Blogs from Dar es Salaam, East, Tanzania, Africa - page 4

I'll start by saying that this is probably the only day of the trip I would do differently if I had the chance to do it over. I was up at 5.45 to get the Dar Express bus from Moshi to Dar Es Salaam. The trip should take 7 hours, which would allow me to connect with the ferry to Zanzibar. Unfortunately what should have been a 7 hour trip turned into a 9 hour ride from hell stuck in a tiny seat. The main delays were caused by the Police, that stopped us every 75km or so to do some sort of bogus inspection along with a couple of stops in the middle of nowhere when the entire bus would empty out to water the trees. We eventually got into Dar at 4.00pm, tantalisingly close ... read more

Zanzibar is an island located off the coast of Dar Es Salaam. It is a predominatly Muslim, and has a historic town called Stone town which is said to be the only functioning ancient town in East Africa. It is also known as a spice town and used to be where slaves were auctioned off. Our group of eight spent one night in town and then two nights at a place called Kwenda Rocks which is right on the beach. So so so so so so so so beautiful. We will let the pictures say the rest.... read more

It’s been about a week and a half since we arrived here in Dar and so much has been experienced so far. Since we got here a couple days before our professor and all the other students, we had a lot to figure out on our own. Finding the cheapest place to buy food, finding what food to buy, how to go about taking the various forms of transportation (the hectic three-wheel ‘bajaj’ being our favorite so far), and how much each of those forms cost are just a few of the many things facing us those first few days. The place we are staying at is an actual house on the grounds of a Catholic guesthouse. Father Aloysius, along with the various brothers and sisters, run the place, and they are so wonderful. They serve ... read more

The north To start from the beginning we didn’t arrive straight from Moshi to the beach but started the travel in Dar es Salam by visiting a friend of the Sister. Her boyfriend currently works outside of Dar in Tegeta. We stayed at their place for three nights and had time for a daytrip northward to Bagamojo where we were to visit the Art College, an independent school for artistic education such as music, dance and artwork. Perfect for the Sister who is, for those who don’t know her, addicted to dancing. Meet a finish girl who studied there as well as Margaret, a Swedish lady we got to know at the festival on Zanzibar. Nice people who showed us around the place. At this time the semester for the school had just started, meaning that ... read more

We visited a second Maasai village before leaving our camp at Arusha. It was smaller than the one at the Masai Mara, less homes and people, and its proximity to the town meant that the villagers weren't as sheltered from the modern world as before. Children came running out to meet us when we entered the village, and our Maasai guide played on his mobile phone while we spoke to the children and let them snap away on our cameras. It was bizarre to think that they keep so many old ways and yet they've got Facebook. It made it less real, but it was still an interesting visit. The guide this time spoke to us about circumcision of young Maasai, explaining that teenaged boys who are to be circumcised wear black instead of the traditional ... read more