Sunday, August 23, 2009
Nipo nipo bado!
To quote a popular Bongo Flava (Tanzanian hip hop) song, I'm still here! It's been a while since I've posted. Some news:
-I've extended my service, and will be here until June.
-My town is developing! In small ways, but ones that make my life considerably more cheerful. When I got here, the only bread available was stale factory bread from Arusha; now there are two bakeries in town. My favorite restaurant now sells passion fruit juice--one of my favorite juices in Tanzania, but one that had never been available here. And there's a place with satellite internet in town...though admittedly, the connection is fairly unreliable.
-Speaking of development, I was talking to a guy from Denmark who'd been in my town in the nineties. I'd already known that there was no paved road to the town in 1995. According to him, there was also no electricity and only two shops. He remembers the first bar in town to install a television, after electricity finally came. And he remembers there being only one bank.
Well, now there are four banks in town, a paved road, electricity, and innumerable shops. Buildings are going up at an amazing rate. Land is being bought for tourist hotels, to the point where it's so expensive that many of the locals can't afford it. There are two places with internet, and the town feels very, very much connected to the outside world. And like it's continuing to change very, very fast. I'll be interested to come back here in ten or twenty years and see what things are like.
-I had my close of service conference, at a beautiful and tranquil beach hotel on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam. After nearly two years here, the first volunteers from my group are beginning to return home. It's an uncertain time for a lot of people, as most of us aren't sure what we'll do next. And, after adjusting to life in Africa for two years, it's going to be hard to adjust to life in the States again.
I've put all this off my extending. But next June, I'll be going through the same thing. In the meantime, I watch my training group slowly leave, send them my good wishes, write down their email addresses and promise to keep in touch...then take a car back to my village. Nipo nipo bado.
-I've extended my service, and will be here until June.
-My town is developing! In small ways, but ones that make my life considerably more cheerful. When I got here, the only bread available was stale factory bread from Arusha; now there are two bakeries in town. My favorite restaurant now sells passion fruit juice--one of my favorite juices in Tanzania, but one that had never been available here. And there's a place with satellite internet in town...though admittedly, the connection is fairly unreliable.
-Speaking of development, I was talking to a guy from Denmark who'd been in my town in the nineties. I'd already known that there was no paved road to the town in 1995. According to him, there was also no electricity and only two shops. He remembers the first bar in town to install a television, after electricity finally came. And he remembers there being only one bank.
Well, now there are four banks in town, a paved road, electricity, and innumerable shops. Buildings are going up at an amazing rate. Land is being bought for tourist hotels, to the point where it's so expensive that many of the locals can't afford it. There are two places with internet, and the town feels very, very much connected to the outside world. And like it's continuing to change very, very fast. I'll be interested to come back here in ten or twenty years and see what things are like.
-I had my close of service conference, at a beautiful and tranquil beach hotel on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam. After nearly two years here, the first volunteers from my group are beginning to return home. It's an uncertain time for a lot of people, as most of us aren't sure what we'll do next. And, after adjusting to life in Africa for two years, it's going to be hard to adjust to life in the States again.
I've put all this off my extending. But next June, I'll be going through the same thing. In the meantime, I watch my training group slowly leave, send them my good wishes, write down their email addresses and promise to keep in touch...then take a car back to my village. Nipo nipo bado.
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]