Hey Team,
Greetings from the Peacock hotel. Sam here, filling you in on the major developments of our first days here.
Things got off to a great start last night, when Jesse blew out the power to the floor of our hotel attempting to plug in his powerstrip. Luckily the fireball that exploded out of the outlet left our friend unscathed, and the Peacock Hotel’s crack team of electricians had things back up and running within the half-hour. Surely a terrific omen for a high-powered team such as ourselves.
We battled through jet-lag to get a few hours of sleep, then headed off this morning to explore our surroundings. Dar es Salaam is like just about every other African city—big, bustling, crowded, and relatively charmless. The urban life is not what you come for, needless to say.
In our exploration of the city, we made a successful stop at the Bureau of Statistics, picking up some very useful and comprehensive compendiums of census, economic, and agricultural data for Tanga region (where Korogwe is) and Tanzania as a whole. My first foray as team translator was quite a dud. After thoroughly embarrassing myself sheepishly stammering through a broken Swahili explanation for our visit, the woman in the Bureau bookstore politely responded in perfectly fluent English that she could help us meet our needs. Ouch.
From there we made an unsuccessful visit to the Bureau of Maps—the necessary employee appeared to be on a very extended “break”—and then headed onto lunch. After some post-lunch jet-lag recuperation, we headed off to the swanky peninsula suburb to meet up with Mbwana, a friend of a friend of the Korogwe Project Guru Jim Meeks. We met Mbwana at “O’Willie’s Irish Whiskey Tavern,” the official “Irish pub” of East African ex-pats. It was a fascinating experience, people-watching on the beach-front patio and chatting about our project and African development with Mbwana. The beer was terrific.
Tomorrow we’re back at it. We plan to head to the ministry of Agriculture in the morning, and then check out the main market in the afternoon. We’ve got another “business meeting” with Mbwana planned in the evening.
All in all, things are pretty swell here thus far. Thanks so much for all of your continued support!
Kwaheri na tuonane,
Sam
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