Bayamoyo past, Morogoro future

This week has brought my discovery of the Immigration Office (get paperwork stamped and money paid for students’ residence permits), the New Zaidi (lunch in the Asian Quarter of Dar), scarves at Kariakoo (with our neighbors, some Tanzanian undergrads), seminar tonight with our neighbor, M, and his grad student, K, who told, sang and showed stories of Tanzanian music (especially the infamous Wagogo people around Dodoma).

Last weekend it was Bagamoyo, a historical beach town on the northern coast, one hour from Dar. We first visited the Kaoli Ruins, the remains of an Islamic society dating from 13th century. Then we saw the Catholic Mission and Freedom Village, where missionaries were responsible for stopping the slave trade controlled by Persians between inland Africa and Zanzibar. The Caravanserail museum housed former lodging for slaves and traders. At the College of Art we saw traditional dances; on Saturday we shopped around and chased crabs on the beach.

Happy to meet some Frenchies in town, and the mix of Kiswahili and French together is fun! Swimming in the pool is X, a Tanzanian student who works at the French Embassy. I also met a Tanzanian French prof at the University of Dar es Salaam and interpreter. Before she left for Addis Abbaba, to do work with the African Union at a meeting this week-end, we talked about French and Francophone Literature and she said I should meet C, the French assistant and Dr. H, who teaches courses on phonetics and civil servant French. Tomorrow we are having C, who hails from Normandy and has lived in Tanzania for 5 years, over for dinner.

Coming on Friday: a trip to Morogoro, 3 hours away from Dar, and close to the Uluguru Mountains, where some of the oldest forest in Africa exists—the 25 million-year-old Eastern Arc Mountain Chain! It’s home to the yellow baboon, blue monkey, wild pigs, antelopes, the Usambara eagle owl and the Uluguru bush-shrike. We are taking a Hood bus from Ubungo Junction Friday afternoon, to arrive in Morogoro early evening, then going for a hike past a German colonial settlement called Morningside up to Bondwe Peak.