Ambaye mzungu? Niko mzungu!

I must apologise for the delay in my first post since arriving in Dar es Salaam. Liisa and I have been experiencing some technical problems. Namely the construction company next door has stolen our electricity!

Updwards and onwards.

Our first African home

We've been in 'Dar' a week now, spent a couple of nights in the aptly name Econolodge, and have since moved to temporary accomodation on site at Solar Aid (my workplace) It's a nifty little apartment they use for visitors, and it makes my journey to work a delight at just 30 odd steps away! If you're looking on a map, we're on the Msasani Peninsula.

Solar Aid has an apartment for us, about a 25 minute walk away, which is just undergoing some minor renovations at the moment, such as the front wall being built. We're hoping to move in sometime this week - I think Liisa and I are both looking forward to empty our suitcases!

Last Monday we started with a relatively brief one-day induction from the organising agency VSO (our full induction will happen in July, this is because Liisa & I arrived out of sync with most volunteers... by the time we go on the induction we'll nearly be country experts!), and I started my job on Tuesday.


Two of the team are 'mzungu' ('whites' - this is a politically OK term!), one being me, the remainder are Tanzanians, with around 10 or 15 in the office. Most speak a good level of English, however I'm making surprisingly good progress in Swahili. Things I can communicate already include:
* Hello, goodbye, how are you, I'm fine, no thanks etc
* Counting up to 29
* Two beers / coffee please
* This is my food
* It is hot!
* I am a dirty mzungu

Attempting to get into Solar Aid for the first time

OK, so it's not quite fluent yet, but the locals have been receptive at helping us mzungus pick up the language and are only too enthusiastic to help anyone making an effort.


Our current apartment has air-conditioning - NICE! Although, as noted above, we're having a spot of bother with the electricity which has ballsed things up a bit - darn construction company next door are hogging it all! So sans-electicity and light, what is there to do in the evening... Go to the pub? Didn't really feel like it... What to do?


Alas, fear not! We're staying on site at a solar power company... So we grabbed a couple of demo solar chargers which had been powering up all day and, hey presto, we had light and could charge our laptop. An evening of watching Fawlty Towers proceeded.

We're settling in brilliantly, it's hot, people are friendly, and we seem to be landing on our feet with everything.

(I nearly forgot to mention, work cook up a smashing lunch for me every day - it's pretty incredible. Love it!)