Dar es Salaam

Flying into beautiful Dar - looks like Phoenix without the pools!

As i am riding into town after flying into Dar es Salaam, Tanzania yesterday i had a difficult time taking all of the chaos in and my eyes nearly popped out of my head. I felt like I was in a movie. The best way I can describe things is Tijuana on its worst day – insanely crazy traffic, smoggy air, trash all over the streets, men lounging by the dozen under every tree, women carrying packages of all shapes and sizes on their heads, boys and men tapping on the window at every stoplight selling eggs, newspapers, bootleg DVDs, whatever! It is complete madness.. and I wonder what the hell I’ve gotten myself into.

I chat with my taxi driver Omar to distract myself from the chaos all around outside. He tells me that he is Christian, so I ask him how he celebrates Christmas. “My whole family comes together to celebrate, and in a good year, we slaughter a goat. You?” “Yea, same here!”, I replied.

I went to the bus station and bought my ticket to Moshi, which is the town at the base of Kilimanjaro. No one at the station could tell me when the bus arrives or how long the journey takes.. obviously an inexact science. I chose to go with the Scandinavian bus line (which is ironic because there are no Scandinavians in sight) based on the following description in my guidebook:

“Choose your bus company carefully. The Dar to Moshi highway is notorious for the number of accidents that occur along it. It is recommended to take Scandinavia, whose buses do take a little longer to travel than their competitors but that’s simply because their drivers are alert to road signs, other road users, pedestrians and so forth.”

After checking into my roach hotel and changing into my crappiest maybe-that-white-guy-isn’t-really-a-tourist clothes i survey the scene on the street. It was like standing at the edge of a frightening cliff. While considering the certainty of survival and not being mugged by staying in my hotel room, i did just the opposite – i went for a walk.

checking out the mosquito net, my best defense against malaria!

Immediately after stepping into the street some guy approaches me and starts talking fast – great! (so much for the clothes disguise) He asks, “What country are you from?” I smile and reply coolly, “I’m from here, man.” He looks puzzled for a moment before deciding not to believe me. I quickly change direction and say “i’m going this way” to ditch him and continue on down a smelly side street. As a grain of salt in a sea of pepper, i can feel all eyes on me as I walk. When strangers shout at me i pretend not to notice and continue walking. Groups of men are lounging around everywhere. This makes me the most nervous. So i did something clever – i joined them. I found a good spot and sat down to take in the whole scene. They continued watching me for awhile but gradually lost interest.

Then the guy i ditched earlier comes over and after a few minutes of talking i decide he’s really just friendly and curious. His name is James and he is sporting a “Boston University Basketball” t-shirt, but something tells me that he didn’t go to school there nor has he ever played basketball. At one point he mentions a pub around the corner, so i suggest we check it out and grab a beer. I’ve been dying to try Kilimanjaro beer ever since i saw the first crudely painted billboard announcing – “It’s Kili time!”

The “pub” turns out to really be a sidewalk with several plastic tables and chairs. Beers are only 800 Tanzanian schillings, or about $0.70 – awesome! James tells me that he likes women with “big bottoms” and we both laugh. “If you marry a thin girl here, people will LAUGH at you!” At 27, James is in no hurry to get married. “When you get married the wife yells all the time and you can’t do anything!” Wow.. some things are the same the world over!


I ask James if he ever eats bush meat and he says he does. Like what? “Eland, rhinos, hippos, elephant.” “WHAT??! Isn’t that.. illegal?” He looks puzzled again and then a bit embarrassed. He explains, “But we never eat giraffe. They are social animals and people like them. If you kill a giraffe, you get killed.” Sure, that makes sense.

One thing I gotta give Tanzanians credit for is their entrepreneurial spirit. There are people all over selling anything you can imagine. And this doesn’t just occur in specific places, but everywhere. Just while we are sitting having our beer we were offered everything from peanuts to necklaces, a small electric clothing iron, boxer shorts, while one guy was carrying around a single pair of khaki pants (i held them up, but they were too tall for me).

The lovely view from my roach hotel window.

This morning in Dar i sat down with a German girl during breakfast. She has been working on a World Bank poverty relief project and traveling in her free time over the past few weeks. She told me i was the first American she has seen her entire trip. This pleases me immensely.