Tag : politics

At the end of the third week of classes…

I learned:

1. There is wireless internet on campus. I discovered this by eavesdropping on what one of my students was doing and saw him connected.

2. Groucho Marx lives, or at least he is being channelled by one of my students. “Everybody uses Zantel [one of the cell phone companies], that’s why it doesn’t work.”

3. There is at least one person in the world who still thinks that television wrestling is real. Or at least he did, until I burst his bubble.

***

Regarding the election. People are being respectful and purposely not discussing the election. The few people who have said anything have said how disappointing the result is for America and for the whole world.

11-13-2016 |

Politics

In August 2001, while walking back to the car near Pisa, in Italy, I got in to a conversation with the parking attendant. Once he figured out that I was American, his next words were, “George Bush. Bad Man. Very, Very Bad Man.”

In November 2008, Angi and I were living in Tanzania, a different location than where we now are. We voted by email, which in itself was quite cool. The day after the election, people in the street, my colleagues at the university and some students all expressed their excitement about Obama being elected and congratulated me on behalf of America. In the following days, cloth with Obama’s face on it was available everywhere in the town where we lived and throughout the parts of the country that we visited. And a few months later, while in Nairobi, Kenya, people were still happy to talk to us about how proud they were that America elected Obama.

This year, we once again voted by email from Tanzania. This week, some of my students and colleagues were asking about the election, and every single person I talked to, was looking forward to Hillary being elected. Even the people who can not fathom a woman being elected President of Tanzania.

I will see some friends tomorrow (Thursday) and I will return to school on Friday.

I look forward to hearing what Tanzanians have to say.

11-09-2016 |