Dar Es Salaam: not as cool as Lancaster

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Hi again, posting again en masse. Internet here in Dar is surprisingly scarce and so I write up my blogs on my computer and then us my flash disk to post them when I get webnet power at internet cafes. So I'm here in Dar Es Salaam and it just has not been what I expected. This seems to be a common theme on my trip.

I didn't expect a complete lack of a touristy downtown area. I didn't expect the DC-esque rush hour traffic. I didn't expect that Dar and its reputation of a modern city would look a dirty, dangerous, disorganized city struggling to provide basic services to an impoverished and growing population

I know it sounds stupid for me to think otherwise, but honestly. I expected Dar to be a much nicer city, cleaner, less crowded, and more touristy city. Yet from what I've seen in only a couple days, it’s a poor city, not a whole lotta city planning, and urbanizing (suburbanizing??) quickly. Most of all, the culture of Dar is astonishing different from Z'bar.

For instance, when got off the boat on Sunday, literally the first thing I saw once we got to the street was a church. I know it sounds silly but no boast: I've seen 1 church in all of Zanzibar in a month and in Dar, within 30 seconds I see one.

So what does this mean? Well, for starters, I'm wearing shorts, happy days!!! Dar is a lot more accepting of risqué clothing, tourist behavior, and muzungu's in general. (I get starred at a lot less) I don't think this is entirely due to a much higher presence of Christianity, there must be other factors out there. Yet I'm sure that it’s a pretty large reason. I don't know what the percentages of religions is here but certainly 99% of the population is not Muslim like in Zanzibar.

Okay, here's how I'm gonna phrase it. It's broad and I'm probably grossly overgeneralizing complex social trends but I need a way to sum up Dar thus far. Whereas Zanzibar is culturally diverse (a mixing pot of traditional African, Arab, Indian, and European influences) but religiously homogenous, Dar's culture seems to include many more modern influences, specifically from Africa, Europe, and the US, and is more religiously diverse.

One thing that's important to note about that is that in Zanzibar I met no Americans. I've seen 1 or 2, maybe. I saw one guy with a Tennessee shirt on. I talked to buttloads of Brits and Italians, a couple Germans and Danes, but no Americans. I think that Dar sees more American tourists and has better access to American media/American companies than Zanzibar. I don't know, maybe that's just my ethnocentric perception. I've been in Dar for only a week, its pretty difficult to get a feel for a place after that short a time, but it feels a little bit more like home than Zanzibar.

Alright, so you know/think I'm in Dar. Well, I should confess that I'm not actually "in" Dar. The Uplands of Dar to be exact, home to the University of Dar El Salaam. We're staying at a nice hotel about 5 minutes away from the campus where we've spent most of our time the past 7 days. Most weekdays last week we’d get up early, grab breakfast at the hotel and go to class at 9. Morning lectures and afternoon lectures, some 2 or 3 hours each. Most days we didn't get back by 4 or 5.

In all honesty, it's been a tad brutal here, especially the lectures. Like the classes back in Stone Town, they're in English, but that doesn't mean I can understand everything the professors say. They also tend to use powerpoint, read every word written on the screen for us, explain the most basic of concepts to us, drag on lectures past the allotted time, and occasionally, answer their phone while lecturing, unapologetically (although, in fairness, he did leave the classroom)

Then after the lectures are over, we go back to the hotel and hang out there for a while. Since we're about a 45 minute drive from downtown (more during rush hour) its tough to go anywhere cool. Though one night, a couple of us went to see a movie playing near by, the Watchmen. Note: just a hilariously bad movie, you're much better off not seeing it. Most nights, we've just played cards, listened to music, or read. Seriously, so much reading. I started a Bill Bryson book, A Short History of Nearly Everything, at the beginning of the trip. By the time we arrived in Dar, I had only read 150 pages out of 500 or so, thought I'd never finish it. Not so. A week in Dar is apparently all it takes, I finished it yesterday. If you ever want to recap everything you learned in your high school science classes and learn some neat-o trivia, try it. It's long, not as good as Walk in the Woods, but it’s a good read for non-fiction dorks with too much time on their hands.

Yesterday, our one day without classes, I visited a really cool arts market near our hotel by myself . About 40 shops each with different handmade crafts and souvenirs and other stuff to buy. Great quality and great prices too, burned through about $40 so fast that I wished I had brought more money. Got myself a cool twiga (giraffe) bead statue and a kobe (turtle) necklace that I happen to be wearing right now, among other gifts.

I'm having fun here but can't wait for Wednesday. That morning we leave for our safaris (yes, thats correct: multiple safaris) within Tanzania!! So excited to see some lions and twigas and zebra!!! Woohooo

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Comments

[Grandma C]

City called "Haven of Peace"
When we explored Dar in the 80's we had no idea a grandson would be there a quarter-century later. (Your mom had just met your dad.) We had taken the TanZam railway from Lusaka, Zambia which had been built with lots of help from the Chinese. When the train was stalled in an isolated Tanzanian village for a day we were astonished to see a group of Asians there. Same was true in Dar. I'll be interested to learn if you saw or heard of them because the Chinese are quietly proliferating in Africa through the use of helpful projects like the TanZam. A funny incident happened when we visited a native market in Dar. One of the locals came up and asked to take OUR picture. It may have been because of Grandpa's funny baobab bark hat! I guess we're in some photo album in Dar es Salaam.