The Great Dala Strike of 2011

Monday morning when we were all getting ready for placement, we were told that the dala dala's were on strike. The majority of people get around by dala dala's. I think I have talked about them previously, but they are old vans with a colored stripe down the side that differentiates where they will be headed. People bring their chickens on the dala's and will just tie them all together by their feet and throw them on the floor. My friend Emmy stepped on a chickens head her first week here. People also bring their goats on the dala's... they will tie their legs together and shove them under the seats. It is also common to sit on someone's lap that is a complete stranger or even for a woman to hand you her baby while she is standing in the isle. The night before the strike started, we actually caught a dala back to our house. Most days we do, but this was the fullest dala I had ever been on. When they pulled up to us we said "No Way!" because there was only standing room by the door maybe room for one person to stand and then the conductor (who stands at the door.. lets people on and takes the money). We hopped on anyway and stood with our butts sticking outside of the door while the tops of our bodies were leaning over the people's heads in the seats. It was so full that we rode with the door open and the conductor stood behind Amanda with his feel on the metal step and hanging onto a metal bar on the outside of the dala. We even picked up one more man who did the same thing behind me. It is complete chaos. Almost always.

So on Monday morning many people could not go to their placements because the dala's had all gone on strike. We fortunately could because the "Super Safari," our crap school jeep picks us up down the road from our house. I have never seen so many people walking around before.

I have heard many stories of why the dala drivers went on strike.

1) The drivers charge 300-500 shillings per ride and they want to increase the rate of those rides because it is not enough to support them. The people do not want to pay more and many cannot because they have no money.

2) Supposedly a dala driver ran over a police officer, killed him and drove away. Now all the police are stopping dala's left and right trying to find this person. The rumor is that there were about 50 dala drivers in jail, so they all went on strike.

3) No one died... but the police are giving tickets to dala drivers for parking in bus stops or random places. The dala drivers want to have specific stops made so the police can not keep fining them.

All could be true, or none could be true. Who knows. The dala drivers are insane. That is a fact. And the police are corrupt. But either way it is now Wednesday and the strike is still on for most of the town. Yesterday the Yellow dala's were running in the morning but then all the other branches of dala's got angry that they were stopping the strike so there were riots in town and police were throwing around tear gas. People from the house saw a full yellow dala get stopped by an empty green dala and they started beating up the people inside. Today the yellow ones are running and some green ones.. we are not sure if it is safe now but we rode one to the cafe today that was empty and my body and mind were in hyper aware status.

Here is an article in an Arusha newspaper about the strike.
http://in2eastafrica.net/arusha-bus-operators-strike-continues/

Yesterday three girls were in town walking back from placement and they saw a yellow dala and green dala getting into a fight. They looked to that side of the road and by the time they looked back straight they were all three getting attacked. The robbers used this time of chaos and distraction to try and steal their bags. One was knocked to the ground by the man and he was on top of her trying to get her bag. Her back is hurt and another girls has scratches all over her arms and neck.

One good thing about Arusha, and Tanzania in general... is that punishment is strong here and enforced always by the towns people. We have heard many stories of people who steal getting beat up or even killed for it.

The girls said that in an instant there were people swarming them and ushering them into a gas station. They were sat down and given water. The men went after the three guys who attacked them and even brought one of them back and made him apologize. I am sure that after this they were taken out and beaten up badly. Our house driver Michael went and picked up the girls and then called everyone at placement and made the rounds to pick them up. On the way back he didn't even drive back on the main road because there were people fighting everywhere. The girls are fine and they still have their purses.

Here are some more stories..

One of our girls was in Zanzibar and her bag was stolen. She started to yell "thief" and a swarm of people attacked him and started beating him. He was killed in front of her.

At a volunteer hostel in town some girls were walking back and a man ran up and stole her bag. She started yelling and he was tackled by a swarm of people and beaten. They had his pants down and were hitting him repeatedly in the genitals. The girls kept yelling for them to stop and the people wouldn't. One person even asked her if she wanted them to kill him. Their house guard came out and broke it up and then later went to make sure the man was taken to the hospital. He was there and the police then wanted to question the girl. She went in and they told her that she could choose if he went free or went to prison. But that if she let him go free the people on the street would just kill him anyway.

A taxi driver hit a boy and killed him a couple of weeks ago and he was dragged outside of his car and killed.

There are so many stories like this and it is making my nerves go berserk. Pray that the strikes end and that we will continue to be safe while here. I don't even want to walk home from the cafe today, but I have to. I am always aware of my surroundings, looking up, and I wear my jacket over my bag so it would be difficult for them to steal.

We decided the other night while walking back from a dance competition in town that walking through Arusha is like walking through New York. All the windows are broken and there are bars in every window and door. People holler at you and try to grab out for you. We left Via Via around 6:30 to walk back to the yellow bus stop to get a ride home which is about a 30 minute walk and it is completely dark by 7. On our walk one of our friends were spit on by an older female. We didn't stop because it was quickly getting dark. I wanted to stop at ShopRite and get a taxi but everyone said we would be fine. Walking to the stop is probably the busiest place in town with markets and street venders. My friend Angie was grabbed at and even saw a man with a gun in his belt walk by us. Which I am sure is common here. Anyway we made it to the bus stop and back alive, which is wonderful. We will never head back home that close to nightfall again.

Onto lighter topics... we took our kids swimming at the pool yesterday and it was the first time they had ever seen one. I have some great stories and photos to add but will have to do it the next time I get to the internet.

Today we had white rice, cabbage and grass for lunch. Seriously.