Maji, Chakula na Kazi

(Water, Food and Work)

My taps have been dry for about a week and a half now (I honestly come home, turn on the taps, and stand there being depressed by the thought of the long stretch of pipes with no water in them). I don't know Dar es Salaam's water system, if most of it comes from the rain, or a river, or is desalinized from ocean water (water water everywhere...). Apparently the whole city is having shortage problems. I think it's just following me. Other people didn't seem to have problems, while I did for a week, then I went to the Slipway and that day there was no water, then I go to the mall to use their washroom and they're out of water too. I'm moving at the end of the week, and mark my words, their taps will go dry conveniently as I show up. 

Well, I've gotten used to washing my hands, doing dishes, and bathing my self using a cup and a bucket of water (though the tank I scoop the bucket up from is nearly empty, hmmm....). Kai's family has their own tank which apparently has more. It turns out you can do these chores with much less water than you'd normally use. I can fully wash my hands with less than 1 cup of water. The real water waster is flushing the toilet - it takes up the whole bucket of water. But you can't skimp on toilet flushing, for sanitary reasons involving fruit flies (though you can go to the bathroom less).

Partly because I'm lazy and partly because I wasn't sure how to wash dishes without tap water, i let the dishes sit for a long while and have just been eating out or skipping unimportant meals like breakfast. Though I did the dishes, tonight I didn't have much in the way of food so I decided to check out a little bar on the road near here that I pass by every day that looked like it had food. Now my host has advised me not to go out at night, but others have advised she's just being paranoid. My judgement call is to not make a habit of it but to not let it stop me from doing something. So I headed out, it's a very short walk, no problems either way. I went in and asked what food they had. They said 'chipsi na mayai' (fries and eggs). There was a carton of eggs which I assumed were hardboiled, so I asked for chips and an egg. So he throws the chips into a frying pan over a charcoal stove then cracks the uncooked egg over it, making a nice little french fry frittata! I was willing to accept this, and threw some pilipili (hot) sauce and ketchup over it. I asked the server if there was a fork I could use, she walked into a back room and honestly for at least 40 seconds straight all i could hear was clanging and crashing and things falling and clunking against eachother then she walked and said there was no fork, so I grabbed a spoon. It was not bad, and I washed it down with a small Serrengeti beer. There were some guys playing pool who I was tempted to challenge to a game (as I was reccomended to do) but I wasn't feeling it.

Today I had my first interview with a civil society organization, which maybe I'll only talk about briefly. The funny thing was that I called at 10am this morning and asked for an appointment for sometime before Christmas. He director of the organization asked me if I could come in immediately, as he was leaving for Dodoma (out of town) at noon. So I threw on my clothes, gathered the questionnaire and recorder, and speed walked to the mall to catch a taxi. Something you should know about Dar es Salaam is that most locations only loosely have an address. The listing for this oganizations said the block #, which I'm not sure how to find, but it said it was opposite a certain market. So I told the cab driver which market, he said fine, 10,000 shillings, and we took off. About 2/3rds of the way there he stops and asks someone else where this market is. So we got there and I was able to call and get pulled into the organization's office. 

The interview went well, I got lots of information and was able to speak with the director and with other employees of the organization. I have a questionnaire with about 40 questions on it, and it's very hard to give the questionnaire in the form of a survey. They aren't yes or no questions, so if you ask something the interviewee might launch into a big answer which ends up answering other questions. Because it's more of a dialogue, you don't want to tire the interviewee by recovering ground. Anyway it went very well for a first try, and I will hopefully learn each time.

Well I'm off to bed,  lala salama tout le monde!