Dar es Salaam, Tanzania! Part 1

After a successful flight from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg to Dar, we arrived at about 5 AM local time.  Dr. Kedmon Mapana, a lecturer at University of Dar, picked us up from the airport.  He has organized the conference and festival I’m going to here in Tanzania, so remember that name!  He was born in a village in Tanzania, was a leader in the local singing/dance traditions, was invited by multiple institutions in Europe and the United States to come lead workshops and master classes, and eventually did his PhD at Seattle Pacific University.  This is how a few of my close friends here got involved with the music festival in Chamwino we’ll be attending later.  He is really a remarkable person, and one of few that has both the perspective of the third-world, impoverished villages of Tanzania and the perspective of American first-world life.  He arranged all local transport, lodging, food, and all kinds of random other commodities for us. 

Dr Kedmon Mapana presenting his research at the symposium.

Anyway!  He picked us up at the airport and drove us to our hotel where we were staying.  The traffic in Dar es Salaam is quite a sight.  Even at 5 in the morning, traffic was a deadlock for large portions of the “downtown area.”  The reality is that the infrastructure here is in no way capable of managing the explosive population.  Lanes are generally irrelevant and pedestrians and motorbikes are at their own risk.  This is much different than South Africa.

The hotel where we stayed was Uplands Centre.  The campus of University of Dar is northwest out of town, and the hotel is just on the perimeter of the campus.  It was quite an interesting place.  It is a pretty large structure, considering most of Dar is sheet metal shacks.  But it was rather unkempt and reminded me of something out of Jurassic Park or something.  It looks like it was once a really nice place, but is now well into disrepair.  The staff is essentially four or five students from U of Dar- also a strange thing to see.  There were no owners or adults coming to check on the place the entire time.  We are a pretty large group of Americans/Europeans, and usually business owners here are excited to cater to us very well to hopefully make lots of money.  These students were very nice, but obviously just operating at par for the course.

An outdoor view of Uplands from the overgrown back lawn.

This is the outdoor eating area of Uplands.

The entire backside of the building was unfinished, with no
progress coming any time soon.

Random rustic equipment behind the hotel.

Guest rooms.

Interior shot of the courtyard.

            As we arrived at 5 or 6 now, we were guided to a room that they had intended for Diane and I to share.   I was definitely glad when she spoke up and said that would not work.  I was prepared for the worst. Haha  But then they walked me to another room in which a student volunteer named George was staying.  It had two small beds, a tiny television, and a shared bathroom with a room across from us.  There were good mosquito nets and sheets provided.  I could very well tell I was no longer in South Africa, but this place was not bad.  There was a hot water heater mounted in our bathroom that you had to turn on to use each time, but every shower I took was cold anyway.  When I got there, I was just happy to lie down and sleep for 5 hours.

George (right) just graduated from U of Dar with a degree
in acting.  He helped organize the conference.

I woke up the same day and met up with Zack and Jocelyn (from Seattle) as well as many others from the upcoming conference.  We had an incredible meal at a large restaurant on campus.  There is a lot of rice served here, and it is always so tasty.  We went back to Uplands for a bit and I did all of my laundry with a bucket in the shower.  I hung it up across one of my hammock straps outside to dry.  We got picked up again to go have dinner at another professor’s home.  His name is Mitch and he just finished his contract at U of Dar.  He was director there for a number of years.  He also is the organizer for the whole conference on music education in Zanzibar which I will be attending.

Dr. Kedmon Mapana and Prof Mitch

Diane trying to get internet at Uplands by tethering off of
a student worker's cell phone.

Laundry getting SO dry.

Some typical Tanzania cuisine.  Rice, fish, greens, and
Coca-Cola with TZ grown cane sugar.  

Dar is a really interesting place.  Unfortunately where we were staying near the campus of the university is far removed from the actual city, and I haven’t gotten to totally walk around and explore to my heart’s content.  But then again, walking around is rather dangerous with all the traffic.  This post is just leading up to the conference that took place in Dar!  Part 2 to come!