After getting fed up with our internet dealer being useless and eternally frustrating, we have them a metaphorical middle finger and found a different place that dealt with wireless internet. In 5 minutes, we were all set up with a usb drive and airtime and now we are at home in Kigamboni blogging and emailing with ease.
It’s really hot. It’s 88 F right now and the humidity makes in almost unbearable at times.
The solution? Time to head home and hop in the pool. Tanzania aint half bad.
We bought this wireless broadband package, but it doesn’t seem to want to work. Posts will be meager until we get it sorted out, which will hopefully be tomorrow. In other news, John arrives tonight. It’ll be great to have the trio reunited 6 months after we poured our blood, sweat and…more sweat…into this project.
∞ http://falconrealestate.org/
No big deal, but Tom and I pulled off the world’s best negotiation and got the above place for a month down from $3000 to $1500. That’s about $300 less than we budgeted for in the first month. The place is amazing. It has a pool, washing machine, satellite TV, two balconies, a automatic generator for Dar’s frequent black outs and great security. Not only that, but it’s across the street from the Indian Ocean.
There’s no internet, but no place has it in home here in TZ. We’ll be getting a USB broadband wireless card at about $30 a month to keep ups connected to the world.
The real estate agent is picking us up tomorrow at 10 AM to help us move in.
Everything keeps falling right into place.
Tom and I arrived safely in Dar last night around 730 PM local time. As we left the plane, we were greeted with a thick wall a hot and humid air. After we caught our breath walking up the jetway, we had a smooth entrance through passport control, gathered our bags and went into the Tanzanian night.
We kinda wandered around the airport for 5 minutes like white American tourists and eventually a cab driver or 3 came up and solicited us for rides. We declined, trying just to get our bearings. But, one guy was really nice and offered his phone to call our hotel. We took him up on it and he gave us a bargain of a ride to the hotel (about $15). We saved his number and he offered to be our regular driver for our clinic travels. He was a really nice guy and had a lot safety tips for our 15 minute ride to the hotel.
We spent the night talking logistics, looking up long-term housing and talking about goals, ethics and contingency plans for our research.
Dar is a great city and incredibly different from SA. It’s super exciting to be in a new place where people are, usually, really friendly and will say hi to you on the street. It’s a big, busy city, which is daunting at times, but things are looking good as a whole.
