I'm writing this as I sit in the airplane, feeling guilty about the carbon footprint I'm leaving (though I understand that flying is one of the more efficient means of transport) thinking back about my recent rather intense experience in Dar Es Salaam where I went to assist with investigating some really frustrating problems one of our customers is having with systems we provided that just should not prove this difficult to diagnose and resolve. Maybe more on that in a next issue.
Pole Sana.
It mean I feel with you, a Swahili expression of empathy. Like saying "I am very sorry for you". Yes, I've been collecting a few Swahili phrases. Kiswahili, the language, is spoken in a large part of Africa, but my benevolent teachers don't always agree on the meaning of phrases.
For example one tells me Jambo is a greeting used to greet kids or young children, and can be taken exception to if used to greet an older person. Another tells me that it is completely exchangeable with saying "Mambo" - "Hello". Fortunately both agrees that saying "Badai" is "good bye".
Some of my other phrases includes "Asanti" - Thank you, and "Karibu" - You're welcome, "Habari Asubuhi" - A greeting form for use in the morning, and "Habari Layo" - which can be used any time of the day to say "How are you". To say you're well, you would use "Nzuri Sana" (I am good, Very).
Some of my spellings may be wrong - I am really just trying to capture the pronunciation for myself to remember it for my next visit a Swahili speaking country.
Tanzania is a very positive country and the people here have an amazing attitude towards life. I never blogged about my experience in Kenia as I was more left to my own devices there, but still had a similarly positive experience of the people's attitude towards life is. In Tanzania however I met a number of stunning people, both from the Expat community and of the local people, and so experienced more of the local hospitality. There is an inexplicable and incredibly positive energy throughout Dar Es Salaam - its almost like magic, hocus pocus, but I have a theory that people unbeknownst to themselves sense these positive energy sources and tend to conglomerate around these, choosing to live where they “feel good” and thus forming towns and cities around the world. The whole atmosphere there makes you feel like to can achieve anything, and it is very addictive!
Sadly I seem to have become dull to this feeling in my home town of Cape Town. I remember feeling the same thing there in the first few weeks after moving there about 12 years ago.
Tanzania taught me a few things about myself, or maybe I should say re-taught me. Dar Es Salaam literally means House of Peace, and it really is a place where you will find peace for your soul. As this was a business trip I had to work and so did not get to see anything besides a little bit of the city, but at least I did get a few toes in the mud when I walked across a dirt road one morning to buy airtime for my cellphone.
I haven't had a toe in the mud in years. These past few years touching mud has been a thing which became almost inconceivable - dirt is something to be avoided at all times. But as a child I loved playing in mud, I used to dig mud pits with a little gardening spade big enough for me to sit in. I've just become preoccupied with living the clean, calculated, precise little life that I've cut out for myself, driving to the office, doing customer support work, and going back home, trying to find time to spend with my two-year-old son and still trying to maintain some sense of my own identity.
D'ar, as Dar Es Salaam is called by the Ex pats, did something to me - It forced me to re-evaluate who I am. I need to get my toes in mud a bit more often, sleep in places where mice runs over you at night, have a few cold showers and sometimes not know where I'm going to be going the next day. Sure I still need the grunt in between to pay the bills, but on weekends when you are off you need to discover some small beaches, pitch a tent when the found beach tells you to, and if you're not drinking from a stream, drink red wine while trying to identify the stars and make up names for your loved one's toes.
Toes seems to feature quite prominently in Tanzania – at least it did for me. The local people generally wear sandals, nothing else is practical in the heat and humidity that permeates everything even this late in Autumn. Toes can be quite a private thing for us “Europeans” - maybe the Swahili people feel different about that. At least the Praying mantises doesn't seem to mind walking on toes or hands, jumping onto you and walking all over you in their search of mosquitoes, of which there are more than enough in this humid country. And then of course, like I said, I've had this mud on my toes. Horrifying. Wondrous!
But the thing that really stood out for me is people's attitude and aptitude. Those are concepts which in the past few years have become more and more important to me, and forms a basis on which I tend to judge people. In short it is not what you do, but it is how you go about it, both the matter of your skill as well as your dedication and commitment. There is something of that in the expression “Do whatever you do do well”.
I've quickly learned that what I have seen in my home country of South Africa does not apply here, and it shames me. Tanzania is not a wealthy country, but the people's pride is more than justified. They go about what they do with a gusto and earnestness which I can take a lesson from.
Tanzania is a country with which one can fall in love with if you are willing to leave your comfort zone (and air conditioned four-by-four) for a bit. I have found peace in the house of peace.
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