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Tanzania 2009 Updates

September 14 | October 8 | October 9 | November 1

At the end of September, we left inland Tanzania and Lake Victoria behind, flying to Tanzania’s commercial and social capital on the coast, Dar es Salaam, where we stayed for over a week. Each year Earlham visits Dar es Salaam, but this year, as we are studying urban development in Tanzania, we extended our visit and added some new activities.

Dar es Salaam is a rapidly growing city currently housing over 3 million people. Though relatively young, as it was founded in 1862, the city has a rich tradition of music and culture. It has also served as a social melting pot between Bantu and other cultures from inland, Swahili coastal culture, and outsiders from all over the world who staff the embassies and Non-Governmental Organizations found throughout the city. In Dar es Salaam, we continued our studies of public health, while also focusing on urban development and history in the context of an African city. 

Each year, Earlham students visit to an organization called WAMATA, a Tanzanian group that provides care and counseling to HIV/AIDS victims and their families. This year, we were treated to a wonderful morning including traditional drum and dance performances while meeting the WAMATA community. The special moment of our visit, however, came as we presented a gift of $1700 to the organization that had been raised by students of previous Earlham Tanzania programs, a tremendous achievement that was accepted with enormous gratitude by WAMATA. It was a strong representation of how Earlham students give back to the communities they visit in Tanzania.

In order to make sure that we saw and learned about Dar es Salaam, we scheduled a few new activities to help us better see and understand the city. Through a local cultural tour company called Afri Roots, we took a walking and biking tour through neighborhoods in Dar es Salaam that even some residents never have the opportunity to see: places with names such as Makumbisho, Tandale, Ilala, Kariakoo, and Kinondoni. During the day-long tour, we tasted coffee Swahili-style, visited a typical Swahili house, saw open neighborhood garbage dumps, walked/biked through both formal and informal settlements, spoke with Urban Maasai, and explored the amazingly busy Ilala market. It was a hot day that covered a lot of ground, but it opened our eyes to the many parts of Dar es Salaam. In continuing our studies of cities, we also visited the School of Urban Studies at Ardhi University to hear a series of lectures on communities, neighborhoods, and development in Dar es Salaam.

Each year, Earlham students always have the opportunity to visit the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam. Embassies all over the world are gracious hosts to American students, and the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania was no exception. We heard very good presentations from representatives of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) regarding efforts to combat malaria and HIV/AIDS through U.S.-funded programs. On the same day, we also packed in a visit to a giant woodcarving market outside of the city center, as well as a visit to the National Museum in the leafy center-city area of Kivukoni.

Overall, we all enjoyed our time in Dar es Salaam for its academic, cultural, and social activities. The energy and bustle of Dar es Salaam, though, is intense, so as we head on to our next stop on the island of Zanzibar and our homestays with Swahili families, we may enjoy a respite from the big city.

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