Month: August 2010

I’m officially a Terry blogger! This is like the cool kids of the blogging world :P

First post:

Habari za leo? How are you today?

Safi sana! Everything is great!

No conversation, no matter how urgent, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania starts without a greeting. So here I am, greeting you.

My name’s Tiffany. I’m a graduate from the Global Resource Systems program at UBC. Loyal Terry followers may remember me from the first Terry talks in 2008 (back then, it wasn’t TEDx yet! Phew, I feel old) about urban agriculture.

A few exciting years have passed with me living in Norway, Uganda, and Tanzania for exchange through Go Global and working with the UBC Dollar Project (we’re going to be at TEDx Terry talks this year!). Now, I’m back in Tanzania (in the big city this time) working for a Vancouver based organization called Sustainable Cities partnered with a Tanzanian organization called the Kesho Trust.

….

To see the rest, please go to: http://www.terry.ubc.ca/index.php/2010/08/27/hello-from-dar-es-salaam-to-terry-readers/

Went to my first Tanzanian wedding yesterday. So cool. It felt like 70% of it was dancing.

Not in the mood to write a huge post, but here are some tidbits to spike your curiousity…

• the bride and groom were actually an American and an Austrian
• the NGO they worked at decided to throw them a wedding
• the NGO staff quickly formed a ‘wedding committee’ (yes, you heard me right. apparently weddings here are not planned by the two getting married. they are planned by those around them!)
• the number of invited guests went from 150 to 250 to 350. It was about 150 in the end :P
• the whole thing was in Swahili, so about 7 people were left out of the loop most of the time, including the bride and groom
• the music was awesome
• bride and groom feed people on the honour seats cake. each person a piece
• people dance with the presents up to the stage for the bride and groom (so cool!). Our group of 4 foreigners had fun doing this, especially when a whole crowd joined us so we didn’t look so awkward!
• a drama youth group did this performance that probably signified the courting process. Super cool. Seriously, Tanzanians know how to dance. Even the tiny kids.
• Big dancing circle for everyone. Loved the “Mama”s that were just shaking it. And the little kids.

Some more interesting observations:

• there were two really drunk guys, that were being really disrespectful to some of the ladies. I don’t think they were even related to the people there. But they weren’t thrown out, just harshly scolded.
• some of the dances looked quite….provocative….in eyes of my culture. But middle school girls were performing it in front of everyone and nobody looked alarmed. It’s so interesting.
• those little kids can really shake it!!!
• the food was awesome, as always. I missed this food.

You know, strangely enough, I haven’t really felt any “culture shock” or real feeling that I’m back in East Africa this whole week. I’ve kinda felt like I had never left (except without that awful, Iwanttoseemyparents Iwanttoseemyparents Iwanttoseemyparents spoiled brat feeling I had the very last week I was in Tanzania last time. But then, by then I had already been away from home for almost a year…)

Everything seems the same…just more luxurious.

I actually have: air con, hot (and high pressure!) showering water if I wanted, all kinds of food, super fast internet connection, constant electricity (haven’t had one glitch all week), relatively clean streets, mild weather, fifty different places to buy imported stuff (that sounded bad – I don’t actually buy much from them, just the fact there seems to be many, when there is only one in Kampala), own kitchen…and I could probably go on.

In Kampala, the place/community I stayed at was much more simple. (I guess I am in one of the richer parts of the city now). And as far as I know, there’s only Garden City where you have a fancy supermarket.

In Nyandira (the Tanzanian village I stayed at)…well, it’s not a fair comparison. Although, part of me enjoys that life more.

And prices are almost double the prices in Kampala. Pretty crazy. Plus I used to live on about $4 CAD a day when I was in Nyandira. Now, depending on how much we eat out at non-local places, much more.

But the other day, it kinda hit home a bit harder…

I was sitting at my desk, and ants were crawling on my computer. It’s kinda normal, especially on the kitchen counter. Then my friend came, she had some chocolate with her. So I ate a piece and I guess some bits fell into my cup.

15 minutes later. My cup was swarming with ants.

Ah. Yes. I remember this.

Apparently, the ants came out of her laptop, because she had the same problem at home.

I don’t think I was shocked. Just kinda really felt like I had actually left Vancouver :P