gazelles, all relying on one another to spot predators in the area. We had great luck with seeing large cats—hearing a leopard in a tree crunching the bones of an impala, a very pregnant cheetah walking within a few meters of our vehicle, and many lions including cubs that tried to plop down in the shade of our car.  Babies of all species drew the most ooohs and aaahs, keeping us entertained with their antics. Carol kept a list of birds she identified each day – to date she’s seen over a hundred new species and has had fun sharing her love of birds with many students.  From our campsite at night we heard hyenas yipping and reveled in limitless stars overhead.  Iconic orange sunrises and sunsets with the bizarre baobab trees in the foreground kept looking like glossy covers of coffee table photo books except we were living in the photos.

Beading lesson with Maasai womens' cooperative

An integral part of the Serengeti are the indigenous peoples here, most prominently the Maasai tribe. We were thrilled to be able to live within a small village for a few days, participating in daily life and coming to a better understanding of their culture and the challenges facing them with shrinking land and water resources for their cattle grazing and efforts by the government to elicit their participation in conservation efforts.  It was fascinating to discuss, via interpreters, the dilemma of children attending school and learning the ways of the world which is so very different and challenging to their traditional pastoral lifestyle. We also visited another tribe, the Datoga,who are similar to the Maasai in some ways with cow ownership and living in small mud homes but they use an intriguing mix of tools that are from the stone age and iron age.  Jim and I laughed hard with one family (one husband, eight wives and multiple cows and kids) when the wives asked how we survive with no cows and how poor Jim seemed with only one wife and one child.  When I was asked what my job was back home, the best explanation for a social worker seemed to come out somewhere between a midwife and a witch doctor.  I got big smiles and nods from the women who seemed pleased with my career.  Curiosity and mutual respect was there for all of us from both sides of the cultural divide.  

Visiting various archaeological sites was another highlight as we traveled through northern Tanzania:  Laetoli and Oldupai Gorge have many sites with uncovered evidence of our ancestors, and  the famous Leakey’s spent their lives dedicated to uncovering footprints, skulls and extinct animal species that wandered the landscape that was so much lusher than now. 

After leaving the Serengeti we visited several places (Lake Eyasi, Ngorogoro Crater, Lake Manyara) and then established a more permanent camp just outside the boundary of Tarangire Park where students conducted research. Ecology students were on safari for most of 3 weeks, cultural anthropology students went into Maasai bomas (compounds) to conduct interviews and archaeology/geology students excavated an extinct elephant with evidence of tools that they discovered literally the first day in the field.   It has been an amazing time for everyone with fascinating stories swapped every meal time.

Painting in the heat was a fun challenge that usually failed 

  It’s mostly hot and dry in northern Tanzania, making it hard to imagine leaves gone from trees and winter winds blowing back home in Colorado.  Cool mountain air sounds pretty good right now as I sit in my red plastic chair (my 60^th birthday present from Jim)  outside our tent under the shade of an acacia tree.  The neighbors’ cows and goats have broken through the living fence once again so are munching happily on the bushes all around me. Birds of every exotic color are singing and flitting about.  The hot winds suck all moisture out of my acrylic paints before they even get on the paper so I haven’t been painting during this time.  Jim’s found the pace a little more relaxing since leaving Dar.  He has thoroughly enjoyed going on safari and learning from local biologists and archaeologists while letting the contracted safari company manage most of the logistics.  And still no malaria for any of us.........

Much love to all,

Jim and Carol

Acacia trees offer shade for many but food for only the tallest of wildlife.

Zanzibar!!!!

It's been a month since our last posting and I'm having a difficult time condensing this rich experience into a few brief paragraphs.  We have been busy with 22 students coming and going to our house throughout the days to use the mostly reliable wi-fi for their important tasks such as  and  homework for their 4 classes plus FaceBook under the cooling ceiling fan.  Jim seems to spend his days either glued to his computer or negotiating the labyrinth of  various officials to get national park permits, residency status, a local bank account, bus drivers and tour guides. Nothing is straight forward here and the inefficiency is profound, causing countless delays and detours. Prices seem quite fluid, requiring constant negotiating whether it be for market items or tour guides.  Jim's patience has grown quite philosophical about it all, riding it out with the local saying "hakuna shida" - no problem.

Zanzibar spice market

A fantastic long weekend trip to the off shore island of Zanzibar was a true highlight for all of us. The island has a long history of successive occupations by Arabs, Germans and British who all left their mark.  The Muslim culture is now dominant and although Zanzibar is officially a part of Tanzania it has held on to its rich heritage.  The island is famous for its spice trade of cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon and uniquely carved wooden doors that hide the lushness of Arabic courtyards with tropical greenery and mosaic lined fountains.  Winding stone streets filled with small shops and open air markets are easy to get lost in.  Fishermen ply the seas all around the island in their triangular sailed dhows and women grace the streets in their brightly colored flowing shawls and long dresses.  The pace is slower on the island, lulling visitors into a more relaxed mode.  It was delightful.

Another great field trip was an archaeological tour of the National Museum in Dar es Salaam which houses many artifacts that have been unearthed here in Tanzania, most notably by the Leakey family find of Prosthyothithicus **** a 2.5 million year old hominid skull.  It was so amazing to be present with such ancient evidence of our evolution to this point in time.

An endangered Red Colobus monkey setting the tone on Zanzibar 

The classroom section of the program is now completed and students are off adventuring independently for a week before the 6 weeks of field camp begins up north in the land of the Serengeti and Maasai.  Jim and I will be taking the ferry back to Zanzibar for some R&R for a few days before joining them for the next stage of this incredible experience.  It will be fun to hear the students' stories from their time hiking, going on safari and snorkeling coral reefs. Jim and I will be in Dar, wrapping up work details and then heading back to the island of Zanzibar for some rest ourselves.  We'll keep you posted and as always, know that we think of you all and look forward to hearing from you when you get a chance.

Badaaye (later in Kiswahili)

Jim and Carol

Night food vendor down by the harbor where nothing's a set price

3 students at the Slave Market Memorial

Zanzibar selfie

Back yard banded mongoose

Dhow returning to harbor with day's catch

Carol's painting in anticipation of the next section of the course - Safari!