Fun weekend in Dar

What a good weekend, my friend from Western KY, Saundra is here now with 8 social work students. Unfortunately, she was not part of the planning so they are in an icky hostel near the Univ of Dar es Salaam and not much else. But they do have monkeys in the trees there, she is not thrilled with it.

There is a water emergency right now in Dar, meaning, according to my folks here, that they cannot get water replenished and the prices are going up by @ 30%. politics. So, Saundra has not had a hot shower since arriving last week, bathing by bucket when there is water, and that has not been hot. My landlady (there's got to be a better word) said we are getting very low and the housekeepers may have to do laundry by hand soon. Which is what Saundra has had at the hostel.

So, I took Saundra to the Slipway, tons of booths and people selling cloth, batiks, traditional kangas (used as a wrap/skirt or to make shirts, dresses, etc), wood carvings,the tinga tinga art (very bright intense acrylic paintings with amazing colors, shapes, animals, people, etc)And she is one of my "worst"/"best" shopping friends, someone with whom I always end up buying stuff and having fun. And she was much better at bargaining (so HA to those stereotypes about Jews). Then we went to the restaurant on the bay in the same center, delightful red snapper, sauteed veggies still crunch-worthy, and yummy roasted potatoes (there's a picture but not a good one). A long day from 3 till @9pm then back to my little house so she could take her first Tanzanian shower. We decided, at our ages we have done the hostel, peeing and washing in buckets (not the same one) and now we want and deserve comfort, we work hard for the money!   Hot showers, nice hotel/motel room, good food, etc. It was wonderful how excited she was about the shower and my surroundings. Also a good lesson to me--I am so fortunate to be here, have this really nice little place to live, hot water. on and on. 

Whoever planned her trip with sw students was clearly not a social worker, they will visit the same orphanage two different times, see some sights and stay in a hostel needing serious updating with nothing around and away from people and social work schools and agencies they could visit.  Anna in my office and I talked about it, she is arranging for the students to come to our offices next week to learn about the services and we will invite local social work students . There is so much they could experience here within agencies, the govt social service agencies, issues, etc.  I'm glad I was able to introduce Saundra and Anna, their trip will be better and now Saundra has a taxi driver to trust and get away from the hostel.

We stayed up late, drank wine, looked at the goodies we bought, and had a big old time.  And back to work today. So I have some duties to get done: Monday Saundra will bring her students to the office in the afternoon. In the am we have a meeting with the govt accreditation body reps. Then Tuesday I am off to Zanzibar!  I will go with our local volunteer, he is quite pleasant but it's been a long time since I traveled with a stranger and a male at that. But it will be a good break-Wed and Thurs we meet with 2 universities, then don't return until Sunday. BUT, on Monday I have to be prepared to give a workshop for people from 12 schools on what a syllabus is and how to write one. Hmmm, a new one for me.  They will be in Dar for 10 days so I'm looking at spending about 5 days between the workshop and consultations on "lecture" notes and classroom activities/assignments, oh, and what to put online for one school. Ready or not here I am!! But also, what an experience!

Saundra at the bar at our pool

Today's photos---Saundra and I and whatever else I feel like posting :-)