Getting jacked

Got mugged by a taxi driver and some hooligans in Dar. Made it out OK. Sometimes life's a b.

Hopefully they'll get a visit from Dar es Salaam's fairy god-mother, the "Kerosene and Tyre Fairy"

I am ALL that is Man!

I got stuck in Mikindani for a couple of extra days after M&R, and one of the EdUKaid teachers was having an engagement party, which in Tanzania means large quantities of animals get slaughtered.

Since I'm a guy and I was around, my participation in the goat-a-cide was pretty much assumed. Because I'm not a Muslim, I couldn't kill the goat or the meat wouldn't be halal (like a "Kosher" equivalent for Muslims but somehow less detailed)

So I helped to skin and gut the goat, then season it up for cooking (Garlic and Ginger stuffed inside the meat. It was darn tasty!) I did get to take the head off with a machete, which was the moment I uttered the above phrase. I'll try to dig up a picture.

Scuba and M&R

Well, I've been in Mtwara for the last week. It's ungodly hot, but there is internet and ocean. On the topic of oceans, I'm done with my confined water dives and the theory portion of my PADI Open Water course at ECO2. I highly recommend it. They are not just a dive resort, they are actively involved in marine research and conservation and are committed to community development

M&R was less painful than I'd expected, it was about as good as you can make a conference on filling out forms. I only nodded off once or twice...

an hour. But the Peace Corps HQ rep was very cool, and understanding. After this week of playing in the dirt at permaculture, I'll finish up my open water dives and then head up to Dar for Thanksgiving. Life is good.

TFAB

You know you'’re in Africa when you'’re praying that the electricity will come on, and when it does, you shout "“YES!" and do a little dance. Then it goes back out. TFAB. This is especially bad when you are still trying to write exams the night before you have to submit them and then leave for two weeks...

It’s a small, small world.

When my brother and I were in Dar for the 4th of July, we tracked down the Bangladeshi consulate to see if my brother could speak to some Bangladeshis and we could have some crazy Bangla-Swahili discussions. The Honorary Consular Officer was not Bangladeshi, but he directed us to a few of the 6 or 7 Bangladeshis in Dar, one of whom was just around the corner from our hotel. This Bangladeshi then took us to meet a few others who were scattered close by. We ended up in a little bites shop, and a nice gentleman there bought us some cokes and talked to my brother in Bangla for a while (If you’ve seen how some people in Dar are surprised when an mzungu starts speaking Swahili, you can imagine the jaw-drop when one starts going off like an Mhindi). He handed us a nice business card on expensive paper, and said we should stay in touch.

Fast forward to today, and I’m cleaning up the house, and come across a newspaper from a couple of days ago. The lead story was about the scandal erupting around the $170+ million contract for emergency power generators. Weeks past the deadline, the generators have still not been delivered, and the winning-company apparently only just now officially registered with the relative authorities in Tanzania, and is not registered in it’s US headquarters in Texas. The name of the company stuck in my head, and I just couldn’t shake it. Later, I was cleaning out my travel wallet before I left for Mtwara. I pulled out a business card and did a double take: It was from the company that won the contract for the generators, the man who bought us those Cokes is the manager of the company.

Details of the deal and what went wrong are still unknown, and the generators could show up at any moment, so I don’t want to judge, but it feels a little like I had drinks with Ken Lay of Enron.