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!