First Weeks in Tanzania

My first 2 weeks in Tanzania were unusual for a CUSO placement like mine. I arrived in Dar e Salaam on Oct 1, simultaneously, Marianna, from Ottawa, who is the person who recommended me for my position here, had scheduled a trip to Tanzania at the same time to meet the Tanzania CUSO staff and connect with other volunteers and CUSO projects in the country. 

As a result I was able to tag along with Marianna and Eunice (Tanzania CUSO volunteer support manager). Eunice wanted to show some of the sites in Tanzania to Marianna so I got to go along on some of these trips. 

I spent 6 days in Dar e Salaam where I had an intro to the work and projects in Tanzania and had several days of  lessons with a Swahili teacher. During that time I checked out some of the sites in the city. Dar is a city of over 7 million people. I did not enjoy the traffic and insane driving, crowds and poverty everywhere. I was trying to figure out a lot of things during that time and had to get a bank account and a Tanzania phone number. I spent many hours in a bank going from one desk to another to sign up for an account and a similar experience getting a Tanzanian phone number. There a lot of people wanting similar services and waiting is the key quality needed here. During that time I got travellers diarrhea which was super fun. During this time Marianna and Eunice were in other parts of the country visiting volunteers and projects. 

On my first weekend I went with Eunice and Marianna to Zanzibar. Zanzibar is a group of islands off the coast of Tanzania, a 2 hour fast ferry from Dar e Salaam.  It has a rich and dark history. There is a strong Arab/muslim culture there and many women are completely covered in hijab. It was a separate country until unification in 1964 and hosted the largest slave market in East Africa. (1830 -1873) . We went to the location of the slave market and went into a dungeon where slaves were stuffed into for up to 10 days before being sold. I felt ill being there. Many spices are grown on the islands where we did a tour on a spice farm. 

After Zanzibar we traveled to Morogoro where I am working but Mariana wanted to see the animals in one of the big parks so we went to Iringa and from there to Ruaha National park which is the largest protected area in Tanzania and East Africa. We saw all the animals you would imagine in Africa – lions, giraffes, zebras, warthogs, water buffalo, antelope, impala’s, baboons, jackals, hippos, elephants  and crocodiles. 

Now I am in my quarters in Morogoro and have started work at the farm just on the edge of town near the agriculture university campus. Sugeco ( https://www.sugeco.or.tz ) is the name of the organization. Tonight I have power but 1/2 of the time there is no power in the evening. The reservoir us low at this time of year – we are at the end of the dry season, so they are conserving water to generate power. 

Its early days so I don’t have much to say about my work except that the head farmer is glad I am here. He has great expectations. I will be with the farm crew much of the time it sounds like. It is hot here – between 30 and 34 most days. Humid and right now very sunny. A short rainy season starts in November through Christmas and then the real rainy season is March – June. There are two other CUSO volunteers – Chris and Abisola and I have been hanging out with them and have done some outings including a hike up to a waterfall in the mountains above town. 

Tanzanian people are very low key, speak softly and don’t want attention. Respect seems to be a key value. When I go into town to buy things people are very helpful, not too pushy, but are poor and I am rich so everybody wants a piece of that. It is a very young country – meaning it is unusual to see many people over 60. Children and young people often say nakuhshimu to me which means I respect you. This is a greeting from a younger person to an older person. There is a quiet respect and dignity here. Now that I am an old fart at 61, I finally get a little respect 🙂

With three or four people siting at a table talking, you can’t hear them talking. I am continually have to ask for people to speak louder. 

Thats all for now .