Three weeks of Dar es Salaam

After three weeks Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, I can share the following observations.

• It is extremely warm in the city. Every day it is at least 30, but usually around 35 degrees centigrade, whether it is cloudy or not. A cloud of pollution hovers above the city, but at just 30 minutes traveling there are beautiful islands with crystal blue water. In the evening it is great to be able to walk around in your wife beater.

• The logic of our hotel is unmatched. There are two types of lights in the ceiling of our room: ordinary bright lights and cozy dim spot lights. These dim spot lights have a separate switch that you can use to make it cozy. However, that switch only functions when the general switch is on. And that triggers the ordinary bright lights at the same time…
• The general presumption in traffic is that moving is better than standstill. Whether you have to take a detour or not does not matter, even if you will arrive later at that intersection. Or you can cut the corner by passing all the traffic through the side of the road. Nobody seems to care about that.
• There is no logic in the road quality in the city. It is possible that you drive on a perfect good tarred road onto a messy dusty gravel road. And the tuk-tuks prefer this type of road, because there are fewer traffic jams. That they have to slow down and mess up their suspension does not seem to matter to them. Every driver has his own preferred route to the university. So despite the fact that we have to go to university every day, we experience many different scenes.
• Cars and buses are in a state that would not be allowed in the early eighties in Europe. The trucks are even worse. No profile on the tires, a fresh cloud of oil behind the vehicle and you can only pray that the brakes function.
• A pedestrian has zero rights. None whatsoever. When you walk on the sandy side of the road you still have to watch out for a tuk-tuk or motor cycle cutting their routes. When you cross a road no car will even stop for you. When you stand somewhere a car will never change it course, so it is either move or take the hit.
• Whether there are traffic lights or not, traffic is managed by an officer in a perfect white suit. And this man is treated with respect! And why shouldn’t you, he is standing whole day in the boiling sun.

• Once we had a tuk-tuk driver with the flag of Saudi-Arabia in the front. When we got in I recognized the flag and mentioned it. Then he asked if I knew what it was. When I explain it, he asked if I was Islamic. He obviously had no idea what flag it was or what the text means, because he was a Christian. He might have simply liked the colour.

• Men wear jerseys of English football clubs. Otherwise they wear a nice collared shirt with wear and tear spots with pride. The alternative is a really colourful shirt.
• The people don’t care about working seven long days a week. There are people with a day job and combine it with a job as night security officer; the ideal job to get some sleep. We heard examples of people earning 5 to 60 euros a month. And living in Tanzania is not cheap. Every time a security officers holds the door for me I feel awkward. But they are proud of their job so you shouldn’t take that from them. And you move up when you are a supervisor in this country. Because then you can tell the labour worker what concrete block he can smash to pieces, while watching with crossed arms.
• Waste bins are considered a waste here. So you simply toss it out of the car.
• Everything is sold on the street. There are street vendors with covers for steers around their neck while holding merchandise in both their hands. Buckets, plugs, toys, ice cream. And they are not afraid to take a little sprint (in the hot city!) when the traffic starts moving and the sales deal is not closed yet.
• At university you find yourself surrounded by local fauna: beautiful butterflies, tropical birds and many monkeys. It is still very special to me to see these monkeys climbing the trees above you, while the students around you take a nap on their tables.

• It is not always clear whether a building is to be demolished next week or that it will be used for education for many years. In this case it is the latter.

• As soon as the students agree to join the interview Tina is conducting, they transform from apathetically Facebook and Youtube staring persons into friendly interested students that are eager to learn and realise that their education system is in a poor state. It is shocking to hear that students pass their undergraduate bachelor degree without conducting research or without their dissertation even being read fully. And that their supervisors are not available at all outside lecture hours. They make these observations and want to change that, but when they complain about it chances are high that they will fail the subject or even that they get expelled!
• For many students the first time they work with computers is when they enter university. Their family is very proud that their relative goes to university, so they collect money and buy a laptop for him or her. The level of computer skills is in line with the number of years they study. And Google is their main source of information. The library is outdated and has a search system that is not updated since the eighties. The wood eating worms have started to eat the furniture.

• Service in Tanzania:
• Would you like to have chips or rice with your food?
• Do you have mashed potatoes?
• Yes.
• Then I would like to have mashed potatoes.
• How to behave in Tanzania:
• It is not a problem to loudly burp up your breakfast while you shake someone’s hand to greet him.
• It is not a problem to have an extremely loud conversation over the phone when you sit next to other people.
• You never give way. You try to find your spot somewhere, so you will be served earlier or you are ten meters ahead in the traffic jam.
• Try to look as bored as possible when customers enter your store. Maybe they will go away voluntarily.
• Why working if you can get money from a white person? Luckily only very few people actually thinks like this. The vast majority comprises of long working (I deliberately do not use the word “hard”, even though physical labour is extremely hard here) friendly people.