Training in Dar es Salaam

I know that some of you have been waiting for my first post (I hope) and here it is! I’ve been in Tanzania for about a week now and we have been kept busy in the days and rather than blogging in the evenings I generally elected to go out and drink beers and have some laughs instead.

My cubby bed at the Yotel

I arrived here on Friday after 2 long flights and a very long stopover in London. I used to think that jet lag was only for old people, but I guess maybe I’m old enough to be one of those people now because it took me several days to properly adjust to the time change. I took a room at the Yotel in Heathrow airport which is basically a little cubby with a shower and a bed (bed pictured at right). It was kind of neat actually and it allowed me to arrive in Tanzania smelling fresher than some. There were quite a few VSO volunteers arriving on the same flight from London and we were met at the airport by our excellent in country training leaders, Robert and Claire. Robert and Claire are both volunteers with VSO who have been in Tanzania for about 3 months and they did an excellent job at sharing their experiences and hopefully preparing me for mine!

Coming to Tanzania I was very excited to see my first animal – many of you know that I am particularly interested in the hippos. I am pleased to report that it did not take long for me to spot my first animal. It really wasn’t what I expected though. On the first morning, pulling into the VSO office for training I saw a crow sitting in the tree right outside of our bus. He had something hanging from his little crow beak and I looked a bit closer, curious as to what it was. “Oh my” really seemed the only appropriate response..... it was a giant dead rat. Welcome to Tanzania!

ewwwww

And now a few words on our hotel now.  For the first week of training I stayed in Dar es Salaam at the Econolodge. For any of you reading this who have ever considered coming to Tazania as a volunteer, I highly recommend that you stay at this hotel to begin your time in the country. I think that your overall experience there will do an excellent job at preparing you for some of the things that you may encounter in the rest of your time in Tanzania. When we arrived at the hotel my room mate for the training, Margaret, and I took our bags up to our room and found that the maid was not quite finished cleaning it. The room looked as though someone had rolled around in a mud pit and then dried off in the sun before coming back to the room and shaking out their clothes all over the floor. When we got back to the room the dirt was all cleaned up by our lovely maid, but the room still left a lot to be desired. I suppose the room was a nice reminder that this is not a vacation and I have included a photo of our bathroom for your viewing pleasure. On a positive note, however, it did not seem to be a problem that I could not find my alarm clock. There was a rooster that lives directly outside of the room that I stayed in who did an excellent job of making sure that I was up in the morning. He was so helpful that he actually checked in with us several times throughout the night as well.

In effort to keep this on the shorter side here are a few random thoughts about some of the things that have made an impression on me since I have been here.

• It is hot in Tanzania. Hot and humid. In Ontario we complain a lot about the weather. It is not nearly as hot or as humid in Ontario as it is here. Make-up really seems to serve little purpose seeing as you sweat it off within the first 20 minutes of the day and I’m sure that if I had been able to fit my flat iron into my suitcase I would be cursing myself for lugging it across the globe 
•  People from Mississauga are often not cut out for riding the bus. This is even more true of the daladala (this is what the public bus is called here). Not only are they not air-conditioned (nothing is.....), but they are also crowded and don’t always seem safe. You basically wait at a random point on the street for the thing to stop and then you push, shove and fight your way on while the locals chuckle at you... and push you. 
•  Cockroaches...... I think I have to get used to them. I spotted my first one on my second night here. It was later in the evening after having a few beers. It was big. It was really big. I screamed like a little girl when the thing just about ran across my foot. When we got back to the hotel and I was getting my key from the reception desk (you turn it in each time you leave the hotel) a little tickle on my ankle. I not only screamed this time, but I leapt into the arms of my roommate. Turns out it was just one of the girls in the group playing a trick on me and everyone had a good laugh, including all the hotel staff. Now I know that this sounds like a mean trick, but the good news is that I think I’m going to be able to handle the next cockroach I see. I think I’ll do okay here. 
•  Flexibility and adaptability. These are 2 of the traits that VSO looks for when selecting volunteers. I found out very quickly how important these things are. Our group was invited to the Canadian High Commission for cocktails one night and just before arriving there, my linen pants caught on the seatbelt of the bus and ripped. It was not a little rip. I had a moment of freaking out..... you would too.... but I recovered quickly and my roommate (who really is great, did I mention that?) tossed me a scarf to wrap around me. Some may think that I looked a bit like a gypsy, but I think it was more of an understated and almost fashion forward kind of look. 

I hope that this hasn’t sounded negative because I do not feel negatively about my time here so far at all! I am having a great time here and am really looking forward to what will come next.  The group left Dar es Salaam today and we have arrived in Morogoro. We will be staying at a convent here for the next week for language training. It is a beautiful place and apparently the nuns serve beer..... I’ll find more out on that this evening.

Miss you all,

Venessa