Arriving in the Land of Mambo! Poa!

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Landing in Tanzania. 1:30 a.m. $100 visa at Immigration. Customs. Why on earth does the only flight from Johannesburg to Dar Es Salaam land a 1:30 in the morning? Just the beginning of all things backwards. All of this just so I can sleep on a bench in the airport until 5:15 a.m, catch a taxi into Dar Es Salaam and begin my search for the “easy to find” and “everyone will know it” YWCA hostel. Exhausted. Confused. Frustrated. Luckily through all this I made two new South African friends who endure this grueling process right along side of me, Lindy and Matt.

I finally found the YWCA just as the clock struck 6:15 a.m. Unfortunately, I find out at this point that it does not officially open until 7 a.m. and that they will not have rooms ready for me until 10 a.m. Overcome by sheer exhaustion and heat, I was super tempted to get myself a room at the Holiday Inn around he corner. This was a hotel with air con (almost necessary if you go to any location that is found on the equator), internet, no flies, and an immediate bed and shower all for just $200 U.S., just a mere $190 more than I could pay at the YWCA. Stay strong, Kristin, stay strong.

A few minutes later, my savior walked in, in the form of a 20-something English girl of Indian decent. We led right into a conversation about travel and I found out that she had traveled far more extensively than anyone I had ever met; it honestly made my traveling look like a joke. She spent two years living and teaching English in Japan during which she traveled to every single Southeast Asian country, the next two years she spent working in Chile and traveling around South America, and has spent the past 6 months traveling all over Southern and Eastern Africa, Tanzania being her final stop before she began working and teaching in Ethiopia for the next two years. Fascinating and quite able to take my mind off of my lack of sleep for a least an hour of time.

A few key points about traveling in Tanzania that I will hit on right now before I continue the rest of my story. First, it is hot, hot, hot, muggy, infested with mosquitoes, and hot. For peace of mind, I highly suggest taking malaria pills if traveling here during the high malaria season (I didn’t and was okay, but it was always in the back of my mind that one of those mosquito bites I got was going to end in malaria). Take the highest amount of deet bug spray you can find; even then you will still be guaranteed to leave with legs covered in bites. Maybe even bring a mosquito net and just walk around 24/7 tented to protect yourself. Just kidding, please do not do that. When traveling around any countries that work with prepaid airtime (most all developing countries), it is advisable to carry a cheap, unlocked cell phone and purchase a SIM for about a $1 and some airtime for $2 and you will be set for all necessary communicational purposes. This is a much cheaper option to those silly and crazy international plans. The best part is that you can then text anywhere in the world and receive calls from friends and family while you are away, if, of course, they are proficient at Skype or Google Voice. Most important travel tip: prepare yourself some serious hassling and begging, especially if you are a small white girl. My first excursion to find some money, my leg was grabbed and clutched by an elderly man sitting and begging on the street, who then looked up at me and told me in the most interesting way that he loved me. I think that is the first time I have heard those 3 little words where I wished I had not heard them.

Okay so following my long and jealousy-enhancing conversation with the English girl, I put my bags away in a closet and headed out in search of some Tanzanian shilling (they also quote most things in dollars; this I did not understand and actually led to a lot of extra and unnecessary frustrations). Still it was 36 hours later and I was still without an ounce of sleep. At this point I was not ready for what Dar had to offer me at. Ahhh, the constant leg grabbing, begging, hassling, mosquito attacks, heat, and language barrier. Why was everyone looking at me and saying “Mambo!”? Get me out of here! Two minutes later I had to duck into a hotel for a quick little breakfast of tea and fruit in air conditioning away from all the craziness that can be found on the main street of Dar. While enjoying my cup of tea and watching some BBC, I overhead another man say to the group that he was with that all of Dar should be air-conditioned. I could not agree more, now how would one go about this?

Upon my reemergence into the dusty, loud, heated city, I felt the common onset and symptoms of a panic attack hit me. I needed to find the nearest internet café or I might start vomiting in the streets. Here I talked to my new Rwandan friend and surfed to web for about an hour. Finally around 10 a.m., I was granted access to my basic room, where I passed out in a sports bar and gym shorts for the next two hours until Emma’s arrival. Well not exactly passed out, I had to first calm my panic, however, eventually the lack of sleep kicked in and knocked me out.

When I woke up I was greeted by Emma’s presence. We spent the next half an hour recounting our similar panic attacks. We laughed, decided we were famished, and headed to Subway (yes, same as the Subway at home) for lunch. I know lame and boring, Kristin you are in Tanzania, but I was still tired, a little nauseous and I needed a small piece of normal. Give me a break. Next on the list of things to do was buy our ferry tickets over to Zanzibar Island for the following morning so that we could get out of this crazy place as soon as possible.

By the way Emma informed me that the greeting here in Tanzania is “Mambo” and the correct response would be “Poa!” But then I learned in Zanzibar they say “Jambo” to which you respond “Si jambo.” Come on at least try to keep up.

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