Where Europe meets Asia- Istanbul

August 5, 2009

No wonder why Roman, Latin and Ottoman empires chose to build strong presence at Byzantine or Constantine or as we say today- Istanbul! It’s a city with unique geography, heritage, culture and beauty that even today people from almost every nation come and rule. Yes, they rule their time spent as a tourist! With rich history of Ancient Greek, the establishment of New Rome (Nova Roma), 600 years of Sultans (Ottoman) and liberation in 20th century- all made this city a living history. Istanbul’s culture is as vast as its history too. Thus the city of Istanbul was chosen to be the ‘European Capital of Culture 2010’.

At the first impression, the city seems to be heaven for few professionals to be wow! It’s heave for architects to see how transformation and co-existence of different architecture built the city. Alongside, how rich history has also been the rationale of shaping Istanbul. And when history is rich, there has to be an interest from many professionals. For today, putting aside the history and architecture, let’s just talk about how it feels now to be a visitor in Istanbul for couple of days.

We landed in Istanbul and were received by an unexpected gift from the season. The afternoon city was dressed in tulips of every color and shape. The deep blue water of the Sea, the skyline of famous mosques and palace created breathtaking views by the road.
We had so much to see and in so little time! A little research on what to see & how to see made our two days trip very worthwhile.

Since we approached Istanbul with a bulk of memories from Egypt, we decided to take the first evening slow. The street side restaurant gave the flavor of any European city. After having a late lunch (still can smell that Turkish kebap) we headed for the Galata bridge on the Bosphorus (the channel that divided the European and asian part of Istanbul), a must see place in Istanbul. There are convenient metro rail to all the important locations. Another interesting way is to travel by the ferries through the water channels. And taxis are easily available if one is not making a budget trip.

The Galata Bridge links the old part of Istanbul to the new. It has a rail & vehicle road like any other bridge but has series of restaurants at the bottom which makes the bridge unique. It’s a meeting place for people of all ages. People gather on top and enjoy waiting with a bait to catch fish. And at the same time people at the bottom wait at the restaurants for freshly cooked fish. During day time, if you just see carefully in the water- you may see thousands of jelly fishes are swimming all over. The adjacent area is so magnetic that we spent about three to four hours on the bridge, by the bridge, ‘this side’ and ‘that side’ of the bridge, not to mention ‘clicking’ was taking place in every now and then. There is a stunning fish market at one side of the bridge, where amazing fresh fishes were displayed and you can choose any to be grilled on spot. Just to mention, Istanbul has to be a favorite place for fish lovers and you just can’t resist the look of the whole fishing to grilling experience!

In the mean time we resisted ourselves from the bridge hangout for an hour to see the oldest tower of Istanbul- Galata Tower. This tower has a 360deg. view of the city. It comprises of a restaurant which arranges traditional belly dancing shows during dinner time with other Turkish cultural shows. Around this restaurant, this floor consists of the viewing deck for amazing view of Istanbul. A sunset view from the tower was worth walking up the hill for 30 minutes plus ten lira ticket each.

Istanbul’s old part is such a city, where you can find every street happening. Though there is a tram system, but if you have ample time a little bit of interest in walking, you can experience the ultimate tourist time. We stayed at the old part, thus walking down from Galata gave us added advantage to see those happening streets. You can’t resist yourself but going to the shops of amazing home decorating lights, ceramic souvenirs, goodies shop and of course the shop for famous sweets- Turkish delights! So we did a small shopping of goodies, sneak into some beautiful lighting shops (and asked if they mind if we take pictures only) and indulge ourselves with delights on our way back to hotel.

The nest morning we started our journey to the history. This was the time to see the famous places, camiis (mosques) and palace. Blue Mosque also known as Sultanahmet Camii (Sultan Ahmed Mosque) was on the top in our priority list of sight-seeing. As the name suggests is wrapped in intricate details of the iznic tiles. The Iznic tiles are very Turkish origin and produced as a result of modification of the Chinese porcelain. It is said that the Sultans were very fond of porcelain & hence the Turkish created Iznic tiles with a quality very close to porcelain. I apologize for my limitation of not being able to write the beauty and feelings that how beautiful it can be!

The grandeur of Aya Sophia (Hagia Sophia) makes it one of the most important buildings of architectural history. Even today the scale, the technique of setting up the dome, the openings for light, and the supports everything is considered as architectural marvel. It used to be the largest church in the world for thousand years before Seville Cathedral in Spain. Later on it was turned into a mosque during Ottoman empires but the mural of Jesus still exists on the wall of Aya Sofia. Since 1930s, this church and mosque became a museum and a witness of Roman and Ottoman era. As a second preferred places of sight-seeing, it was more than what we have expected.

After spending the half day, we have decided to plan our evening by booking tickets for Sufi Dances that has a tradition of 800 years. It’s a mix of mystic music and dance performed with the recitation from Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, which ends with a whirling dance a spiritual journey. It’s a hypnotizing experience by a group of people who practices Sufism in Turkey. Coming back to reality from the spiritual life happened through the call of our stomach, its kebap (kebab) time again.

The next morning was the last morning of our Istanbul tale. So, we chose to cover 3 other major attractions-Topkapi Palace, Grand Bazar and Bosphorus tour. Topkapi is a UNESCO world heritage site. It used to be the official residential palace for Sultans for 400 years. It was built in 1459 (initially) by Sultan Mehmed II. It used to be known as Yeni Sarayi (New Palace) but in 19th century it was named after Topkapi Gate (now lost). Once used for all royal occasion now host some amazing collection of some rare holy relics of Musilim world. Topkapi Palace contains Prophet Muhammed (pbuh)’s cloak and sword. It also kept few other prophets’ and khalifas’ swords. One of the interesting items there was the stick of Prophet Musa (since it is believed that he divided the sea with that stick). Among the other items- Prophet Muhammed’s hair, foot print and some used cascades are to be mentioned. The whole palace takes a long time to see, so just after this breathtaking experience of seeing holy relics- we have enjoyed some clicking moment with tulips and palace architecture.

Think about a market that has more than 1200 shops, 30,000 staffs, and 10+ big gates, fully covered and built in 1461 (later on extended in 17th century). It has to be the Grand Bazar of Istanbul and a must see place. It is also one of the largest and oldest markets in the world. Grand bazaar is a super bargain place. If you do not have ample time and patience for bargaining, you may just do window shopping. We were mesmerized by the shops fully loaded with different sizes of Evil Eye lockets and souvenirs. This is place is also well known for gold jewelries.

Istanbul is a very touristic city. You have all the facilities to avail in reasonable prices. So going to the Asian part through a Bosphorus journey seemed cheaper, compared to many other similar cities. There are regular ferry services that take tourist from Galata Bridge to the Asian Part of Istanbul via several key stops. You can hop in-hop off according to your choice. We have decided to be in the last point and guess made a good choice. In the April weather of Istanbul, it was a bit chilly on the Bosphorus. As our ferry was moving many beautiful building, hotels and billionaire’s villa came across. Sometime, huge Turkish red flags were just making the sights picture perfect. A big Bosphorus bridge will be on the way to Anatolia side (Asian side). Once you are close to the last destination, you will see how the channel mixes with the Black Sea (it looks blue though).

We just loved the first sight of the Asian part. Few yacht and ferries anchored around the bank and just from there open and beautifully decorated restaurants were serving freshly caught sea foods and fishes. Tourists from different countries indulging themselves with a bit of silver set noise, flavor of big yellow lemon, wine, weather and obviously the sea-side ambience. This small village has a ruin of old fort. Someday someone used to stay (sorry not to pick up the history) there and our guess was that he/she was the luckiest one of that place (maybe the staffs of the fort were too). As we walked up the hill towards the fort, looking back mistakenly once made our eyes to come off and jaws to open a bit too much. Yes, it was an amazing view of mountains and sea from the top.

Everything has a limit, so did our time to catch the ferry back to European turkey, unfortunately. After tasting one grilled fish with lemon juice and couple of chocolate ice-cream scoops our journey back passed by talking to tourists from Egypt. Looking back to back both Egypt and Turkey tour- we were thinking that every second was worth! By the way, all these are in the old part of Istanbul. But it also has a new stunning part with sky scrappers, shopping malls, modern squares and modern amenities. One of the must see from that part is Taskim Square. It’s a long road with tram line in the middle among all best brand shops from the world. Interestingly, whenever of the day you visit here, you will see thousands of people walking and walking. It’s all day full of lives mostly with young people, where we tried to cheer ourselves up as the trip was finishing the following morning. 3 days are just not enough!

Written by:
Omar Farook (Shourav)
omar.farook@hotmail.com

Luxor: The City of Pharaohs

Even though the source of Nile is not in Egypt- the river made the country equally attractive along with Giza’s pyramid. Many of you may disagree with this statement of mine and ask how I could compare one of the seven wonders with a river! But if you follow the Egyptian map you can see the route of river Nile that passed through few amazing cities (ancient cities) and has been meeting thirst for historians, anthropologists, engineers, explorers, tourists and so on even after 4500 years later. And those who have been to cities like Aswan, Luxor, Cairo and Alexandria- you may agree with me by now. Luxor is such a city by river Nile. It is the city of Pharaohs- home for the mummies.

In the Hollywood movies related to Egyptian history, you may have seen many structures, temples, stories and characters. Most of these actually came with the history of Luxor, the capital of ancient Thebes- where temples of different Pharaohs existed and still exists. It is also called the largest open museum of the world.

What to see in Luxor? Answer to this from me would be short, and that is: everything! Luxor has ruins almost at every part. The whole city is divided by river Nile slashing east and west side. In the east bank, the must see will be the Karnak Temple and ruins of Luxor temple. Most of the good hotels, restaurants and hang out places are in this part too.

You can spend days in Karnak Temple Complex; it’s a heaven for those who love Egyptian history and architecture. It has so much in terms of ruins, chapels, pylons and other buildings. This complex also has the largest Hypostyle Hall (area: 50,000 Sq. ft) with 134 massive columns arranged in 16 rows. 122 of these have a height of 10 meters and rests of them are 21 meter high. Perhaps the first question comes up in the visitor’s mind is- ‘How did they built it 4500 years ago?’ You may also be amazed by the existence of colors in the hieroglyphic (formal ancient writing system) symbols on the walls, pillars and ceilings. If you ever go to Luxor, don’t miss the chance of being welcomed by the sphinx at the entrance, guarding the temple for ages! And by the way, if $20 is not much for you-do not miss the lights & night show in the temple complex.

Luxor Temple is not as big as karnak, but worth seeing. You may have seen this temple in one of the 70s James Bond movies. Adjacent to the temple, there is a large square where you can enjoy some pleasant time by walking. Across the square many restaurants are serving mouthwatering shwarma and flavored sheesha. If you are looking for the best grills (kebabs) of Luxor, then you may decide to take a walk by the river Nile and indulge yourself with famous Egyptian cuisine in some exclusive restaurants.

When you are done with east cost, you may want to spend on an exciting excuse to be in the west bank. Guess what? Many tour operators at Luxor offers hot balloon rides for reasonable prices. Book your seats for a very early morning balloon ride to see the sunrise from the sky. It will cost you 65-75 US dollars per person for a one hour ride (in Africa a one hour ride takes around 350 US dollars per person!). If you are lucky, the wind will take you through a ‘trailer’ of ruins, valleys and temples of kings and queens.
On the way to the main attraction at west bank, two giant sculptures will stop you- these are called Memnon. After quick photo shoot go straight to see the tombs where mummies were found. There are two separate valleys- one for kings, another for queens. Valley of the Kings is more popular as about 62 tombs have been discovered. The latest great discovery from here was the tomb of Pharaoh Tut-Ankh-Amun. You won’t regret spending 3 or 4 hours spending to see the Sarcophagus of Ramses kings and many more Pharaohs who ruled ancient Egypt.

On the way back, to experience the amazing architecture you must stop at the temple of Hatshepsut. She was on of the 3 Queens who ruled ancient Egypt. Those who have read about ancient architecture, they must know this creation just by seeing it. After your clicks, go to the valley of the Queens. If you are lucky, you may be able to see the tomb of Nefertiti- another great ruler (for restoration purpose they don’t always allow visitors to see it). Please note that there are more to see and do in Luxor. Stay tuned with PURPLE fore more coverage on different cities around the world.

TIPS!
Route: Fly to Cairo (Check few airlines to book your ideal ticket); take overnight train (costs $30-$60) to Luxor. You can also fly from Cairo.
Eat: Egypt’s all cities have delicious food to offer from budget to luxury menu. At Luxor, try Shwarma and Keabab
Sleep: A budget hotel will cost around $10-$15 dollars per night including breakfast and attached toilet. Do bargain.
Buy: Souvenir is available at ‘The Souk’. It’s an interesting area to hang out as well. Try not to believe in whatever sellers are saying. Egypt is shopper’s paradise if you can bargain.
Read: Buy guide books (e.g. Lonely Planet). It gives you handy information and thus you can avoid loads of unnecessary cost and hassle. Try to pick up some numbers in Arabic, it will help you to fix taxi fares, bargain with shop owners.

Oasis for refugee: Dadaab

With more than 2500 years of invasion by many empires, races and countries- Somalia is a country now suffering from unbelievable uncertainty. Recent civil war in the country has divided the country into 3 parts and gave a chance to grow violence among different clans and groups. With these uncertainties and civil war situation, since early 90s, it has not seen a bit of development, any hope compared to the potential they had! Looking at the situation, it wont be wrong to say that it has became a failed state.

People of Somalia, who tried to have a better life- always wanted to move abroad. Since early 90s, many Somalians went around different countries for a better hope. Kenya was one of the neighbouring countries where access was comparatively easy.

Dadaab is small place at the Northern Province of Kenya. It has a non-fertile topography with desert like sand and weeds. The temperature is high with humid condition. People of Dadaab is mainly pastoralists. In spite of hard conditions of this place, it was close to Somalian border and at least a place without violence. Probably, that was enough for Somalis to dream about a new life!

It has been more than 2 decades that Somalis have been coming as refugees. About for last 16 years UNHCR has been providing enough rationale to support them to live in Dadaab. On other way, UNHCR has developed refugee camp for these people and started pulling resources to make them survive temporarily. To help in implementation, many international NGOs have been taking challenges to work in this remote place and support the camp. These temporary support for refugee has already crossed 16 years when with many other refugee and others I wonder- how long is this 'temporary' business will go on?

I had a rare chance to visit this camp area, Dadaab this month. Before coming to Kenya- I have never heard of this place. By looking at some web pictures and articles, I could not resist when my boss told me to have a visit. I jumped into the idea of getting first experience of riding a UN flight, and then to visit one of the remotest places in the world. I also could not resist the chance of showing off about this trip in my facebook status. Silly me! Didn't know how disturbed I will be even to see a bit of it!

The journey began well, with a beechcraft 1900C STAL aircraft from Nairobi, we flew quickly above 13000 feet from the ground. After 10 minutes or so, pilot announced,'Ladies & Gentlemen, if you look at your right- you will see Mount Kilimanjaro and on the left Mount Kenya" - two highest peaks of this region was standing high over the beautiful African clouds from two different countries- with pride. I regret now why I haven't took a snap from the plane of Kilimanjaro! What was I thinking? Probably my internal processor took a while to record it in my bio-memory called brain! Amazing and a pleasant surprise as I didn't know about it. After an hour when the old speakers of beechcraft made some noise, I captured that we were landing in 5 minutes, thus looked at the ground. Sandy land....no sign of civilization...few 'tukuls' (hut)....straight sandy lines (roads) and a small piece of pitched road. Later I have realized, it was a air strip- only pitched cover made for the air crafts to land.

It came on my face first- a heat wave mixed with sand, welcoming me with the essence of toughness of the place. It was good to see an old face from my organization came to receive me. While approaching to the compound where my office is, I observed one cell phone company made a good progress in bringing cell phone into Dadaab. After all, thousand of aid and NGO workers are working here. A very poor scene of the village market (!) was reminding me of the Haors and Chars of Bangladesh. The face of poverty is probably the same everywhere!

With a small breakfast we have also received security briefings. The main risks are: Scorpion and Snake. So we were told to be cautious. Since one foreigner got shot in December, so gun shots were also a possible risk. Dehydration is another silent risk-so drinking was advisable. Cars moves to the main refugee camps only according to a routine time-table as police gives escorts accordingly. Without police, no NGO cars can move as there are bandits anywhere. That was a good piece of information for me to be more 'courageous'! So, without any delay, I wanted to go for a field visit- but it turned out I can only be till another sub office of CARE but not to the locality where refugees stay. And it is also sensitive for an xpat like me to interact with them (according to authority!). With a slightly disappointment, I got into a 4x4 to catch the 2'O clock convoy. with colleague. Goal was to at least see the ongoing food distribution in a sub camp. At least I had a chance to see some of them!

From a distance, I could see the queue of refugees. We entered through a warehouse and food distribution point where some of the last groups were taking the packages. Everyone was busy dragging the sacs toward the exit point. Refugees get food aids twice a month and the aid meets the minimum standards of humanitarian aid. Interestingly, USAID's food items gave them a good chance to trade to but other commodities to make their life interesting- who cares about kilo-calories when you get more than corn-soya-blend and wheat flour! When I approached towards the exit point, I was surprised to see some private cars to carry the aid. When I asked one of the staffs, he replied- "not all of them are poor, many of them brought much money to live good, then have invested into many businesses within refugee camp...and there are many divisions among refugee". So I was silently thinking and watching the smiles, trade, donkey carts, dragging and private cars....all around aid- all around aid dependency.

I took a chance to ask more to the staff about the camps. Started initially with the question of how long he has been working in Dadaab. Then I asked in his 14 years of work here, what progress he has experienced around refugee situation. The answer was- 'nothing, they became more aid dependant and the doesn't work'. I also got to know, in last one year 43% more refugees joined since January 2007 till January 2008. In total 245,000 refugees are in the camp, whereas the locals sum up around 160,000. There is a clear tension between the host (locals) and refugee. Irony is, with the aid attention focused only on the refugees, they are far better of the locals just being aid dependant. When I asked what is next for these refugees? If there is any solution for them than considering this to be temporary camp?...they reply was,"It is a tough question for me, better ask UN".

While bumping on the barren land that we were using as main road, some Marabou Storks came across-sipping from a small area of stagnant water. It rained 2 days ago-but dried quickly too. With this very known climate of Dadaab, our driver was very familiar, as he was born and brought up here-as he is one of the hosts. He said,"There are both good and bad about refugees. First of all they were deprived from their land and came here for hope. Because of them, Dadaab is know to the whole world-so at least some development are coming to this place. But on the other hand, they are destroying our environment- groundwater and trees (shrubs)".

We went to visit some more development works done by NGOs. A good secondary school with science labs, a computer center soon to be connected with internet. Thanks to those NGOs and UN who brought some technologies and development to this remotest places. However, the question remains, who will look after the locals? The mechanism of NGOs seemed to me vision less. It has been like ad-hoc process of bringing money and doing something for the refugee that looks good on the report, websites and journals. Ideally, the tension is mounting up silently. After 16 years of camp establishment where there is at least 2 generations are existing within camp, how easy it will be to convince them that it might be a temporary address for them? How can the new born at the camp think of it isn't his address? How can they think of the situation if UN stops feeding them? It seems there is a lack of political will/ foresightedness. Almighty forbid, we may have to see the tension between host and the refugee soon becoming an issue of claiming the ownership! Who will be responsible?

Note: the situation may not be as clear as I tried to explain. There are complexity in many ways in Dadaab. However, in a short trip-I felt of having a political will from the countries (Kenya and refugees' countries) and NGOs should do lobby and advocacy rather just distributing aid or doing some so called capacity building and long term development plans! By the way, the refugee camp aslo had influx from Ethiopia, DRC, Burundi, Tanzania and some neighbouring countries as well.

From Poverty To Power: a day at Nairobi University

Duncan Green, an activist from Oxfam International.....who has been working for them for quite a long time in London. In his opinion, he is in Oxfam to challenge internally. He questions about what progress we have made in eradicating poverty after working such a long time. As he is the research unit head for Oxfam, he did utilized the opportunity to look for the issues behind not doing good in the poverty business. His research from Oxfam working countries and also some non-working countries shows how the power dynamics is controlling poverty.

Recently, I have got the oppotunity to visit a seminar where he presented about the book about his research named 'From Poverty To Power' (visit: www.fp2p.org ). Indeed a strong title with thoughtful twist to re-think about the businesses (I am using business for the activities that we, development agencies, private sector, politicians and government deal with) with poverty. The foreword for the book is written by Dr. Amartya Sen. It was a rare opportunity to meet the author himself, a very good speaker- 'Brian' from ActionAid and Joyce from Results for Africa Institute under a same roof talking from 3 different perspective but also supporting some facts came out of the book.

Followed by the discussion on book, many issues came up during discussion with special focus on Africa. It was interesting to know that how african writers are deprived from publishing books in international platform. A member of the panel claimed in front of the writer if the same book was written by an african, it wouldn't get the same level of exposure. It was also evident from the consensus among the hall full of African (mainly Kenyan) that how they fail to bergain with north. In the hall, I could feel some similarities between Bangladeshi youth and Kenyan youth. From the comment of stuedents, I could understand the similar frustration about polictical system, economic liberty and mindset. The contrast between having the richest continent and being poorest hurts badly. Even to an outsider like me, I get surprised how a normal kenyan survive with the price of commodities! I get surprised looking at road full of lates Mercedes, Range Rover, BMW and other luxerious cars driven by Kenyans and having the 3rd largest slums in the world side-byu-side! Who is controlling the poverty?

Probably to answer above question, the book 'fp2p' tries to make us think. You may want to think again about the MDGs, about the approach of government and development organizations towards povery eradication. Many writers like Mr. Green gets praise and good review every year. But I wonder whether they really are satisfied to see how poorly we have been handling their thoughts!

[end]

::The Sun-Kissed Land::

They call it a 'Sun-kissed land'. After a tiring night flight, didn't understand why unless got kissed by sun in the morning on my bed, obviously with amazing beauty of indian ocean! It is worth being born, it is worth beleiving in GOD!It has been more than a week that I have joined one of the regional offices of CARE International at Nairobi. On the way of slowly catching up with city life, I have got a call to visit Tanzania! Though was not looking up to a place of the differenc of 1 hour flight, but got impressed by the airport. When I was coming out of the arrival lobby, a handsome guy wearing probably one of the best hawaii print shirts that I have ever seen, was holdin my name in a plackard. He is 'Ramadan', the driver of the hotel to pick me up. The car ride is another one hour with similar road side view with Bangladesh, except for sign boards. They even have Bajaj CNG three-wheelers! Not to mention the Indian communities are preety strong as Kenya. There are develpment sign almost wherever you look at. New constructions of buildings, roads is a common scene of Dar Es Salam, the capital. Anyways, with some chit-chats with Ramadan (probably in Bangladesh he will be called as Ramjan) and some swahili music at radio I found a cozy bed awaiting thousand miles away from my home. That reminds me how badly I miss home. But hey! I have the great Indian ocean to subside the sadness-saying 'Karibu' (welcome).

:: [2] ::

...I was spending my week with all fellow Africans from more than 10 countries in this hotel. Among 35 participants I am the only one who is not African! But these people are full of fun once you start getting to know. So, in my case, I didn't feel like an alien after 1/2 days. Cracking practical jokes in the middle of session, laughter and openness about feelings, obviously gives a chance to be close. I think for the first time I met someone from a country called Lesotho. I have also managed to learn how we are similar that are usually not reflected on media! By the way, for the first time I have also met Sudanese people, they are fun! They are adorable!! I didn't have any idea that Khartoum (Sudan's capital) is actually as developed as many developed African cities. Probably the westernize media doesn't like the good side of Africa! I was shocked to know that funding from western donors have reduced at Tanzania sicne they don't have any political importance in terms of civil war-in other way, its not a good weapon market! But it is certainly a good job market for Muzungus (Muzungu: its a swahili word meaning 'white people'). Just by looking at the driving seats you can tell that Africa is definitely a good place for them to earn! Well...probably for some south asians like me too :-) (FYI, my pay scale is not at all like other X Pats). Anywyas, I did like the crowd withouth Muzungu in the White Sands Hotel. I did get a chance to dance with african beats as the hotel aranges BBQ nite with live band on every wednesday. The artists thought that I am Indian and they also played a Hindi song for me :) I politely managed to make them convince that hindi is not my language.

:: [3] ::

It was then shopping time! At the last day of workshop, the organizers managed a bus to have a trip to city for some Tanzanian style shopping! They took us to a place looks similar to our Bongobazar. But the sad part is I could not find anything for me as all t shirts are long (they wear very long t shirts), but I really felt for my soccer lover friends back in Dhaka as the jerseys are very cheap! One thing is to be mentioned that Tanzania (but I guess other African nations too) is a football crazy nation. I was passing a railway crossing and saw a black board beside the road mentioning the timetable of English Premier League for next two days and also the updates from previous matches. Here, poor day-labourer works wearing football club jerseys. Here, developmetn agencies desigining projects based on Football (they have major movements of HIV/AIDS awareness through sports). Local TVs are showing live matches, Supermarkets selling TVs through soccer based promotions! Football is everywhere!

After an hour when I got tired of finding somthing to buy, I decided to have some bites. But hey, even though Dar has only 50% muslim community-all restaurants are closed for Ramadan :( After searching a while I found a food stall in a gas station. They were selling 'alu-chop' and 'piaju' :) I was so surprised to find a food like that and could not resist myself to have those. As the clock was ticking, I had to be off for my meeting with CARE Tanzania for the time being (yes, after the meeting we will go for interesting places). I had a tough time locating CARE's driver since he doesn't speak english and I could not understand his location....somehow, with the help of Almighty I found him by walking/ running around! I think that's a long story to tell separately.

CARE Tanzania is one of the interesting CARE offices in the region. Because, it has many interesting projects with private sectors. They have worked with The Coca Cola Company (Coke has a very big market here), they are working with a big mining company too. The office looks very busy all the time. It can be an example for other development agencies how we can be innovative in having meaningful partnerships to reduce the dependency of donors. This office also has numerous projects focusing environment and climate change.

:: [4] ::

Later that day, our bus with all my workshop mates came to pick me up from CARE office. It was 5 in the afternoon and the sky was started to smile in red. Once again, I was enjoying the twilight of Dar- from the front seat of bus, not beach. After a while when we got stuck at 5 pm traffic (I guess this is common in all countries), a very familiar sign caught up my eyes. It was a big sige on a huge gate of a building showing bold presence of BRAC. I could not resist telling others in the bus about BRAC and it seems many of them already know how big they are. Readers many think why a CARE employee so excited about its competitor like agency. Well, I guess its the pure honesty of heart's feelings about your country that can't be controlled by so called professionalism all the time. You do feel proud to see a Bangladeshi organization working for world's humanity! Maybe development agencies need to challenge each others more to be efficient. As we all are paid activist to fight poverty, we should better justify the salary by doing our best for the sake of poor people!

Just after sunset, letting above thinking away, a very decent beach side area suddenly pops up in the windshield of bus. One of the Tanzanian colleague declared- 'people! We have 20 minutes to see around'. After getting off to a square-like place, I thought I won't be bored spending 20 hours at a stretch here! This place is called SLIPWAY. It's a tourist complex, nicely designed with a harmony of international & Tanzanian touch of architecture having 1 terrace cafe, 1 beachside restaurant with live cultural performance, a nice coffee shop with bar and delicious ice-cream parlour. I could say it's delicious from the facial expresssion on people who were coming out from there. Oh! I forgot to mention the book shop, handicraft bazaar, posh home decor shop (I didn't have courage to enter as it was that posh!), the Japanese restaurant and the ONE-WAY t-shirt shop. Now you tell me, is it possible to enjoy this place in 20 minutes?

I did not have any proper camera but my cell phone camera. So, could not capture the beauty of Slipway or the things that I have seen in Tanzania. Or maybe I have captured...in the celluloid of my bio-negative film of life. [End]

N.B. My facebook friends can also see this post at fb notes. And some pictures in my photo album.