Dar es Salaam 1.0

Last weekend I flew to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to hang out with some friends working for CDC there. We work 10-hour days M-F here, but half-day Fridays, so my CDC boss gave me permission to take off Friday. Monday was a Zambian holiday (Farmer's Day), so I flew out at 7:30 Friday morning and flew back to Lusaka on Monday at 17:30.

I stayed with my friends Sara and Alison, seen here with Bernie. Alison is finishing a 6-month detail to the CDC office in Dar, and Sara just arrived a couple weeks ago for her own detail there.

They share a GORGEOUS apartment overlooking the Indian ocean. Bernie is finishing a 3-month detail to the CDC office in Dar through the same fellowship program that I'm here through, so I got to know him a bit during training earlier this year. All lovely folks, especially Alison and Sara for opening up their home, time, personal taxi driver, and many other things to me over what was an uber-fun weekend.

The next few photos are views off the balcony in their apartment. A few more from similar views are at this post in Sara's blog.

Friday when I arrived, their excellent taxi driver Bashir met me at the airport, and during the ride to their apartment told me quite a bit about Tanzania. Since I knew next-to-nothing, this was quite helpful. Some Tanzanians speak English, but most speak Swahili and local languages from where they're from. I picked up a handful of Swahili words over the weekend just so I could respond appropriately to greetings from Tanzanians, which is important because they like to make fun of the "mzungu" (essentially "dumb white people") when they don't respond quickly enough.

The roads in Dar are MUCH worse than those in Lusaka, and the traffic is much heavier. It's a much bigger city (about 3-4 times the size) and much busier. All the roads are lined with small shops and other businesses, and there seemed to be people everywhere (not so here in Lusaka). The weather was much warmer and humid (prob 80-85F), though it's still the "cool" season there as well. Glad I won't be around for the rainy season.

After I met up with Alison and Sara and expressed my hatred for they and their families after seeing their posh flat, we headed to the embassy for the Marine BBQ. The embassy is beautiful, much newer and nicer than the one in Zambia, with basketball courts and a full-on Marine-run bar on the premises. Then again, it should be nice because I was reminded that I was visiting during the same week as the 10-year anniversary of the embassy bombings in Dar and Nairobi. I did not see the site of the embassy that was bombed, but am told it is in a different location from the current one.

After some burgers and a couple good local Tanzanian beers, we went over to the "Slipway," a small shopping center up the street from the ladies' apartment (and where the photo of they and Bernie were taken) to chill and have another beer. The photo of the rooster on the trash pile was taken about halfway from the Slipway to the apartment. We got a kick out of that for some reason, though later I would come to hate the roosters in Dar as much as the ones who wake me up here in Lusaka...grrrrr.

After dark, we went to O'Willies pub (no, I'm not joking) for beers and dinner, and ended up hanging out there all night. The pub is better known as just "The Irish," and is the ladies' main hangout. Seemed to be a mix of expats, expats' kids, and a few rich Tanzanians. Had a few drinks, hung out on the roofdeck with the ladies, Sara's Marine crush, the ladies' friend and hopefully-new-CDC-contractor Rebecca (good people), and other randoms. Definitely a fun time.

More in subsequent posts...