Downtown

CEFA hostel told us they are fully booked and we must move out. So we waved the leafy, up-market neighbourhood goodbye and drove to the heart of the city, to the place where everything is happenning, to central Dar es Salaam (check out our location on the map on your right). 

Our new hostel is more basic and serves mostly Indian businessmen. We couldn't call it pretty, but Dar lays open at our feet...

A room...

...with a view...

...from the 5th floor

Essenstechnisch

Mittagessen in Dar es Salaam ist eine leicht überschaubare Sache. Wir setzen uns in ein lokales Restaurant (gennant "joint") und bestellen. Es ist nicht so wichtig, was wir bestellen, der freundliche mhudumu (Kellner) versteht uns nämlich nicht so gut und bringt immer das Gleiche.

Es gibt eine große Variation an Beilagen: Reis für die Abgehobenen, Pommes für die Hungrigen, ugali (Maisbrei, ähnlich zu Polenta) und ndizi (Kochbananen) für die Traditionellen. Dazu werden immer Bohnen, mboga (gekochtes tanzanisches Spinat) und Rindfleisch in Tomatensauce serviert. Und wenn man sich mal was Besonderes gönnen will, dann bestellt man gebratenes Fisch oder gegrillte Spieße.

Buon Appetite!

Home sweet home

Stefan and I are looking for a place to stay. After three weeks we have now learnt the basic rules of house search in Dar es Salaam. 

First, you need to find a dalali (local house agent) who speaks at least a bit of English. You do this by asking around, writing down phone numbers you see on the street, torturing everyone you know for info. 

You then drive around the city with him and observe unknown people who keep hopping in and out of your car. Do not worry: these are other dalalis, contracted by your dalali, to help him do his work. 

There follows a stage of driving in circles. Again, don't panic. This is because your dalali needs time to organize a key to "your" house. A rule written in stone: keys are never at the house when you are there.

The houses you finally get to see all have exactly the price you have at the beginning stated as the maximum of your budget, regardless of the condition they are in. Another rule of stone: houses cheaper than your budget do not exist! 

The dalali always shows you the houses in this specific order: first an old, poor shack (or two), then one or two decent houses, and finally a palace of your dreams. Most of them not in the area where you want to live. 

This  is what we have seen on our last "dalali drive":

House No 1: Way too small, way too local

House No 2: A bit OK

House No 3: Way too big, way too expensive

Where all this will end? We don't know yet, but we will keep you informed.

Vse najboljse

Vas zanima, kako sem prezivela rojstni dan? Prvi na sporedu je bil klepet ob dobri kavici, nato sprehod po divji, skalnati obali na severu polotoka, ki je del Dar es Salaama. Zakljucno dejanje: koncert FM Academie, priljubljene skupine iz Konga. Glasba je bila tako glasna, da so me se cel vecer bolela usesa! In seveda sem dobila tudi lepo, pisano darilo...

 

Eine Frage des Stils

Frauen in Tanzania sind sehr praktisch, auch was ihre Kleidung betrifft. Ihr Aussehen ist immer vervollständigt mit mindestens zwei Schals.

Schal Nummer Eins schützt den Rock gegen den Dreck in den Daladalas, vor dem Staub der Straßen, beim Sitzen draußen und vor dem Schmutz der Häuser, Waren und anderen Menschen in der dichten Menge...

Schal Nummer Zwei schützt den Kopf gegen die Hitze und die Frisur gegen den allgegenwärtigen heißen  Wind... Außerdem sieht er sittig aus, was in einer halb-muslimischen Gesellschaft nicht unwichtig ist.

Wenn frau dann ankommt und ihre Schals auszieht, sieht sie perfekt aus, sauber, gepflegt und mit toller Frisur, obwohl ihr Arbeitsweg einer Stunde von Hitze, Staub und Wind gleicht. Praktisch, gell?

Kiswahili ni lugha nzuri

Learning Swahili is not easy. Attending a course four hours per day and learning about fifty new words each time is even more difficult. Honestly, our minds are about to explode! We spend our free time reciting words like poems: tembea - to walk, tembelea - to visit, tegemea - to depend, tengeneza - to construct, tangaza - to announce...

But the language is also funny and offers insights into the culture. When we learned about kitchen stuff and cooking, for example, our teacher Loyce told us how young people tell that they got married.
The man says: "Nimepata jiko", meaning "I got a kitchen", and
the woman says: "Nimepata nyumba", meaning "I got a house". Sounds familiar, right?

So when the people ask us, which they always do, if we find Swahili to be a good language, what can we say but yes: "Kiswahili ni lugha nzuri".

Med svetovi

Ena najtezjih stvari pri zivljenju v Afriki je, da se svet bogatih in svet revnih tako ocitno in bolece dotikata, da teh skrajnosti ni mogoce spregledati. Nasprotja so prisotna na vsakem koraku in spominjajo na razloge, zaradi katerih sva se odlocila za nekaj casa ziveti in delati v Tanzaniji. 

Moderna tehnologija in skromna prebivalisca...

Wir haben es leicht genommen

Ich will euch jetzt erzählen, wie es ist, bei 35 Grad Celsius und Luftfeuchtigkeit von 70% zu leben. Wir wachen jeden Morgen schwitzend auf. Wir bewundern den schönen Sonnenaufgang und denken, uaaa, es ist sooo heiß und wir haben sooo Durst! Wir tanken literweise Flüssigkeit:

Nach zwei Wochen von ununterbrochenem Sonnenschein haben wir uns dann am Sonntag gedacht: wir wollen auf den Strand! Sonnencreme eingepackt, die Fähre genommen, Richtung Kipepo Beach marschiert - und wisst ihr, was passiert ist? Das:

Unser erster Regentag in Tanzania! Es hat geregent wie verrückt als wir in unserer Strohhütte den Strand beobachtet haben. Wir haben es leicht genommen...

An experience of colours

The buses of Dar es Salaam, called dala dalas, come in all colours. They pick up passengers whereever and let them out at wish. The conductors, called conda, call out the stations about to be reached. Actually, it is a bit like travelling on underground: to get to our hostel from city centre, for example, we must take the red Mwenge line to Morroco Road junction and then switch to violet Kawe line to Old Bagamoyo Road. Sounds nice, right?

It doesn't change the fact that the traffic jam in Dar never ends and that travelling by dala dala is a nerve-wracking experience that costs hours of time! So in the meantime we have become fans of the smaller and much faster three-wheelers: the bajajis will  practically fly past the queues of cars by driving on the side of the road! Size is not always an advantage :)

The search for a map

We have tried everything: all the bookshops in town and even the Tourist Bureau said: of course, they always have a map of Dar es Salaam, but right now they are finished. All finished! They will get them next week... Then Stefan boldly walked into the Surveys & Mapping Division Office of the government (it took us two hours at 35 degrees heat to get there) and was told, luckily, that they have one map left. They will be glad to copy it for him - he should come in tomorrow to pick it up! To keep it short, it took us about two weeks, but we are now proud owners of a map of Dar! Katharina, we have one for you too :)

Zivela Italija

CEFA je italijanska neprofitna organizacija, ki podpira razvoj, sodelovanje in mednarodno prostovoljno delo. V Tanzaniji je prisotna v vec vaskih skupnostih in nedalec od Dar es Salaama vodi celo lastno mlekarno! Ampak, najbolj pomembno od vsega: CEFA si lasti hostel, v katerem sva Stefan in jaz sedaj ze poznana gosta. Navdusena sva nad ogromno sobo, ki ima lastno klima napravo, nad italijanskimi vecerjami in prijaznim osebjem. V sobi je lepo, pred sobo se lepse... Najin prvi, zacasni dom v Tanzaniji.

Willkommen

Dieser Blog soll ab und zu etwas von unserem alltäglichen Leben in Dar es Salaam erzählen. Er wird keine entwicklungspolitische Diskussionen enthalten (für die sind wir gerne off-line verfügbar :). Also, beginnen wir mit einem leichten, glücklichen Begrüßungsphoto!

Finally in dar

We have arrived! Have a closer look at the hot, humid city that is about to become our home.