Getting to Work (By Which I Mean Literally Getting There)

We are reaching the end of week two of working here in Dar es Salaam.  I wouldn't exactly say that we have completely sorted everything out yet but we are definitely getting our morning routine down.  Here is what our trip looks like:

We take a bus (daladala) from near our home everyday. The buses are a bit of an adventure, but hey, we've never waited for longer than 5 minutes for one (take that TTC!). I took this picture of the traffic out the window.

We get off near a busy market place. In the morning it's not too crazy but by the time we go home it will be packed with vendors. It usually takes us about 1/2 hour to get there, but that can change depending on how creative the bus driver is with the route.

We often grab breakfast on our way to work from one of the street vendors.  All our purchasing has to be done in Swahili because most of the vendors don't speak English.

This is my typical breakfast. It involves spiced chai, chapati and vitombua, which are sweet fried buns made with rice flour.  We get it hot off the street and eat it as we read the local paper.

Here is my fellow intern Susannah.  My desk looks pretty much the same as hers. Right now mine is stacked with papers for a grant application on Gender-Based Violence that's waiting to go to the printers.

 Here we are with one of our co-workers Samora. He is the senior volunteer at Equality for Growth. He is going to feature very prominently in my next post because he came over to teach us how to cook Ugali (or nshima for those of us who previously spent time in Zambia) and we took lots of pictures.

I'll try and get more photos of our trip soon so you can see the community we are living around.

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