Isanzu trip

The Isanzu are a tall, Bantu, millet- and- sunflower-growing people group who live in about 8-10 villages in the northern-central part of Tanzania. They are a few hours’ bumpy drive away from the nearest paved roads. We were there for a week to visit several villages and do research in four of them.

In the foreground you might be able to see a couple little solar panels. In most villages they had access to some solar power.

The Isanzu area was at a pretty high altitude: our elevation was around 4000-5000 feet most of the time.

My job was to take wordlists.  I had a 300-word list that took over two hours in each village. Taking a wordlist meant sitting down with a few Isanzu speakers and working with them in Swahili to translate the words from Swahili to Isanzu. Isanzu has some really fun words—for example, try saying these out loud:

ngkulukulu : fingernails 

(one fingernail is lukulukulu)

kisikosiko: armpit

mahangahanga: sand

nyegenyege: narrow

And some of them are really long, like kikuwakamogolo (foot).

I laughed so much at some of the words that I’m pretty sure my wordlist informants will think of me every time they use the word “nyegenyege.” 

This was the first survey trip for the new interns. Our team consisted of five women!

We'll use the wordlists to get an idea of the level of linguistic similarity between villages. 

Other members of the team asked questions of a larger group about the sociolinguistic situation among the Isanzu, trying to learn more about how and when they use their language, whether it will continue to be used, and whether language development would be useful to them. This included some participatory activities like mapping their language area and listing domains of use of their languages (mainly Isanzu and Swahili). 

It was exciting to watch how much the people enjoyed joining in and how they became enthusiastic about discussing the pros and cons of the languages they use. Some of them seemed really interested in developing their language and promoting literacy in it.  

After we found a local guide to help us, I rattled around in the back of the Land Cruiser the whole time since we were short a seat. I volunteered for that spot, of course.

We got to see some of the local sights and scenery...

...and were introduced to lots of people, especially our guide's friends and relatives. 

An evening card game at our guesthouse.

We took a break from driving and I climbed a really cool tree.

Mapping the villages where Isanzu is spoken. 

Survey in Uganda

Typical cluster of homes in northern Uganda.

In spring term 2012, one of my linguistics classes at UW was “Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles.”  To give you the short definition, pidgins and creoles are basically “mixed” languages that started for purposes of trade and basic communication; a creole has developed to the extent that it has native speakers. For that class, my partner and I did a term project that involved a linguistic analysis of a language called Nubi Creole Arabic, or “Nubi” for short. Last month, almost three years later, the director of our Uganda team expressed an interest in Nubi and suggested that the survey team plan a trip to Uganda to research it.

Starting off on the road north out of Kampala...lots of bananas!

Coffee beans drying in the first town we stopped in. 

Nubi grew out of a pidgin Arabic that was widely used in the 1800’s in what is now South Sudan, by traders and the Egyptian military. The Nubis probably ended up in Uganda because they were soldiers of Amin Pasha, who invaded Uganda. Because of the military history of the language, it got spread around a lot; currently there are Nubi people living in various locations all over Uganda and neighboring Kenya. Part of the Nubi tribe’s claim to fame is that it produced Idi Amin.

To survey the language, we flew to Entebbe in the far south of Uganda and drove up to the far northwest corner, right by the borders of Congo and Sudan. We stopped in a few different areas with a relatively high number of Nubi speakers to connect with the community leaders and interview groups of people. I want to share with you some pictures and parts of the experience.

The Nubi people are not Christians, but were very welcoming and helpful; they were enthusiastic about their language and interested in seeing it developed. We got lots of information about the history and culture of the people as well as linguistic information.

A group meeting.

 In general they are a very multilingual people. Our first group interview was held in at least five different languages. Swahili isn’t the common language in Uganda like it is in Tanzania, but many Nubi do speak at least some Swahili. They also tend to learn the local language, at least some English, and variety of Arabic called Juba that’s very similar to Nubi. Even the team on this survey trip was unusually multilingual; we had two Ugandans with us who were very helpful with translating between various languages such as Luganda in the south, Lugbara in the north, and Juba Arabic. 

I work on taking a wordlist from a small group of Nubi men.

So why would they need language development in Nubi? Well, their acquisition of other languages doesn't mean Nubi isn't used. They reported using Nubi for just about everything! Not only that, but the language group expands as people around pick up the language and marry into the tribe. They have a very strong sense of their identity and culture, and the language is a big part of that. It's still the language that speaks to their hearts. It seems pretty clear to us from the survey that if the Nubi are to be reached with the gospel, it will have to be through their own language. Pray that God will open doors for that to happen.

My first elephant! He was right beside the road.

We gathered for a group photo after meeting with community leaders.

She took their picture and they all wanted to see. :)

Begging for food. 

Another group photo.

Another word-gathering session.

We had lots of tarmac road on this survey.

We crossed the Nile.

Some women hosted us in their craft workshop for an interview.

Kilimanjaro

Beer, bottled water, tea, coffee, and household products all over Tanzania bear its name. For some Tanzanians, it has the only snow that they've ever seen. The mountain is stunning from below—since it’s not part of a range, it stands out that much more prominently and seems to loom over everything. Residents of Moshi, which sits in its shadow, judge the clearness of the day by whether you can see Kibo, Kili’s larger peak. Uhuru Peak at the top of Kibo is the highest point in Africa at 19,341 feet.

There are six different routes you can ascend by. Kaleb and I took Machame Route, which takes six days minimum. When you climb Kili you pass through five different climate zones in a few days. First there is the farmland on the way up to the gate where the trek begins. The climb itself started out looking almost like a Gorge hike in the Northwest and is known here as a “rain forest.” The next day we climbed into a zone of sparse vegetation, heather and low shrubs and Giant Lobelia plants. Higher up was the alpine desert, which had lots of rocks but not much life besides some small flowers. It was much colder by this time, of course, especially at night. I’d forgotten what it felt like to be cold, but I haven’t missed it too much. I resolved to appreciate Dar weather more.

 The final zone is the summit zone. The climb to the summit is always made at night, which our guides told us was so that climbers can’t see the top and get discouraged. The summit zone has arctic conditions and half the oxygen that’s at sea level. Most climbers try to be at the top to see the sunrise from Uhuru Peak (uhuru = Swahili for freedom). That means a 6+ hour trudge up gravel switchbacks in the dark, with constantly decreasing oxygen. I can’t remember very much of that night! I just dizzily followed the feet in front of me and tried not to fall asleep. But when the sun came up, somehow there we were at the very top of Africa.

We were only there about 15 minutes, and my memory of it is very loopy. But it was incredibly gorgeous and everything was golden and light blue—a giant crater, a towering glacier, the neighboring mountain in the background. We took pictures, savored the moment, and then ran down to find oxygen. I would love to share those pictures with you, but due to an unfortunate camera theft a few days later, you’re out of luck. 

Christmas, Tanzania-style

There are some beautiful handmade nativity sets here. This one is made from banana leaves!

It took me a long time to be convinced that it was actually the Christmas season this year. I think the first time that I listened to Christmas music of my own accord was the afternoon of Christmas day. I realized that I strongly identify the holiday with the weather and decorations we associate with it, and those just weren’t there. Besides that, Christmas is usually an opportunity to spend time and have fun with friends and family, and without the same people around it was hard to recognize it as Christmas.

 

So what is Christmas like in Tanzania? Although it is a public holiday, the majority of Tanzanians don’t really celebrate it. In the larger or nicer stores, you might see Christmas decorations and hear music, but most of this comes from western traditions and the music is usually well-known traditional songs in English such as “Baby, it’s cold outside” (false) or “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas” (dream on). Despite not experiencing much in the way of Tanzanian Christmas “traditions,” I really appreciated that Christmas wasn’t overwhelmingly commercialized or nearly as in-your-face as it can be back home. Sure, there are lots of things I’m missing at Christmastime: hiking, Frisbee, dancing, caroling, and Christmas trees! But I enjoyed some fun things here too.

For example: in Tanzania, it is possible and even desirable to have a Christmas Eve service outdoors. I went to one! It is also enjoyable to go to the beach during the Christmas holidays. In fact, I did it three times from the 26^th to the 2^nd. Some people have barbecues; I wasn’t at one of those, but I did have the chance to eat all day on Christmas. This included a Christmas brunch with colleagues and a traditional British Christmas dinner with my adoptive family, where I got to try some new foods! I visited a crocodile ranch. I snorkeled for hours around coral reefs. I jumped over some big waves and got knocked over by even bigger ones. I went for a motorcycle ride on the beach. I explored some new running paths. Somebody baked me the most elaborate birthday cake of my life with a singing candle that wouldn’t stop singing. I got caught in a huge downpour and thunderstorm and waited it out at a small roadside shop.

Unfortunately, I did a pretty terrible job of taking pictures of all this. There are a few random ones below for your enjoyment, mostly un-Christmas-related. 

Ride down the beach.

Pineapple cutter: it's pineapple season now!

Results of the big rainstorm last week.