Hakuna Matata…

…it means no worries…for the rest of your days.

Over the past year I have gained a pretty good understanding of why the national motto of Tanzania should be ‘Hamna Shida’, which means ‘No Problem’ in Swahili (basically the un-tourist version of ‘hakuna matata’). People here are just so much more laid back than schedule driven Westerners. If something doesn’t work out this time, oh well, try again later. No hurry, no hurry. This is probably what volunteers have the hardest time adjusting to, the pace of life here is so much slower and people rather than accomplishments are what are most important. When volunteers first arrive they are constantly getting upset that things are not working out the way they were planned. They come to me all up in arms that such and such didn’t happen how we said it would. However, they soon learn and by the end of their stay here, their personal motto is also ‘Hamna Shida’.

Karibu Tanzania!!!

So I guess it is time that GSC Tanzania caught up to our Thailand counterpart and entered the wild world of blogging! I mean, just about everyone out there has a blog so why shouldn’t we?

But the difference is that we here at GSC (Tanzania and Thailand) blog with a purpose!!! Through this blog we want people who are considering coming with GSC to volunteer in Tanzania to be able to read the stories of those who have already been here and, in turn, be inspired to come. I mean, who doesn’t want to come and see for themselves, first hand, the many entertaining ways of transporting a goat: shoved into the back of a dala (mini-bus used for public transport) or strapped to the back of a bike (in a crate of course)? We also want people who have already made the leap and decided to come to Tanzania to be able to read first hand accounts of what exactly goes on here, what it is like to live and work in a country that is about 180 degrees different than your own. We want to provide “on the ground, in the field, first hand observations, and up-to-date” information about actually being in Tanzania that maybe can’t be found anywhere else on the GSC website.