A Few Days in Dar es Salaam

En route to Dar es Salaam I meet an American girl who tells me that she's staying at the Free Pentecoste Church of Tanzania Center, and she thinks accommodations are open to anybody. This is great because I have no idea of where I'm staying. Everywhere is booked and way overpriced. I luck: I get a huge room with hot water and breakfast for $13.

Dar es Salaam isn't all that bad. Much of the old Indian/African architecture remains from my 1973 visit, and life appears to be thriving. I wander around for hours. The occasional plonker approaches me on the street, but I shake them off with little trouble.

The center where I'm staying attracts missionaries who are coming from/going to/or revisiting sites around the country, and they all offer fascinating insights into aid efforts in Africa. They pretty much confirm my suspicions about what I've seen the last few months. The NGOs have developed into a multi-billion dollar industry with fat salaries and not-too-shabby lifestyles for the administrators. Their overwhelming presence in some areas serve to drive prices up, which hurts the local people they purport to help. You can always spot the NGOs: they nearly knock you down in the street as they scream past in their shiny Toyota Land Cruisers. In Kigoma, where there aren't that many streets, I start to recognize several of them that just go back and forth.

I like the missionaries. The doctors spend several months a year with hands-on work in the villages (childbirth complications are big) and fight an uphill battle against deeply ingrained superstitions and witch doctors. A German missionary couple I meet have spent nearly thirty years in community development, encouraging the Africans to come up with ideas to dig the latrines or patch the roofs themselves instead of waiting for someone from the outside to do it. Money is not the answer, they say, but a change in attitude. For example, jealousy: parents often resent their children if they reach a higher level of education; or a nearby village or petty government administrator is jealous if a village improves its prosperity. That kind of thing. And then there is the problem of corruption which exists at every level.

Related are the squads of first-time Africa and terribly naive volunteers who pour into Africa like a wildebeest migration during the summer. I've talked to dozens of them. Usually college or high school students from the UK, US, or Canada, many tell me they've come because it looks good on a resume or college application. After a few weeks--followed by a safari or beach vacation--they return home with everybody feeling good about themselves. No impact is left on the Africans because the fundamental problems still exist. One student from the UK arrived with 1500 condoms. His task was to train teachers, who would in turn teach how to use them. His training in this was minimal, he said. And my favorite for the Darwin award was a Canadian guy who craves that "Africa scar him in some way," so he's not taking any anti-malarials. I ask him why he can't go out and mugged instead.