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Giving up on My Hair (And Other Things
Related to My Appearance)
We all want to look our best,
especially when making first impressions. This is a bit
challenging when your iron seems to be hot enough to burn fabric but
useless at getting wrinkles out. Or when your hairdryer shorts-out in
the first month despite being plugged into an adaptor. Its also hard
to let go of your own personal style in favour of wearing culturally
appropriate clothes. But coming to work wearing my hair in a French
braid and following the style advice from co-workers (knee length but
fitted skirts get a big thumbs up) always results in the biggest
compliment of all; “You look so African today!”
Getting Around
There are few things that make me
feel more stressed than not knowing where I'm going. On top of that stress,
buses here constantly change their routes, most taxi drivers seem only
vaguely familiar with the city, and I swear there is a really good
video game idea about walking down Dar streets and dodging traffic in
all its various forms. Eventually you just have to let go of the
panic and go with it. You try to guess what the different money-making
strategies are for the buses, work out the point system for the video
game and know that the taxi can always ask people for directions once
they are in the right neighbourhood.
Social Diversity
When I first got here, all four of us
interns stuck together all the time. We only knew the few people we worked
with and each other. This led to a lot of together time, which was a
little intense for four people who didn't know each other before
training. Now we've made friends with our co-workers, neighbours and a rather large
group of Canadian ex-pats that would make you wonder if Canada is
exporting its youth to Tanzania. Instead of having too much down
time, we've switched over to trying to balance our social schedules among all the different demands. This has gone a long way to
break-up the group a bit and give everyone a breather from each other
(probably a saving grace for our friendships).
I confess I'm a bit surprised to find
myself sad to be at this point. After counting down the days during
the first few months, all of a sudden I want every week to stretch
out and give me more time. I'm beginning to think I might just have
found another place in the world where I feel at home.
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