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 […]
I went for a really lovely 4 hour wander today. Picked a direction and walked moja kwa moja (straight)…and somehow I ended up in the city centre. Passed by a nice quiet beach. The washed up beach garbage is always interesting. Talked to a few policemen who invited me to have some soda. Politely declined because my Swahili just isn’t good enough. Annoying! So many interesting sights in this city. Sunday is a quiet day. Texted roommate many times about which […]
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 […]
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 […]
Also, I learnt something interesting today… My supervisor told me, if people here (well, the topic was on government officials) tell you they will get things to you by tomorrow, they most likely won’t. If people tell you they will get it done but don’t really give a specific time, then it’ll probably get done!
My stomach is making strange noises….so I decided to stay in tonight. Plus I woke up at 5 am this morning, unable to fall back asleep… I was just re-reading an essay… Elie Wiesel made a similar point to the Global Forum in Moscow last winter when he said that the designers and perpetrators of the Holocaust were the heirs of Kant and Goethe. In most respects the Germans were the best educated people on Earth, but their education did […]
The politics and economics behind urban agriculture (specifically land tenure and zoning issues) are so complicated that it’s getting me really excited. Well, it actually makes my job a bit harder, but then if it was an easy issue to be solved, it would have been solved already. One day, when I learn a little bit more, I will write a post about these complicated dynamics between individuals, organizations, and the physical environment.
I arrived in the morning and immediately got to work after lunch. Met lots of people relevant to my projects to just introduce myself. Participated in a meeting where they were negotiating/asking for funding. Interesting people dynamics. Definitely different than what I’ve experienced before. Now I’m super jet lagged and sleepy. Dar is very different than Kampala. I can’t wait to find out more.
I just arrived this morning in Dar at 9:30 am. Vancouver –> Amsterdam: 9 hours Amsterdam: 6 hours wait Amsterdam –> Nairobi: 8 hours Nairobi –> Dar: 1 hours I’ve had enough of being in a plane for a while….like 2 weeks. Amsterdam airport: Meditation room: a place for people of all religions to have quiet spiritual time – super cool! Relaxing place with really nice sofas and chairs – way better than those crappy ones in many airports that […]
I’m going back to Tanzania! This time, I’ll be in Dar es Salaam (the largest city, not the capital). Working as a project officer for urban agriculture needs assessment for two NGOs (one based in Vancouver and the other one in Dar). I’m so unbelievably excited about this job, it’s hard to describe. Maybe I should just say that I danced around the UBC office I was working in when I got the phone call. Thankfully, my co-workers knew me […]
