Tanzania 2011, Day 5

We just got back from supper, another memorable experience at Chako ni Chako. To be honest, the evening didn't quite start out on the right foot. This afternoon while we were working our host (The Principal) advised us to be at Chako ni Chako around 7:30 tonight for dinner. He asked if we would be comfortable walking to the cafe or would we prefer to be picked up? But this time we knew (sort of) where to find Chako ni Chako & we knew it wasn't more than a kilomoter from the hotel. And because we're both walking addicts, we agreed to meet everybody there rather than accept a ride.

We didn't feel nearly so adventurous when 7:20 came & it was dark (REALLY dark) outside & we were tired to begin with. But a deal is a deal so we headed out. It's surprising to experience just how much we have come to expect streetlights in Canada: when they're not there, the world is surprisingly dark & a bit intimidating. We walked along the railroad street, expecting that when we reached the main drag things would be brighter. They weren't: there are no streetlights there either. So we hugged the side of the road, moved pretty quickly, & attempted to dodge the throngs of other people who were either hanging out on the main street or attempting to get somewhere. Shadowy figures seemed to appear out of nowhere, giving very few options about where to walk. Basically you walk along the side of the road, squeezed between the full sidewalk of semi-visible other people and the street of maniacal drivers swooshing past.

But we made it to the Chako ni Chako bar by 7:45 & started looking around for our colleagues. There didn't seem to be anybody there so we hesitated at a corner of the outside cafe, wondering if perhaps we had misunderstood the date or time, when suddenly we heard a voice call out to us & saw one of the MRI guys sitting at a table on the other side of the street. There followed an interesting conversation: "Is this Chako ni Chako?" "Yes." "But it looks like the Chako ni Chako cafe is situated on the other side of the street." "Well, actually this whole area is called "Chako ni Chako" now, not just the cafe." "What is this place called?" "It's Saturday." "I thought it was Wednesday today." "No, Saturday is the name of this bar." Sort of a classic sitcom set up & the humour was definitely not wasted on our Tanzanian colleagues..

Anyway, evenutally we had a half-dozen or so of the MRI group with us, all happily eating kuku nyoma (extremely barbecued chicken) & some sort of barbecued or roasted plantains. And drinking wonderful Tanzanian beer (for the Christians) or soda pop (for the Muslims). Because this was after sundown, our Muslim colleagues were able to join us in the meal. It is an indescribable pleasure to sit outside under night skies with unfamiliar constellations, eating & drinking with comrades, watching the people go by & talking about a wide variety of things. I get a sense -- I don't feel it all that often -- that there is nowhere I'd rather be & nothing else I'd rather be doing.

The day was much better work-wise, too. I took Doug's advice & used a consciously slower pace, purposefully NOT getting all worked up when the internet loaded at a painfully slow rate or (even worse) crashed all together. We looked at digtial library sources & I can't help communicating my excitement at the potenial for fully-open educational resources to change the world.

I'm falling asleep; time to post this (even in draft format) & head for bed.