Hullo, Dar dear.

My eyelids were doing that sweating thing again. A peculiar trait I thought they had only adopted in the throes of Thailand’s blazing heat in Bangkok. Nope. I stood corrected, very much corrected. It was sort of scorching in Dar. Not that painful heat that makes you want to peel off your skin and jump into a cool bath, but rather a sticky, sweaty, damp sort of heat that comes only from being on the semi-blistering shores of the Indian Ocean where mbu (mosquito) run (or rather fly) amok. And it was beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous.

Crystal blue waters lapped at the sand all around the curve of the land as we drove past, jacaranda and coconut (I think?) trees bowing in greeting as we passed. Everyone glistened as much with the dew of fresh sweat as the beaming smiles, probably of being in such a fantastically stunning place. Tanzania’s seeming capital (which is actually Dodoma), the seaside city Dar es Salaam felt like one big sprawling beach resort. Which meant that our hotel was like a small slice of paradise on the sand with a huge open air market of shops built right into the center of it all. If that wasn’t enough, sipping wine on the beach and chowing down on delicious curries and samaki (fish), even as we combed through Excel sheets and poured over contracts and MOUs at the table, for a moment I forgot it was all for work.

My manager quickly brought me back to reality as we dove into site visits and preliminary meetings with our distributors. D.light has an extensive network in Kenya and elsewhere throughout Africa and around the world even, looking to expand further into Tanzania. This project was meant to be a jumpstart to deeper Tanzanian networks, particularly in rural communities in Manyara district. (For more details on my summer’s work, view this post on the Georgetown University website.) Already, I too was eager to dive in to see more of the country and what this project would bring for our team and the communities we were reaching out to. But there was time for that. Right now it was the time for fish and wine and waves and sunsets and I was loving every minute of it.

Compared with cosmopolitan Nairobi, hustling, bustling and full of life, Dar was laid back, comfortable without being boring, content without being complacent. It was a welcomed lull from grittier streets, faster cars, and bigger buildings, though I found myself missing some of the excitement already. A city girl through and through ;) One thing that struck me immediately was the preponderance of magnificent mosque compounds, gated areas with devotees milling in and out at all hours. They somehow looked even more beautiful than the ones I had seen elsewhere, cut out against the backdrop of the sea. I had heard that Tanzania was filled with large Muslim communities (many of them Indian Tanzanian (which explained the fantastic curries!) as well as Black Tanzanian as was the case in Kenya as well.)

Muslims and Christians have co-existed peacefully alongside the hundred plus ethnic groups that make up the Tanzanian population for quite some time, thanks in part to the foresight of the country’s first president Julius Nyerere who had pushed for a common language (Swahili) and the concept of ujamaa, a socialist ideology of a Tanzania for all Tanzanians. As a sign of this in 1985, a Catholic, Nyerere  passed along the torch of his presidency to Hassan Mwinyi, a Muslim successor. The fruits of his labors and a countrywide mentality of pole pole (slowly) that reminded me of the Thai sabai sabai (literally well, well) leveled most tensions; both countries were pervaded by a generally chipper disposition and remarkable ability to just take it easy even when that might mean not getting much done as I would come to understand all too soon!

Hullo, Dar dear.