The key to life in Dar

Living in Dar is simple. The trick is to trust the city. Trust that when your driver says "nakuja" he will be there, becasue he will. And trust that when it suddenly starts raining while you are without an umbrella it will stop just as suddenly, because it's true. And trust that when you are hungry with no food or thirsty with no water, someone will appear on the street selling sustenance for dirt cheap prices, because it happens. Even for the most Type A control freak type of people this trust is not hard to cultivate, because the city and its people prove that they are trustworthy by coming through over and over again. I moved to Dar with no idea where I would stay. I trusted that something would come along, and in three days I happened to meet someone who knew someone who came through for me. No wonder it's impossible to be stressed in Dar. The system (or mayeb lack thereof) forces you to mellow out. You have no choice but to "go with the flow". As they say here "No hurry in Africa."

Yesterday I got an impromptu invitation to a pre-wedding bride send-off ceremony. (And by impromptu I mean that Sandra yelled up to the top floor of the hostel "Hey Krista, wanna go to a wedding thing? We're leaving in five minutes!" lol!) Of course I went, and I had a great time. Apparently only the groom's family is allowed to invite people to the wedding so the pre-wedding activities are dominated by the bride's family. In addition to the send-off there is also a "kitchen party"-- a female only get together where married women teach the bride to be everything she needs to know about how to run a successful household and how to "please her man".
The send-off is supposed to symbolize the bride's family officially handing her over to the groom and his family. The ceremony included traditional dramas, dances, etc. When it came time to give the bride her gifts, the guests danced up to the stage where she was sitting waving their packages above their heads. There were mops, cooking utensils, laundry hampers, dustpans, kangas, and kitenges. Everything you need to run a proper African household! lol. The best part for me was undoubtedly the food and music. We were supposed to go "clubbing" afterwards but it was getting late and a few of us had to get up early so we called it a night.

The Princeton kids have gone away to Zanzibar for the weekend, which is a little sad (especially since I'll be moving out of the hostel and starting my job while they're gone), but there's a lot on the weekend schedule nonetheless. Apparently Beenie Man is in town so I think a group of Carnegie Melon kids, Tanzanian friends, and I are going to the concert. There's also the rescheduled clubbing plus a birthday dinner for one of the Carnegie Melon kids (Lebanese food), and hopefully a trip to the beach. Not to mention moving my stuff over to my new house and unpacking. (On an unrelated note: I went to the store in search of clothes hangers only to discover that they cost nearly $7 per 5-pack!!!! No thank you. Dresser drawers it is!) So, even with the Princeton kids gone I won't be sitting alone in my room. With fun like this open to me, I never wanna start work. I want my days open to just bum around the city.

My next mission is to figure out if the internet connection is strong enough for me to upload pictures! Stay tuned...
Tutaonana