The Expat Scene

There are a surprising number of expats and summer tourists passing through – many are British or German or Danish. Of those actually living here, many are with aid organizations as might be expected.

There are about 8 expat bars and the entire expat island social scene revolves around them. There is a rather unofficial / official place selected at the bar of the night determined by someone (unnamed?) and shared. It’s pretty easy to meet new people here – particularly when you see the same people over and over.

Friday night, my roommates and I went to dinner at a place that is already at the top of my list: Epi d’Or. It’s a Mediterranean expat place where you can actually eat the veggies and they make a good panini. After that, we were planning to go to one of the 8 expat bars, Garden Bistro; instead, we went to a local place just down the road. I prefer this type of bar, as it’s basically a metal shack and plastic chairs out front around multiple small plastic tables alongside the road with no lighting beyond a single uncovered bulb at the bar. This bar, the “Old Officer’s Club,” is ironic on several levels and misleading on many more.

It really isn’t fun that I don't drink beer, as the Kilimanjaro and Ndovu brands are favorites of my roommates – but I had high hopes for a glass of wine with our proximity to South Africa. Well, the Old Officer’s Club offers something worse than Franzia – so that was disappointing.

On Saturday, we went out with some other TechnoServe folks and other NGO expats here. We had sub-par Lebanese food (can’t say the expectations were high) and then went to Q-Bar. Q-Bar is one of those multi-purpose bars / hostels / happy hour locales / “working lady” hang-out. It’s a quite a unique slice of Dar.

My expat adventures continued today when I took a taxi to Sea Cliff at the end of the Msasani Peninsula. There is a very nice (overpriced) hotel with a small pool overlooking the Indian Ocean – the view is not shabby and apparently the café serves great pancakes. This afternoon, I went to Shopper’s Plaza, one of the expat grocery stores, and was shocked at how much “normal” stuff you can get here! The prices are certainly a few multiples more on many items, but nevertheless, they are here! The wine aisle was stocked with South African options, so I have decided to try out a few – however, I will avoid the local Tanzanian wines, “Religious Wine” and “Elegant Wine” – which are unnatural in color and need help in branding.

I’ve decided to purchase a bicycle, since it is difficult to travel places walking as a female alone during the day. Cabs are expensive and aggravating to negotiate; three-wheeled tuk-tuk equivalents have a high collision reputation. I have started to ask any muzungus that I encounter how one might go about doing this. No one seems to know exactly, but it’s my goal for the week.

I start Swahili lessons tomorrow evening with a local teacher, which should be fun. I'm getting used to sleeping under a malaria bed net - at first I thought I might get caught in it and rip it from the ceiling, but it hangs more like a canopy. It's felt like I've been here longer than just 5 days!