ppadmanabhan

After our first full night's sleep in Tanzania, we were rudely awoken by some roosters crowing in a coop right below the hostel building. Even with this interrupted sleep, the ensuing frigid bucket shower was good enough to jolt us awake. This day was set aside for "orientation," and no actual classwork was to be done - instead, the entire morning was spent setting up our classroom router and personal modems for internet, a valuable commodity. With an otherwise uneventful morning, we played card games until a lunch trip to Neema Crafts and Restaurant, the expatriate hangout in town. This unique establishment has won worldwide recognition for employing only disabled people. The menu wasn't exactly authentic Tanzanian, but the burger I had was very good, and the habanero and pili pili sauces added an East African ... read more

"Karibu!", greeted the Emirates flight attendants as we got off the long, but comfortable 18-hour plane ride. The Swahili word, meaning "Welcome", was emblazened on the roof of the Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam, and it concisely captures the warmth and hospitality we repeatedly came to expect of the Tanzanian people. The sterile airport entrance, coated with Western-style excessive security, begat a disorderly stampede reminiscent of an Indian temple or train station at the visa office. This was the location of the first snafu of the trip - we had been told adamantly by our program directors to ask for an ORDINARY visa, yet the officers insisted we obtain a STUDENT visa, which was $50 less expensive. After ~10 minutes of pleading our case to a guard who spoke little English, another kindly ... read more