Church and State

Last Sunday I visited the Lutheran church called Azania Front, along the Dar es Salaam port area. It’s an old and historic church building with stained glass brought from Germany. It was a nice service in Swahili and I especially enjoyed the music. After the service, a member offered to give me a little tour of the place, so I ascended many stairs to get up to the giant ticking clock and then even higher to the bell tower with a great view of the harbor.

As I went back home, I passed through the lively Kariakoo again for some fresh fruits and veggies, then caught a dalla-dalla (small local bus) for the ride back. Along the way, I saw a couple of polling stations. Thankfully things were incredibly peaceful, and all that I observed was people waiting patiently in line. In the evening, I watched some of the Tanzania local news commentary, with live coverage of the elections. Not surprisingly, the incumbent president Kikwete won the election.

SWAHILI WORD OF THE DAY: “changuzi” means “elections”

Bangoyo Island

On Saturday, I made my way off the mainland to a nearby uninhabited island to take my first dip into the Indian Ocean. Bangoyo Island can be reached by taking a 30 minute ferry from the Slipway on Msasani Peninsula to the sandy beaches of the long, narrow island. The water really is that blue and clear, and on this day the weather was just right. Although it turns out the sun was a bit more intense than I anticipated, and I'm still feeling the warmth now with my lovely sunburn.

A fun little treat was finding a tide pool about 6 m/yds by 2 m/yds, which was home to about 15 eels, which were entertaining to watch slithering through the water with their beady eyes and large mouths open wide.

All in all, it was a very pleasant beach day, and I highly recommend this little getaway, if you happen to find yourself in Dar es Salaam for a couple of days, in which case the SWAHILI WORDS OF THE DAY would be mashua (boat) and kisiwa (island).

Nyerere Day

On Thursday, it was a Tanzanian national holiday, celebrating the first leader of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere. Since I had the day off work, I seized the opportunity to continue exploring around the city. I went with a coworker Elizabeth by minibus (dalla-dalla) downtown. We passed by the Lutheran church, where we stopped for a bit to listen to the church choir performing outside with beautiful harmonies and coordinated movements.


Down the road, I quenched my thirst with some coconut juice. The street vendor cut open the top so I could drink the liquid inside, then he sliced the "meat" off the edges for me to munch on. The texture and color actually reminded me of calamari (mmm...), which I could have had if I had kept walking down the street to the fish market. But today's adventure called for crossing the bay on a ferry to the other side of the port of Dar es Salaam.

After our 10 minute ferry ride, we strolled down the busy market streets over to where we could grab a motorcycle taxi to a nearby beach. There as Elizabeth lounged, I took photographs and waded what seemed like 100 meters out into the Indian Ocean. It was low tide and extremely shallow, so I was still only ankle deep. On my way back to the sand, I watched as herders moved their goats and cattle across the sand. It was a wonderfully pleasant way to spend the afternoon. We made our way back to the place where we stay and I cooked up some delicious dhal stew and rice for dinner, with papaya for dessert.

The SWAHILI WORD OF THE DAY is mwalimu, which means "teacher." Nyerere was a teacher and made education an important part of the development of Tanzania. In the music videos I watched on this memorial day, they repeatedly called him Mwalimu with great affection. (I'm so glad I know Arabic, which has given me a huge jump start with Swahili. Muallim is teacher in Arabic).

Explorations continue

Yesterday I continued my explorations of the city center and found that when it's not a Sunday the city is actually quite lively. Thanks to good ol' Chris Columbus, I had the day off on a normal Tanzanian working day. A perfect time to go down to the maps division and purchase a map from the mapping division of some government ministry. It was fascinating to see the people ahead of me select very specific maps of particular parts of villages or cities. And when I ask for a general map of Tanzania, I learn that they are out of stock. Come back tomorrow?

However, armed with my book "Dar es Salaam: A doxen drives around the city" I set off for exploring the historic Indian part of town. This first picture is from that stroll, I believe where Jumhuri St. meets India Street. The SWAHILI PHRASE OF THE DAY was "Posta iko wapi?" which means where is the post office, which I repeated over and over to practice my Swahili and to get me to the minibus station to take me home.

Later that evening I walked about 20 minutes from my place to this lovely venue, a small cafe overlooking the ocean, where I could see these boats from meager fishermen if I looked one way, and the more gradiose boats at the yacht club if I turned the other. That's sort of the place I've found myself in the past couple of days. Wanting to connect with the Tanzanians and learn from them, practice my language, engage in participant observation. Yet the expat life can also be alluring, to enjoy comfort and ease.

Today was my first day of work, and I got to meet several of my colleagues I'll be working with over the next few months. I also spent a great deal of time reading, reading, reading about all things related to Tanzanian agriculture. I'm excited about the work ahead of me.

The SWAHILI PHRASE OF THE DAY was Kilimo Kwanza, which means Agriculture First, a government initiative that began last year, one of the many documents I read today.

First day in Dar es Salaam

After all my preparations and well over a day's worth of travel, I have arrived in Tanzania. I'm staying in an apartment on the north side of town, which is somewhat secluded from the city center. So I set off this morning to discover the hustle and bustle of downtown.

It began with an Anglican church service in Swahili at St. Alban's. The fact that I am familiar with the Anglican liturgy, had studied 5 lessons of Swahili on the plane, had a Swahili Bible in hand, and could draw on my Arabic religious vocabulary meant that I could follow along decently, but definitely didn't catch every word. It was an interesting and beautiful service nonetheless.

As I hungrily downed my vegetable curry at one of the few restaurants open on a Sunday, I reflected on the fact that the Asian Tanzanian population (mainly of Indian and Pakistani origin) is quite involved in the country's society and business life. This is a fascinating country that merges Arab, Asian, and African influences. Likewise, several people have emphasized to me already that Christians and Muslims live together in Tanzania quite peacefully.

Armed with my recently purchased book that features a dozen routes through the city, I embarked on an exploratory trek. Large trees lined the street to the botanical gardens, which turned out to be a bit underwhelming. But reaching the Indian Ocean was a treat. This picture was taken along the beach where I savored the blues and greens of the gently lapping water. Down the coast I happened upon the lively fish market, full of all kinds of freshly caught seafood. My favorite sight here, though, was a bicycle-powered knife sharpener - genius! With this being Sunday, most of the government buildings and shops along the rest of my route were closed, so in the end, there wasn't as much hustle and bustle to be had, and I jumped in a minibus to take me back "home." I'm hopeful that tomorrow I'll get to enjoy a bit more of the sights and sounds.

Swahili word of the day: CHAGUA
It means "choose" and is followed on many billboards with the name "Kikwete". Elections are coming soon in this country, so many posters of this incumbent president, and a couple of other candidates line the streets.