BECATravels: Dar Es Salaam

Friday, July 1, 2016

Dar Es Salaam

As soon as we landed in Dar Es Salaam, Ashley said a quick goodbye to me and headed off to the international part of the airport – a taxi ride away – with Jumana in tow, to make sure she got to her gate and arrived in time for the flight. I stayed at the domestic terminal to wait for the others and to look for the transport from our Salvation Army hostel in Dar to pick us up. The others arrived, with tales of landing on a tropical Zanzibar for a few minutes before making the last leg of the flight.

Finally, we made contact with the taxis from the hostel, which had been waiting for us at the international airport for an hour before receiving the call that we were at the domestic airport. Then all eight of us – with two pieces of luggage apiece - squeezed into two taxis. We still needed to pick up Jumana at the international terminal, so one cab headed there while the other went on to the hostel. Because phones weren’t connecting in the new city, it took a good half hour to connect with Jumana. But finally, we were on our way.

By this time, it was rush hour and we were in traffic that made Arusha look uncongested.

The Salvation Army “compound” was a fenced-in area near the national stadium. (Soccer, of course!) From the outside, the stadium looks gorgeous! Inside the fence, there are many (50?) little cottages that contain two single beds with mosquito netting draped around them, and an adjoining bathroom. We learned the charge was $25/night for one cottage plus breakfast. Wow! And there was a big fan in each room to dissipate the heat (84º F) and coastal humidity. As everyone was tired and ready to go home, we decided not to leave the compound, but instead, to have dinner there. It was good food in a pleasant, large dining room.

The next morning we traipsed back to the big dining room for breakfast. Salvation Army “soldiers” were there this time, dressed crisply in white shirts and black pants or skirts. Unfortunately, this was the biggest insight we gained into the work of the Salvation Army while we were there. But we were surely grateful for the clean, comfortable, and inexpensive housing for our last night. At !0:00 AM, we again stuffed ourselves into taxis – this time, three vehicles – and rode to the airport, a quick ride in the lighter morning traffic. The plane left Dar at 1:30 PM for Abu Dhabi.

No comments:

Post a Comment

BECA International Video Project

The BECA International Video Project began in 2001 when Dr. Betsy Blosser and then BECA graduate student Gabriela Martínez applied for a grant jointly offered by the San Francisco State Offices of International Programs and Community Service Learning. The purpose of the grant was to design and offer a service learning course that was international in nature. Blosser and Martínez proposed a class in which students would travel to Cusco, Peru, to produce PSAs for Huchuy Runa, an organization that works with street children in Cusco. Winning that grant led the two to offer a two-course sequence entitled, "Media and Community Service" in which students prepared for the trip during a class in the spring semester and traveled to Peru in June to produce the PSAs.

Since that time, the course has been offered 12 times, and students have traveled to Brazil, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Tanzania and Thailand, in addition to Peru. The title of the course has changed; it is now, "Electronic Media and Social Justice I & II." And students do two sets of productions: one, for a local, not-for-profit organization in the spring semester, and one for an NGO in the country they have studied in the summer.

In each case, it is important that students remember that they are "in service" to the respective organization. In part, this means that students produce the video(s) the organization wants or needs for its purposes. Students offer their media skills and, if requested, their advice, but the nature of the production is up to the organization. The organizations receive the videos free of charge, with the knowledge that they are receiving student-produced videos.

It is the intent of this project that students become exposed to social justice issues in the local Bay Area, where San Francisco State is located, and to social justice issues in the country to which they travel. In addition, they have the experience of practicing their craft in a low-resourced environment in the Global South. Usually, this is a transformational experience for the BECA students.