Well... I am still at the hotel on the beach...we did not make it to the bus station to head to Morgoro like our original weekend plans. The protest that started this morning has been quite an interesting event. Part of me wishes that CIEE didn't have to evacuate us and that it wasn't my fight to fight...because it would have been really interesting to experience it first hand! Instead we are all just getting up-dates through our roommates who are participating in the mark just 20mins down the road!
So...the 411 on the protest:
First off you have to understand that the Tanzanian students are fighting for money that they live on. The government provides loans for students to go to school as well as a dally living sty-pen. The problem is that it is not enough to live on and students flat out run out of money to eat. They don't know how they are going to eat-get water for the last 5 weeks of their semester, let alone go to class and pass their finale exams. And we are talking less then $.50 meals of rice and one other thing.
As I stated earlier the campus has been gearing up to this over the last week or so. On Thursday was the first organized gathering/rally where plans and demands where discussed and formulated. It takes very strategic planning and organization for strikes. The University has a 3 day strike policy...if the students disrupt classes for a third day in row the University will close until further notice (which could be 4 months). So this protest started Thursday and has been going all day Friday.
Friday started early with the rallying of the halls to get all the students to march. Even though all the students want the raise in the sty-pen some are very scared about protesting so they try and get home/to a safe place. My roommate on the other hand joined in. Which I say good for her...but after hearing some of what went down, I am just glad that she made it back home safe. So... the students marched to the bus station that morning and blocked the two entrances/exits to UDSM. The police normally leave the protestes alone until the make there way off campus. The disturbance was so great that the police resorted to tear gas to push the students back to campus. The students regrouped and went again and this time the students started being arrested.
The news this morning is that there are 42 students in jail. Jail here is already over crowded and the students will be lucky to get one meal a day. So the students have reorganized again and plan to protest at the Vice Chancellors' home and demand that the students be released. The students are also not allowing tests to be given today until those in the jail have been released.
This is a very big deal. It was finally fully aired and reported this morning on the news. Yesterdays events did not make a big splash in the news. Which we have been told is the Governments way of repressing the story and showing that they are not listening. This upset even those students how where not a part of the protest but still believe in what is being protested.
So hopefully things work themselves out! We are all hoping to get back to campus latter this afternoon. And then to get us back off campus for tomorrow we are all going on a bike tour of some villages in Dar! I am excited for this!
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