Adventures in Dar

Adventures of the week

Obama picture on the corner of
Old Bagamoyo Road near the
US Embassy in Dar Es Salaam

Well it is only a week away before family arrives.  It is all coming to a close as far as teaching and a year’s worth of work.  It is with mixed emotions that I face the end of one year and beginning of a new one.  I hope to change my ways, in a positive direction, but am not always successful.  Life is a work in progress.

The past week was full of exciting happening and lots of new experiences.  After putting in some hard hours for six days we decided that on Sunday we were going to at least do something different.  After a good 30 minutes of planning earlier in the week we decided to go to the Kariakoo market in downtown Dar Es Salaam and then on to lunch.  

Now this is no small feat, in that we have to book a taxi (with Shukrani’s help again) and then buck up to haggle in the market place even over a 5-10 cent savings on the price of corn or spices.  The market was great.  Lots to see, smell (especially so in the dried fish part of the market), taste, and enjoy. When Roberta and I walked the isles of the market many of the merchants would light up and call out “habari mzungu”.  A friendly and warm greeting that also carries with it an open acknowledgement that you are someone with lots of money.  It is always a good gesture and works occasionally to pull us over to their displays.

Proud merchant standing by his wares in the Kariakoo Market

The market is a wonderful visual impact with an amazing array of foods, handyman to artisan quality crafts and a wide variety of practical goods.  We bought some baskets, wooden spoons, pumice stones, kangas and other goods.  Although we shopped the food markets on Saturday we visited the veggie and dry goods stalls and picked up some vanilla and spices.  Now Roberta can finish her Christmas baking! It will be a place to bring others when they visit.

Dried goods at the local
supermarket; we haven't
yet tried it though

It was Saturday evening and we needed a walk before sunset.  We put down the laptops and books and headed out for our hike.  Shortly down the road towards the big fields we came across a couple of waiting cars along the road with a well-dressed group of people all happy about today’s wedding.  When they saw us we became their immediate center of attention.  As we approached the pleas began, we were to have our picture taken with the newlyweds, as a picture with wazungu on your wedding day is said to be good luck. [If you ask me, this is a tradition that began shortly before we arrived.]  Nonetheless, the happiness and enthusiasm was infectious and we joined in.  They hauled out the newlyweds and there was lots of greetings and smiles.  
Some camera focusing began, but then we needed to go a little way across the field to the downed tree and pose for the Kodak moment.  Following that was the big group photo with the entire wedding party (including lots of cute little kids decked out in their wedding finest), with some five or so cameras flashed away and recording the happy moment.  

The "lucky" Newly Weds on their wedding day

The other fun news of the week was Roberta’s computer lab class where she wanted the students to calculate the relative composition of the continental crust as compared to the average composition of the solar system on a Si-normalized basis.  [Trust me on this one, you don’t want to know if you need to ask.]  There are some 35 students in the class, about 15 computers, one room, two lecturers (Roberta and Shukrani) and just one air conditioner (this latter item being both essential and not up to the task).  So she leaves the comfort of the office on Friday at 10 am to give a 1-hour lecture, then a short break, which is followed by a 1-hr lab practical on Excel.  She comes back to the office after at 2 pm; she is wearing a soaked shirt and saying I need to take a shower before her departmental seminar, which is scheduled at 3 pm.  We headed back to our place for lunch, which I prepare while she is cooling down and washing off.  The lab class was a big hit.  For most students, this was their first time using Excel.  Lots of time was spent just getting underway.  However, by the end of class, the sounds of computational pleasure were erupting all around the room. They were happy that they could do so much more with excel than with their calculators.  A  new door was opened wide a many new ideas were planted.

Roberta's Geochemistry class in the computer lab, Dept of Geology, UDSM