Entry 3-15-08 Saturday

Today we started out on a bus tour of Tanzania. The reason for the bus was probably because we had limited time and we also went to two Tanzanian markets. We are hoping to walk down to the bay at some point to take pictures.

We passed that main monument of Tanzania (I'll fill in the name later), some government buildings and went through both poor and wealthy areas which have a major contrast to each other. The poor are in either makeshift shacks or tents and the wealthy have gated houses that look freshly painted white.

We also passed our guide Rumit's Highschool which was a private highschool. From our bus driver we found out that primary school is free while secondary school is majorly expensive. The best education one could obtain in Tanzania is through private school however, it is too expensive for most. Another problem with the school system is that there aren't enough schools for the children to obtain seats. I believe this is most true for secondary schooling however, our driver said that this is slowly changing. The presidents believe education is of utmost unimportance. This lead me to wonder what exactly are they teaching in this primary education. I'm fairly certain they teach english, maybe some basic math and history. I am curious if they teach sciences, trades (even though they are young), or sex education. Primary schooling is only from years 7 to 15.

The villages were fun to shop in and a whole interesting experience from the craft fairs and flea markets I am used to in the US. Since we are very obviously tourists, the locals ran to the bus and were extremely pushy with their sales, desperate. They mostly sold the same products at each store which left intense competition and no differentiation. You can understand the pushiness to sell over one another if you look from their perspective. They live off of their sales, and with the “rainy season” and even during tourist season they may not make many sales. An idea would be to differentiate their products and work in more of a cooperative fashion.

We also ended up at an actual Mall. After visiting these poor markets and village craft makers, I was surprised that they did have an actual mall similar to the US with air conditioning. However, there were many mens oriented stores where in the US you find much more for women. Since men work and the women stay at home, the men might be in more of a demand for clothing for work. or because they are the “breadwinners.”

We then had a short break for lunch and to shower up for our meeting with David Robinson and Ambassador “fill in”. David Robinson spoke of his companies history and his heritage in Tanzania. How he formed a cooperative among his families villagers which expanded to include 650 families. I found it interesting that he doesn't consider himself an Social Entrepreneur, which left me a bit confusing since I find him the very definition of one. Social Entrepreneurship includes an economic incentive. Without one, investors may not be interested and (esp in a country like Tanzania) won't stimulate the economy and help poor people obtain a higher standard of living which in turn starts the cycle of eliminating poverty in these families for good by providing marketable skills and money.

We then spoke to the ambassador, who gave us a few secrets to Tanzania and why they have been one of the more successful independent countries in Africa. 1) The indigenous language has allowed for cohesiveness across the country especially across different villages. 2) They are fortunate they have over 120 tribes with an amount of people each that will not allow one to threaten over the other. This was especially helpful to establish democracy. 3) The “Count their Blessings,” which means their first elected president established clear policies and vision when developing Tanzania. He especially got rid of segregation, and rations established during WWII. And also they brought 13 million people into only 13.000 villages to increase competition to better the economy and establish closer communities.

After the long, hot, humid day we had a welcome dinner hosted by our tour guide Rumit and included the ambassador. We went locally to a restaurant hidden in the city called “Barbecue Village,” which was anything but. We had Indian cuisine, that was very good. I completely enjoyed my meal and speaking with my group, the professor, and the ambassador.