Jambo for Dar Es Salaam

So I am sitting in this internet cafe listening to rap/slipknot/ bango flava. We've been getting around by Dalla Dalla - indepedently owned mini busses that are brightly colored and act as public transportation. The city is loud, smells of food, and is very multicultural. But everything just works and makes sense in a way it doesn't in America. Isn't it obvious that we should all use glass coke bottles and send them back to the factory to get refilled when you are through? Isn't it obvious that seats should fold down in the aisles of busses? But I guess thats just my hippie environmentalist self talking. We are staying right next to the indian part of town and got to go to the 9 day hindi stick dancing festival every night - tre cool.

All of our classroom experiences have been mind blowing - we get to go to the greatest places and meet the most amazing intellectuals and social activists. Yesterday we went to this debate on the issues of food and fuel - whether biofuel is a good idea for tanzania and the world - at the dar es salaam university. The students get to vote for the president of the college every year and riot whenever something doesn't go their way - quite a refresher after American College student apathy. The day before that we went to the Tanzania women's media organization - a hub of modern feminism in Tanzania. They put pressure on the government through media, make their own positive representation of women in the media, and started a domestic violense crisis center to help when the government won't. Dar has been a very interesting and wonderful place, its a little sad that we have to head out in a couple of hours for Zanzibar.