The Studio

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year! I'm flying out in a few hours to go to Mombasa, Kenya for new years, so I'll be offline for a few days. Hope everyone gets a chance to ring in the new year in style, and be safe out there!

A couple days ago, I had a very productive day exploring the city. I think I successfully walked around nearly the entire city center. Turns out that Dar Es Salaam downtown is not very big.

I started my day at the National Museum. The "rough guide" noted that the museum is "quite a happening place these days and well worth visiting" so I gave it a shot. I assure you, that statement could not be further from the truth. Given the rich history of Africa and how much the history of humanity is tied to this region, this museum is astonishingly poorly curated. I think I was one of half a dozen visitors at the museum. The museum itself is a nice 3 story structure, with another 1 story building in the back, but the artifacts barely filled 2-3 20'x30' rooms. Much of the 3 story building was left empty. Also, the fact that the museum was not temperature controlled was concerning for the artifacts.

The museum touched on the topics of human evolution, slavery, colonialism, Tanzanian independence, as well as a survey of local wildlife, but I'm pretty sure my high school history books (or my travel guide for that matter) has more information than what was presented in the museum. I spent an hour at the museum, reading every single placard, but I soon ran out of reading material, so I had to move on. Overall, I found the museum to be really depressing because I felt like it had so much unrealized potential. I don't have any pictures of the museum because you had to pay an extra $10USD in order to take pictures on the premise.

After leaving the museum, I walked by the university that specializes in finance and economics. The block was teaming with students going to and from class. I loved the energy there. The energy there was similar to that which you find in many other college towns or campuses -- you can sense focus, ambition, direction, and hope but at the same time the students are carefree and enjoying the camaraderie.

As I turned down Samora street, I was hoping to find traces of colonial architecture as the guide book had promised, but again I was disappointed. The buildings were rather commercial and ordinary. I finally turned off Samora when I got close to the ferry terminal so that I could check out schedules and fares to Zanzibar. As one might expect, when you look like a tourist within striking distance of a ferry, everyone wants to sell you a ticket. Not being in a hurry to get anywhere, I humored some of the sales guys, visited a few of the different ferry operators, and walked away with the information that I needed. As I crossed the street to double back on the ocean front, I popped in a St. Joseph's cathedral. The church was beautiful and well preserved, and I was amused by the architecture which I found to be somewhat cartoonish (I guess that's baroque style?). Stepping into the church grounds was like stepping into a totally different world, especially compared to the raucous, disorder, and disrepair of Dar downtown. Just 200m down the road, there's a Lutheran church. Another beautiful building. These two churches are by far the most notable and most beautiful buildings in all of Dar city center.

As I started walking back towards the fish market, I was accompanied part way by a local whose name I forget. He started off as trying to sell me tickets to a safari, but when I told him I was actually living in town and not interested in a safari, he just walked with me and we chatted for a bit. We soon parted ways, but then I met George, who was heading in the same direction as me. George was helping to direct me to the fish market, and pointed out some of the buildings to me. George was not all that talkative, but we walked together. I think George lives on the ferry, which docks next to the fish market. At some point, George might have said something along the lines of "I love you", but I pretended not to hear him. Once we arrived at the other ferry terminal, and also George's destination, George pointed me the rest of the way to the fish market. George also asked for my phone number, to which I replied I didn't have a cell phone. sorry George, I just don't see us hanging out.

The fish market was pretty neat -- it wasn't that big, nor did it smell as bad as I expected. It's much airier than many other markets. Had I been serious about seeing a lot of fish, I would have come earlier in the day when the catch comes in, but this being well past mid day, many of the stalls were dwindling in supply. There only seemed to be a handful of types of fish, the bulk of which were sardines. I don't think tourists come here all that often as many seemed surprised to see me there. I surely didn't see any other tourists while I was there. Everyone was extremely friendly though and not at all pushy. I remember one guy in particular, who as soon as he saw me from across the market made huge effort to wave and say hello to me. It was as if we were long time friends who hadn't seen each other in a while. That was amusing. I also saw this guy who had a genius contraption to sharpen knives. He had converted jerry rigged a bicycle so that he could use its mechanics to spin a wet stone.

Across the street was a small "land" market which sold vegetables and spices and sea shells. The most amusing by far were the skeletons of puffer fish. I had no idea you preserve the exoskeleton of a puffer fish in inflated form! I was hoping to find stalls that would cook fresh fish for you to eat on the spot, but was only able to find large scale fish frying operations. I was really banking on eating at the market, so again, felt betrayed by my guidebook.

Somewhat dejected, I left the fish market area, heading back towards the museum to consider plan B in terms of eating options. About 100m away from the fish market, someone who is walking behind me starts talking to me. I get the standard questions about where I'm from, and no, I'm not chinese... My new friend is apparently an artist. He asks me where I'm going, and I told him that I'm going to find a place to eat and then head home, as I'm pretty much done for the day. I ask for recommendations of a good local place to eat, and my friend is very excited to be able to show me. My friend's name is Kerry, and he asks me what I like to eat. I'm up for anything, so long as it's Tanzanian. He apparently knows just the spot that's clean, and cheap, and very local. we walk aways, and he quizzes me on the amount of swahili that I know, and proceeds to teach me more than I'll be able to remember. I find out that Kerry is an orphan, who took a year or so of "spatula painting" up in Bagamoyo, and has lived in both Zanzibar and South Africa trying to make a living. Kerry is a ball of energy; he's excited to show me where to eat, after which he'll show me his paintings, and he can take me fishing; he even wants to cook for me! Apparently he's a good cook since he never had anyone to cook for him. But, first things first, we must eat.

When we get there, you kind of cut through this soda stand, and go to the back to find an open cement slab covered by a corrugated tin roof where there are plastic tables and chairs. There's a lady with some plastic boxes and strips of paper whom you're supposed to pay for your meal before you go grab your food. I really wanted to try bananas cooked with coconuts, but they were all out, so we got her to agree to let us get our food before paying. This way, I get whatever tickled my fancy. So we walk to the food service line, which is a couple ladies with a bunch of pots, and you just pick out what you want, almost cafeteria style.

There's rice, or pilau (rice mixed with spices), or ugali (kind of like polenta but more bland), served with stewed beans, or peas, or beef, or dried fish. I got a bit of everything! It was delicious! And all for $2USD, $2.66 if you add in the two fantas I ordered for me and Kerry. There was enough food that I could even give Kerry half my meal and still feel full. Man, what a deal. This is what I want to be eating every day -- they need more places like this over by where I'm staying. If I actually have an office to go into after the new year, it won't be far from this place, so I can definitely come back. I'm super excited about that.

After we finished eating, I called my taxi driver to come pick me up. Kerry showed me some of his paintings, and I even bought one since he was a good sport. I hope he doesn't invest this much time in each of his sales, else he's not going to make a lot of money. He gave me his number, since I wouldn't give him mine... Not sure yet whether I'll ring him at a later point.

All in all, an extremely productive day, and it didn't even feel like I was exploring alone. Kerry mentioned that when a girl walks around alone, she'll make a lot of new friends. Not sure how I feel about this, but I didn't mind the intermittent company. So far, I've not come across anyone in Tanzania who is overly pushy or aggressive or sketchy. The only people whom I've met in the past month who have fit that bill have been Americans. Go figure.

For me, a large part of feeling settled into a place is having my food situation stabilized. Among the first things I unpack when I move into a new place is my kitchen (not that I've moved that much recently). I also need to find a place where I can buy my meats and produce without having to pay an arm and a leg. And then, there's the process of stocking my kitchen with basic cooking ingredients (I tend to over do this part a bit).

The most challenging part about arriving in Tanzania is that after two and a half weeks of being here, my eating situation has not yet stabilized and is completely unsustainable. The first week I was here, my kitchen had no plates, cups, utensils, no pots or pans, no working microwave, and no working stove. All I had was one hot plate, but that didn't matter much cuz I had nothing to cook on it anyways. My roommate and I didn't immediately go out to buy kitchen essentials because we thought that the senior manager who lived here, but who was currently out of town, might have extras. So we waited, living meal to meal by going out or eating cereal from plastic cups. For me, living meal to meal, especially in a place where I don't have my own mode of transportation and where I'm still unclear on dining options, is equivalent to living paycheck to paycheck -- it's not a situation I'm very comfortable with.

Last week I made some progress towards acquiring some kitchen supplies, such as pots, pans, utensils, plates, bowls, glasses, a chef's knife, and a cutting board. It cost me dearly, however, which was surprising and a bummer, but still no reliable source of heat upon which to cook. I had all but given up on our stove, but when my landlord came by to pick up the broken microwave, I took the opportunity to ask him to show me how to work the stove and inquired whether it was broken. Turns out (!!) that I have to buy a propane tank for my stove. I found this amusing because when you look at my stove, it resembles many other gas stoves you see in the US. Who knew that I was working with a glorified version of the tabletop cooker that my roommate uses for hot pot!!

I asked the builder super today where I can buy propane, and he offered to take me in his car! Bonus! Nice guy, considering I've probably been a huge pain in his ass, what considering the broken floor in the bedroom, the broken microwave, the remote control for the A/C in my bedroom being the wrong model.... I was a bit peeved that my landlord refused to pay for the propane tank, seeing how it cost $70 and it's not like I can take it with me when I leave. The good thing however, is that I did get the propane dealer to agree to buy the tank back from me when I leave, so all won't be lost. He did say he would buy it back at "market price", but propane tanks can't lose that much value in two months, right?

Anyways, we're cooking with gas now baby!! Well, at least on two of the 4 burners... The technician said he would come tomorrow to try to clean the other two burners, if I pay him $10. What an industrious guy. =P I said sure, why not.

In the past couple of days, I've also explored two of the local markets which sell produce, grains, and dried fish and such. Oh, and live chickens. The markets are a bit far, and cost me about $15 in round trip cab fare, but it's where I would really really really like to be shopping. I need to find something similar but closer, though I don't think they exist since I live in the tourist/rich part of town -- people here shop in supermarkets that sell imported produce and frozen meat. Poop. At least I was able to load up on some veggies while I was out and about today. I was not brave enough to venture down the live chicken aisle, not because I'm squeamish, but because chickens are smelly and dirty and they were not selling them in a well ventilated area.

This Christmas, instead of trekking about East Africa, I'm splitting my time between exploring the local scene and getting myself more settled in. I'm quite pleased with this actually; I think it was a good call in the long run. I walked around two areas of the city today, and was not harassed at all. I tried to go to where the Chinese laborers used to live during colonial times, but that area of the city was not as Chinese as I had hoped. There were a few Chinese restaurants, and I even ate at one, but I was hoping for more Chinese shops. This will require more investigation...there's probably a Chinatown somewhere! hehe...

There are a few things on my list to buy, which I hope to have procured before Christmas. They are: a rice cooker, a vegetable peeler, hangers, a drying rack for my dishes, and a drying rack for my clothes (I have a washer, but no dryer). And then there's the matter of kitchen ingredients: oil, salt, sugar, pepper, oyster sauce, sesame oil (I already found soy sauce and fish sauce! haha!). I've seen all of these ingredients, but wasn't yet committed to buying them at the time because because I wasn't sure what my stove situation was going to be.

Man, I've had such a productive day. Hopefully the next two days will be just as productive. I leave you with some photos of the street scene in Dar. Hope everyone is having a blast preparing for the holidays!!

One of the things we take for grant in the US are bills. This sounds crazy, since most of us are probably sick and tired of bills. There are bills for everything! Rent, car insurance, electricity, cable, internet, phone, medical bills, credit card bills (x10!), the list goes on and on. But what we don't think about is that bills are only possible because of credit, stable infrastructure, and a reliable way for your creditors to track you down if you don't pay your bills.

Here in Tanzania, a lot of that is missing. Traditional banking systems are setup with a bias for the wealthy and against the poor and those without collateral. Those interested in this should read "Banker for the Poor" by Muhammad Yunus. Anyways, as a result, everything in Tanzania is pre-pay. And I do mean EVERYTHING. My rent is pre-paid, which is not very unlike the US, except that I had to prepay for the entire duration of my stay. 3 months, up front. The electricity is pre-paid. You take your meter number to the local electricity store, and give them some money. They give you a code that you go back to punch into your meter. Now you have electricity. But, that means you could run out of electricity at any random time. Then you have to go get some more money (cash), and go back to the electricity store, and buy some more.

Same goes for phone and internet. When you buy your sim card, you have to buy a scratch card that actually gives you phone credit before you can make any calls. The scratch cards are sold everywhere, so it's not a terrible inconvenience, but you have to stay on top of your two sim cards to make sure they continue to have credit.

It's little things like this, and others which I will try to continue to share, that make logistics difficult in Tanzania. Everything here requires just a little bit more thought and a little bit more planning. I find it rather ironic, actually. Hope you all are getting into the festive mood and preparing for the holidays. Miss you all! *muah!*

This is a bit out of order, but I realized that I haven't shared with you the highlights of my trip to Nairobi, Kenya. A few days after arriving in Africa, I had to travel to Kenya for an internal Accenture training. The training was to cover useful tidbits related to working in a developing country, as well as background information on the development sector and Accenture Development Partnership.

The first thing that I noticed after landing in Nairobi was the weather. It was cool, and in the shade, almost cold! I had vaguely checked the weather, and saw that the highs were some 5-10 degrees cooler than Dar Es Salaam, but I clearly forgot to look at the lows. Only on my way back to Dar did I learn that Nairobi is 5K ft higher in elevation than Dar, hence the much cooler temperatures. I LOVED the weather in Nairobi.

Upon leaving the Nairobi airport to drive to the hotel, I immediately noticed that there were a TON more people as well as many more skyscrapers. There's a legit downtown with a skyline and everything. Nairobi was clearly more developed than Dar.

The training itself was engaging, and I learned (re-learned?) how bad I am at history and politics. As we reviewed the history of development, development organizations, and key summits/conferences, it was all news to me. The cultural stuff though, I was generally familiar with.

The Accenture team in Kenya was super awesome. They were a fairly diverse group (levels, home offices, cultural backgrounds) and I had a great time chatting with each of them. They were wonderful hosts, making sure we had fun events each night, and they even helped arrange rides/logistics for us, which in Africa isn't always an easy thing. One night, we all went to a restaurant called "Carnivores" which is very similar to Fogo de Chao (Houston) or Pampas (Palo Alto), which the major exception being the kind of meats that can be had. I tried camel and ostrich for the first time! Ostrich was delicious, but camel was way too chewy. In addition to showing us a good time in Nairobi, the "Kenyans" were awesome travel companions as well. We had a blast going to masai mara together. If you guys want more pictures of the animals, check out my FB album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2296677&id=202236&l=c6bd46aca2

All in all, I had a wonderful time in Nairobi. Melanie and I are both contemplating trying to get staffed in Nairobi once our stint in Dar is over.

I went to visit a cotton classification station today; it was extremely fascinating. So, the Tanzania Cotton Board performs a number of functions, and one of them is to serve as the regulatory body for cotton production and export in Tanzania. The cotton classification process is the process by which TCB evaluates the quality of each bale of cotton and gives it a grade before it is sold and exported.

One of the most amazing things is that a lot of this evaluation is done manually, since the machines that will do it for you are too expensive. Also, in the whole of Tanzania, there are only 8 cotton classifiers. Can you believe that??? Oh, and to make things worse, the cotton that does get evaluated by a machine has to ALSO be evaluated manually!!! This pretty much blew my mind.

Once the cotton has been evaluated, regardless of the mechanism, the quality data has to be entered into TCB's DB manually. At the point, the ginners can use their quality certificates to request export licenses. A funny side note is that Chinese/Taiwanese buyers have been known to insist on buying cotton that has been deemed to be too low quality to sell/export. The TCB doesn't want this cotton leaving Tanzania for fear that it might tarnish Tanzania's reputation, but many ginners have become upset by the given that they have Chinese/Taiwanese buyers who are like, no, please send us all of your cotton, we don't mind the poor quality that much.

Here are some pictures of the classification facilities.