The first week details!

So it’s Friday which means we are at the end of the first work week! Overall, the week went very well. We arrived in Dar es Salaam late Monday evening (11:30pm) and after obtaining our entry visas and claiming our baggage we got out of the airport very early Tuesday morning, around 1am. We were greeted at the airport by Domitilia, our operations officer in Tanzania and the 3 of us jammed our luggage into the car of a normal sized economy car and headed for the Safari Inn. I wrote car and not trunk because between the 3 of us we had copious amounts of luggage so there were suitcases shoved in the trunk, the three of us got in the back and Domitilia and loaded more bags onto our laps and she even sat with some in the front seat as well. Thankfully, it was early enough in the morning and there was no traffic on the road so we sailed on through Dar to the Safari Inn, carried our bags up to our rooms and crashed.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent in Dar doing orientation with the in country staff which included logistics and more importantly, Swahili 101 (my Swahili is improving!) We ate some amazing Indian food both nights and then 3 became 2 when Sabrina and I caught the ferry to Zanzibar Thursday morning and Larissa departed inland to Morogoro.

Upon arrival in Zanzibar we met up with our Country Manager whose passport I was in protection of all the way from Canada. This meant that for at least the past 3 weeks or more, he was literally trapped on the island because Zanzibar is semi autonomous and you have to go through immigration on your way in and off the island. Speaking of the island, whenever I refer to it as such I automatically think of Lost...hopefully I don’t find myself travelling though time over the next 7 months!   .275

Zanzibar is beautiful, just as I remembered it to be, from the small narrow streets of Stone Town to the gorgeous white sand beaches and turquoise water of the Indian Ocean. We arrived in Stone Town around midday and it was very hot! We’re still unsure of the exact temperature on the island because we haven’t had access to the internet since Tuesday to find out these essential details! All I can tell you is it’s hot and very humid, but I’m adjusting and so is my skin colour!

Sabrina and I are currently living with a home stay family and their house is amazing and they are very nice people, however we are reluctant to unpack and settle in because we want to find an apartment to call home sooner rather than later. It’s hard to live out of a suitcase when the thought of having our own space to call home is within reach!  We have connections for apartment hunting so that will be our task tomorrow so we are both very excited about this!

Today was a very long day but it was really productive. In the morning we met in the office and prepared our paper work to be sent to the immigration office so that we could receive our CTA permits (Clear for Temporary Assignment). This permit lets us legally work in an office in Tanzania for 2 months, however we will be applying for our resident permits next week which will clear us to work here for the full 7 months.

In the afternoon we ran some errands which included picking up more passport photos as well as shopping around for the best deal on internet sticks so that we can access the www from home! We did find the best deal, however airtel was out of stock so we had to go with the more expensive Vodafone option, but nonetheless we now have personal internet access which is nice for not getting those nasty viruses!

At 2pm we had our first meeting at UMATI which is the HIV/AIDS organization that Sabrina will be working with. UMATI seems like very well established and reputable NGO and they do a lot of great work throughout the country. UMATI is one of the 40 member organization under the ZANGOC umbrella that I will be working with so it will be interesting for us both to see the connection between the two NGOs. At 4:30pm we walked to the ZANGOC which is literally just around the corner from UMATI. I met with the Executive Director of ZANGOC and also my direct supervisor and they both seem really enthusiastic about having me there and the work that we can accomplish together. Monday will be my first official day of work which will probably consist of a pile of information thrown at me but, as always, I am up for the task!

Check your passport!

This is the latest passport issue I ran into...

When I was in the office this week, we went through my files and documents and noticed that my passport expires February 2012, a fact that I was aware of but didn't think would be an issue since that's 11 months from now. However, in order to get a resident permit visa for Tanzania your passport has to be valid for 6 months after you return. So, this morning I called the Tanzanian High Commission in Ottawa and the lady told me that they might over look the 2 month difference but then again, that would depend on the immigration officer upon arrival in Tanzania....a chance that I'm not willing to take!

I then called Passport Canada but hung up after about 2 minutes of fun automated voice options that just take you in a loop and you either end up on hold for another 20 minutes or listening to the same options over and over again trying to figure out which one best suits your inquiry. My day was going well enough so I decided to just go and speak to someone in person. Since I had to go to the travel doctor anyway, I though I would kill two birds with one stone as both offices are in the same area of the city.

The guy at the Passport Office told me that he couldn't rush my passport renewal because they only rush if you need it within 10 business days or less and today is 12 business days for me. Apparently 2 days makes a world of difference. I sensed that he was starting to get frustrated with my inquiries, I understand that he must deal with a lot of people yelling at him on a daily basis, but I was trying to be rational! Now, my next plan of action is to go back first thing Monday morning and just pray that I have a passport in my hands by the 18th of March!

Useful Links:
Passport Canada
Foreign Affairs Canada

Something else to keep in mind with your passport:

Make sure you check how many blank pages you have left. Most visas and entry stamps take up a full page and if you don't have this space available you might run into trouble at the immigration office in your country of destination.

This story was sent to me in an email...

I WON'T BE GOING TO SOUTH AFRICA

André Désiront

As I write this, I should really be photographing lions and elephants with my Nikon, on a private reserve located next to Kruger National Park in South Africa.

Instead, I am sitting in front of my computer in Montréal. Last Tuesday (Feb. 22), I took a United Airlines flight to Washington, where I arrived on time - long before the South African Airways (SAA) desk opened – and where I was to check-in for the Johannesburg flight taking off later that afternoon.

When the SAA employees opened the desk, I was among the first in line. A few minutes later, I was presenting my passport to the SAA employee, who leafed through it for quite awhile before informing me that she could not let me board me the plane.

Why? Because all the pages meant for visas and entry stamps were already full. There were a few empty spaces here and there, but the young woman informed me that South Africa requires a complete blank page on which to affix its entry permit.

After I asked her if this was some kind of joke, I had her bring over her supervisor who reiterated to me that it was a requirement that we were not going to find a way around. She showed me a notice issued by the South African Embassy in Washington which effectively stated that travellers without a completely blank page for visas and stamps in their passport would be refused upon arrival in the country.

“If I let you board, they will put you on the first flight back,” she explained. She suggested that I call the Canadian Embassy and ask that new pages be added to my passport. “If you act quickly, you might get back in time for tonight’s flight,” she continued. “Otherwise, I’ll keep a place for you on tomorrow night’s flight.”

I contacted the Washington Embassy where the consular services attendant, to my bitter disappointment, informed me that, for a number of years now, additional pages cannot be added to Canadian passports.

She told me I had to get a new passport, either at the Washington Embassy - which would take between 48 and 72 hours - or in Montreal, where I could get an emergency passport in 24 hours upon presentation of my travel papers. This was in the afternoon. One way or another, the schedule constraints were going to prevent me from taking an SAA plane before Friday night, delaying my arrival in South Africa until Saturday night, at which point it would be too late to take part in the events I had been invited to (but that’s another story).

So I decided to cancel my trip. I went to United’s ticket booth where a kind employee modified my reservation (I was supposed to return a week later) so that I could return to Montréal that same evening. Normally I would have had to pay a $75 fee for the modification but she was sympathetic after hearing about my little misadventure and made an exception for me.

Back in Montreal, I contacted the Ministry of External Affairs, where Pierre Florea, consular matters spokesperson, explained to me that “having a blank page available in one’s passport for visas is not an exceptional request limited to South Africa.” I was aware that we had to provide blank pages for authorities to stamp their visas in countries that require one, but South Africa does not require a travel visa from Canadian citizens.

I should have paid more attention to the ministry website. Only afterwards did I realize that in the destination section it clearly states that “Canadians arriving in South Africa with a full passport (i.e. does not contain at least two empty pages for the necessary South African Temporary Resident Permit or visa), will be denied entry to South Africa.”

Unfortunately, I never read the recommendations and tips provided by the website, even though I consult it on a regular basis. My mistake! Travel agents sending their clients abroad to places other than the Caribbean or the European Union should make it their bedtime reading.

The process by which you can add pages to a full passport was brought to an end on Jan. 4, 2005. Any applicant whose passport pages are full must now request a new one.

I had a 24-page passport. I went to the Passport Office yesterday and applied for a new one, this time with 48-pages. It will cost me an extra $5 ($92 instead of the $87 for the 24-page document), but for people like me who often travel, it’s indispensable.

As for my travel experience, I visited Washington’s Dulles Airport, which is all but deserted in the middle of the day. While waiting for the SAA desk to open I had a burger and fries at the Harris Bar Tap, a small bar located next to the Air France registry desk. The fries were dreadful.

A Few Details!

For those of you who are not familiar with Tanzania, I will use this time to provide you with some details, as well as details about what exactly I will be doing there for 7 months! My job description is a little more clear cut than it was in Ghana so I can actually tell you ahead of time, mind you, I am getting new details every day so things could change between now and the 20th!

Background on Tanzania:

Tanzania is located in Eastern Africa, just south of the equator, however, Zanzibar (where I will be working)  is a tiny island off the coast. According to this map, I will be working in Zanzibar Town which is the capital and largest city in Zanzibar, comprising of two main parts, one of which is called Stone Town which is where I will be living and working.


Stone Town, or Mji Mkongwe in Swahili (meaning "old town"), is a very remarkable place. It was once the center of the spice trade, as well as the slave trade in the 19th century. In 2000, Stone Town was recognized as a world heritage site by UNESCO.  

Should you feel so inclined, you can find more information and country statistics from the following websites:

CIA - The World Factbook
BBC - Country Profile
Government of Tanzania
Daily News



My Role in Stone Town:

My in country orientation will begin on Monday March 21st, during which time we have to: apply for a temporary business visa, while we wait for YCI to arrange our resident permit visas, buy a cell phone and credit (hoping to use my iphone!), exchange currency, meet the YCI staff and partner organizations, recover from jetlag and learn some Swahili! Luckily enough, I already know some very basic greetings to get me started!

My official tile is Governance Officer (sounds pretty cool, doesn't it!) and I will be working with our in country partner ZANGOC (Zanzibar NGO Cluster on HIV/AIDS). ZANGOC was established in 1996 in Zanzibar, Tanzania as a collective body of HIV/AIDS and youth organizations. ZANGOC’s members work with youth and HIV/AIDS programming, youth employment and advocacy. ZANGOC also works to strengthen the capacity of smaller member groups. ZANGOC and YCI have been working in partnership since 2005.

So what does this all mean?! 

Let me start by discussing the word "Governance," basically this the process of decision making and promoting "good" governance means helping organizations and governments make good decisions through accountability and transparency to avoid "bad" governance. When people speak about governance the attention is usually drawn to the biggest issue, corruption. Making sure to avoid corruption in bilateral and multilateral funding is especially important through the eyes of donor agencies such as CIDA - The Canadian International Development Agency (who is funding my project!), in order to ensure aid effectiveness.

As of right now, this is my project description:

• Review and identify key governance priorities within ZANGOC’s strategic plan
• Design and deliver a comprehensive good governance curriculum appropriate to the local context
• Deliver the curriculum to ZANGOC and its 40 members in Zanzibar and Pemba
• Train local volunteers/peer educators to implement the good governance curriculum
• Research and identify areas for policy development
• Support staff in proposal design and development 

As I stated earlier, things could change slightly over the course of the next 18 days or 7 months for that matter. Apparently ZANGOC is completely volunteer based meaning that the entire board of directors also have full time day jobs, so you can imagine how busy they are and how hard it will be to meet with them. But insert me into the equation and hopefully good things will happen!


Well, I've left you with enough reading material so I hope you found this entry to be useful!