Crossing the Street in Dar

I landed in Dar Es Salaam on Friday afternoon as planned, but my luggage didn’t arrive until the next day, so my first day in Tanzania was spent shopping for clothes (and I hate shopping!!!) and trying to dodge traffic in Dar Es Salaam. When I arrived at the Mövenpick Hotel, the doorman, Jackson, greeted me with “welcome home my sister” which felt really cool to hear. I think it was clear to him from my yoga pants, sweatshirt (in 80+ degree weather) and backpack that I was probably American… I was extremely uncomfortable and couldn’t imagine wearing that around!

I asked the doorman if there was a nearby shop where I could buy a skirt or something, but he said he wouldn’t advise me, an American, to go walking around alone if I had never been to Dar before. OK… so was it unsafe or something? I wasn't sure what he meant. He could tell I was confused but also really wanted to change into something more comfortable, so he actually offered to walk around with me to find a shop to buy a skirt... I don't think he knew what he was in for!

I soon realized why I wouldn’t have felt safe walking around by myself... not because the area was sketchy or unsafe but because of the traffic! Driving is on the left, very VERY fast, and there were no lines on the road where we were… Crossing the street on an overcrowded, unlined road is much harder than you would think. I felt like a little kid who was crossing the street alone for the first time! Jackson pulled me out of harm's way at least twice. (If you've ever been to Jamaica, or the D.R. it's very similar but much, much worse!)


We walked around for about an hour and I was so hot and tired that I didn't even want the stupid skirt anymore... I didn't have any Tanzanian Shillings to buy anything to drink... couldn't remember the rules about what I should and shouldn't drink anyway, and I was hungry. Jackson could tell I was a little annoyed (although I tried really hard not to show it) so he ended up once again offering to buy me some juice and water cause he said I looked very tired. We finally found a skirt on our way back to the hotel... almost 2 hours later... (The pic is of me and Jackson in my skirt.)

The next day I had my first experience inside of a car, and that was even more scary... we almost hit a random cow at one point...

I don't think I've ever been as afraid for my life as I was walking around the streets of Dar… Crossing the street, although a seemingly small thing, is something I had to re-learn how to do.

Overall, my first impressions are that people are very nice and seem very eager to make sure I am having a great time. They treat my like this is my home and want to tell me and teach me EVERYthing about their life, while at the same time showing me that they know a lot about America and American culture (especially Obama, LOL).

Preparing to leave...

I'm SO excited that I'll be leaving tomorrow! I'm not looking forward to the day and a half flight though... flying from Chicago to London, London down to S. Africa, then S. Africa back up to Tanzania. I leave Wednesday night and get there Friday afternoon. (There's an 8 hour time difference between the east coast and Tanzania, so it'll be like I'm getting there early Friday morning.) I'll be well equipped for my flight: loaded MP3 player (thanks so much Mr. Reehl:), magazines, books and plenty of snacks (although I'm not sure I can take the food on an internat'l flight... I really hope my Raisinettes make it)!

Getting all of the supplies, clothes and necessary paperwork for the trip took a LOT of work and planning... not to mention learning about Tanzanian customs and culture and learning basic Swahili. Luckily the org I'm volunteering through assisted with much of the pre-planning and provided a list of resources to help prepare. I will arrive in Bagamoyo just in time for the long rainy season (begins in March), so in addition to all of the below-the-knee skirts I'm packing (the community is more traditional in terms of dress so my wardrobe now includes several long skirts... which were a lot harder to find than I would have thought!) I'm also packing rain gear and rain boots... that should be a cute look for me, LOL...

Me and the other volunteers beginning on March 1st had a conference call to learn more about the community, what we would each be doing, general expectations, and our accommodations while in Bagamoyo. We'll all live and have our meals together at the base (pictured) which will be my home for the next 2 months. Since each volunteer decides their own length of stay, we'll all end at different times over the next few months. The base consists of 2 buildings with living quarters/bathrooms and a kitchen, and a small common/recreational building.

We will work Monday-Friday in the mornings and have cultural learning activities each afternoon--this could be a Swahili class, a drum or dance lesson, a tour of historical sites in Tanzania, etc.--to learn about Tanzanian culture. Our weekends will be free-time, so I'm hoping to do some traveling in Tanzania too... definitely Zanzibar Island... maybe Serengeti National Park or some other park for a safari... and maybe even Mount Kilimanjaro... if I don't chicken out!

Anyway, I'm off to finish packing. I'm hoping to get everything down to one checked bag under 50 lbs and two small carry-ons... Please keep me in your prayers for a safe flight tomorrow... my next post will be from Tanzania!

What I'll be doing--about my volunteer assignment

Just got my specific volunteer assignment and I got my 1st choice--working toward women's empowerment initiatives. I'll be volunteering at an organization called Bawodene, which is in the town of Bagamoyo (it's on the coast of the Indian Ocean, above Dar Es Salaam).

The organization I'm volunteering through has been placing volunteers in this town since last summer, I believe. There will also be ~19 other volunteers from the U.S., Canada and Australia living in the house who will have other assignments (i.e. working in an elementary school, hospital, etc, etc).

Bawodene was founded by six Tanzanian women to help women and out-of-school girls utilize their skills to generate income. Some of the skills of the women in the community are making batiks, mats, bedsheets, handcrafts, embroidery, sculpturing, drying fish, processing cashew nuts, and tailoring. Bawodene is implementing a micro-credit lending project to fund these activities. (I started reading Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty which explains micro-credit lending and where the idea came from... it's been really helpful.) The ultimate goal is to help women in this community utilize the resources in their community to become self-employed and ultimately self-sufficient.

Bawodene needs assistance with the daily functions of the office, i.e. managing meetings, learning computer skills, and helping to identify (more) efficient ways of doing things. Me and another young woman from Houston will start on the same day and will be placed at this site together. We'll also teach basic English and help with marketing, finance, management, and grant writing.

...count-down: 2-weeks!