From kitchen counter to counter politics

In Tanzania, it is said that the value of a woman depends on how well she can make chapati. Perhaps that is why there are so few female political leaders in Tanzania. I mean, I have heard of “kitchen table” talks with candidates, but I don’t think the candidates usually do any cooking at them.

The US Presidential election is a popular topic here. After all, one of the candidates traced his lineage to Kenya (and I’m not talking about John McCain, although I’m sure his lobbyist friends would tell him he did for a favor).

So what do people think about the fact that the US is entertaining the idea of a female President?

• It is ok for a woman to be President because Presidents generally rely on their advisers, and those advisers can be men.
• It is generally not ok for a woman to be President, but Hillary happens to be married to Bill, so in this case it doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.
• If women can’t make simple decisions around the house without consulting their husbands, how can they lead a country?
• Women should be President, but they will never get elected (said by a woman).
• Women shouldn’t tell us what to do, they should be told what to do. That’s why they can’t be priests, either.

Sure, I collected these thoughts in Tanzania. But don’t you think we could get similar responses in the US? Perhaps in pick-your-battleground-state?

I have been dispirited to see Hillary’s campaign slipping under the mercurial currents of popular opinion. I value her politics, but I also can't help but wonder what sort of ripple effect an effective female president in the US might have, perhaps in places as far-off as Kigoma. Sure females have led countries before: Israel, India, the UK, Norway, Pakistan, Argentina and the Central Africa Republic to name a few. But people still seem dubious that a woman could lead the US. I guess a part of me wants to prove them wrong (my arguments about Margaret Thatcher are admittedly half-hearted), and my blind optimism about Hillary is that she could do the job.

The barrier separating men and women in Kigoma often seems like more of a brick wall (the kind found in kitchens) rather than a glass ceiling. The question is: if the US were to elect a female President, and that female President were to do a good job, would some of those brick walls start to sway, or are there too many chapatis holding them up on the other side?

How romantic

My roommate and I were contemplating over a chapati breakfast yesterday what the provenance is of Valentine's Day. We were at a loss.

Then last night we were driving down the road and there were giant snails scattered along the road's margin: meeting, greeting and awkwardly multiplying, as snails will do. My roommate suggested that perhaps Valentine's Day began as a molluskan holiday - marking the time of year when snails crawl out of the mud to seek brief romantic trysts. After all, isn't that essentially what we do?

I noticed when I woke-up this morning that a lizard in my room was making some kind of call I only remember hearing once before - a vocalization which sounded something like the tapping of fingernails on wood. I wondered what he was saying and whose attention he was trying to get, and I couldn't help but think that he, too, woke-up alone on Valentine's Day. It's not the worst fate, but it's worth tapping your fingers about.

What aisle is shark's liver on again?

My computer is infected with a virus; I think it's the technological equivalent of malaria here - one or two infections a year seems pretty normal.

I am running out of options, and as a last resort, I asked today if there is a witch doctor in town who specializes in computers. "You will need tears from a lion and a shark's liver," a coworker told me, "the more lion tears the better." She was joking, but I at least contemplated the logistics to get these things. "Would a five-legged camel do?" I asked.

There was also talk about sprinkling holy water, but I am afraid of blowing a circuit.

On a side note, my computer continues to be home to a tiny colony of ants - the little red kind - and there is a seam in the plastic on the side of my monitor that continues to rift slowly and imperceptibly, implying that some small force is pushing the pieces away from each other over time. My only hope is that the virus wipes out the ants and not my computer. Otherwise, I'll need more than a crying lion to fix this thing.