Dar in a Car Will Not Get You Far

Our next journey took us on an 8 hour drive to Dar es Salaam. I have been so amazed by the diversity of the land here in Tanzania. In Moshi there are chains of mountains leading up to the climax of Kili. Near Arusha the weather is cool with rows and rows of sunflower fields. Serengeti is a vast grassland.

Dar is a big city (high rises and all!) that rests on the edge of the Indian Ocean. It is hot. It is humid. It is buggy. It has the worst traffic I have ever seen in my life. One of the guides on our trip who lives in Dar has a home that is 14 miles from his work. It takes him 2 ½ hours to get to work everyday – one way. I am sure there is lots to see and do in Dar, however, most of our experiences there involved sitting in traffic. Despite the rush hour traffic that went on 24 hours a day, we did see a few really interesting things during our stay.

Our first day in Dar we visited a village that had a Women’s Initiative Loom Factory. The men and women of the village used the looms to make beautiful scarves, sheets, tablecloths, and clothing. The profits from the sales went toward benefiting the women and children of the village. The looms were an amazing piece of machinery! Watching them work at the looms was incredible. It was a full body workout – using both arms and legs to get the job done. Just to thread the loom took five hours!

Our next day in Dar we visited a village museum that had models of the types of houses people indigenous to the area live in. The homes were built with very different materials from palm leaves, mud, sticks, and even cow dung! I was blown away by the size of some of the homes considering the materials they were made from. Many of the homes had a loft inside. It definitely says something to me about the creativity and engineering skills of the different tribes. I would cringe to see the 5 room house I would attempt to make with just sticks and cow dung. Several of the tribes are polygamous and would have different bedrooms, or even houses, for the junior and senior wife.

I can’t wrap my mind around how different my life could be if I was born in a thatched hut in Tanzania instead of a hospital room in Texas. We all live in the same world just oceans apart, with the same date on our calendars, but we have such drastically different ways of going about our everyday life. Despite experiencing these differences first hand, I find the world has become a much smaller place. Without talking I found many ways to speak the same language with the people here. The laughter of a child, the smile of a stranger, the encouraging nod of a teacher as she helps a student, the gasps in awe as both mzungo(foreigners) and locals alike spy a cheetah on the prowl , all transcend the barriers of language and location. I find my soul hungry to experience more of the world everyday and longing to celebrate what an amazing place this planet we call home is.