I visited Tanzania (Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar) early April with my friends. I have never been to East Africa before, so it was a lot of fun travelling around there as well as seeing a lot of "new" things, such as people whose native tongue is Kiswahili, seafood in Africa, the Indian Ocean, etc!
When I got to the Dar es Salaam International Airport for the first time, I was so shocked to see the huge and developed city just in front of me. Although Dar es Salaam is technically not a capital city per se, I felt it was definitely the center of the country. There were a lot of tall buildings both for commercial and residential use, people were everywhere on the street at any time of the day, and there were heavy traffics on the streets. Travelling from Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia, I was just surprised to see all those differences that Dar es Salaam and Lusaka have.
Of course it seemed there were a variety of problems that an urbanized community could have. Firstly, as mentioned above, the traffic congestion was unthinkable. As majority of the drivers in Tanzanian tended not to follow traffic rules anyways at beginning, I saw some of them nearly collide and yell each other for their "bad" behaviors as well as almost hit some pedestrians who were j-walking. Secondly, the crimes were everywhere. A friend of mine who lives there told me that his friends were pick-pocketed and attacked not only in a night time but also in a day time. Lastly, there seemed no proper drainage systems there. The entire city was flooded during and some time after rain. (I am pretty sure there must be a lot more of them but was not able to find so many as I stayed there only for 2 days.)
The best parts of Dar es Salaam were the people and the food there (especially fresh seafood!). The Tanzanians were quite friendly and loved to talk to "foreigners." As most of them, unfortunately, did not speak much English and preferred to talk to me in Kiswahili, which I did not know anything about, I was able to communicate with them only a bit, such as greeting each other, asking directions, negotiating prices, etc. They still wanted to know where we are from, what we do in Zambia, etc. It was such a pleasure when they told me how much they appreciated what we have been doing for Tanzania and other developing countries.
The seafood there was awesome, too! All the restaurants we went to had huge selections for seafood, and that made me really happy. Finally, I was able to have fresh seafood after a year in Africa. It made me realize me how much I missed our staple food...
My experience there also helped me realize that I would love to live in a country where the ocean is close by or next to it, ideally.
When I got to the Dar es Salaam International Airport for the first time, I was so shocked to see the huge and developed city just in front of me. Although Dar es Salaam is technically not a capital city per se, I felt it was definitely the center of the country. There were a lot of tall buildings both for commercial and residential use, people were everywhere on the street at any time of the day, and there were heavy traffics on the streets. Travelling from Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia, I was just surprised to see all those differences that Dar es Salaam and Lusaka have.
Of course it seemed there were a variety of problems that an urbanized community could have. Firstly, as mentioned above, the traffic congestion was unthinkable. As majority of the drivers in Tanzanian tended not to follow traffic rules anyways at beginning, I saw some of them nearly collide and yell each other for their "bad" behaviors as well as almost hit some pedestrians who were j-walking. Secondly, the crimes were everywhere. A friend of mine who lives there told me that his friends were pick-pocketed and attacked not only in a night time but also in a day time. Lastly, there seemed no proper drainage systems there. The entire city was flooded during and some time after rain. (I am pretty sure there must be a lot more of them but was not able to find so many as I stayed there only for 2 days.)
The best parts of Dar es Salaam were the people and the food there (especially fresh seafood!). The Tanzanians were quite friendly and loved to talk to "foreigners." As most of them, unfortunately, did not speak much English and preferred to talk to me in Kiswahili, which I did not know anything about, I was able to communicate with them only a bit, such as greeting each other, asking directions, negotiating prices, etc. They still wanted to know where we are from, what we do in Zambia, etc. It was such a pleasure when they told me how much they appreciated what we have been doing for Tanzania and other developing countries.
The seafood there was awesome, too! All the restaurants we went to had huge selections for seafood, and that made me really happy. Finally, I was able to have fresh seafood after a year in Africa. It made me realize me how much I missed our staple food...
My experience there also helped me realize that I would love to live in a country where the ocean is close by or next to it, ideally.
