Power outages every day in Kampala and Tororo. Strangely enough, it’s a similar cause as the ones in Tanzania – ‘budget shortage.’ Here it’s because all the budget for electricity was spent on President Museveni’s re-election campaign. Tonight, I was drinking tea and chatting with my colleage/room mate because both our computers had ran out of batteries. Good does come out of seemingly bad happenings. The concept of “opportunity costs” pops up in the most unexpected places. In this case, […]
Bumpy roads are always bad, right? Cars get damaged more easily; it’s slower to bike, walk, or drive on; dust is easily stirred up by the wind or passing cars; you can’t just shut your mind off and wander because that large hole might just make you kiss the ground, hard. But bumpy roads also save lives. The back roads (little roads that branch off main roads, like the one I live on) are so bumpy, it forces the cars […]
The common bills used in Tanzania are 500, 1000, 2000, 5000, and 10000. (Divide by 1400 to get Canadian Dollars equivalent). When I get money from the ATM, it is usually all 10000. I usually get 400,000 Tsh (Tanzanian Shilling) at once. Imagine carrying that around. Actually I had just paid rent for the next three months, which amounted to 1,819,000 Tsh. Imagine getting that out of the ATM and storing it in my house. Craziness. Anyways, the reason why […]
It feels like greetings form the basis of life here. Everywhere you go, everyone you meet – greetings! Just learning them requires a whole class of Kiswahili. But I grew up with two cultures that don’t really greet people you don’t know. At least in North Van and on hiking trails in Canada, you would greet people you meet. In Hong Kong, don’t even think about it unless you want the whole bus to think you need to go to […]
Post I wrote for the Sustainable Cities blog: —————————————————————————- “How do you think the perception of space here in Dar es Salaam differs from in North America?” This question popped up during one of my attempts to understand my urban geographer roommate’s work. Leslie McLees’ PhD research focuses on investigating the meaning of space for the inhabitants of Dar es Salaam through urban agriculture activities. While this is a hard question to answer, especially since we are only brief visitors […]
I pass by this elderly man on the way to work every morning. He’s an mzee – a respected elder – as Tanzanians would say. He always sits on the same bench at the same spot, right after I turn the corner. Sometimes reading the paper; sometimes just staring in space. He usually wears a purple kanga (a traditional (East?) African piece of colourful cloth with lovely designs and sayings) wrapped around his lower body and a white, unbuttoned shirt. […]
I have Hong Kong feet. No, people from Hong Kong, I don’t have athletes’ foot (yeah, don’t ask me why in Hong Kong athletes’ foot is called Hong Kong feet). This morning, I was about 2 minutes “late” for work (“late” is in quotes because I’m supposed to get to work at 8 am, but since I had the keys, I had to get there at 7 am…very long story). So I was automatically walking faster. And suddenly, I realised […]
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!
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 […]
<!– @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } –> “Mzungu! Mzungu! How are youuuuu?” “Mzungu! Mzungu! Give me money!” “Mzungu! Mzungu! Taxi? Boda boda?” Whenever I walk around with more than 2 of my caucasian friends, constant calls this like follow us around town (indeed, in most places we have gone). The most annoying prize, however, has to be given to the first few trips when we travelled as a group of 15 and more. Mzungu meaning […]
