A HASH RUN - MEETING MINUTES

THe following are the minutes from the Hash Run we attended - I don't write the minutes, some raunchy Brit (Mama Hash) does it, so don't blame me if you find it offensive. And don't say I didn't warn you!!

Run no 1318 - 1 June 2009

Location: Spitz’n’Swallow & Camp Bed’s Abode opposite DYC

Hares: Camp bed, Spare & Just Greg

On another bloody Monday only made worse by the lack of decent company the run was according to Just Sid (doesn’t he lack a proper hash name...) ‘amazing’ – whatever you’re on, I want some! The walk on the other hand was crap-ish and on a scale from 1-10 given a 9 – must be an American way of counting.. Just look at their economy!

The front hare – Just Greg (at least for now) – seemed to have a problem both with holding the checks and with hats in the circle, and had a down-down for this.

Announcements:

- Next week’s hash @ the Jingle Residence on Transit Supermarket Road

- Shaggi hagish and his loyal MLP look-a-like horsi announced a 501 Darts tournament to take place at the GnD on Tuesday Evening 2 June.

- Daisy announced that USMC Latin Night 2^nd edition would take place @ the Marine house at the American Embassy on Friday evening 5 June – Which is also the Danish Constitution Day.. Hooray!! – Bar opens at 19.30 (that’s half seven or 7.30 pm!)

- Shaggi (who just can’t get enough of warm safari) encouraged the Hash to show up at TTCL on New Bagamoyo Road on Saturday afternoon 14.30 for 15.00 to support the hash team participating in the Knight Challenge – hash heroes!

- Dominatrix then foolishly tried to persuade the hash to get out of bed and go running at 6.30 (that’s am!) on Sunday morning.. Half marathon starting at Swedish school. You won’t be there either sweetheart, not when we’re done with you!

- And on behalf of Tiny, who managed to show up half way through the run and leave before the circle, once again the Vodacom fun run & marathon taking place on 21 June was announced– also bloody early on a Sunday morning.

Lots of down-downs to SnS the wannabe darter, the mighty knights of the Hash, an extra round for flatulence for his inability of keeping his mouth shut when others are talking (that’s actually even when they are NOT talking), Just Castro (seems to be a HUGE backlog on naming people) who was promoted to Sergeant today and many more...

Today’s RA Prawn generously handed out down-downs first to forgetful ones and then the triple was taken into use first to the Ripper, Camp bed & Just Greg for doing a useless job setting the run and afterwards trying hard to screw it up. Then the official chosen few and the unofficial few and finally SnS & a wide selection of accomplices for getting lost on the walk.

Virgins:

Mafisa from Arusha-sha, brought by Jingle Boobs preferring missionaries..

Swair from San Fransisco, brought by SnS, preferring woman on top – sounds a bit exotic for a GUY from SF..

Mike from Seattle, brought by Sns & Camp Bed, likes it lobster style

Mara from Ohio/Seattle, brought by Sns & Camp Bed, wants it on the table!

Andy from South Carolina, brought by 3 fingers, Likes it all

Erin from Chicago, brought by Tiffany, does it criss cross..!

Returnees, lack of t-shirts and purchasing of such.. Swair returning after 10 years, Hot Safari & Topless Wonder being hash haberdashery department, Prawn.. Drink it down-down-down..

Hashit..

The ‘Purple Dame’ Ripper kindly handed over the hashit regalia to Just Greg for his useless attempt of being a hare, since other nominees were Nasty for liking the rubber gloves – another hash hero! – and SnS for... No f*ing idea, but the GM also wants to have sex tonight so Karibu Greg, tough sh*t! Down-down to the hashit soon formerly to be known as Just Greg and his just as useless Godfathers..

Suggestions were: Front running Bastard (which of course isn’t valid), Wrong Turn, PREMATURE EJACULATION or Hare the f*ck are we?

And without any alternatives Just Greg will here after, blessed by the great gizmo in the sky, be known to the hash as PREMATURE EJACULATION

The swarm of virgins re-entered the circle for the usual lame attempt of singing SLSC but what’s to expect from a bunch of piss-heads...

ON ON!

H G

Culture Clash: Islamic Nation

Amateur observer: Islam in TZ, month 3

Muslim dress mixed with Western dress is the norm in Dar es Salaam for men and women. As you can expect, Westerners, Indians, Arabs, and people from other Middle Eastern nations dress the same as they would in their own countries. Dar is a very tolerant place. Tanzanian’s themselves are usually Western style, and our Muslim landlord dresses beautifully in Western and African dresses draped in Indian shawls.

The Abaya, full black robes with a veil covering the face from the nose down and black gloves, are a common sight in Dar es Salaam. You see them in the streets, often without the chaperone that the media tells us is supposed to accompany theses conservative Muslim women when they are out in public. They carry flashy purses and wear super heavy Cleopatra-style eyeliner. The outfit itself is a paradox. Nearly all of them I see shopping in the malls or going to movies are totally decked out in sequins, making the women look like disco balls when they move in the sun. A roving disco ball contradicts the whole purpose of the garment, which is to be hidden from the world, right? And the veil is usually totally ineffective. Whenever these women bend over to look at something or pick something up, the veil falls forward and the full face is revealed. It’s one of our favorite people-watching games, “did you see her face? Yeah, caught it!” It’s our little innocuous thrill at glimpsing the asininely forbidden. (yes, I just made a judgment there.)

I must admit I know I nothing about the community of people who wear the Abayas, or if they would even be open to a foreigner asking them about their dress. My instincts, based on influences like media and growing up as an American, tell me that if I tried to ask one of these veiled women for directions in the street, their husband would be neighborly and assist me. Let’s face it, someone draped in head to toe black with a veil is not screaming “I’m friendly, feel free to ask me how the weather is.” The black veil abaya is intimidating and keeps the woman from being harassed, spoken to, and touched. So when they walk by themselves into a boutique, isn’t it intimidating to say “how can I help you?” and I wonder if men and women can offer shop assistance or only women?

But the sequined disco ball frocks, unaccompanied shopping trips in the street, heavy eye make-up and flashy purses give a different story. These are not Taleban women, wearing the frock under threat of violence. There’s some sort of balance between choice, religious obligation, and tradition that I just don’t get because I’m from a totally different world. Again, a culture clash.

Dress as a culture clash is not something we’ve ever had a problem with, and to be honest I don’t agree with making head scarves into a human rights issue. Westerners who attack how Muslim women dress usually don’t seem to have spent a lot of time with religiously active Muslims (neither have we, but we work and live alongside them everyday) and I think are confusing traditional obligations with violent intimidation. I admit to this: I secretly believe that covering women eyelash to toenail relates to a fair amount of evolutionary baby-mama paranoia gone wild. But I also believe that changing traditional dress has to come from the Muslim world, and as a Westerner I don’t have the spiritual equipment to allow me to understand why women have to cover their heads and bodies but men dress like they do in Texas and Arkansas. (Well, okay, most Muslim men dress more chicly, actually.)

Most Muslim women who dress conservatively in Dar es Salaam, but not in full black and not with the face veil, are very approachable. They have power in their places of work, and (if they are foreigners) usually hold supervisory and managerial jobs in banks, corporations, service agencies, etc. Like every other business, some know exactly what they are doing in their work and handle themselves professionally, others don’t. The black veils do NOT come out in the work place. I don’t know if it is because Abaya wearers don’t work, or if they have a different dress for work. Few of the conservative dressers choose to wear gloves, but some men and women will choose to bow their head politely during an introduction rather than shake the hand of a person from the opposite sex (this rarely happens in professional relationships).

Sometimes you see conservative Muslims sitting altogether in restaurants, and other times the women are segregated from the men. But I have never felt that the conservative women in Dar are shy. And they talk loudly and gesture widely just like a soccer mom at junior league game in shorts and a fanny pack. If you are sitting looking at a map next to a conservative family, I mean full frocks (face uncovered) and the men in beards wearing doppas, there’s a good chance that they’ll ask you what you are doing and if you need help. Dar is like that. Actually, come to think of it, that same scenario happened to us in Mumbai, also, and the family itself was from South Africa, so maybe it isn’t just the city culture, but the Muslim culture as well…………….

In Kinshasa, we lived within a kilometer of a mosque and heard the call to prayer in the morning, at 7am, and at sunset. It was lovely to hear, soft, and didn’t wake us up if we were sleeping in. It’s a different story now. We don’t live in close proximity to a mosque, so someone has taken it on himself to walk through our neighborhood with a bullhorn from 4-6am screeching prayers. I know of no polite way to say this: the dude can’t sing. It’s terrible! The first time I heard it I was offended, but now I have to chuckle. If he were onstage the audience would throw tomatoes at him. Luckily he rarely passes directly on our street, so often we just sleep right through it.

Dar is no stranger to Islamic extremism and terrorism. In 1996, the US Embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, Kenya were bombed nearly simultaneously in coordinated attacks. Over 200 people were killed and more than 2000 injured. All but 6 of the dead were local people. Al Queda took credit for the bombings, and US security strategy immediately shifted to the African frontlines in the form of humanitarian and development assistance. Bush’s visit to Tanzania in March was downright popular, they loved him. The reason? He pledged $750 million to Tanzanian in development assistance, and then he went hopping out with Maasi. As one Tanzania reflected, Bush was in a mosh pit with Maasi warriors carrying daggers, when in the USA you couldn’t get that kind of contact with him. Bush remains that guy you could sit and have a beer with (oops, meant to say soda water J), which in the USA wins elections. But in Africa, it wins elections and allows you to take over the military and central bank, change the constitution, ruin the economy, and stay in power for decades until an entire generation of citizens can’t write their own names and are in no position to know for certain that their leader is bad, because, after all, he’s a good guy to have a beer with. But I digress…………

Yes, a terrorist attack happened in Tanzania and yes, it is a Muslim country. But it ought to be apparent to any non-Muslim coming here that to equate Islam in Tanzania with terrorism is highly offensive. It’s not something I would ever bring up with colleagues because it’s like saying because I come from the USA I must be a cowboy. It’s just extreme. Apart from some Muslims choosing to take on conservative dress, religion is no more apparent in everyday life here than it is in the USA. I’m still not going to approach a woman dressed in a black veil until someone tells me that it’s okay, but apart from the cater-wauling going on every morning through the bullhorn, I don’t feel like I’m asked to make extreme or uncomfortable changes in my behavior or dress in Tanzania. The disco-bar down the street blaring hip hop offends me more than anything else here. It is a new and interesting life living in a Muslim country, but then again Tanzania is very tolerant and accepting.

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Visit to Morogoro (university town) & Dodoma (capital City)

We took a road trip to Morogoro (3 hours west of Dar, and the home of Tanzania ’s most prestigious university) where FINCA TZ hosted a managerial training. We ended up taking our new car, a 1992 Pajero, and found it to be not so rugged. The battery had some wierd wiring default and broke down on us twice on the road.

The road was very nice the whole way, and we followed a beautiful mountain range. An hour after we arrived I came down with a flu bug that FINCA agents from different country programs across the continent were passing on to one another (we know colleagues in Tanzania, Uganda, and Malawi who had it!) I ended up holed up in the hotel room, with a television that The Simpsons, the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, ER, 24, then Friends, on a loop non-stop, 24 hours a day.

Mike decided at the last minute that he needed to continue on to Dodoma to oversee the construction of a new office there, so we left Morogoro and drove another 3 hours west. Along the way we ran out of gas, and easily flagged down another car on the road. The couple in the car was Muslim, and the lady was alllll decked out in colorful pink lace covering her head and body. They were super friendly. They were also running on empty, and drove Mike to a mud house about a kilometer down the road where a man sold diesel in containers. He gave Mike a container to take back to our car, and we split the diesel with the couple that had picked us up.

Then we picked up a jolly old market lady who’d been watching the whole thing and took her to her home down the road. She gave me a natural loofah (the kind that grow on trees) and peanuts as thanks. That was really cool.

We stayed in Dodoma in the very comfortable New Dodoma hotel but then learned that they'd pulled a fast one on us and gave us the most expensive room in the hotel! The standard rooms were less than half the price but it still nice and clean. Dodoma is the capital city of Tanzania and the Tanzanian parliament is there. It’s clean and planned well. We really liked both Morogoro and Dodoma, both of which are more like towns than cities. They are not tourist destinations: Morogoro sees a lot of students and Dodoma sees people on government business, so the towns represent a slice of real life. The weather was nice and cool, and a nice respite from the heat in Dar.

Tanzanians are generally very friendly and open to foreigners, and are in fact quite neighborly. When you have a problem, sympathetic assistance is usually offered without asking, and no one requests a tip or payment. On the other hand, never ask a Tanzanian for directions, you’ll end up going in circles! A Ugandan colleague said you can be standing right in front of a building, and a Tanzanian wouldn’t know where he is. (I love hearing all the Africans compare their countries, it’s such a unique perspective.) All in all, apart from car issues, the flu and the hotel trying to rip us off, we had a good, easy road trip.

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