theglobalduo Out there adventuring

We’ve been here for a month now and just as we hoped, it’s been an adventure. I have yet to see an elephant, but work has been keeping us plenty busy and we’re enjoying our time out here. Some fun events to report on…

Shortly after arriving we made friends with another Belgium expat named Reuben. Reuben worked at what the expat community refers to as the “rat project.” This project does exactly what it sounds like, deal with rats. The rat project is a lab at the local university, SUA, which trains rats to sniff out landmines. Yes, it is just as weird as it sounds but after living here for long enough, the fact that there is a facility that trains rats to sniff out landmines located in the jungle of central Tanzania… things don’t seem to sound as far fetched anymore…

We had a wonderful experience hiking up the local mountain. Our house sits midway up the base of the mountain so going for hikes is not only accessible, but a part of our everyday walk. It was an incredibly experience as we hiked through warm rain for most of it, until we came upon a beautiful waterfall and got plenty of pictures. Midway through the hike it really started to pour and we ducked into a local mud hut where the hut-owner, a toothless old woman, started to make fun of our funny appearances and I gave her a Nutella and banana sandwich as a “thank you” for hosting us. Walking up the mountain, the language of the locals changed from Swahili to Uluguru. At times I felt like I was on the Forest Moon of Endor.

That night we went out with Reuben and our co-worker to a local bar for live music. It was interesting to say the least, especially because women generally don’t go out to bars here unless they’re selling something. It was fun getting to meet the other ‘rat-people’ and having locals try to get you to buy them beer though it probably won’t be an experience that we will try very often. I think that we’ve finally come to the conclusion that we’re not ‘bar’ people…

Side note: We had been planning on going to the local game reserve this weekend.

Friday nights are not a whole lot different in Tanzania than they are in the states except for a few exceptions….

The first and most important is that unlike in the states, we work Saturday mornings. These are generally considered more ‘casual’ work days but still entail work, making the casual to be in dress only. So Friday nights generally turn into work ‘meetings’ with alcohol and moderately good pizza served at the local pizzeria, “Draggonaire,” where almost all expats go, meet, and discuss shop with one another.

Draggonaire is owned and operated by a man whose father, Don (real name is Timothy so go figure…), operates the country club’s bar and grill. Don is himself worth his own blog post however I’ll save it for another time except to say that he’s a 76 pound, 70+ year old, smoker and drinker (15 kids) whose originally from Zim and loves checking out my GF when she’s at the pool (who doesn’t)?

The majority of the expat community congregates at Draggonaire where the spouses and children of the company employees also come out to socialize and play. Also, Fridays here consist of everyone drinking Kiliminjaro beer and ‘letting loose’ a little bit more than normal on a night that is still a work night. This makes things more interesting because in Tanzania, and especially when working with an energy company, you get to experience all walks of life.

For example – Tonight: One of our favorite co-workers is from the rural south. His wife is here and because my GF is the only other US female who doesn’t work at the International School and is in my and many others opinion, quite, “cool” she is the bell of the ball from the adult women who find it refreshing to talk to a young professional woman and toddlers who find it funny to see a girl whose taller than her boyfriend… ☺ So they all readily spill their ‘advice’ and ‘friendly opinions (often about their favorite Disney movies)’ to my magnificent and charming girlfriend.

While my GF is talking female ‘shop,’ I get to enjoy the company, and I truly mean enjoy, of a Idahoan linesman instructor whose never been outside of the US, one of our head engineers who is from a rural area in the US, and my boss, who has a JD and has spent plenty of time outside of the US, all discussing their jobs and aspirations and observations of Tanzanian culture and our company. I’ve always loved the mixing of different walks of life. I love it when different sections of American culture come together; whether in the US or swatting away malaria infested mosquitos, I love these conversations and no matter what, almost always end up feeling the same urge… to pinch myself!

After our numerous and lively discussion and upon leaving the restaurant, we hear, “Kate and Will! Kate and Will! Kate and….. O right, Andy!!!!” It’s the local Brits, who have obviously taken the day watching Kate and William get married, calling to invite my GF and myself to Saturday afternoons golf tournament at the local country club – The Monthly Mug.

In one night we have gone from planning on going to see wild giraffes and elephants at a local game reserve (over the upcoming day off) to sitting at a table hearing about shopping at Target for young children online to hearing about the importance of tight bolt anchors when tethered to the ground in a tropical climate, to being told that we ‘absolutely must’ postpone our trip to go see wild elephants, tigers, zebras, and giraffes, to play in a golf tournament.

So yeah… kind of like a Friday night in the states.

Hello everyone! Here is a brief update of KB’s and my current situation:

We’re living in Morogoro Tanzania working for a power company. She’s working on a charity school project (as part of the company’s corporate responsibility program) and I’m helping run the office in Morogoro. We plan on being here two years and look forward to having lots of visitors. We live an hour and a half from a game reserve and have a very nice 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom house with kitchen, living room, and a dining room. Again, and we can’t stress this enough, KB and I look forward to sharing it with as many friends as possible. Right now we have a guard, gardener and a housekeeper who also cooks!! There is a ‘convenience shack (note-not store) up the street that sells beer and eggs. Life is pretty sweet. Except at times the 3rd world poverty can start to weigh on a person, animals have been sneaking into our house at night and our electricity goes out twice a week. But this isn’t complaining, we think it’s awesome and all part of the adventure! Alright friends, here’s my first letter out!

15/3/11
We made it into Dar alright. Best and easiest ‘long’ flight I can imagine. If/when you guys come and visit, try and get the DC to Addis Adabba direct flight. I could go on and on about it but will just leave it at this, new seats, great selection of movies, and nice amenities (sandwiches in the back all the time). Had a 3 hour layover in Addis, ate Ethiopian (something that KB excels at ordering), played Bananagrams and then headed to Dar. Uneventful night in Dar, and an eventful 8 hour drive from Dar to Morogoro (will spare you all the details).

Traffic in Dar is miserable but Morogoro is beautiful. Mountains and jungle collide!!! When we arrived our house wasn’t ready (no mosquito nets around our bed yet) so we stayed in the ‘finest’ hotel in Morogoro, TZ, “the Oasis.”It has a pool (major plus) and I decided to get a ‘good base layer’ of a tan on… Big mistake when one forgets that at 3-4 degrees from the equator, the sun is not only always there, but DIRECT. Ooops…

The Country Director, my boss, lives next door to us with his Spanish wife and their two children ( boy 7 and girl 4). The entire family is a hoot and the CD invited us out to a big BBQ on Saturday night on the outskirts of town that border the jungle and the mountains. The party was a lot of fun and after 3 hours of dancing (at 1 AM), we had to head home, even though the party was still going (a-la a DC wedding that KB and I recently attended)… It was a great way to meet the ex-pat community and everyone here has a funny attitude towards their life. No one ever really imagines that they’d end up in Morogoro, Tz. Maybe in a place like Nairobi or even Dar… but Morogoro is so random… everyone keeps this tongue in cheek attitude and even those who have been here for a while still seem to have to pinch themselves every once in a while to make sure that they are not dreaming… (When break-dancing in central Tanzania at 12:30 AM it becomes clear why pinching oneself is a good idea)…

Sunday afternoon we unpacked and I went for a run. It’s a bit disconcerting running down the road with all of these machete wielding locals who, when you run by, throw their hands up in the air and cheer you on (either that or curse out the American infidel… trying to get the hang of Swahili). We then went to CD’s kid’s birthday party at the local country club. It’s only about a mile down the road and KB and I can walk to some cute places around our area (think old school Akumal). Not much to report on the birthday except a lot of screaming little kids and the realization that I may never have enough energy to try and keep kids like that in line.

Our first day of work! KB and I got up at 630 and headed over to the CD’s house (we don’t have a car or a driver yet so we’re carpooling with him, first to the school then to work). about 80 yards out of the house, the tire develops a flat (the majority of the roads here are just like the ones from Las Ranitas to Punta Allen)… About 3 minutes after the car breaks down, 2 guys walk up the road with machete’s in their hands. They start yelling at me (at this point I’m trying to get the lug nuts off the car and don’t realize that they are saying, “step aside Mazungo”) drop their machete’s and change the tire themselves… Within 20 minutes we were on our way. At one point, we needed a hammer to get the old wheel off of the axle and lo and behold, one of the guys picks up a giant rock and knocks the wheel off of the axle (that works too)…

KB met her TZ contact, Stellar yesterday and had a really informative meeting. They’re giving me plenty of projects and have me dealing with personnel and the hiring of locals. For now I’ll stick to nepotism so what the hell (any of my old roommates want a job? We’re busy getting settled in.

TheGlobalDuo

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