Kirti and Surtida, Tanzania
Kirtida was born in Tanzania (at the time called Tanganyika), where most of her family has lived for 100 years. Her ancestors were from India, but moved to East Africa between World War 1 and World War 2. Her mother was born in India but moved to British East Africa before Tanganyika’s independence. Kirti (name is prefers to go by) went to high school in Tanzania and started working for a bank, which at the time had just been nationalized by the government. She got married and had two children, Surtida and her younger brother. After working for the bank for 13 years she changed several jobs and eventually she became an office administrator for a private company, where she worked for 28 years. In 2015, with Surtida and her son, a violinist, in the US and London, Kirti lost her husband. After discussing it with her children, she moved to Tacoma to be with her daughter, son in law, and grandson, sponsored by Surtida, who had recently become a US citizen, as direct dependent.
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Surtida was born in Dar Es Salam, Tanzania, where she lived through the end of high school. She attended an international high school where she studied flute and saxophone. Like for other people in her family, the choice for college were Nairobi, Kenya, or either the UK or the US. Surtida had spent two summers at a summer camp at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan, where she started playing bassoon, and since she enjoyed it very much, her music teacher, who was from the US, helped her strategize the apply to the US Universities with the best chances to get a full scholarship. After applying to a number of colleges, she chose Arkansas Tech University, where she got full tuition waver and spent 5 years getting her music education degree.
After graduating, Surtida applied for a summer job in Interlochen, as an optional practical training for f1 student visa, but eventually she was there full time working for the academy’s boarding school. The Dean of Students, seeing how good she was at that job, suggested that she look into getting a master’s degree in Student Affairs Administration. Considering that she enjoyed working in administrative capacity and needed to drop music for medical reason, she started the MA at Michigan State University and got a job there, the University sponsoring her with an H1B visa (a maximum 6 years stay). Tired of the cold and the snow, she eventually moved to the state of Washington, where her best friend was looking to get stationed at Ft. Lewis: “ocean and mountains” with little or no snow sounded great. Surtida got a job at Central Washington University in Ellensburg but was planning to go live in Australia at the end of her visa. Things after September 11th were harder to get a visa and she was looking forward to a new adventure in sunny Australia where she had family. It was however not in the works, because during a visit to Tacoma, to meet her friend at a concert at the Swiss, she me met Jason, who eventually became her husband.
Occupation: Kirti, retired administrator; Surtida, University Administrator UWT
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Family in the US (from Tanzania): some Uncles and cousins (Colorado, California, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Virginia– Kirti’s husmband/Surtida’s father was the 6th of 12 children). While they have family members everywhere, from Australia, the UK and Kenya (Kirti’s sister and 91year old Mother are there), no one else is left in Tanzania.
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Languages: Panjabi, Gujarati, Hindi (Indian), Swahili (Tanzania), English, a bit of French (school)
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Favorite pastimes: Kirti: TV, reading, wine tasting. Surtida: cooking and reading;
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Favorite music: Kirti: Indian, semi-classical; singers: Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh, Asha Bhosle; Surtida: most music; growing up she liked classing Indian music (Bollywood); now, that she feels like a visitor in my own land – Tanzanian music.
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Language challenges: Kirti when people speak too fast it’s hard to understand them. People get confused when she pronounces Daughter/Doctor
Surtida: Tomato – Shallots (British pronunciation)
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Could do without:
Kirti: people will keep asking when she says she is from “Tanzania” because people don’t believe her due to her look. In Ocean Shore she and Surtida were buying butter and taking time to look at various brands and a couple walked away muttering “They can’t build the wall fast enough.”
Surtida: When she first come to the US she was told by a professor to buy and English dictionary because of her “problems” with spelling…although her spelling was perfect, just British instead of US spelling). Also, she notices that people are hyper aware of her after a terrorist attack occurs. Finally people are shocked when talking to her, about her lack of a foreign accent, assuming she would have one.
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Favorite expressions:
Kirti: Swahili: poa (cool)
English “good” (as the standard answer given by people she has met in the US)
Surtida: English “ain’t nobody got time for that”
Panjabi: “maro” (used when you are at the end of the rope with something/someone) she would use it with her cousins
Objects:
· Maasai blanket (blue pattern): traditionally Maasai warriors wear it with a knot. As a traditionally nomadic population would use them as clothing and for warmth. Originally dyed by the tribes
· Khanga (“kanga” - the Swahili word for guinea fowl): traditional Tanzanian colorful cotton cloth. Traditionally it comes in two pieces, wrap top and bottom, sometimes used as skirt and worn with a blouse.