6/7: ATM Hunt (Dar, Day 1)

Today was spent mainly in the pursuit of a bank that accepts a MasterCard ATM. At the airport, the ATMs would only take Visa affiliated cards, and I own a MasterCard. Some exploring early this morning (3 banks) found that they wouldn’t take my card either, but the third bank referred me to another bank that would take it. We went into the city center and found the bank. Sure enough, the ATM took MasterCard, but the system was down. We walked the length of the main drag, about a mile, stopping in every MasterCard affiliated ATM, and none of them would take my card. After lunch, we tried the main branch of a bank, and when I told them that the system was down, they told me to go to another bank that was the system headquarters for MasterCard. Another long walk down a dusty, busy road, I arrived at the bank and – hooray! – it accepted my cards. I thankfully have two ATM cards (although right now I’m really wishing one of them was a Visa), so I was able to withdraw from both accounts. So now I’m going to have to visit that bank everyday until we leave for Kigoma, because I’m worried that the ONE ATM in the town will not accept my card. Fun times. I’m really glad I have money again. Thankfully people are very helpful and most speak English, so this process wasn’t as difficult as it could have been. It was a little scary not being able to get any money, though.

In between banks, we walked to the fish market – a compound filled with people selling fresh fish, some of which are huge! It’s smelly and lively, full of activity and people milling around. We were hoping to find some fresh fish for dinner, but in the marked across the road the promising billows of smoke proved to be fried/grilled fish in a preserved fashion (so whole, in stacks, and a weird grey/brown color from the salt), and we weren’t quite brave enough to try it.

We were lucky and found a wonderful little place for lunch across the street from one of the many banks we went to. It was a pretty little garden, cool and shady under the roof made of leaves. It was quite an operation, serving several different dishes and full of people. With no menu, and no clue what things are called, we looked at other people’s plates and pointed questioningly until they told us the name of it. I had chipsi mayai, an omelet with chips (kind of like a Spanish tortilla with French fries instead of potatoes) and Kristina we think had biriani, rice seasoned with spices until its brown with meat and some beans. It was tasty and cheap (less than $2 for both of us), and fun to people watch.

We have three more days in Dar until we can get to Kigoma. We saw about 75% of the town today, so the next few days I suppose will explore the remaining 25%, work on some training materials for our project (which from the sounds of it will begin on Tuesday or Wednesday), and maybe go to a beach a few kilometers from here.

So far I’m loving being here. It actually doesn’t seem that foreign or strange to me. It may be partly due to the fog of jet lag I’m in, but also I’m reminded a lot of Barbados and other places I’ve traveled, which makes me feel kind of at home. Dar is very busy and full of people, and it’s hot and humid so I mainly feel gross and dirty most of the time (although the air conditioned banks provided a nice respite). It’s neat seeing the women carrying large bundles on top of their heads walking down the street, and babies strapped to their mothers’ backs with kangas. There’s people and cars everywhere. I think once I get to Kigoma things will feel very different, since this is Tanzania’s largest city and Kigoma is a small town.