The Same Old Tanga

This is my first day off since I left Vancouver 2 weeks ago, and I haven’t got even the slightest clue of where to begin. I’m sitting on my balcony at the Sea View Hotel in Tanga, with a fitting view of the Indian Ocean and Toten Island stretching ahead beyond the little park across the street. Men lounge on the benches in the park, “exchanging ideas” under the shade of huge mango trees planted there by the Germans ages ago. It’s about 35 degrees Celsius, and humid. Noisy motorbikes without mufflers howl down the street every now and then, teenage boys wander by shaking tins of coins as they try to sell peanuts to any willing buyer, ladies in brightly coloured khangas of every imaginable pattern and hue meander slowly by with buckets and baskets carefully balanced on their heads, and boys ride down the street doubled up on rickety old bicycles. This is the exact same Tanga that I left 10 months ago. Nothing has changed.


Well, actually, that’s not entirely true. There is a new restaurant in town – “Rusha Roho,” a name which roughly translates into ‘happy spirit’ – which my old project manager, Mohamed, owns. They serve up traditional Swahili cuisine (and apparently pizza, but I’ve never actually seen any served there) in hands-down, the nicest restaurant atmosphere in town. They have live music on occasion too. My dear friend (and fellow teacher at the old Kindergarten I worked at), Saphia, runs the restaurant, working from 6am until 10pm or later every day. She hasn’t had a day off since the restaurant opened in early October, but her hard work seems to have paid off and the place is always busy. On my first day in Tanga, Danielle and I wandered into town trying to decide where we might find Saphia. I assumed that she’d be teaching back at that same little Kindergarten way out of town in Amboni Village, but thought I’d check the TeV Office (the impromptu headquarters of the NGO I first volunteered with here in 2008) to see if Mohamed or any of his staff knew of her whereabouts. As we walked by the closed office, Saphia saw me from the front veranda of the new restaurant down the road. She keeled over partway, hand covering her open mouth and shouted “Kaitlin, you come back!” I ran over to hug her and I thought we both might cry with happiness. She was so surprised to see me, and I was instantly glad that I hadn’t warned Mohamed or Saphia of my return. I introduced Danielle and Saphia, who was still smiling from ear to ear. Saphia immediately explained to Danielle how she and I are both good friends and fellow teachers from Kiomoni school, and unlike all the other volunteers, I keep coming back because I am such a nice friend of hers. Very flattering. We caught up over Stoney Tangawizi’s, mandazi buns and Mbaazi beans. I truly felt as though I had never left.

In the past 10 days in Tanga, I’ve caught up with nearly everyone I know here. Joel, the former computer teacher and mentor for the girls at the old Stehmann House Orphanage, still runs the now partially open “Urithi” Heritage Museum in the old yellow colonial building I spent so much time in earlier this year. Steven, another contact through the old orphanage, and my good friend who cares for Saumu on her school holidays, still teaches at his tiny English Medium Kindergarten and dutifully cares for his lovely wife and two baby boys. Salim, the persistent and self-declared “Mr.Africa” tour guide in Tanga, still plies the main streets downtown looking for potential customers and is constantly in touch with all the expat and muzungu happenings in town. He spotted me here on my first day in Tanga and chased me halfway down the street only to realize that I wasn’t a new muzungu in town, but rather the same old one who has done all the tours he has on offer. Regardless, he seemed pleasantly surprised to see me and pitched the idea of a small boat cruise to the local sand bar island off the coast of Tanga, which supposedly has some great snorkelling. “For you, Rafiki, I give you a Mswahili price because you, you mswahili, kwasababu unajua Kiswahili, na wewe si muzungu. You, you pay only for the gas for the boat. Is cool. I promise you will not believe we have this snorkelling here in Tanga. Is so cool! Just like Zanzibar!” We are still considering it.

I’m feeling quite fortunate that my Kiswahili has not failed me. I tried to brush up a bit on it at home before I left, reading over my old notebook and rambling to Tyler about some of my favourite odd words and phrases like “Kipepeo,” “Ni chumu” and “Zabibu.” I haven’t forgotten too much and one day, mostly by trial and error, I WILL get the hang of all these noun classes, plural forms, and possessive rules that no one is capable of explaining to me. Danielle is quickly picking up enough basics to get by and I’m adding new words to my growing vocabulary... I just need the time to write them all down. I find it so much easier to deal with taxi drivers and vendors when you can bargain in Kiswahili and make some basic small talk. I just wish now that I could become fluent enough to have more in-depth conversations and better understand so many of the people here.

For now, Danielle and I are gearing up for our trip to Zanzibar this Friday. We’re planning on staying there over Christmas and squeezing in Danielle’s PADI Open Water course and a couple days of diving for me. We’ll be taking Saumu with us for about 2 weeks and she couldn’t be happier. She told me yesterday that she has never left Tanga, so she is very excited to see something new. She’s excited for the beach, more swimming lessons and just hanging out with us – we’re like the fun babysitters with colouring books, card games and English books for her to read... and we usually have a little stash of candy or snacks on hand. Since we’ve been here she’s been spending most of her time with us – trips to the big Tangamano market, lunch at Rusha Roho, swimming trips at the local bathing club in Raz Kazone... On the afternoons when we’ve planned for her to head back to Steven’s so we can rest up or have dinner she has asked to stay longer and lounge around with us. She seems happy at Steven’s as well and gets along great with his two little boys, but after 10 months in a boarding school and the tumultuous life she’s lived until now, I imagine she craves some one-on-one attention and love.

I’m hoping to find more time to write but we’ve been so busy with all my different friends that I never have time to just sit and reflect. My journal has taken precedence over typing on this frustrating little netbook and the brutally slow internet connection makes it nearly impossible to open anything other than emails. I’m also adjusting to having a travel companion for the first time since 2007 – It’s been great sharing experiences, frustrations and questions with Danielle, rather than venting them all into black ink or computer fonts with no one to listen... but it means that I’ve got less to say in cyberspace at the end of the day. More to come from Zanzibar and our last few days in Tanga this week, but a Kilimanjaro beer and my ipod are beckoning now...