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.
