KARIBOO! (Welcome in Swahili!)
Day 1
Waiting in Heathrow at 3am waiting to check in almost 80Kg's of
baggage, vacuum packed into 2 large suitcases + 3 smaller carry-on style
suitcases, I came to the conclusion that if I EVER travel to Africa in the
future bearing medical supplies, I will send them ahead of me in the mail!! My
arm muscles (or lack thereof) were throbbing as I lifted, and tried to pretend as
though my 2 heavily overstuffed carry-on bags were light as feathers in a
pathetic attempt to avoid having them weighed by the kind desk agent who looked
decidedly concerned as I heaved and pulled my way to his desk with all my
luggage. Luckily, once I showed him a letter from his airline which had
kindly waived my excess luggage as much of it was medical supplies to be given
to the hospital I’m volunteering at, he was bending over backwards to help me
check in all the luggage.
After a stop-over in Zurich, I slept much of the way through to
Nairobi where we made a quick pit stop to drop off a majority of the passengers
before the flight moved on to Dar Es Salaam.
The mood on the plane after leaving Nairobi seemed somewhat like a
social gathering, I’ve never seen anything like it on a flight, everyone was
out of their seats standing in the isles talking to other passengers and the
stewardesses, who had by this time changed into more ‘casual’ clothing, came
down the isles bearing alcoholic beverages and pop on trays which were handed
out to all the passengers and the stewardesses then joined in with the
conversations as we continued on our 1.5hr journey to Dar. The relaxed, friendly and casual atmosphere
was probably a good indication of what was to come upon arrival in Dar Es
Salaam!
After landing in Dar, we were shuffled into a ‘holding’ area where
we had our pictures taken and went through the process of obtaining our visitor’s
visas which was quite an amusing process. Two passengers ahead of me spoke only
French and were struggling with authorities to understand their questions (which,
in fairness, was difficult even for English speakers due to questions being
posed in thick Swahili/broken English) so I offered to interpret which was ended
up being a comical mix of French/English and a multitude of hand gestures to
get some points across as some of the French sayings just don’t translate very
well! After they had finished their
process, I was about to proceed with my visa when I was tapped on the shoulder
by the same security chap I had just tried to help who said ‘you don’t happen
to speak Italian??’…. After managing to fumble through broken Italian to translate
for the gentleman who didn’t speak a word of English besides ‘hello’, he was
granted his visa, which was a slight relief as I’m sure at one point I confused
the word for girlfriend with the Italian for prostitute…luckily I was corrected
by the Italian chap before I really put my foot in it for him! By the time I
finally got to complete my visa, I think the security man was happy enough for
the previous help that he didn’t even bother asking any questions and simply
approved the visa. With that, I entered
into Dar Es Salaam to begin my new adventure J!
My lovely contact from ‘Work the World’ (the organisation who
helped organise my elective) met me as I came out of the gate with a big smile,
and introduced himself as Mark, although it has to be said, he’s the spitting
image of Will.I.Am so I still half expected him to break out into song at any
minute. He accompanied me by taxi
through the bustling streets of Dar which seemed so calm and picturesque by
nightfall albeit there was not much, other than palm trees and some tall
buildings that I could make out in the dark.
We passed a large billboard which was lit up advertising the tv show
Glee, which made me do a double take, it wasn’t the first thing I imagined
seeing on a giant billboard on the side of a road filled with small bjaj’s (3
wheeled covered motor type vehicles which can take up to 3 people comfortably,
however normally filled with 4-6, reminding me of circus clown cars!!) and Dala
Dala’s (small 10 seater van/buses which normally cram in 30-40 people or more like
sardines – and you may end up with a random Tanzanian using your lap as a seat!!). The taxi scurried through the streets towards
Oyster bay, the ‘wealthy suburb’ area I where I would be living for the coming
6 weeks and after a 40 minute journey, we turned into what looked to be a very ‘posh’
road with houses which could easily cost upwards of £5-10 million in the
UK. We pulled up to a front gate, where
we were greeted by one of the night security guards who opened the gate,
allowing us entry into the organisation named ‘Dar House’.
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| Front of the Dar House the night I arrived |
My first impressions of the house were of surprise, I guess I had
prepared myself to be living ‘rough’ for the 6 weeks here, however from the
outside, with manicured lawns and palm trees lining the walk ways up to the ‘main
house’ which was a large, extended bungalow with a big covered outside sitting
area with several sofas looking out at the front garden, I realised I had
possibly underestimated my accommodation.
Marc took me on a brief tour of the large kitchen with several fridges
filled with some ‘left over’ food cooked by our chef Raheema, who apparently
has a reputation for cooking amazing Tanzanian/Arabic style cuisine for dinners
during the weekdays, a big dining room area at the front of the house with 4
large wide wooden tables which could accommodate up to 45 people (which
reminded me of a relatively small pseudo-cafeteria), and a larder filled with
various dried goods including UHD milk and a strangely large number of boxes of
Coco pops, apparently a popular breakfast choice here. He then took me around the 4 bedrooms
attached to the main house, all of which had 6 bunk-beds with a shared on-suite
bathroom for 6 including a small shower and toilet. Following Marc out the back of the house,
another smaller ‘bungalow-style’ building was a 30 second walk away which had 5
further rooms, 4 of which again had 6 bunk-beds and then I was shown to my
room.
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| My Room (Bottom Bunk) |
I was relieved to see that
although it was only a quarter the size of the other rooms, it was the only room with only 3 beds, two of
which are bunk-beds, and seemed much more ‘homey’ than the other rooms.
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| The Bathroom - Pretty basic - things grow in here :o |
Just outside ‘my’ bedroom through a little
path to the left, was a lovely large swimming pool with a small pool bar off the
side and a mass of sun loungers dotted around the pool.
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| The Dar House Pool at Night |
I have a feeling the pool and I are going to
become good friends!
I was greeted upon my way back through the house by a group of
around 15 young girls, who introduced themselves as 2nd year nursing
students from Manchester, all of whom seemed very friendly and welcoming, which
is always a lovely way to arrive at a new accommodation. Marc, our bubbly 20 something host who’d
accompanied me from the airport and chatting away in excellent English, proceeded
to show me every security feature of the houses, which included panic alarms in
every room, the security office at the front gate where our security guards
stayed and all the fire alarms and fire extinguishers dotted around the place
plus electronic door locking systems on the main house. I kind of got the impression that security
was a pressing issue by this point…it wasn’t for a few days later that I realised
why (to be added in a later post).
Following a quick debriefing, I was left to explore the property and go
to my room to unpack.
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| Ned, my room-mate |
Given that it was
around 11:30pm by this time, and I’d been travelling for over 22hrs from the
time I left Norwich, I was ready to crawl under my mosquito net and hit the
hay!
The temperature in the evening was lovely, around 22-24 degrees
with a warm gentle wind meaning that I was still comfortable in the sweater I’d
worn across but could equally have been wearing a t-shirt and still felt quite
warm. I was half expecting to be hit by
a sticky hot heat getting off the plane, despite the sun having set at 6:00pm,
so was pleasantly surprised that the temperatures were more than bearable! There are high ceiling fans in every room
which run 24hrs a day which doesn’t really affect the temperature but allows
for fresh circulating air and is quite a calming sound at night when trying to
lull off to sleep.
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| The Front 'veranda' |
I nearly suffocated as I applied a heavy spray of 50% deet on
every exposed part of my body, then crawled under my mosquito net into my ‘camp
style’ bottom bunk, ensuring that I tucked the mosquito net thoroughly around
the bed, and began fell asleep with a big smile on my face as I listened to
crickets chirping away outside, having finally arrived in a country I’d dreamed
about coming to for many years. As I
started to doze off, I heard a distinct buzzing and a sharp pinch on my shoulder.
I slapping my shoulder, killing what was likely to be the first of many
mosquitoes but couldn’t help grinning, I felt as though I’d just had my first
initiation into Tanzania.
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| Front Side view of Main house (right), front gardens (left) and Security Gate (Left) |
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