Sunday, November 26, 2006

Zanzibar!



Finally! I have visited paradise, and it turns out, it is reachable by a two hour boat ride! The girls and I went with our friend Ben to Zanzibar where we spent an absolutely wonderful weekend wandering the streets and soaking up the unique charactr that is Stone Town. We arrived Friday evening by boat and had dinner at Mercury's , owned by none other than Freddy Mercury himself (the guy from Queen). Our original purpose of the trip had been to see "some French DJs", which in all honesty was the only information we had to go on. So of course we had a luxurious dinner by the water before meandering down to the Livingstone where we assumed the show would begin at around 11pm, as it usually would in Dar. Our misguided (or rather oblivious) assumptions were clarified when we sat down and the band on stage announced that this would be their last song and thank you for coming out. The last song didn't even have the synthesizer, so we got neither French nor DJ elements of the show. Ah well. After a few lazy attempts at mingling around with the other Mzungus in the bar, I took the lead and dragged evryone to Dharma Lounge, a small club/lounge that played an eclectic mix of hip hop and Top 40s. Actually, the DJ made many bad choices throughout the evening, but it gave more character to our night.

Stone Town was beautiful. The mish mash of rooms and buildings stacked like Legos on top of each other gave the whole city a sense of peaceful chaos. I liken it to your very messy den, strewn with papers and books, but somehow you know exactly where everything is located. Of course, Stone Town is not MY den, and thus I simply followed Ben and his compass around for the weekend, quickly giving up on attempting to guess where "north" was. We had an amazing view atop our hotel (Hotel International), which had a character all of its own as a building. The rooftop area had a wonderful 360 view of the city, and at night, it was so quiet you could hear the sounds of shoe soles shuffling on the pavement. No wonder people fall in love with the place and never want to leave.

Friday, November 17, 2006

My initiation into the African life...

My purse got stolen! Nettie was right, shit happens as soon as you get comfortable. I was sitting in a friend's car on my way to work on tuesday. How could I pass up a front seat in an SUV when my other option was to cram into the back of a dala dala (mini public bus) with a dozen other people who don't believe in deodorant? Anyways, well I was sitting in the front with the window rolled down chatting away with my friend. I had my purse in my lap and the traffic was slow. When we stopped, someone reached in, grabbed my purse and ran for his life. I didn't even have time to react. And you really don't want to yell "thief" unless you're prepared to have a mob of people beat the culprit to death. Would probably ruin my idyllic African experience, no? I feel extremely lucky though, as I seemed to have prepared myself for such an incident. I had my phone, and my flash disk stolen. Everything else, my bank card etc, was safely tucked away at home. The loss of the flash disk is a pain in the butt, but I had hard copies of the most immediate documents at the office, and an extra SIM card with some of my friends' contact information. So not all is lost. Unfortunately, I have lost contact with the Chinese couple that I have been having lunch with - could not find their phone number, and cannot find their house. I will have to forage around the neighbourhood pointing at my face and asking Tanzanians if they had seen some "Wachina".

It rained all last week and flooded so many of the dirt roads in the area. Its heartbreaking to see some peoples homes submerged in knee deep water, I don't even know how they live through the long rainy season in March. The guys with wheelbarrows made a killing ferrying people across the deep puddles though. There's always someone willing to do something here in Tz.

Zanzibar this weekend! Should be a lovely reward for a frustrating week at work....

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Front Row at the Fashion Show


That's right, how many times will I ever get the chance to sit int he front row of a fashion show? The answer is, only in Tanzania. We went to the "Redd's African Fashion Design Awards" on a spontaneous whim to see what it was all about. This show was the semi-finalist showcasing of 8 specific designs. We had no idea what to expect. It was held at the Movenpick, a really ritsy hotel downtown that has changed names every five years (incidentally the number o years an international company can operate tax free in Tanzania). We were given free Redd's Premium Cold, this reportedly alcoholic drink that tasted distinctively like flat President's Choice Ginger Ale. The first designs were really quite lovely, these African dresses with British and Indian influences. And then it went downhill from there. We saw a hip hop group that was out of sync, and a magician (the ONLY East African female magician, trained in China, no joke). The Traditional dance was neat, though it was interesting to notethat all the middle class Tanzanians snickered int he audience. Finally, the semi finalist dresses were revealed, and they were butt ugly. I didn't even bother to take pictures, because they had to be made in the corporate colors of Redd's Premium Cold : Red, Green and Gold. Everyone looked like Christmas ornaments, it was horrid :) Interesting evening to say the least, I always love a new thing. Will post pics once the internet connection improves