I occasionally get asked if living here seems a lot like camping, which I'm sure is a result of references to the bible camp at which I was employed. However, as many flashbacks as I may have to camp thanks to certain circumstances here (i.e. using your Nalgene to brush your teeth, cold showers, reading by flashlight, getting really tan, etc.), living in Tanzania is actually nothing at all like camping. While this notion seems very humorous to consider in retrospect of coming to TZ for the first time, I am positive the thought crossed my mind a time or two prior to my departure and convinced me that because I am a seasoned camper, I would naturally be well-equipped for anything a developing nation in East Africa could throw at me. Because everything can be solved with tarps, twine and a set of matches, right? Ah, ignorance truly is bliss, and once again, I find myself sheepishly admitting that it is not at all what I expected.
To me, camping is a very temporary time away from the modern conveniences we are used to having at our luxury and disposal, a time of fasting from their benefits and “roughing it.” But life here in TZ, though still lacking in many of these so-called conveniences, still maintains enough “normalcy” - for lack of a better word – to make living here more of living a lifestyle environmental-friendliness. Life at the Maasai boma did feel like camping (pictured above; we stayed there for three days in July) – probably because of the tents we slept in and cooking over a fire – but here in Dar, we simply conserve as much water as possible, sometimes hang out in the dark with our flashlights because the electricity is off (again) and don't always take showers in the morning because you are soaked with sweat by 8 a.m. anyways. And I love UDSM's outdoor cafeteria – sunny skies, rough equivalents to plastic lawn furniture, monkeys (there are always monkeys), and a very laid-back and comfortable atmosphere but different from similar emotions evoked by time camping.
There are enough conveniences to make this feel more like “living” than camping, but corners are occasionally cut for the betterment of conservation and careful use of precious resources. Besides, it's just not camping until we're cooking s'mores over a sweet bonfire under a blanket of God's star-studded night skies, and I'm doubtful as to the existence of marshmallows as we know them at home here in Tanzania. No worries, though; I think I s'mored myself out for awhile after last summer's LCBC canoe trips... ;)
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