1st day in Dar

12/10/08

Arrived safely in Dar and Laura H was at the airport to pick us up. We stayed last night with a friend of Laura’s family, a retired TZ army general. His name is Nova Matiku and his wife is Zania. He lives about 20km north of Dar. He and his family were so lovely to open their home to us.

Had a lovely breakfast in the morning. Pineapple is in season here and I couldn’t eat enough of it. We all talked about some of the issues facing Tanzania, such as a the need to build better infrastructure in order to better feed the country and create more access to health care.

I was amazed driving in to town this morning that in this capital city, only a few major roads are even paved. There are only a few roads into town from where Nova lives, so the 20mile trip can take up to 2.5 hours during rush hour. In addition, very few roads are labeled. We had to stop several times and ask at barber shops and corner groceries for directions to our appointment.

Laura H and I had an appointment scheduled with the ED of an that does advocacy for fistula and I believe they also fund projects. Unfortunately today was Eid, the end of Ramadan, and a national holiday, so the offices were closed. A program assistant came by the office just as we arrived to do some catch-up work. She called the woman we were to meet with, who she said she could be in in an hour. Neither of us felt comfortable asking her to come in on a holiday. So we did a few errands, and then took the long drive home so that I could go back to bed.

Nova’s son is a doctor and has an MPH. Laura H talked with him while I napped, and they had a great talk. He is starting a small clinic out in the village area where his father was born. He told Laura that the solutions need to come one village at a time….(i.e. if your goal is education in a village, you may need to deal with more urgent issues first, such as giving them access to clean water before you can even think about building a school). We are planning on meeting up with him again before leaving Dar on Friday. I’m looking forward to hearing more of his thoughts.