Kuuliza si ujinga

Well, I found the shelf of Tanzania books at the Reed library.

I was surprised that there actually was a full shelf--I was expecting maybe two or three books. Unfortunately, the "full shelf" is mostly composed of anthropology books written in the fifties. I did find a single novelist who writes about Tanzania--a man named M.G. Vassanji who now lives in Canada. Reed also has a Swahili grammar from the forties which is technical and useless unless you've taken linguistics, a book about the adventures of a female anthropologist in Tanzania, and two books of speeches by Julius Nyerere, the first president of the country.

Nyerere may not have led his country to wealth and development, but he is an inspiring writer:

"And the very first part is that all human beings are equal. This being so we have to accept that the exploitation, the humiliation, the suffering, of all men--wherever it takes place--means the exploitation, humiliation, and suffering of mankind. All men are reduced by it."--from Man and Development

Oh, and passport applications are fun. For those who have seen me lately, what color are my eyes? I put 'hazel', but hazel is technically light brown. My eyes have brown, blue, and green in them. But I have the feeling that "blue specked with green and brown" won't go over so well in the passport office.