The older I get, the more clearly I see that God uses
absolutely everything in my life to show me more about who He is and who I am
called to be. Recently I was blessed with the amazing opportunity to live out two
of my life dreams in one package deal: living in Africa for an extended period
of time and working for the United Nations. My 5-month experience in Tanzania
was packed with opportunities to grow in many ways I knew I needed to grow, but it also left
me with lessons about life and human nature that brought me back to the states
a drastically different person than who I was when I left.
Just to provide some context around my 5 months: I worked with
the human rights center and an amazing woman named Michelle Oliel to find an
intern position with the UN in any African nation. Now, while I fully recognize
that there are 54 unique and distinct countries on the African continent, I
will preface my story by saying I was simply desperate to get back to the
continent and was willing to go where ever God would allow me to go to do the
work. I reasoned that whatever country on the continent I got an internship must be the country God wanted me to go to, and in November 2018,
I received an email from the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals
in Arusha, Tanzania that I would be interning with the Office of the Registrar.
I bought my plane ticket, took my semester final exams full of anticipation at
my impending experience, went to Cuba for Christmas with my family, and
arrived back in the states to pack again and headed off to Tanzania 3 days
later.
I can honestly say that I wasn’t nervous about spending 5
months in Tanzania. I’d done lots of research on the country and on Arusha in
particular and it seemed that life there would be pretty easy going. To make an
already long post shorter I’ll fast forward through the 16 or 17-hour flight
with a layover in Amsterdam, arriving in Dar es Salaam at 12:30 in the morning
with my reserved pick up not at the airport and my hotel not answering the
phone; my standing outside the airport for 45 minutes trying to figure out what
to do as I was surrounded by taxi men asking me in limited English if I needed
a ride; my feelings of being overwhelmed but having to hold it together because
I was alone at night in a foreign country; and my eventual ride with a taxi man
who said he knew where the hotel was and then proceeded to ask several other taxi
men where it was as I followed him to his car where I quickly realized he knew what
seemed to me in that moment, an extremely limited amount of English- But by the
grace of God, after going to a couple of wrong houses, I got to where I needed
to be. Welcome to Tanzania.
After a few more opportunities to embrace the challenges of
being in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language and where humor
is essential, for even the best-laid plans go awry, I finally arrived at my
temporary home at Sakina Fortes- an apartment of sorts that was home to several
other UN employees and eventually some other interns as well. For now, I’ll
also skip over the severity of my challenges in navigating through the city and
finding food during my first few days- later I might post the fun details of
how severely I was taken advantage of due to my lack of understanding about the
currency- again though, a sense of humor is necessary for traveling and I
definitely laughed at my own ignorance and the ability of others to take
advantage of it in my first 5 days in the country- and believe me I WAS
absolutely taken advantage of (I paid $40 USD for a sheet set for my bed in the
market- it was only $30 in the overpriced European grocery store). It was these
experiences and the belief that if I was to be in a country for 5 months I should
respect the people enough to at least try and learn the language that lead me
to quickly enroll in Kiswahili lessons which ultimately gave me independence
and autonomy in my time in Arusha and provided amazing access to spaces into
which I would not have otherwise been invited.
I will definitely provide a more detailed and lesson
oriented post on my time in Tanzania (honestly, probably several more posts),
but I want to wrap up this post with my general tips for smart international
travel that made my initial time in Arusha easier:
1) Always pack a full outfit in your carry-on
luggage. In the event your checked bags do not arrive when you do, you will
have a change of clothes.
2) Download a translation app. When you arrive at
the airport at midnight and your ride is not there, you will have a better
chance of being able to forge some level of communication.
3) Learn the language. If you are going to spend a
significant period of time in a country, make it a point to learn the language.
Local people will appreciate the effort and it increases your confidence and comfort
in navigating your new home on your own.
4) Keep a travel journal. This is not so much for
smart travel, but more to preserve memories. Write down the names of places you
go and people you meet- you will be surprised how quickly these things may slip
your mind when you return home and are no longer in that environment.
5) Ask locals about places with which you are
unfamiliar before going. Going to a bar you have never been to before? It may
be worthwhile to ask locals their thoughts about it or about you going there. Several
times locals told me they don’t even go to places that I was considering going out
of safety concerns. Every city has these places- make sure you make informed
decisions.
