On Friday, December 19, I set out for Tanzania for Christmas vacation where I was meeting up with two friends also taking part in the CBA-CIDA Young Professionals International Program: Cristiano and Roanna. Cristiano is working with the TLS in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania and Roanna is working with the Legal Resources Center in Grahamstown, South Africa. My flight was bright and early Friday morning - at 4 AM to be exact - so I decided to spend the night at the Addis Ababa airport instead of having to find a taxi at 1:30 AM in order to make it to the airport for the 2 AM check-in time. Fun times. Not only were the ticket counters closed until after 2 AM, there were virtually no places to sit. So I plopped my backpack on the ground stretched out on my very own piece of floor and took a cat-nap until the counters opened.
After flying from Addis to Nairobi where I caught my connection flight to Dar Es Salaam, I stepped off the flight into what can only be described as a thick heat. Cristiano warned me that Dar was hot and he was so right! In Addis, while the afternoons can become warm under the scrutiny of the Ethiopian sunlight, the high altitude coupled with the constantly cool breezes make Addis a cool departure from the typical assumptions about African weather. Needless to say, I did not have any clothes for the warm weather. Knowing that Addis is cooler, I brought a total of 2 T-shirts from Canada, opting instead for a full collection of long-sleeve shirts and sweaters. Not smart for Dar. Not smart at all.
Upon my arrival, I discovered one of the many things about Tanzania with which I fell instantly in love. Tanzania has ATM machines! Yes people, you can use your debit card and enter a handy four-digit pin code and presto-chango, the machine dispenses cash. I have heard of these machines and, in fact, have a faint recollection of them being commonplace in Canada, but there are no ATMs in Addis. None. At. All. You have to take money off your VISA card in Addis or cash travelers’ cheques and I recently discovered that it is virtually impossible to exchange Ethiopian birr back into other currencies – so I better be sure to spend all of my birr before coming home. Shopping!
Another thing about Tanzania – you can get a SIM card for under $1 and can buy a SIM card at any corner shop, kiosk, grocery store, pharmacy etc. Remember the drama I endured to get a SIM card in Addis? Scroll back a few pages for the full recap, but needless to say the process in Addis was pure torture and a SIM card cost close to $50. Within 5 minutes, I was instantly in possession of a Tanzanian cell phone number for the duration of my stay and as my parents later told me, the rates are much better to call a TNZ cell phone than an Ethiopian one. My parents told me that it costs them 4 times as much to call Ethiopia from Canada compared to calling Tanzania.
Ooooh – yet another thing I love about Tanzania is the prevalence of the Bajaj which is the Indian auto-rickshaw. These auto-rickshaws are commonplace in the city. This little vehicle is super handy especially in thick traffic because it can easily wind through the meandering streets and avoid traffic congestion! Yay for the Auto-Rickshaw!
In any event, I arrived at Cristiano’s apartment, dropped my bags off in my room and decided to take a shower only to discover that they were undergoing a severe water shortage/problem which has resulted in no running water. The irony of the situation was not lost on me. I was so looking forward to my Tanzanian sojourn as a way to escape the intermittent water supply in Addis. To find a similar plight in Dar, which is all the more worse given the unbearable heat, was particularly funny.
I took a nap until Cristiano got home from work and then we went out for dinner to a restaurant called BBQ Village with a group of expats working in Dar. Our friend and colleague Sarah, also a CBA-CIDA person, was scheduled to leave with her boyfriend Wes for South Africa via train to Zambia, but her train did not arrive as scheduled. As such, I was able to spend a day with Sarah and Wes in Dar also! Their train ultimately arrived and left the next day. Poor guys, they had to endure such a dizzying array of travel delays before getting on the road. I hope you had a fabulous trip to South Africa guys! I am so glad that I had a chance to see you!
