June 29, 2011- Dar Es Salaam

       After 25 hours of travel time, we are now in Dar! As the plane was starting to land I was so incredibly nervous. I was worried the airport would be chaotic and that due to language barriers, we would have a hard time going through immigration and getting our visas. I was also worried about finding somewhere to exchange currency and finding a taxi driver who would not charge us an insane amount for being “white.” Oh yeah, and if our luggage would end up in the right place at the right time.

Sleeping in the London Heathrow airport while still guarding our bags. Very little sleep, very uncomfortable.

I am so happy to say that EVERYTHING went so smoothly! Thinking back, it seems like I had nothing to worry about. But of course not worrying at all could be considered reckless. When our plane landed we walked down onto the runway by the use of stairs that they attached to the plane doors. I was definitely surprised to see palm trees everywhere. We walked into the airport, waited in line for our visas, and then found our luggage. Next we walked outside and easy as can be, there was a currency exchange right there. As soon as we were at the counter, a taxi driver came up and asked us if we needed a ride somewhere. How much easier could it be?! Although, I must say... Amanda and I may not be the best at haggling for the best price. I am way too timid to haggle. 

The distance from the airport to our hotel was around 11km and it took us over an hour to get there. Traffic is insane in Dar! Anytime there would be a stop in traffic, our taxi driver would turn off his engine and then restart it once cars started to move again. I thought back to drivers ed that unless you were going to be stopped for X amount of time..not to turn off your engine because starting it again would use up more gas. Obviously he was trying to conserve gas, but after turning on and off his engine at least 20 times, I am not sure he did. He was very nice and gave us a crash course in Swahili, he also told us that it is much easier to understand English when Europeans are speaking it than when Americans are. Driving through Dar you see people everywhere. There are so many people sitting or standing by the side of the streets. People walk in and out of the traffic like it is nothing and drivers will hit you if you are in their way. Case in point, our driver almost ran over a lady on a narrow street and didn’t even slow down. She ended up sliding by with just her arm being knocked. Driving is done on the left side of the road and is insane. With my all of the time “passengers anxiety”... I made it without having an anxiety attack but did let out a few gasps. What can I say? I am a sissy. 

We saw a picture of our hotel online previously and when we finally arrived today... it was NOT the same hotel. Our hotel is the Econo Lodge and is smashed into a large concrete building that connects to many other buildings. To get there you take a small side street off of the main street, all very busy. And then all of a sudden there is a door opening with the “Econo Lodge” written on the wall. Once we walked in and saw other tourist and that the inside of the building was quite nice, I felt much more at ease. We arrived to our hotel around 9:30 AM and check in time for hotels around here is not until 2 PM. Luckily they were able to get a room cleaned for us and we were shown to our room by 10 AM. 

This is the view from our hotel balcony in Dar

   Once we had showered and settled in, we gave in to the major jet lag we were feeling and tried to get some rest. Our room was pretty hot, considering we are in Africa and just have a ceiling fan. Thank God for the fan! So we opened up the balcony door and windows and slept for about two hours. Then we got ready to meet up with Sarah who works for IVHQ and lives in Dar. She offered to meet us at the hotel and to show us around. She has lived in Dar for three years but is actually about to head back to the states for more schooling. Since she is leaving, she is currently training a guy named Mark to take over her position.

We left the hotel and started the afternoon by stopping by a currency exchange bureau. Here I traded in more American dollars for shillings. Tanzanian shillings reminds me so much of Monopoly money, so that when I spend it, it is fun and I forget that it is actual money! 

This is the largest bill in Tanzania, it is worth about $6.50, many places cannot break this high of a bill

This is my favorite!!

For drinking you have to buy bottled water and for 1 Liter of water at our hotel it costs 500 shillings (Tsh) which is about 35 cents! I have now started to think of all payments in how many waters it would be. BEST NEW EVER.. you can also buy a large glass bottle of Coke for 500 shillings as well! I had one today... on my first day in Africa. And it was the BEST Coke I have ever had. I hope to have many many more for only 35 cents!

Next we went to a phone company and bought new cell phones. The company is named Vodafone and is extremely cheap compared to the international Verizon rates they were trying to get me to pay. For international calling, Verizon charges $4.99 a minute and 50 cents a text message. With my new phone it is less than a dollar for minute and sending a text message is 100 shillings... so less than 10 cents. The Vodaphone cost 29,000 shillings which is around $18 or 58 bottles of water. Everything is extremely cheap here. SECOND BEST NEW OF THE DAY.. My phone is free for me when I accept incoming calls and text messages!!!!! And I am pretty sure Verizon has free outgoing international calling. Maybe? Meaning you all can call me!! And text me!!!! So exciting for me. This will hopefully give me a small piece of home throughout my days here! My number is 011255766303878. But just remember that I am eight hours ahead of Illinois. So since it is 9:04 PM here right now, it is 1:04 PM at home. But it is very very good news!

The four of us ended the night walking to an outside Indian restaurant called Badminton International. We ordered about four starters and four meals and shared everything. It was all so amazing. I could eat that food like that everyday. Can’t say I have ever actually had REAL Indian food. With all the food we had, we couldn’t even finish it and it only cost us around $6 a piece. Amazing. 

Tomorrow morning we will wake up around 4 AM to get our bags ready and head over to meet the bus. Best news of the week is that Mark has to go to Arusha tomorrow as well so we will all be traveling together. It is so nice to have someone who knows the area and that is not a female. Makes me feel safer in a way. 

Overall... I am in Africa. I am safe. I am happy. And I am tired. Goodnight! <3