Friday – Our first day off since arrival!

After having had barely a few minutes without training or some other organised activity since we had arrived in Tanzania, Friday was going to be our first day off! First, there were indeed a few hours of unplanned activity, so I took the opportunity to start exploring Dar by myself. After almost a week I really felt the need to explore the centre beyond the few walks to the DalaDala station and our dinner places. Dar has got some nice colonial architecture, but it shockingly enough does not seem to have any protection for this heritage: On my walk I had to witness one of most beautiful buildings being torn down (to be replaced by some characterless office block). Shopping seems to be organised like in many Middle Eastern cities by profession, so you get a street with just electrical stores, or just car parts, or just cosmetics and so on. As I wasn’t really planning to buy anything particular at this point (I still didn’t know, what my accommodation would have and what I’d need to buy - besides I was to spend another 2 weeks living out of a suitcase. One in this instance, as we were supposed to leave everything we don’t need behind at the VSO office when travelling to the language training.
After 2 hours in the heat of Dar, I was really glad we were to head to one of the nearby beaches for the rest of the day. This meant crossing the bay on a rusty old car ferry, but not too scary, as it’s an easy swimable distance. Then it was another 20min on a dala and a little walk and God it was worth it! A beautiful beach with white sand, a few straw huts and lovely warm sea. I could hardly believe, that this is so close to where I’m going to be living the next year. It all felt quite surreal.

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