A Good Traveller

A good traveller has no fixed plan and is not intent on arriving. Lao Tzu

I am not sure if Lao Tzu is correct about travellers, but I do know that his comment applies to volunteers in Tanzania. Today I found myself in the awkward position of being the fifth wheel on a tricycle. It is hard to be believe that an orphanage that lacks practically everything would have a surplus of teaching staff, but that was the case. With one full-time teacher and four volunteers to be split between less than 60 girls, it was apparent that we had too many people in the classrooms. Bearing another ancient bit of wisdom in mind -- "When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping" -- I decided to head into Dar Es Salaam to see if I could find some books to augment the rather meagre library.

This was to be my first solo trip from the orphanage into the city, and for the most part it went well. It took me three different dala dalas and two-and-a-half hours to travel the 30 kilometres from the orphanage to downtown Dar, but I wasn't doing anything of value anyways, so the waiting and gridlock did not bother me. When I arrived downtown I was able to post a handful of post cards that had been written out, addressed, and stamped a week ago. That critical bit of business out of the way, I had an entire day to myself.

I decided to see the National Museum on Samora Avenue before I did any of the shopping tasks. It rather reminded me of the local museums that one visits in North America, rather than the huge edutainment mega-complexes that pass themselves off as national or provincial museums in Canada, but it made a valiant attempt to address the sometimes complicated history of this beautiful country.

After the museum, I began my foray to find books for the girls. I went to no less than four book stores to come up with a good (albeit tiny) start to to a decent school library. For the younger readers, I bought a variety of books for various reading levels including some abridged versions of classic novels such as A Tale of Two Cities, Tom Sawyer, and Alice in Wonderland, along with locally published books of stories. For the older girls, I bought a volume of East African poetry, as well as novels by African authors such as Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

The business part of the trip completed, I proceeded to find the downtown ice cream parlour, where I had a delicious "Hawaiin Delight" concoction of vanilla and chocolate ice cream, fresh oranges and pineapple, and passion fruit juice. It was the first Western food I have had since I got here, and I couldn't have been happier. After lunch I went to the local version of the supermarket to pick up cookies for the three full-time staff members and chili sauce for me and the other volunteers.

The ride home was another exercise in enduring uncomfortable positions while on public transportation, this time livened up by a pick pocket. But like the locals say, Hakuna Matata. When the rest of the day was productive, who is going to worry too much over the one dark cloud in the sky?