Dar es Salaam

Dar es Salaam

The beach at Kigamboni, near Dar

The first part of this blog is directly from my journal entry of June 21:

"So let me tell you about the craziest day ever. After 2 days of travel and 5 days of learning we finally got a day off! That meant that instead of getting up at the usual 6 am, I got to sleep until 7:30! Of course I still heard the Call to Prayer at 4:30 and the roosters start crowing around 6:30, but it was great just to lie in bed!

When I get up, I take my usual "shower" with a bucket since my showerhead is broken. I am still in the lap of luxury though compared to where I'll be going. After getting all nice and safi (clean), I perfume myself with the pleasant aroma of 30% Deet bug spray. Ooh lala. I put on my usual below-the-knee skirt, shoulder-covering shirt, and sandals outfit and set out to breakfast in the canteen. Breakfast is fried bananas, hard-boiled eggs, bread, and chai as usual. After breakfast we girls get a quick lecture on choo (hole-in-the-ground toilet) techniques by Emilia (Current PCV who's helping us this week) and then we set off to explore Dar es Salaam for the first time. We all went with our Cultural Based Training groups (the 5 people we'll be sharing a homestay village and going to school with for the next 9 weeks) and a leader; ours was Emilia, who is awesome. We walk down the road for a ways, dodging bikes, piki pikis (motorcycles), cars driving on the walkway, and other people. Since it's Sunday today is supposedly a quiet day in Dar, but it's so crowded I'd hate to see it on a weekday. We've all hidden our money in bras and underwear which turns out to prove necessary when 1 guy grabs Harry's arm and another tries to reach into his pocket. Maureen literally smacks the guy in the chest, they back off, and we've survived our first Dar robbery attempt. Walking through Dar is sensory overload- people yelling at you, staring at you, cars almost hitting you, exhaust choking you and fish smells from the street vendors. All the while dust si coating your feet and legs and teh sweat is soaking through your clothes but you feel exhilarated because you're surrounded by life, color, danger, work, happiness. Finally, this is Africa. At least if you're me, that's your reaction.

We finally catch a dala dala (small bus, pronounced as in "dolla dolla bill y'all") and head downtown, crammed into aisles and onto laps; the heat would be unbearable except for the merciful ocean breeze coming through the windows when we drive. We get out and Emilia walks us around pointing out restaurants, guestis, stores, and currency exchange places, anything we might need to know. We stop to get ice cream and for 600 TSh, 60 cents, I get the last chocolate cone I'm sure I'll see for a long time. So delicious and such a perfect reprieve from the heat. After that we journey to a supermarket to linger in the AC, then we stop for a soda at "The Red Onion", a famous wazungu restaurant. They're playing nothing but the Backstreet Boys. Emilia and I discover we were both obsessed teeny-boppers and have a great time singing along and reminiscing while the other 3 make fun of us. She even knows the chair dance to "Everybody" which is amazing. ( I miss you Justine.)

For lunch we meet everyone else and go to Steers, a South African chain that's like a food court with many western options. I got a small Margherita pizza and ate the whole thing since it will surely be my last for awhile. Delicious. After that we are off to the beach! We have to walk to the ferry to go over to Kigamboni, this island where there are good beaches. The view of Dar from the ferry is great and so is the ocean air. When we get off, we walk thruogh a crowded village up a hill, attracting tons of attention as 30 wazungu would. We all have a "buddy" to keep track of which is incredibly kindergarten but necessary. Randy (another current PCV) finds 2 dala dalas and negotiotes with them to take us all to the beach, yay! Crazy African driving as usual, but it's nice to get out of the city. The beach we go to is some resort with a restaurant, hotel, and bar, and we're supposed to pay 8,000 TSh to get in but Randy knocks it down to 2,000 by telling them we'll be repeat customers if we like it. We dump our stuff and hit the water, most of us girls in 1 pieces which is good since tons of people there wear skirts and full shirts. The Indian Ocean feels amazing and it's so salty you barely have to try to float. So there are about 20 of us PCTs way out from the beach just hanging out treading and swimming around because it's so easy and relaxing. We were in heaven. Being in the water was exactly what we needed after a long hot walk. We chill at the beach for hours- swimming, frisbee, relaxing. It's great.

The trip home is slightly crazy since it's dark by the time we get to the ferry and you don't want to be in Dar after dark. Everybody's wearing their backpacks in front and of course none of us could bring cameras because it's too risky. Walking through the town we hear the 1st annoying pickup lines like "I love you, kiss me!" by random strangers who barely speak English. But Randy gets us 1 huge dala dala and we're safely back to Msimbazi Center by 8 to go eat dinner and pass out. It was an amazing day to get to know Dar and a much-needed adventure in Africa!"

Alright, so if you got through that novel and are still reading, I applaud you! I'm sure it will be rare that my blogs are that thought-out and descriptive, so enjoy it. As for now, we just finished our last day of class and training as a whole group at Msimbazi Center. Tomorrow we load our stuff and drive 5 hours north to Muheza, where we split up into 7 different CBT (Cultural Based Training) groups that each go to a separate village. I'm happy with my group and excited, because we're the only group that gets bikes right now! Our village is the closest to MATI (the center where we'll meet as a whole group every Friday for trainings) so we get to bike the 4k there every week while everyone else gets picked up in vans. Should be fun and good exercise! For my homestay family, I was only given the name of 1 woman, so it could be either a grandma or a widow, I'll find out! I just hope there are kids! We know there's no electricy in our village so we'll be getting used to that right away! For the next 6 weeks we'll be going to language classes from 8-5 every day 6 days a week and learning more by living with families who don't speak English. Then once a week we all meet at MATI as I said for other types of training. I think we're all equally nervous and excited. I know I am! It's definitely going to be a challenge. But I think (hope) I'm ready. So yeah, gotta go pack, that's about it for this marathon blog entry.

Baadaye! (Later!)