Blogs from East, Tanzania, Africa - page 9

Some pictures of African Dancers - a bit blurry but I kind of like the freakish look of the blurriness - enjoy (or not)... read more

Dar es Salaam - one of the richest and safest cities in the whole of East Africa, and to be honest parts of it looks like a run down area of Slough so you would think to live here would be great if you were an African in Tanzania and yes the people who live here love their city as do all of the people in each of their respective cities and I love this enthusiasm. A young lad, Fakim, on my course said I beleive that in 10 years Africa will be like Europe ... I will let you my reader decide Ask a Dar es Salaam resident "how do you get an ambulance?" and the answer you will get is "well it all depends on your insurance, if your insurance names your family member ... read more

Now if you know me well you know that if I say to you "my phone has been stolen!" that you should say - check your bag and I will say "I did, twice!" but then you will say no the other bag and then it will be found - ooops today started off almost as bad as yesterday, I reeled off to Mike that I was feeling bad and why I was feeling bad and he said "god you are not going to top yourself are you?" he was joking of course. we then left the hotel, I proceeded to get in the wrong vehicle at which point Mike was showing concern for my mentality. We got to the office and I realised I had left Annie (the resus dummy) at the hotel so I ... read more

" I am afraid we are oversold, you will have to be upgraded" such hardship especially (i want to point this out) as I give up my weekends without complaint to fly for the company I work for, this was a treat. OK it was only to World traveller plus but for me with short legs who cant touch the floor in economy that was marvellous as World traveller plus has foot rests - bliss. I sat next to a gent who was part of the British Heart Foundation Bike Challenge and has spent months painstakingly fundraising and practicing for his 300 mile bike ride across Tanzania - good luck to him - I cant see me doing that on Brad Pitt the Brompton! Three whole hours we were stranded for at heathrow, the plane was ... read more

Oh East Africa! What did I do without you and Swahili culture all of these years? Today I felt like a local rather than a mzungu on the peninsula. I had chips mayai for lunch (French fries fried with eggs into a pancake sort of thing) and spent all day at our survey contractor’s office (run exclusively by locals) to supervise a training (in Kiswahili). I spent most of the evening hanging out with a friend in his video shop in a locals’ neighborhood called Sinza, drinking coke and talking about the differences (and similarities) between Americans and Tanzanians. “Tanzanians want da cash money!” he kept telling me, including Tanzanian women, whom he claimed will tell you that you have a nice face to get with you, but once you are “broken” (broke), she will up ... read more