Dar es Saalam

After 2 days in Moshi, the interdisciplinary program (6 students, Dr. Whitney, and myself) headed to Dar es Salaam, the biggest city in Tanzania and the former capitol. They moved the actual Capitol a few years ago so it could be more centrally located since Dar is on the southern coast. Think the NYC of Tanzania, mainly because the traffic is awful! There really aren't any traffic laws besides which side of the road you drive on (opposite of us). And sometimes that doesn't even really matter as we saw lots of people going around other people with oncoming traffic coming right at them. I don't understand why there are not more wrecks! 

We spent most of day 3 traveling to Dar by plane and then an hour ride (with traffic) to the hotel, which is very fancy by the way. We are eating most of our meals at the hotels we stay at, as they serve food that appeals (and is pretty easy) on Westerner's stomachs. The food has been amazing and (thankfully) has agreed with me. Some of the students haven't faired as well. I've been handing out immodium and pepto like candy. The food is pretty similar to Indian cuisine. Thank goodness that is some of my favorite food! I think being vegetarian is helpful here. 

On day 4, we got to explore Dar some more, starting with the fish market right by the Indian Ocean. It was really cool and I saw more types of fish for sale than I ever have. We have two main guides here - Mama G (you address all your elders as either mama or baba -depending on gender of course -,and Juma) but a local fish seller took us around to see all the crazy fish. It was awesome. Most people at the market weren't sure what to make of us, partly because we are now traveling with a group of five Koreans. A professor from UGA and several of her friends from home asked to tag along on the trip, and so here we are. To say we look like tourists would be a bit of an understatement!

After the fish market, we went by the "White House" of Tanzania but we're not allowed to take pictures as we drove by due to the fear of terrorism. It was pretty impressive! We headed to the national museum of Tanzania and Dr. Whitney lectured on early African civilizations. I love to learn so you heard no complaints from me! The most powerful part of the museum for me was seeing the U.S. Embassy bombing memorial. It happened in 1998 and 6 Tanzanians died saving the Americans working in the embassy. Now that I am visiting the country, it all hits closer to home, just like every time I hear about atrocities happening near where I visited in Russia in 2008, I worry about the friends I met there. I think that is one of the most powerful take aways from visiting a foreign country, the connection you now have to that place. I hope the students remember that.

The last thing we did today was visit the African heritage museum which is basically a bunch of replica huts of many of the tribes around Africa. There was also a group of women that performed a traditional African dance and song. I got some great video that I'll have to post at a later date. On to Zanzibar!