Sam and Jay Travels: Ba’day to Tanzania

A beautiful scene in Zanzibar

Sadly our time spent here in Africa has come to an end and Jason and I prepare to make our journey from Mwanza back to Dar es Salaam, which is two days travel via Dodoma, (which is the actual capital of the country - the political capital as oppose to Dar es Salaam, which is the economic capital) We will overnight in Dodoma before making the last leg of the journey to Dar to catch our flight out to Bangkok, Thailand in Asia on Monday (8 Nov).

A busy road in Dar

We have greatly enjoyed our time spent here and encountered some amazing experiences and met some inspiring people who’s stories and life tales will resonate with us for a long time to come, hopefully encouraging ourselves to be and do better.

It has in some ways made us appreciate our country of birth such as our free health care service (no matter what sort of state it’s in!) and our education system and definitely our transport infrastructure, although rush hour on the tube remains a bit of an ordeal! LOL

The children we have met have been so excited to be in school

However it does make you think of the many individuals back home such as the ‘wasted youth’ and some ‘benefit Barny’s’ adults, who even though live in the UK, a developed country and have all these advantages to do ‘better’, still squander the opportunities to succeed themselves and make a real difference.

While here, we have met some Africans who live life passionately, that care about their environment, their health and education, such ambitious characters who dream of bettering themselves and their home country however are frustrated by the lack of avenues/resources available to them or blocked by government policy, procedure, corruption, small minded mentally or even illness. A ‘life swap’ would be rather interesting….

Kahama road

Mwanza club scene

We have worked in schools were basic equipment would make all the difference such as a rubber, sharpener, a textbook. We have seen vehicles and machinery that would be laughed at, at home however maintained by Africans to do a job, because its all they have, they are unable to just, go and ‘buy a new one’.

Busy life in Moshi

African wildlife is amazing

We have seen a simpler way of living here, with emphasis on the family, such as Sundays when the roads become quieter, businesses shut down and where materialism is ‘something in the West’..

One man once told us a problem of the West is that we have too much freedom, therefore can never be happy with what’s in front of us as we are always looking further away.

We have recieved a warm welcome from all we met

Tanzania is a massive country (3x the size of England) that has many faces, from mountains and volcanoes, lakes and rivers to forests and plains, the biggest migration of animals in the world, diamond and gold to other natural mineral mines – the possibilities to this country is vast and yet we knew, very little about its resources and wonders it possessed.

Tanzanians are striving for job opportunities and those with jobs work hard, such as the porters who carry foreigners luggage up and down the mountains for a minimal wage or those who work in the mines (they say the mines have hundreds of ways to kill a man).

A quiet road in Bahari

They accept their circumstances fairly reasonably as they ultimately want peace in their country, they are all too familiar with bloodshed and violence however things are changing as evidential in the recent elections where even the young are becoming more active in the future of their country and where the ruling government lost some major constituencies such as Mwanza and Arusha.

Corruption is an ugly human tendency that has its birth from greed and plagues most African countries however it feels like Tanzanians are waking up to this, as well as the global community. This year will see the International Anti-Corruption Conference held in Thailand in November 2010, which we pray, will see some progress.

Tanzanian's are peaceful people

TZ has such beautiful landscape

There is major foreign investment coming into this country and Jason and I have seen signs of tourism expanding, as more people wake up to its possibilities.