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.
