So what’s Tanzania like then? It’s hot. We flew from Heathrow in -16C, and a snow blizzard. 9 hours later we’re in a mini bus sucking in +34C air, thick as horse glue. A little-known fact. There are 246 ways in Swahili to express ‘bugger, I’m sweaty’ and only one for ‘It’s a tad chilly out. Pass me the duvet’. Lots of obvious contrasts between the slick rich West and East Africa. I won’t bother with the stats and figures. The photos below sum it up well enough.

Merry-go-round Berlin & Merry-go-round DarEsSalaam

We’ve since been on our own merry-go-round of induction. Lots of information on the Tanzanian context, donor networks, beneficiary chains, governance, how to kill, hang and gut a chicken, how to tell the difference between cholera and malarial symptoms, how not to offend a Massai and so on and so forth. We’ve also met a lot of fantastic VSO people. For example, in our VSO group we’ve got: Anneka and Irma both tropical doctors who’ll be working in remote island hospitals saving heavens knows how many lives. David, a livestock nutritional expert responsible for, among other things, reducing the death rate of new born pigs in Eritrea from 85% to 15%. Believe me, that’s a life changer for thousands upon thousands of some the poorest rural livestock owners. Krista, a former VSO volunteer who in Ghana introduced organisational development models to enable the handicapped to get into small-business. Here she’s going to be working in climate development practice. Dragana is going to set up the first Radiology clinic in the South Tanzanian Highlands. Tony is going to help local small holdings in the foothills of Kilimanjaro develop their yields, currently barely large enough to feed themselves, to quantities they can pool in cooperatives and sell on for profit. Claire will develop knowledge information management systems that will allow hospitals in remote rural areas to track drug supply and delivery paths giving doctors valuable information they can use to manage scarce supplies. Amazing people. Me, I’m going to fix laptops and drink beer.

Nad’s: Well, yes, it’s true, we are rather surprised about the amount of beer that is available, especially on Muslim Zanzibar.  And it’s certainly true that I’m drinking more beer here than at home but only those of you who know my usual beer-intake in Berlin will get an idea of what that might mean in terms of quantity. Some random impressions from our induction week:

– Yes, a really energising diverse group of VSOs from Canada, the Netherlands, UK, Uganda, Kenya and the Philippines (oh, and me from Ujerumani), our new network of friends who are now dispersed across the country – we’ve got a few visits lined up already!
– Busses here are made for VERY slim bums and can fit about 350% more human bodies than expected, plus of course diverse animal life
– Timetables are there to be ignored (hey, we still covered loads of ground!)
– Power and water cuts are the norm, just get on with it
– Instant coffee can taste rather nice
– Once you’ve lived here for a while you can get seriously excited about the existence of a shopping mall. Hm, if you’ve just flown in? Well, then it’s kind of strange to spend 5 hours in such a place not knowing what it is you will soon be missing in your new home
– If you give bribes you support the system of corruption – congrats to our VSO Director Jean for being a really convincing role model – very “inspiring” as some might say…. 😉

We’ll keep you posted how we manage to stay clean on that front. Up to now: nothing to report, may it remain this way (insha allah!)