My Tale of Tanzania: 2009

I'm not even mad about the aggressive marketing tactics that can be found at the markets in Africa. While shopping there I met some of the most compelling individuals I will ever meet in life and some of the most clever sales people.

Below are pics (courtesy of the talented Terrence Mayes ) from one of our daily TZ adventures.

Dr. Thomas F. Freeman, distinguished professor of forensics and Texas Southern University debate team captain since 1949 wandered off by himself (which apparently was a part of his ordinary outing-routine) and we quickly began to panic. We developed a strategic plan to find him while staying together, and being suuuuper cautious:)

By the time he was found, many of the group members opted out of exploring the market and stayed on the Dolla Dolla (spellcheck) instead. Dr. Freeman kindly greeted us with the a dramatic return saying, "I didn't mean to be the cause of such anxiety!!! (super emphasized) The man told me to sit. So I sat!" Hehe.

Early in the trip we identified the rebels among the group…

Apparently I was one of them! Can you believe it?

Our first night abroad, we had a layover in Dubai. So, Derek Hawkins a Comm. Major (and the awesome photographer of the pics below and many to come on this blog) immediately made plans for us to take a tour of Dubai. Then we met Jessica, this totally LA, free-spirited, genius of cultural theories who was headed to Cape Town to study abroad for 5 months while also developing a documentary about the influence of hip-hop in Africa…so, yeah-it was a dynamic encounter. Needless to say…the three of us clicked.

Our taxi driver, Ali was super cool. He took us on a personal tour around the entire city, and apparently he was well connected because we were able to go into many of Dubai’s Luxury hotels and snap some HOT shots. In 5 hours we saw two malls, about 3 beaches, 1 seven star hotel (and many 5 star), an insanely gorgeous mosque, the club scene in Dubai, and plenty of shiny things.

Dubai is a city that screams capitalism. Like, SCREAMS it. Huge Cartier billboards, shiny Bentley’s and Audi’s everywhere (Oh, and it looked like everyone just washed their car).

Derek described it best by calling Dubai a city that is a beautiful scar. The natural elements of the city no longer exist. It’s a beautiful city; however the construction and development will leave an ugly scar on the world, as do many of our current developments.