The bright lights of the big city!

A few days ago we returned from a very welcome trip to the ‘big city’ in Tanzania-Dar Es Salaam (affectionately known as Dar). It was very welcome because we were getting a little fed up with the situation in Mbeya after a whole week with no power. This had meant taking turns at work to charge laptops as the generator wasn’t big enough (the project has now bought a bigger one) and sitting around being unproductive while laptop is dead, no printing or photocopying or internet (imagine an office at home trying to function like that – crazy!), rushing home to start cooking tea on a gas hob before it gets dark, no fridge or freezer and straining to read over a candle in the evening. We were ready for a change!

We set off not-so bright but very early (5am) for the looooong journey to Dar. We arrived at the outskirts of Dar after 12 hours travelling. It took us 2 hours to rush into a mall and then cross the city – the traffic is awful in Dar! Dar felt like another world entirely and I remembered that it is possible to get culture shock within one country!

We spent the next few days making the most of having ‘all mod cons’! This involved shopping, primarily! Many of you will know that Matt isn’t the biggest fan of traipsing around shops spending money so he did admirably and was very patient in helping to attack Liz’s list of ‘things to look out for in Dar’, which wasn’t short. There were Christmas presents to buy, birthday money to spend, food bits and household items we can’t get in Mbeya to find.

We also treated ourselves to a smoothie, Matt played Playstation with a new teenage friend where we were staying, we watched tv, went to the cinema to see the new James Bond, swam in a pool by the Indian Ocean and many other exciting activities. We ate out a few times too (it’s pretty cheap in Tz but slightly more pricy in Dar than in Mbeya) and were treated to an Ethiopian meal by our supervisor and her husband for Matt’s recent birthday. We had never had Ethiopian before so that was a real experience and a tasty one too. All this felt like a real holiday after coming from Mbeya!

It was especially nice to see friends. We caught up with guys that we trained with in the UK and were at Language School with who work in Dar. Also, our friends the Morgans, who we shared a banda with for three months at Language School, were up from Dodoma. They were hosting a guest and doing work-related business so this was a happy coincidence. We were also able to see a good Tanzanian friend of ours, Veneranda, who worked at the campsite in Iringa and now is studying to be a nursery teacher in Dar.

Don’t worry though, dear supporters, it wasn’t all fun and games. Despite all appearances to the contrary (maybe!) our primary purpose of the trip was to work. We went to Dar to meet with a Literacy consultant from Mozambique. This in itself was no hardship as she was great fun and our meetings were very relaxed. I personally really enjoyed seeing her approve our new booklets, which we have been working hard to format well, receiving advice on our Basic Literacy materials that she devised and I have been spending a lot of time on, learning from a master the techniques of how to proof read (English, Swahili and different mother tongues!), discussing career development for both of us and writing our job descriptions. It was a very fun, but also very productive time!

We are not about to move to Dar though. It was far too hot (the hottest time of the year just about!) and extremely humid. We do not relish sweating when in a stationary position! There were also lots of mosquitoes and ants around, the latter seemed to have constructed a motorway directly through the little house we were staying in! In many ways it didn’t feel like ‘real Tanzania’ to us either, at least not the Tanzania we know and love. It was nice to visit for a short while but not to stay for a long time. It really is ‘the big city’ in many ways…but then again, maybe Mbeya feels like that to those from the village! We are now enjoying settling back into small town life with all its inconveniences and frustrations but such a nice climate!

p.s. The power has come back, sporadically and somewhat unpredictably, but back nonetheless! Thank you for praying for this situation and please do continue to do so over the coming days. This ‘solution’ is only temporary and does not provide enough power for all areas all of the time. The new transformer is still needed and will have to come from afar – a definite date of arrival is still not clear! Thanks.