What Tanzanian Hip Hop Sounds Like...and how I got married

Today we went to this place called Aang Serian - House of Pace. They have numerous projects, but the one we were involved with is called DIRA. Check out their video on YouTube. They take youth you have talent and interested in music, specifically hip hop, and have them set their traditional tribal songs to urban beats. They also convey themes about FGM, HIV, politics, children's rights, etc. They were pretty good from what I could understand and what was translated for me.

From there we headed to Karatu. It's just outside of the Crater conservation area. We checked into the Lutheran Hostel which was very nice. Everyone went on a walk while I stayed behind to journal in the courtyard. After a few minutes Chris comes to the main gate and calls me over. He's got seven adorable kids with him. It didn't take much convincing to have me walk with him to take these kids home. (Where they came from is a whole other very long story not too relevant to this one.) On our way back, we were stopped by this man who chatted us up. Eventually he asked us for a scholarship to send his daughter to school. Funds for that sort of thinking are in short supply here. He invited us back to his place and of course Chris said that we would come. It would have been rude not to go. I went along nervously and reluctantly, but I trust him and his Swahili is much better than mine. The long and short of it...in the end, the guy asked Chris if I was his wife. He didn't say no which was for my benefit and that's how I became his third wife. His first is a Uzbek gal he met last fall and the second is a girl named Siri that is on the trip with us. Now it is the standing joke that I am the third wife.


And that is that...more about the crater later. :)