First impression of Dar Es Salaam

Habari!

As promised this update regards to my “African adventures”. After a comfortable flight I was picked up on the airport by Ronald, Irene and Deo. Ronald is working as the region coordinator of the Foundation for East Africa. Irene is his girlfriend from Uganda who came over for holidays together with Ronald. Deo is from Tanzania and has recently started to do more or less what I’m going to do.
Although I was somewhat tired of skipping the night before and having been ill, it would not have been very appropriate to skip the first Tanzanian meal and beer, would it? I found out that the “vegetables” should not be consumed without mixing with the other ingredients as they are rather hot. Furthermore, I really need to practice tearing of goat meet (predominantly fat) from bones. The good thing is that I can brag that Mount Kilimanjaro was already in the pocket on the first day; it has a nice taste, and a temperature of somewhere between 6 and 8 degrees;). After the meal we went to our home and office. On the way I experienced that Dar Es Salaam has the appearance of one huge village with people and small shops all of the place, crazy driving, and a lot of potholes in the road. Then we suddenly turned to the right over a dust road with some slummy-appearing shops and we arrived at our destination. A very modern system opened the gate (after horning the gate opened; I was amazed. A second later however I realised that Shakes, our guard, opened the gate). Our place is really fine; it’s basic, but comfortable and the living room has proven to perfectly serve as an office. The bed also was very comfortable, and a breeze (since there are no windows) makes that the temperature is just fine.
The next day we started with visiting a rather unrepresentative (to the extent that it is not representative for the other restaurants) restaurant at the beach. Delicious Italian food was served, but it was evident that this was a top-end Mzungu location. During the day a German student living next door got severe fever as a result of malaria. I have to admit that despite wearing long sleeves etcetera I have been stung in these first days some times as well. In the night we went to the Q-bar. Ronald already told me to pay attention since “things happen there”. A life band was giving a performance, which only stopped when the electricity grid failed. After a while things started to happen indeed; old whites were being approached all over the place by pretty girls trying to make a living. Following the Q-bar we went to the Maïsha, a discotheque which reminds me of the Palace in Groningen, for some dancing on African and Western vibes.
After having had a good night’s sleep we went for some lunch, Ronald introduced me to documents, and we went for a boat trip with Pepijn. Pepijn is a Dutch employee of a distributor in, among others, solar energy parts. He just bought his rubber boat with two massive engines, which, as expected, resulted in some jumping the waves at high velocity. I experienced my first “sundowner” in Tanzania, which, of course, needed to be celebrated with a dive in the warm Indian Ocean. When we had a pizza at the Yacht Club, the catch of some big game fishers got to shore; three dorados of approximately 1,30m and a wahoo of the same size. I was told that yellowfin tuna is all over the place as well. Hmmm, I think I need to try to arrange something there.. In the night, again, we went out (just to place things into context; at 00:00 it would be Ronald’s birthday) to another discotheque with Judith; a Tanzanian student that lives next door.
Life’s hard; again we were going to the beach. In Mzungu resort White Sands (and it was evident why it was called that way) we enjoyed the sun and the bathtub-like temperature of the Ocean. We had dinner in a Thai restaurant, where Ronald had invited Pepijn and his wife to celebrate his birthday.

Last days were really relaxing and comfortable, which predominantly should be attributed to the top-end accommodations we visited. But there simply were some things to celebrate; Irene had come over from Uganda, Ronald had his birthday, and I just arrived. Coming days I will be introduced more into the Free Energy Foundation’s activities.

Kwa heri!

Peter