Is it Possible for Me to Be Bored with Beaches?

       Today was a pretty useless day as most of it was spent suntanning and swimming in the ocean at a fancy resort,  yet again. Not that I didn't enjoy it, I absolutely love the beach, but it gets old when that's basically all you're doing three out of four days. Plus the only people at the beach are a few tourists and some fishermen. I'm not sure why nobody goes there, but its really not very exciting. I wish government documents didn't take so long to be processed, I just want to start this internship. Hopefully next week!

The beach at White Sands resort

      Despite the repetitiveness and uselessness of my afternoon, today was actually really good. This morning me and two other girls went to the Mwenge carvers' market, a fair sized market on the edge of town filled with fantastic carvings, paintings, jewelery, sandals, and dresses. Tanzanians are amazing artists. I wanted to bring everything home with me. The thing I loved best about this market, though, was how non-pushy the vendors were. This was such a great experience compared to Jamaica, the last country I was in. There the vendors were all grabbing my arm, insisting I buy things I didn't want, putting bracelets on my arm when I wasn't interested, and not taking no for an answer. At the Mwenge market everybody was just really friendly. Of course they all wanted to sell us things but they weren't fighting over us and pushing things on us. They would show us something and if we said no, that was fine and that was that. They wouldn't keep on asking how much I would buy it for (I hear it's like this all over the Caribbean. I'm sorry Caribbean, you're beautiful and all but you're not my favourite). This is the way I like to shop: help me when I need help, don't hound me. Yona, our taxi driver, did come into the market with us, so I'm not sure if that made a difference. But either way, I love how nice Tanzanians are.
        While I'm happy and on the topic of things I love about Tanzania: I love how green Dar es Salaam is! Not green as in environmentally friendly (because that is something it definitely isn't), but there are just trees and grass and plants everywhere. For a sprawling city of five million people this is very unusual. Nearly every street is lined with big, leafy trees, theres the occasional cow or chicken, and some residents have started up their own form of urban agriculture. They're planting corn and other vegetables in the empty spaces next to office buildings and stores. I don't think urban agriculture is officially allowed in Dar, but I do hope they keep up with it because it is such a good thing and it allows city dwellers to become a little more self sufficient. And maybe they won't have to buy produce from outside sources as much. Because even for us we noticed today that produce can be ridiculously expensive here. And if its expensive for us, how could someone who makes only the equivalent of $200 per year afford it? Food prices are rising globally and that is bad news for your average Tanzanian.
        The good news is that we are meeting with a local security company tomorrow, and maybe, just maybe we'll be able to use dalla-dallas and bajajs sometime soon?

Welcome to Dar

       And welcome to the most disconnected from life I have ever felt. Not from life at home, I have internet so I know what's going on there, but from life here in Dar es Salaam. I've been in Tanzania for four days now and only now am I beginning to feel like that's actually where I am. I've been living in a house behind a gate in a wealthier part of the city with a bunch of Canadians, taking taxi's everywhere, shopping in Western style stores, eating at Italian restaurants and sunbathing at fancy beach resorts. This is not how I travel. Usually when I arrive somewhere I grab a map, walk out the front door of my cheap hostel and wander. I go to local markets, barter a little, eat mystery food from carts on the side of the road, maybe get lost a few times. And I always use public transportation like buses, tuk tuks, motorcycle taxis, ferries, etc.  

This is not the Tanzania I came here to see. 

      Because this internship was coordinated through a university I have to play by the university's rules. And their rules say safety first. This means taking taxis everywhere, always in groups of at least two. I am not even allowed to use a tuk tuk (or bajaj as its called here), despite the fact that it would be much faster and cheaper. And no ferries because, oh no, there may be pirates (there are Somalian pirates around, but they've never attacked the ferries). Everything I do has to be planned and approved. Its incredible how hemmed in and typically North American I'm feeling. And I hate this feeling. 
       If things continued this way I may have gone crazy.  But today, for the first time, I walked down the street to a bakery and a fruit stand and it was like being given a day pass from prison. I can't believe how freeing that was, just walking down the street and buying fruit. I realize safety measures are there for a reason, but seriously, I have no more chance of getting mugged on the street or hit by a bus here than anywhere else. Today I also met with Mary and Brian from Women Fund Tanzania and I was reminded of why I'm here. Mary seems like an incredible woman and she is so excited to get this fledgling NGO off the ground. After talking to her I'm excited too and I can't wait to get started and be a part of herstory (as she calls it). We're still waiting for Immigration to approve our resident visas so I can actually start my internship, but on Monday I'll be meeting with them again to go into deeper detail on what my project will entail. I also met two CIDA interns who work in the office just above where I'll be working. It sounds like they are working on really good projects that I can't wait to learn more about. These two have been here longer than me so they also have a lot of really helpful information on life in Dar. 
       Simply getting out of my gated compound and meeting people that live and work here has made me feel so much better. And I'm sure once I start working I will feel more like I'm actually in Tanzania, not just a humid version of North America where I can see Africa through the windows.