Hey everyone!
Sorry it has taken a few days here before I have been able to get a proper blog up. It has been a bit of a whirlwind. So... let me take you back to May. 2nd, 2011 1:30pm(roughly) Africa Standard Time...
Coming off that plane was weird. I remember thinking that the flying was finally over. As I wait to get off the plane I kept rehearsing in my head "tourist. Tourist. I am a tourist. Thats what I have to say. Don't say volunteer. Don't talk about your NGO. Just tourist". Yeah thats right, I talk to myself. haha
So, we get off the plane and have to walk on the terf to the airport. As I fill out my visa form... guess what I start to write! thaaaats right, VO- scratch that... I turned the V into a T and continued with "urist". I prep myself for mins and then I nearly mess it up. haha What is wrong with me? Anyhow, we gave a gentleman our passports, the forms and $50 USD and then we were told to stand in this little square section in the lobby. They don't talk to you, they are all just behind the glass clicking away at computers and paperwork and after 5 minutes you start to wonder if you are going to get through. After all these flights I started to wonder if they would deny me access and send me home. Finally, my passport got held up in the air and they hollered something, so I moved to the window and they got me to scan all 10 of my fingers. YIKES! Does that happen with all visas? Or do I just look particularly terrorist like? I dont know but it sure seemed invasive. I did however get my get my FIRST STAMP IN MY VISA. (insert photo here)<----yeah the wifi connection is really bad in my house so I will try to post the pictures tomorrow morning! sorry :)
So we moved through the security and there my suitcase sat. Dirty, but all intact. YAY! So we head out and meet up with two internships, Joel and Jennifer, who were already in Dar. It was such a relief to see them!! We quickly changed over some money, got water(bottled) and then headed to our taxi. We have about three different taxi drivers that are safe and the first one I met was Brayn(its brian.. but he spells it like brain? don't ask).
We quickly got on our way towards the Passionist Fathers Guest House. The drive was surreal with people scattered all over the streets. Like scenes from a documentary, or a movie... I saw young boys doing hard labour and dangerous jobs. People of all ages with little sections with items for sale. I really don't know how to describe this screen... all these people had the most random items that they were sitting there for hours and hours trying to sell to make any small amount of income. And to make this even more of a humbling moment... young boys were IN traffic trying to sell these random things such as water, tea towels, maps, bicycle tires, blow up water toys, apples, peanuts, cellphone cards, etc. in case you don't know... the traffic here is like.... 20x worse then our traffic jams on the highway during rush hour. These people are so dangerous, they drive extremely aggressive and these teenage boys walk amongst these cars. Not on the side, but literally between the vehicles that are speeding and nearly hitting each other continuously. Scary. So.. cool stuff about driving... the dala dalas which are buses are pretty cool. They are colorful and people are like crammed in there similar to Vancouver buses, except for the fact that the doors are left open and people are handing out of them. Think of this while the driver is speeding around and almost causing car accidents every few minutes! Fun fun! haha and then there are the tuck tucks which are these 3 wheel colorful vehicles which like to use the shoulders of the roads to get around travel jams. haha too bad we can't ride either of these. (pictures)<--soon?
We finally arrived to the Guest House which I was grateful for. The buildings are beautiful and after putting my stuff in my room I found out our electricity was out and had been all morning. The people who run this place are very kind people and I already love them! There is a beautiful view from the balconies. The house I am staying in is actually outside the main buildings gates, across an alley and into another gated area. We were without electricity until 5 o'clock when they tried to use their generator. Unfortunately, the generator was only connected to the main building where our prof stays and a few of the other interns. So in hopes to get my laptop charged, brought it over along with everyone else from my house. haha I don't know if it was the overload of electricity demand or the generator just sucking, but that lasted us a whole 15 minutes and the generator cut out. haha Dinner was at 7:30 and thankfully the electricity came on 30 minutes before we had to go down for dinner.
At dinner we met some wonderful people. Two couples. One couple are born and raised in Tanzania, but live on the east coast of Canada now. Maria is the wife's name and I forgot the husband's name, Maria has taught me some Swahili words which make my conversations with Tanzanian people a little easier. The second couple has been married for three and a half years and the wife is from New Zealand and the husband is from Ireland. Cute couple, the wife is pregnant too. Dinner by the way was delicious! Not anything unrecognizable! Just loads of carbs.
SWAHILI WORDS LEARNED:
Asante: Thank you [I learned from Elizabeth before I left to Tanzania]
From Maria:
1) Jambo: Hello(casual greeting you can use anytime of the day)
2) Kwaheri: Goodbye
3)Shikamo: Hello/how are you(this is to be used with elders. it is more respectful)
4) Habari: how are you
5) Njema: Good(this is what you say when someone asked you habari)
Oh, before I forget! We have the coolest guards. They are from a nomadic tribe and I apologize that I have forgotten the name. I will find out the name of the tribe and hopefully a photo soon. They are the security for the whole city really. They carry sticks around and generally weird a rich red piece of fabric that wraps around the waist and then over the shoulder. They are very kind, and taught me the word: Mambo: which is similar to a hello greeting but more like a "hows it going" slang.
6) Mambo: "hows it going"
As for today we really just went to a resort and rested in the sun, got pizza, and swam in the pool. Spent a good portion of the day there. And get this... it rained. Funny thing too.
How do you know you are from British Columbia? When the clouds start to drop the tiniest little drops of water for a minute or two and what once was a full deck of people has ended up with your small group of British Columbian interns. haha
After the resort we went to the shopper plaza and got a few food items. I am attempting to get stuff to make homemade hummus(YUM). Fun facts!! The delicious cereals we eat out in Canada like Reese cups and Nesquik cereal are 11 to 13 dollars US out here!!!!!!! No wonder immigrant kids get excited to eat things like this and find them to be treats. Who in their right mind would spend 11 dollars on a small cereal box?! I'll have to take pictures next time.
I must not forget! Today for breakfast I was introduced to a new fruit. It is a green orange. YUM! At first I thought everyone was eating limes. They taste delicious! (Picture) <--- yeah it'll come hopefully :D
Other than that, we had dinner at a local restaurant... we had pizza. haha. at the end of our dinner when we were eating our dessert the power went out. i had to laugh to myself as I see this is going to be a trend.
There are my first two days in Dar es Salaam in a nutshell. Look forward to seeing all your comments and I will blog again soon.
Moriah
Sorry it has taken a few days here before I have been able to get a proper blog up. It has been a bit of a whirlwind. So... let me take you back to May. 2nd, 2011 1:30pm(roughly) Africa Standard Time...
Coming off that plane was weird. I remember thinking that the flying was finally over. As I wait to get off the plane I kept rehearsing in my head "tourist. Tourist. I am a tourist. Thats what I have to say. Don't say volunteer. Don't talk about your NGO. Just tourist". Yeah thats right, I talk to myself. haha
So, we get off the plane and have to walk on the terf to the airport. As I fill out my visa form... guess what I start to write! thaaaats right, VO- scratch that... I turned the V into a T and continued with "urist". I prep myself for mins and then I nearly mess it up. haha What is wrong with me? Anyhow, we gave a gentleman our passports, the forms and $50 USD and then we were told to stand in this little square section in the lobby. They don't talk to you, they are all just behind the glass clicking away at computers and paperwork and after 5 minutes you start to wonder if you are going to get through. After all these flights I started to wonder if they would deny me access and send me home. Finally, my passport got held up in the air and they hollered something, so I moved to the window and they got me to scan all 10 of my fingers. YIKES! Does that happen with all visas? Or do I just look particularly terrorist like? I dont know but it sure seemed invasive. I did however get my get my FIRST STAMP IN MY VISA. (insert photo here)<----yeah the wifi connection is really bad in my house so I will try to post the pictures tomorrow morning! sorry :)
So we moved through the security and there my suitcase sat. Dirty, but all intact. YAY! So we head out and meet up with two internships, Joel and Jennifer, who were already in Dar. It was such a relief to see them!! We quickly changed over some money, got water(bottled) and then headed to our taxi. We have about three different taxi drivers that are safe and the first one I met was Brayn(its brian.. but he spells it like brain? don't ask).
We quickly got on our way towards the Passionist Fathers Guest House. The drive was surreal with people scattered all over the streets. Like scenes from a documentary, or a movie... I saw young boys doing hard labour and dangerous jobs. People of all ages with little sections with items for sale. I really don't know how to describe this screen... all these people had the most random items that they were sitting there for hours and hours trying to sell to make any small amount of income. And to make this even more of a humbling moment... young boys were IN traffic trying to sell these random things such as water, tea towels, maps, bicycle tires, blow up water toys, apples, peanuts, cellphone cards, etc. in case you don't know... the traffic here is like.... 20x worse then our traffic jams on the highway during rush hour. These people are so dangerous, they drive extremely aggressive and these teenage boys walk amongst these cars. Not on the side, but literally between the vehicles that are speeding and nearly hitting each other continuously. Scary. So.. cool stuff about driving... the dala dalas which are buses are pretty cool. They are colorful and people are like crammed in there similar to Vancouver buses, except for the fact that the doors are left open and people are handing out of them. Think of this while the driver is speeding around and almost causing car accidents every few minutes! Fun fun! haha and then there are the tuck tucks which are these 3 wheel colorful vehicles which like to use the shoulders of the roads to get around travel jams. haha too bad we can't ride either of these. (pictures)<--soon?
We finally arrived to the Guest House which I was grateful for. The buildings are beautiful and after putting my stuff in my room I found out our electricity was out and had been all morning. The people who run this place are very kind people and I already love them! There is a beautiful view from the balconies. The house I am staying in is actually outside the main buildings gates, across an alley and into another gated area. We were without electricity until 5 o'clock when they tried to use their generator. Unfortunately, the generator was only connected to the main building where our prof stays and a few of the other interns. So in hopes to get my laptop charged, brought it over along with everyone else from my house. haha I don't know if it was the overload of electricity demand or the generator just sucking, but that lasted us a whole 15 minutes and the generator cut out. haha Dinner was at 7:30 and thankfully the electricity came on 30 minutes before we had to go down for dinner.
At dinner we met some wonderful people. Two couples. One couple are born and raised in Tanzania, but live on the east coast of Canada now. Maria is the wife's name and I forgot the husband's name, Maria has taught me some Swahili words which make my conversations with Tanzanian people a little easier. The second couple has been married for three and a half years and the wife is from New Zealand and the husband is from Ireland. Cute couple, the wife is pregnant too. Dinner by the way was delicious! Not anything unrecognizable! Just loads of carbs.
SWAHILI WORDS LEARNED:
Asante: Thank you [I learned from Elizabeth before I left to Tanzania]
From Maria:
1) Jambo: Hello(casual greeting you can use anytime of the day)
2) Kwaheri: Goodbye
3)Shikamo: Hello/how are you(this is to be used with elders. it is more respectful)
4) Habari: how are you
5) Njema: Good(this is what you say when someone asked you habari)
Oh, before I forget! We have the coolest guards. They are from a nomadic tribe and I apologize that I have forgotten the name. I will find out the name of the tribe and hopefully a photo soon. They are the security for the whole city really. They carry sticks around and generally weird a rich red piece of fabric that wraps around the waist and then over the shoulder. They are very kind, and taught me the word: Mambo: which is similar to a hello greeting but more like a "hows it going" slang.
6) Mambo: "hows it going"
As for today we really just went to a resort and rested in the sun, got pizza, and swam in the pool. Spent a good portion of the day there. And get this... it rained. Funny thing too.
How do you know you are from British Columbia? When the clouds start to drop the tiniest little drops of water for a minute or two and what once was a full deck of people has ended up with your small group of British Columbian interns. haha
After the resort we went to the shopper plaza and got a few food items. I am attempting to get stuff to make homemade hummus(YUM). Fun facts!! The delicious cereals we eat out in Canada like Reese cups and Nesquik cereal are 11 to 13 dollars US out here!!!!!!! No wonder immigrant kids get excited to eat things like this and find them to be treats. Who in their right mind would spend 11 dollars on a small cereal box?! I'll have to take pictures next time.
I must not forget! Today for breakfast I was introduced to a new fruit. It is a green orange. YUM! At first I thought everyone was eating limes. They taste delicious! (Picture) <--- yeah it'll come hopefully :D
Other than that, we had dinner at a local restaurant... we had pizza. haha. at the end of our dinner when we were eating our dessert the power went out. i had to laugh to myself as I see this is going to be a trend.
There are my first two days in Dar es Salaam in a nutshell. Look forward to seeing all your comments and I will blog again soon.
Moriah
That sounds amazing so far! I cannot wait to hear more and (hopefully) see pictures too!!! Love Em :)
ReplyDeletelol thanks emma! I hope pictures will work sometime while i am out here. for now facebook will have to be the place i post a picture or two every once in awhile.
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