Ali, the Taxi Driver from Bagamoyo
On Wednesday I met up with some American and British interns and volunteers for dinner at Zuane, an Italian restaurant here in Dar es Salaam. It’s located on the Peninsula, an area of Dar full of expats, hotels, shopping centers, and fancy restaurants. Most of the Westerners I’ve met live in this area, they know all the hotspots, the street names, the Irish pub and the one salon for non-Africans… I’

Out of Africa
“If I know a song of Africa,–I thought–of the Giraffe, and the African new moon lying on her back, of the ploughs in the fields, and the sweaty faces of the coffee-pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Would the air over the plain quiver with a color that I had on, or the children invent a game in which my name was, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that wa

“Westerners have watches, Tanzanians have time.”
Here the saying goes, “Wazungu have watches, Tanzanians have time.” Anyone who has been to this part of the world knows the phrase–”Africa Time”–how people show up late or not at all, plans are canceled and changed last minute, and the general attitude toward time is that it refers to the present. A favorite saying of my professors when asked questions about the schedule or syllabus is, “let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.&#

Vittana- Investments in Education
Kiva has revolutionized person-to-person microfinance, creating connections between social investors and entrepreneurs all over the world. Kiva has chosen to focus on business loans only, but the idea of social investment is growing. A former Kiva fellow, Nick Cain, ended his Kiva Fellowship and began work with Vittana.org, a site much like Kiva.org, but designed to bring student loans to college students in developing and emerging economies. Here’s a video that sums up their work:

Unlikely Places
Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. - Roald Dahl   Yesterday I met my friend Betsy Allen at the airport. She spent the last six weeks in India as a volunteer, and will be spending the next six here in Tanzania at Bethsaida Girls’ School, a secondary school for orphans. You can see the website here: http://www.oloforphans.org. I’ve taken the Dahl quote above from her blog, which she wrote in India and will continue to update while in Tanzania. It’s really beautiful (with fantast