Life in Dar es Salaam

In the little pamphlet they had at the lodge this hike was recomended as "a little walk after afternoon tea"- it didn`t say anything about that the path was almost non existing and it did take way longer then it takes to get dark... But we made it home eventually
Benedikte ready to go hiking with the "interesting" route description form the lodge

Benedikte, Rita, Kjetil and Stephan
The buses drive like CRAZY, it`s a bit hard to see but it says "God bless us" on the back window...

Now things are starting to fall into place here in Dar, it’s been a bit of a challenge these first weeks. When I arrived here my employer had found me a one room studio apartment, it was nice and clean and I could walk to work but that’s about it. Even Tanzanians raised their eyebrows when I said where I was living… I wasn’t to happy about staying in a place where I can’t having people coming over and if I want to make food I had to use the coffee table as a workbench…It’s ok for a short period of time, but I’ll go crazy living like that. So now I’ve moved form Kariakoo too Msasani to live in a shared house together with Sara and Stephan, two British friends of mine. Sara I got to know through John, a friend from Cape Town and Stephan is a friend of Sara. One of the nice things about living in the area I now live in is that much of the people I got to know so far is staying around here and it’s in the area where most things happen. It’s a nice to not have to pay a fortune in taxi when ever I want to be social…J

Work is still a challenge though… I find it a bit hard to find my place at work but I guess that takes time… I’ll keep you updated on that topic…

There was a long weekend just now. Eventually we where a group of 5 who went; Norwegian Benedikte (when she is laughing I start laughing, when I start laughing she laughs harder and on it goes, even past the stage when tears are running down the cheek…), Norwegian Kjetil, the one who has introduced me to much of the nice people I’ve got to know here in Dar, British/German Stephan who s my flatmate and out brilliant and cool driver for the trip, and Hungarian Rita, a friend of Stephans and the only one amongst us who masters the hard language Kiswahili.

We went to beautiful Lushoto in the Usambara Mountains. Soooo green and lush and cool as a Norwegian summer, something I reeeeally enjoyed (did I mention that Dar is a bit hot at the moment? It’s very hot actually, and humid…) Lushoto was the right thing for my Norwegian heart; we went hiking, found a little farm where they sold cheese, rye bread and they had local coffee in a plunger J On our way home we stopped by a little Benedictian monastery where they produced wine and macadamia nuts, think we bought half of the stock they had… A really nice trip!