It's only been a month?!

Dar is a city of many perspectives. There is a sort of bittersweet beauty in how poverty and opulence can co-exist under the same identity of what it means to be Tanzanian. Here is a picture of the street that I live on. Whereas 70% of Dar is comprised of informal settlements, I am fortunate to live on one of the few neighbourhoods that are planned. Despite the number of compounds (and perhaps because of) there is garbage everywhere on the streets. This past weekend, the Tanzanian government destroyed all the illegal stalls that were set up on the side of the main roads. These informal stalls are, or were, sell everything from clothes to vegetables to cell phone top up cards, and it is a shame to see peoples’ livelihoods literally turn into rubble on the side of the roads. These stalls existed all over the city, generating thousands of dollars for the informal economy. Unfortunately, they usually inhabit land that is reserved for future road allowances. They contribute to the traffic congestion and, as one Tanzanian observed, “are eyesores.” I doubt these local stalls will go away, as people still have to earn a living somehow. We shall see what happens as the months progress.

On Saturday, we took the walking tour of downtown suggested by the Lonely Planet, which was actually rather boring. The most interesting part of the tour was our visit to the fish market, the smell of which assaults your nose. Dozens of vendors are deep frying their catch and selling them to the public. I will have to return to the fish market for pictures and a taste of the catch. We also visited the Botanical Gardens, where we saw monkeys with bright turquoise blue testicles! I was unfortunately unable to get a good shot of said image, but I did catch a shot of the family of monkeys before they scooted off J My roommates and I visited Karembezi Café, a beautiful terraced restaurant perched next to the Indian Ocean. As I sipped my coffee and enjoyed the ocean view, I can hardly believe that just a few minutes ago I was walking through Dar’s dirty and rather languishing city centre.

I must admit, this electricity crisis in Dar is becoming a rather severe issue. As it is Ramadan, we are now without power 7 days a week between 6am and 6pm, though the availability of electricity at night continues to be unpredictable. I am lucky enough that if I cannot cook at home on the weekends, I can still spend a bit more to eat out.


Friends, family, please send emails or throw up your comments on my blog when you get a chance!

thwarted by Tanesco

The whole power situation in Dar is getting on my nerves, as our access to electricity is never predictable. On Saturday, we had planned for a lovely TV night of watching episodes of 24 and curling up with pizza (yes, there is a lot of Italian food here in Dar, apparently, the Italian tourists are many). We sat in frustration and in the dark willing the damned lights to turn on until, defeated by the hunger, we made grilled cheese sandwiches on our little kerosene stove. Finally, the power came on at around 10:30 at night. Good grief, I didn't think it would be so boring without power, but what is there to do but read under the candlelight? And when you start running out of candles (and you do, pretty quickly), all you want to do is sleep. Our plans are always thwarted by some unpredictable thing - no power, no water, high traffic whatever. No wonder people here take it so easy, I am already irritated by this, and I'm the most laid back person in my family.

So Aaki, Rebecca and I decided Sunday would be beach day, because well, the beach doesn't "turn off". Poor Kelly, who was bent on not getting malaria, and was the most diligent in terms of wearing long sleeves and pants, nevertheless got sick and had to stay home. We took a short ride to White Sands resort, where we chartered a speedboat to Mbudya Island. What a beautiful place, the speed boat ride was definitely the most fun, bumping up and down along the waves. When we arrived, we set up camp underneath a rented banda and ordered our lunch, which was a simple but OH so delicious meal of fries and fresh grilled whole fish. It can with a bit of sea salt and no cutlery. Such yummy fresh food, I was so happy. The weather was a bit rainy, and there were more clouds than we'd like, but it was a spectacular day nontheless to relax on a hammock. The best part was getting soaked riding back on the speedboat, as the waves get really choppy near the evening. We even saw a whale in the distance!

*Sigh*. I have a fundraising workshop to go to all next week, which also falls RIGHT on the only four day weekend of the year. So all my friends are going to Zanzibar, while I get to stay at home and then attend this workshop all week. Boo hiss. I hope I get to go to Zanzibar soon, this will be ridiculous if I can't.