XV
Home
for the Holidays; Jane Goodall comes Home to Tanzania; New lunch venues “Coming
Soon”; St. Patrick’s Day; Grease; Rainey Season is back
It’s been a while. And a lot of things have happened. On a
study tour to the US and Trinidad and Tobago in November with some Tanzanian
counterparts my external hard drive was stolen. Then we were home to Florida
for the holidays. Four weeks to catch up on a year’s worth of deferred
maintenance. My computer crashed. Lost everything and it was backed up on the
stolen hard drive. But it was good being home even I for a short time.
Jane Goodall came home to Tanzania to participate in a
fundraiser for an animal shelter being started here in Dar es Salaam. She was
actually here for other reasons as well, but her name, her short talk and
her presence at the event ensured that it was a sellout at $100 per plate. She
told the story of how she became enamored with chimpanzees and how she came to
Africa and how she was assisted by Louis Leakey to go to Oxford to get a PhD
even though she had not yet attended college, and how the professors admonished
her for giving the chimpanzees names instead of numbers, and the story goes….
It can be seen on National Geographic or you can find it on the Internet;
Wikipedia and all that. She changed how science looks at chimpanzees and other
mammals. The attraction wasn’t her story; it was Jane Goodall, now at eighty
years of age. We were a relatively small group of a hundred or less. We sat in an open-air
restaurant with the Indian Ocean evening breeze blowing through listening to an
icon of Africa. It was one of those opportunities that could not be passed by.
 |
| waiting for autographs |
 |
| Our neighbor Mike had pictures of chimps. Some she knew. He had those autographed. |
Meantime, in the City Center where I work, I was treated to
some good news; new lunch venues coming. I try to watch what I eat, not
necessarily from a dietary point of view, although with the added weight that
is also a consideration, but from a food safety perspective. I am too old to be
adventurous with what I eat. This is Africa and a developing country where many
good and practical rules are in place but few are actually followed. It is easy
to get around them; a little money buys a lot here. I therefore stay to
tried-and-true places like the bigger hotels and some eating establishments
that maintain a “Western” ambiance and hopefully, standards. There is the
Hyatt, the New African Hotel, the Serena Hotel, the Southern Sun Hotel, Steers,
a food court type of eatery, the Mokka Café, a local place popular with locals
and Mzungus alike, and a few others. Now there is a Spurs – a South African
Chain with an American West theme. Spurs is already in the Sea Cliff Village on
the Peninsula, but they are now in the city center. At the yet-to-open Diamond
Plaza next door to the Canadian Embassy, there will be a Subway, a Kentucky
Fried Chicken, and a Black Tomato (a restaurant that is in the Oysterbay
Shopping Center on the peninsula.) These additions will help broaden my choices
for lunch as well as my waistline.
 |
| The Black Tomato on Marumbo Street |
 |
| Doesn't remind me of South Africa |
Every St. Patrick’s Day there is a major fundraising event
at the Hyatt “Kilimanjaro” Hotel in the city center. Last year we were too new
to town to make the event, but this year we went. It is billed as a formal
affair so I put my tuxedo to use one more time. The event had everything one
could ask for in a St. Patrick’s Day event. Yes, of course, Guinness and
Jameson were on the menu and there was Irish dancing by some local kids many
obviously not Irish. The Irish Ambassador spoke. There was an Irish band flown
in especially for the dinner. There was dancing.
There is a “Little Theatre” community theatre here in Dar es
Salaam in Oysterbay not far from our house. Popular with and run by
expatriates, they perform several plays each year. This year, as a follow-on to
a successful production of “Fame” last year, they enlisted the aid of some
students from the Tanganyika International School and other young talent and
produced an entertaining version of “Grease.” Community theatre is a great
thing and can be found everywhere. I remember my host “mother” back in 2006 in
Argentina practicing her lines into the late evening for a part she had in a play
in Buenos Aires.
It is April. April means rain in Dar es Salaam. This year is
no exception. When it rains, it rains. Here the infrastructure is limited. Some
drains do exist and work in normal rains, but during the rainy season even they
do not take the water away fast enough. Where there are no drains there are
small lakes; these are usually in the middle of roads such as our dirt road in
front of our house. Even paved roads flood when the rain comes too fast and for
too long. In a way, it reminds me a lot of Key West.
And the beat goes on....
Until Next Connection,
Dan
