Daffodil Vs. Yellow

As part of my own language learning, I have been investigating the color words in Swahili. I couldn’t find some of them in the dictionary. I questioned my tutor about this and it let to a rather interesting conversation. After she defined the some terms that I wanted and were easy to name; then, we came to colors like pink, purple, orange, brown, and maroon. I discovered that Swahili traditionally doesn’t have words for these colors and several others. They are borrowed from other languages – English, Arabic, and German – mainly. She said that orange is frequently referred to as “color of the fruit (oranges)”; it is translated basically in that phrase. Pink is pinki, brown is the color of coffee, and my favorite amusing term, maroon, is damu na mzee, literally the blood of old people. The color universals that I discussed in anthropology last semester are true here. There are definite words for red, black, and white. The rest of the color words vary within Swahili and the tribal languages, if they exist at all.

Having done graphic design at home, I’ve learned to distinguish the slightest differences in colors. To my eye, there is a difference between aqua and pool as well as tangerine and orange zest. Looking at fabrics in the market, I take those color terms with me. I see khaki and mocha kitenges with turquoise and lime accents. If you asked the shop keeper to name those colors you would hear, brown, blue and green. My eye can see those differences and I know physiologically an eye is an eye unless it’s been damaged. Does knowledge of color activate more rods and cones in the eye or is it awareness to those subtle differences?

The story my tutor shared with us to illustrate the lack of color words is quite humorous and it goes a something like this: “My sister got married last year. It was my responsibility to buy all of the flowers and the decorations. She told me her wedding colors were pink and white and that the bridesmaids dresses were pink, so I bought pink everything. Since she lives far away, she didn’t see anything until I came a few days before the wedding with the things I had purchased. I bought pink like the kind on roses or baby blankets. The dresses were maroon. We used what we had, though when I think about it until a few years ago I would have called maroon pink as well because I hadn’t learned a word for that color.”

This leads me to the thought that many of the words I use to describe colors are a product of wealth. Why else would I need to know the difference in the names between three different shades of blue unless I had time to think about it or use those terms in home decorating or design?

I’d love to take a rural Tanzanian into Home Depot to look at all of the paint chips and samples. I’d have to ask what colors he/she saw. Then, upon this individual’s return home, if he/she started seeing colors differently since new color words were added to the vocabulary and an opportunity was given to see distinctions labeled in color difference.

Coming Soon!

Hey All! I know I've been promising blogs about my trip north to Kilimanjaro. I'm really far behind. Internet here has been touch and go. With the addition of students on campus the wait for the Internet cafe is ever increasing. I'm going to get there soon. Until then, check out the photo link and leave me comments on older entries or send me e-mails. I miss you all See you soon! ~ Shanea'

Campus Cleanliness & Society’s Rubbish

For this being a “developing nation” I’m really impressed by how clean the university campus is. Virtually every morning, I come downstairs to a crew doing yard work around my building. The rest of the campus is the same way. There are always crews of men and women cutting grass, raking leaves, or sweeping sidewalks everywhere I go on campus. There is also a group of people who almost continually monitor the restroom in the middle of campus. That could be true because the water goes out so frequently and the hand flush buckets have to be filled somehow. From what I’ve seen and imagined I thought that I would have to endure heaps of rubbish and clogged gutters. It’s been a pleasant surprise to not have to see those things. The surrounding city areas aren’t as clean, yet part of me was expecting something far worse.

Leaving campus things are a little different. Based on where you are, you could see gutters full of rubbish and large pools of standing water or well maintained streets. It is all based on what part of town you are in. The more touristy parts of town or the better neighborhoods are more likely to be better maintained...not much different from home.

I don’t think that I will ever grow accustomed to throwing fruit rubbish on the ground or the amount of littering I see other people do. Off of campus a little piece of me wants to walk around with one of those “picker-upper” things and just pick up the trash. The problem comes down to where does it go once it’s in the bin. The city has a bit of a waste removal system. Many residents burn their garbage…what little they make that isn’t compost able or reusable. People here are so thrifty. I see many things being reused. Plastic bags from bread get rinsed and dried to be used to get meat from the butcher. Blue Band margarine containers become parts for children’s toys. Soles are cut off of shoes to make stoppers for sinks and tubs. It is truly unconventional recycling.

Campus Safety Vs. Auxilliary Police

At PLU, we have a fantastic campus safety department. They handle building lock ups and monitor parking lots. They also do write ups for alcohol on campus and noise violations. At UDSM, we also have campus safety, but it's a little different. The local security/militia trains one or two days a week - complete with long runs and chants. It looks like a military work out. Then there are the guns. In addition to the physical training they receive, they also get arms training. When they are doing their training near the soccer field, it is easy to see the wooden rifles stacked not too far away. It is quite normal to see a man in full military dress on my way to class, armed to the teeth with an automatic rifle sitting outside of the mail drop across from the bank that is by the cafeteria. They are all over campus. I think my favorite is the lady who sits outside of our building. She looks likes your grandma, but I'd never cross her since the man sitting next to her has a sawed off shotgun. Yes, I'm safe. :)

It’s an entirely different perspective on keeping students safe. It seems like more of their security is a display as part of prevention than dealing with actual incidents. The other observation is the only residence hall I’ve seen security in front of is our hall. I’m curious to see if that changes once school starts and more halls have students living in them or if the security is here because this is the hall where international students live and thieves assume that we all have rooms full of valuables? Over all I feel safer during the day when I can see around me. Nights are a little sketchy since the campus is open and it is so large. I’ve met my fair share of interesting individuals with mental health issues on campus. They just seem to wander around all day. Luckily, I’ve only met them in the day light.

The Darfur Problem Lecture: My Response as an American & a Global Citizen

Just as a beginning note, this has the potential to be controversial....

Sitting in this lecture, I had an interesting perspective. I think a long time ago I overcame the view that American does no wrong. Listening to how the American government’s unfounded reports were the cause of so much of the Darfur hysteria in the US wasn’t shocking as a fact that it happened. It did frustrate me that supposedly educated people, the Senate, would vote on an issue and label a conflict with a word as serious as genocide before they had many, if any, facts. Only after the senate voted on this issue, was a study commissioned. Then that study was basically called hogwash by the audit office. How much different could the international response had been if the information in the WHO report was more publicized than the term genocide.(The WHO listed the causes of the majority of the casualties as lack of public health facilities and systems – sanitation and clean water namely.) There could have been a more humanitarian response that addressed the issued of the mass of people. Those issues are still a problem today and are still taking lives. Yes there was a civil conflict and probably some indirect death due to the conflict, though I still see evidence that there was a better way to handle it.

I left not offended or frustrated as others did. I wish some of that information could be repeated to my peers at home in a way that would click for them. I want to see not a continued fundraising response for advocacy groups or a call for government and military involvement. I want to see these areas and nations who are closer to the conflict empowered to do something practical about it. Practicality is not only a shipment of weapons and barbed wire, but also shovels and pipes to put in latrines and a well.

I felt a little foolish after this lecture because I have given financial support to the Save Darfur Coalition. If I had known then what I know now, they wouldn’t have gotten my money. I’ve checked out some of the sources the speaker cited and I see that he interpreted them accurately. The entire Darfur issue gives people a chance to do something that makes them feel good because they don’t see themselves as having a direct responsibility to those people for causing their situation unlike the conflict in Iraq. I probably take a different stance on the Iraq War than the presenter did. People are more hesitant to give to causes that directly benefit the Iraqi citizens because in a round about way, I think they are seen as a threat and by giving to them, we have to acknowledge our role in their current situation. This is something that is far too complicated to continue writing about as I have strong opinions all of the way around for numerous reasons.