Dar es Salaam

Hamjambo! Salama kutoka Tanzania!

I've been in Tanzania for about 48 hours at this point. Its pretty cool and wicked crazy. We are in Dar es Salaam which is the largest city in Tanzania. Currently we are working with two professors at the university of Dar es Salaam on building the stove designs. Dr. Rajabu is a pretty amazing guy, speaks english and works on energy stuff, including efficient cooking stoves. He'll be coming out to Mwamgongo with us. There is also this guy from denmark Laus who is help us out.

We've been definitely getting the crash course in Swahili because hardly anyone speaks english and we end up having to do pretty much everything in swahili. Which is really cool. Dermott and Louis especially have picked up a lot over the week that we have been here. I've certainly come a long way in the last two days. I've never actually lived in another country, and so far it is a pretty cool experience. We now have 4 cell phones, so it is super easy to coordinate across the group. Its going to be strange when we are in the village and have better cell service than hanover.

Getting around Dar is pretty easy, there is a pretty extensive bus service called dala dalas. They are these little vans with a couple rows of bench seats that go all the time and pretty much everywhere in the Dar area. Its pretty amazing how many people they pack in them and everytime you get on one, which is anytime we want to go somewhere, you are pretty much guarenteed to be squished between about 15 other africans. Dar is also crazy. We went to this market district on a friday night and there were people everywhere and tons of stuff being sold.

Anyway, I am certainly getting an experience out of this, and learning a lot of swahili. We are going to The US Embassy tongiht for the forth of July, there is a party and fire works. I'm pretty excited about that, it should be real fun. We head out to Kigoma on the 8th. Which is all the way in the west of tanzania and the closest City to the village that we are going to be working in.

Word. I'll update again soon. I'll have pretty good internet access until we head to the village, and then it will be only when we go back into the city.

Dermo and I are also getting pretty excited for our adventures at the end of the trip.

Kwa heri.

-Parker