We’ve been at the Saint Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT) in Mwanza, Tanzania for two weeks now, and it’s been a whirlwind of new experiences!
I thought a ‘Day In The Life’ post would be a valuable addition to this blog, but I have to laugh to myself a little because we really haven’t had a day that blends in to the others as part of a ‘daily routine': there’s something new to wonder at every day. I also laugh because I’m a foodie, so this will inevitably be a post about our culinary experiences!
Our ‘routine’ looks something like this:
We get up early for breakfast at the Abraham House, often to birdsong, as Caroline mentioned in her last post! The four of us, Caroline, Serena, Victoria and I, often have breakfast together. We’ll usually have Kilimanjaro tea, and toast made with fresh bread from the wonderful Sunrise Bakery down the street. The bakery often has piping hot scones made in the afternoons that we can’t get enough of.
If we have eggs in the morning, it’s always eggs with avocados – we’ve discovered how popular and easily available avocados are at every produce stand at the market, and they’re a staple in this house. We often go back to the same produce stand when we shop for groceries, and the lady has gotten to know us quite well-she often discounts the produce by a few hundred shillings for us. I relish being a ‘regular’ that she warmly recognizes and welcomes, it’s reminiscent of the delight people take in having a barista remember their coffee order.
Over breakfast, we plan our agenda for the day. On the days we teach, we’re generally doing case preparation in the mornings, seated in the living room or the veranda of the house, and students pop in to say hello as the day goes by. The four of us are all teaching the same cases to different sections, so we’ll go over numbers, frameworks, and discussion points for the day’s case.
We usually take a break and go down to the cafeteria for lunch, and have gotten familiar with some of the local foods. Uwali (rice), pilau (spiced rice), noodles, mixed beans, boiled bananas, fish (either fried, boiled or curried), and stir fried greens make up the usual menu.
There’s a fruit stand that sells a phenomenal fruit salad: it’s a combination of watermelon, pineapple, bananas, cucumbers, and avocados, which is such a refreshing treat on warmer days!
When we head out to class in the afternoon, we cross through the yellow main gates of the campus and walk along the red earth roads of the university.
On our way over, we usually stop by the Academic Block building to visit Mr Living Komu, the Public Relations Officer, who generously has our cases for the next class photocopied and ready, as well as any additional classroom materials we might need. If we have the time, we might pop in to see Father James Spillane, who is our main contact here at SAUT, and is a professor of tourism at the university.
We then head over to the Mwanjonde building next door. The building has both tiered and regular classrooms, and they work quite well for case discussions.
Our case classes have been progressing really well. The students have been getting more involved and enthusiastic in the classroom discussion as they’ve gotten used to the flow of things, which has been wonderful to see!
After classes, we head home and either cook something ourselves or pick up dinner on the way. If we pick up dinner, it’s usually chipsi (a cross between French fries and potato wedges) or chipsi mayai (an egg omelette with chipsi potatoes in it). We’ll often have it with ketchup or chili sauce.
Outside of the routine, we’ve been discovering a whole new world. We’ve savoured vitumbua while shopping in town, which are fried pastries from local street vendors, made from rice flour and coconut, which taste like a delicious cross between doughnuts and pancakes.
We’ve had monkeys come visit us in the backyard, and we’ve visited the pythons at the local Bjora museum.
We’ve taken a boat ride in a fishermen’s boat on Lake Victoria, and we’ve wandered in and out of stalls set up local artists, looking at vivid paintings and meticulous carvings.
We’ve had the power flicker and go out during thunderstorms, and we’ve lit the house at night with candles and kerosene lamps.
We’re living an interesting life here at SAUT in Mwanza, and we can’t wait to see what comes next!