Tagged: Kawe

Karibu sana, karibu. Just you not worry. Karibu.

Kawe seemed smaller and calmer than I remembered. I don’t know if it changed or I did. They tell me that Kawe has grown in people and expanded geographically, but everything seemed to have shrunk. I remembered an insane flurry of color stuck in a deep mud pit, straining to hold the people in – and we drove into a sedate, seemingly organized, relatively broad street that was as much dust as mud.

It took us a few hours to get from the airport to Kawe – between a tire blowing out and the Dar traffic (there are, supposedly, a handful of traffic lights in the entire city; I think that their existence is an urban legend) – but it was a nice slow drive… Continue reading

Nakwenda Tanzania

Africa has not let go.

I have not seen Africa. There are few gross generalizations as odious as the Western simplification, amalgamation, of an entire continent’s cultural plurality, socio-political diversity, ethnic multiplicity and historical discrepancy to a single noun. I have not been to Africa; no one has; there is no Africa.

Three years ago, however, I spent six weeks in Tanzania. Tanzania has not let go of me, nor has its promise of a window – an entry to the mythic Africa – let go of my dreams.

I am returning. In a month’s time, I will land in Dar es Salaam.

I am going back because I must; I wish I could explain why. I wish I knew why. I am a travel-junkie. I… Continue reading

Habari za mchana! (Good afternoon)

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I’m getting used to being here a bit – but even more than plumbing or hot water, I miss having the bottom of my feet clean. Traffic is insane in Dar es Salaam and there is only one paved road that goes through Kawe – the rest of it is dirt (mud, really). The pollution is pretty bad but at least most of what is in the air is natural. Personal space and not being able to smell people are completely foreign ideas. People walk in the streets and cars drive on the sidewalk and the only difference between the two seems to be that if a car comes at you on the sidewalk, you smack it, and… Continue reading

I’ve found a computer!

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Please forgive any errors below, I’m typing on an Asian keyboard, which is very “fun” and best done with my eyes closed. I’m going to use the email list my mom compiled without editing it down, though it’s much more comprehensive than I would have made myself – please let me know if you’d rather not be spammed with updates from me.

The trip has been wonderful so far – I’m in Kawe right now, which I originally thought was a town outside of Dar es Salaam but turns out is a district in it – just one of the most rural and populated.

Finding this internet cafe was a stroke of amazing luck and a… Continue reading