Africa - Day 1

Well, I was going to put this post on the IBM Website, but me trying to upload one picture from Africa apparently crashed the entire site. So, I'll post it here instead - you may see this again when the site is back up:

Miraculously, both me and my bags made it to Dar Es Salaam on time Friday night! Africa, I have to say, is incredible - I've learned so much in a matter of 24 hours that it's never going to fit into one blog.

Friday night was a blur of meeting my teammates finally and adjusting to the hotel. They both are great! I looked everywhere in my room for something that might make me uneasy - mosquito, spider, scorpion, etc and nothing - the room was incredibly clean, cute, and comfortable! We're lucky enough to be training at the Kickstart Headquarters off the bat, so they suggested we stay in a simple hotel right on the ocean. So, I really can't complain about the view from outside my door either. Internet is slow here, so I'll post images later!

We started the day with a trip to Kickstart to learn about what our work with them would entail. It boils down to "We need help making our sales", and we'll be helping them with sales training, a cell phone system, and a few other things to help get their "Super MoneyMaker Pump" and their new product, the "Hip Pump" to poor farmers who need it.

They, then, took us on a harrowing journey downtown to a market where three of their vendors sold their products. Ok, it wasn't the scariest car ride I've ever been in, but let's just suffice it to say that there are very few traffic signals, people drive aggressively, even the paved roads are bouncy, I can't count how many pedestrians and bicyclists we almost hit, and we already saw the aftermath of a Dala-Dala (small public mini-bus) accident. However, the drivers knew what they were doing - you have to be paying attention to get anywhere in Dar Es Salaam! Once there, the market was ok - crowded, but not to the point where you were bumping into people constantly and full of essential items - this was not a touristy place.

After we finished there, we went to a strip mall to a place called "Chicken Hut" (I kid you not) for chakula cha mchana (lunch). I had the Ugali Kuku (chicken ugali). Ugali is one of the staples of Tanzanian culinary life. It is a cornmeal mush that they usually eat with their hands, roll into a ball, and dip in various sauces. In this case, I had a red, curry sauce and some beans to dip mine in.

I actually really liked it (especially the red sauce). It's very, very filling, however. During lunch and dinner, I learned an important lesson - eating out in Tanzania is not a quick affair. It takes 2-3 hours. It's probably partly because Tanzanians like to use their mealtimes to converse, but in our case, it was because the food took forever to come out - both times. During lunch, the food came out to people, one at a time, over the course of an hour, with the hungriest person, Anil, who had suggested lunch over 2.5 hours before, getting his last.

All-in-all, I am very impressed with everything in Tanzania. You get used to putting on bug spray before leaving the house pretty quick, and although there are mosquitos out at night, I've avoided being bitten thus far. (The official kill/bite ratio is 2:0 - Amber, two kills, Mosquitos, zero bites). I look forward to having a free day today and to traveling to Arusha on Monday & Tuesday!