different

I can’t even remember what we did Friday and Saturday. I’m pretty sure there was another long meeting in a conference room, and some lazing around the hotel while trying to ignore the loud sounds of construction from the building sites on two sides of the hotel. Also some eating out at fancy restaurants (fancy for us in Tanzania, but pretty normal as far as our American choices would go) with our colleagues.

Again, the key theme on this trip is difference. The busy city, the interactions with more Americans and highly-educated Tanzanians in offices than regular Tanzanians in the neighborhoods, the rides in hired cars, the quality of accommodations.

In previous trips, especially before Juma was born but also after, we looked for the cheapest possible hotels. Not even hotels, but hostels and guesthouses. We paid 10 dollars a night, tops, per person, often as little as 2 or 3 dollars. They were generally just in the hustle and bustle of the city, and could be close to loud traffic. One was right above a city bus stop, with honking and yelling going all hours of the day and night. Those kinds of places have horribly uncomfortable, lumpy, thin mattresses, questionable sheets, dirty mosquito nets with holes in them, and shared bathrooms. Which could be quite scary at times, and usually had mosquito screens on the windows, but they were inevitably full of holes and being bitten in unreachable places on my back while showering was a given. There would be no question about not using the tap water to brush your teeth, because one look at that sink and faucet screamed, “Stay away!”

On this trip, though, we’ve had rather nice accommodations, will comfortable beds, nice mosquito nets, and pleasant gardens surrounding the hotel within a gated compound. The room we are in now is super spacious, with a separate nook as a dressing room, a desk in one corner, and a sectioned-off area that serves as both sitting room and Juma’s room. The staff are (overly?) attentive and nice, and there is even a trampoline on the grounds (the owners have small children). We have accidentally used the tap water on our toothbrushes, tricked into a false sense of security by its shiny cleanliness (Juma reports he has not--phew). We are quite pleased with it, and it’s someplace to be comfortable in, and not just put up with. My only complaint is that the supposed free wireless has been spotty or completely inaccessible. I’m writing these blog posts offline, to upload later...