Kariakoo market

Last week my Swahili classmates and I went on a little adventure with our Swahili teacher.....to one of the big markets in downtown Dar es Salaam called Kariakoo Market. Here are some photos from our trip!

The 5 CDC fellows: Tom, Julie, me, Nnenna and Imee

The inside part of the market, where you can buy household items...

spices and lentils, etc...

and fish...

This section is dedicated to things like produce, grains, spices, etc...

and then just outside the market you can buy fresh fruits and veggies....

 

 and of course, no matter where you are, you must always be clear about which football team you support....

Photos!

This is my hotel room at the Slipway. CDC has put us up here for our first month in Tanzania, giving us time to find a place to live and learn our way around the city. They are cute little studio apartments...

Some views from around my hotel...

The view from my room....

Our hotel is actually next to a kind of shopping center - it's the yellow building in the background. There are a few shops and restaurants that you can see here - it's actually quite a nice and rather posh spot.

This is the construction going on next door to my hotel.....check out that massive amount of manual labor!!

Kigamboni Beach

Last weekend Imee and I decided to join two other Americans for a trip to one of Dar's many beautiful beaches. We grabbed a daladala into town (we are now getting pretty good at public transport - at least in our neighborhood), and I had my first successful "Shikamoo" interaction with an elderly gentleman that sat down next to me (this is a greeting used only for elders). He had his bible with him and was on his way to church. I had a book and some sunscreen with me and was on my way to the beach :)

First Imee and I met up with Jamie and Emily for a morning coffee at what I'm fairly certain is the nicest, most expensive hotel in all of Dar. I regrettable did not take any pictures of said hotel, but I will be sure to go back there (especially when I need to use some good wireless internet!) and take some.

From coffee, the four of us headed to the ferry. The ferry was a relatively chill form of transport, except for actually getting on the ferry. It felt kind of like cattle being herded through a small gate - with a huge crowd of people all waiting peacefully in the designated waiting area and then rushing to get on the ferry as soon as the gate was opened. Remembering that in TZ there is no such thing as "personal space" should help add to your mental image.

Getting onto the ferry....

This is the view looking towards where we were going...

Once we had arrived across the bay, we caught another daladala and headed to the Sunrise Beach Resort, where we spent the afternoon swimming, relaxing, eating, and attempting to do the crossword puzzle in one of the English language local newspapers (I actually have quite a lot to say about that crossword puzzle, but I'm not sure I would be able to do it justice, so I plan to either scan or photograph a crossword puzzle example so that you will all be able to see for yourselves its full glory). Oh, we were also quite amused by the newspapers' horoscopes.

The beach was like many other African beaches I've seen - beautiful and endless, with people selling a variety of items including coconuts, sunglasses, kites, soccer balls, hard boiled eggs, ice cream, bathing suits, and more.

There was a mix of foreigners and Tanzanians hanging out and swimming, but the thing that was unique about this beach was that the mixture of Tanzanians included all of the Tanzanian races and religions. Tanzania has large populations of Muslims and Indians, which tend to have more conservative styles of dress that range from burkas to "normal" clothes combined with simple head scarves. And you could see all of this on the beach! There were people wearing Western-style bathing suits playing in the ocean alongside men and women who were essentially fully clothed! Very strange.

And then there was this guy.....chilling on his bicycle and talking on the phone. One of my favorite pics thus far...

Until I saw the cows on the beach. Then that might have become my favorite picture...

Kiswahili

As previously mentioned, I decided to dive head first into learning as much Swahili as possible. Thankfully, CDC was of the same mindset and enrolled all five of the fellows in a 3 week intensive Swahili language course. We have class from 8-12 every day (M-F) outside on a covered terrace (which is nice, except that it actually gets pretty hot by the end of class) with our teacher Nikolas, a couple of other students, and a lot of flipchart paper. We're now 2/3 of the way through - this coming week will be our last.

So far the class has been absolutely fabulous! Swahili is such an interesting language - a mixture of several indigenous Bantu languages plus a substantial amount of Arabic or Arabic-derived words. Many of the Bantu words are very similar (or in some cases exactly the same) as the dialects that I learned bits and pieces of in Mozambique and Zambia, and the language itself is structured in the same way as those languages, which is definitely a plus for me! However, the Arabic words are really difficult for me, and take me at least twice as long to learn!

The funniest story from language class so far is definitely about the day that I essentially asked Nicholas how to cuss someone out in Swahili. I was not quite so direct with my question - I actually asked him what I could say to someone if they gave me the "dirty" handshake. He was completely shocked that I had had someone do that to me, and gave me a phrase that he assured me was a culturally appropriate response. When said in a mild tone of voice, it apparently is like saying, "Leave me alone" or "Get lost". However, if said in an angry voice it becomes more like the equivalent of "F*** off!". Needless to say Nicholas was a little hesitant to write that on the flipchart paper with the rest of our lesson. In the end he decided to write the first word of the phrase at the top of the page and the second word at the bottom, just so they wouldn't be written together! We were all very amused.

This is a photo of our "classroom" and our teacher, Nicholas...

The other students...

 Our book!

Some views from our "classroom"...

Public Transport

The Daladala

Although I was told I "shouldn't" use public transportation, I went ahead and took 2 of my fellow fellows on a little adventure involving a daladala (the mid size buses used throughout Dar for public transport). Our way into town was relatively uneventful, our trip home was quite the experience. I haven't yet figured out the deal with the daladalas coming to our part of town (maybe there are very few?)....but it was quite literally a shoving match to get into the vehicle. By the time the daladala had stopped to let people off, there was already a huge crowd gathered around it waiting for that last person to get off so they could get on. Actually, I take that back. Not everyone waited for the last person to get off - some people climbed into the daladala through the back windows once it had started to empty out. And once that last person did get off, it was every man for himself. People were pushing and shoving to get in, in a way that I have never seen before.

Not surprisingly, the 3 of us were not really interested in throwing elbows at total strangers, so we had to try and squeeze our way in at the very end, which seemed like it was not going to be possible (an important lesson learned for the other fellows - there is always room for at least 5 more). But we managed to do it - after the conductor did some very expert people arranging to maximize every square centimeter of available space for us to fit...and then he had to hang out the door because he couldn't actually fit inside the vehicle. But hey, all in a day's work for him!

Some photos of daladalas...

The Bajaje

Unlike Mozambique and Zambia, Tanzania has a tuk-tuk like type of public transport called the bajaje. It's about half the price of a taxi, and it's pretty clear why. I don't have a photo yet, but I'll try to get one soon!

Welcome Back

Upon arrival in Tanzania, I experienced a series of events that I like to think of as my "Welcome Back to Africa" experiences. It's like the continent was waiting for me, and doing its best to make me to feel instantly at home....

∗ Luggage. I left for the airport with two overweight bags and two rather heavy carry-on items, which I had to lug across the entire Atlanta airport after being dropped off at the wrong place. Surprisingly, getting my bags checked went pretty smoothly - I paid my overweight fee and that was that. The problem came when I was in the Amsterdam airport during my layover. I was checking in for the second leg of my KLM flight and, after having my carry on bags screened at the gate, was told that I could only take one bag on the plane and that the other would be "locked" and checked. I hadn't slept, it was the middle of the night for me, so I handed over my bag without giving it much thought. It was "locked" with a plastic zip tie, which I can only assume was promptly removed once the bag was out of my sight. To make a long story short, my bag arrived in Dar (along with both of my other checked bags), minus my small digital camera. Luckily I had all of my other electronics and valuables in the bag I took with me on the plane....but the camera had slipped my mind. Welcome back to Africa.

∗ The "dirty handshake". You know the one. When the guy shaking your hand tickles your palm with his middle finger while shaking your hand. Needless to say it is not a very polite thing to do, and I will assume you can all guess what it means. I received my first dirty handshake on day 2 in TZ. Welcome back to Africa.

∗ Luggage, continued. As if losing the camera wasn't bad enough....I discovered a few days later, after unpacking more thoroughly, that my four pairs of nice sterling silver earrings had also been removed from my bag. KLM received a very nasty complaint letter from me.....to which they have yet to respond. Welcome back to Africa.

∗ Swahili lessons. Although English is one of Tanzania's official languages, people don't actually speak a whole lot of it. Naturally, I was eager to begin learning Swahili as soon as I arrived (bargaining is significantly more successful when done in Swahili!). So I started asking people to help me learn, and I have to say, my very favorite language teachers are the taxi drivers. Every time I get in a taxi, I try to use all of the Swahili words that I know (and learn a few that I don't). And it never ceases to amaze me how excited people are to share their language and culture with you if you express even a tiny bit of interest. I have had taxi drivers spend an entire trip patiently and enthusiastically counting to 10 with me or practicing the days of the week with me over and over and over again. Karibu tena Afrika.

∗ Wazungu. There are a lot of foreigners (wazungu) in Tanzania. And a lot of them live in Dar. One of my least favorite, but always present, interactions with other foreigners is the "safety and security" discussion. When I was looking for a place to live I told another woman that I wanted a place that didn't feel too isolated - I wanted to be able to walk out of my house and walk down the street to buy vegetables. Her response: "But you're white. Why would you walk anywhere?". Welcome back to (the ex-pat mentality of) Africa.

∗ The posh part of town? The CDC was kind enough to put all of the fellows up in a hotel for our first month in country, while we look for places to live and settle in. And of course, they chose a nice hotel in a rather posh part of Dar where we would have access to restaurants and shops. And yet, even though we are in the posh part of town, our hotel is still on a dirt road. And every time I walk out to the main tarmacked road, I am more or less instantly covered in sweat and a fine layer of dust. Welcome back to Africa.

Back in Africa

First things first. What am I doing back in Africa? Even as I was getting ready to leave the U.S. I was not able to answer this question in much detail. However, after spending 2 weeks in Atlanta at "orientation" and a week and a half in Tanzania, I can at least begin to give you all an idea.

Some background info...

Earlier this year, as I was completing my Masters Degree in Public Health, I applied for a Global Health Fellowship with the Centers for Disease Control. I knew that the fellowship would entail spending 1-2 years working for the CDC within the Global AIDS Program (GAP), and that I would be placed with a CDC office somewhere in the world (although the majority of the CDC's work is domestic, they have a small and growing presence all over the world, working with Ministries of Health to improve the health and well-being of their populations).

As it turns out, I was fortunate to be offered one of the 17 fellowships awarded this year, and was invited to work for CDC Tanzania with their HIV/AIDS Clinical Service/Care and Treatment team. The focus of my fellowship is Program Management, and the scope of work suggests that the range of activities I will be involved in is quite large. I have been told by the Country Director that my team is the busiest team in the office, and that there will be no shortage of work to be done! More details to come on all of that once I actually begin my work! [For those who are curious, the other fellows are spread out among CDC's offices in Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Thailand, DRC, Nigeria, Namibia, Cambodia and Atlanta).

Orientation...

Prior to leaving for Tanzania (TZ) I spent close to 2 weeks in Atlanta at an orientation for all of the fellows. In addition to getting rained on almost every day, we learned a bit about the fellowship and the CDC, as well as how to adjust to life overseas.

By far the most "interesting" part of this orientation was the Department of State mandated 3-day course entitled, "Preparing for Work Overseas". All federal employees who spend 3 months or more abroad for work related purposes are required to complete this course. Although they claimed that it is not, one who did not know any better might think that the purpose of this course was to scare us all into never leaving our a) safe and secure homes, b) safe and secure places of work, and c) safe and secure vehicles. We learned all about thing like: bombs, what to do if you are kidnapped or carjacked, intelligence and counterintelligence, and a variety of other terrorist tactics and their appropriate responses. Though informative, interesting, and at times entertaining, the majority of what was discussed over those 3 days will fortunately not be relevant to my stay in TZ.

And although I'll admit that learning about American spies who were caught spying for the Russians was very interesting, my favorite part of the orientation was getting to know the other fellows. It is a very cool group of people, and hopefully a number of them will pass through TZ during the next year, either on business or for a visit!!