Dar es Salaam

Today we have been in Tanzania for a week and are begining to get into a bit of a routien: running on the beach in the morning, havig tea with the teachers from school, and biking around Bagamoyo site seeing and working on the project. Kelsey came in from California on Wednesday and we went to pick her up in Dar es Salaam. When we first came in last week we rode through the city on our way to Bagamoyo but I think I was too exhausted to really take in all that we were seeing. Before picking her up we went into the depth of the city to find art supplies for the children. It feels completely different than Bagamoyo, which is rural and open: the lives of the people we see and meet seem organic- people smile and greet us in the streets and welcome us into their homes. Yet in the city the people are condensed and you can feel the weight of their poverty. The streets in the city are slick with dirt and waste and there seems a stuggle between commerce and survival. In Bagamoyo there is laughter everywhere. It was a stark contrast between such a short span of space and I think it is probably just as it feels between new york city and the more rural areas of america, but we saw it from the outside, and from that lens it felt much harsher. Regardless we are all just living and for the most part you don't see the poverty here just people who are living the lives they know with happiness. I'm sure if we spent more time in the city of Dar es Salaam the hollow sadness would open into a better understanding of who these people are but often city life does not allow for that.
Currently Ansel is sitting next to me and playing with two children who are tickling him and asking him to dance with him. This three year old boy is trying to teach him dance steps and then gets bored and begins to draw patterns in the sand. The children are so loving its easy to see the reasons Sarah loves this place and originally began the organization. Everytime we come to the school they run to us and swarm us in a giant hug. They are so curious and open.