A very sad day for TNZ

On Friday morning a building next to the mosque collapsed. I first heard about it from Marina since she got a message that they weren’t going to the mosque in the evening due to the collapse. It was all over the news later that day. The building collapsed right where children were playing. It was a construction site and the building wasn’t ready yet, but they didn’t build it strong enough.

Four kids were still stuck inside. In the evening we heard that until four in the afternoon they heard noises coming from inside. After four, it became silent. The children had been there the whole day in the heat, crushed somewhere under rubble. On Saturday morning two of them were found, dead. Two of them are still missing, but the hope of finding them alive has fainted. There’s a funeral held for the two boys found today.

One boy was there with his brothers, but luckily he ran out to get a football during the collapse so he got out, but his brothers were the ones stuck inside.  Later found dead. The collapse happened very fast and many cars around were crushed.

One man went to buy something real quick just around the corner and left his wife and kid in the car. When he came back, the car was already crushed with his wife and child inside. We still don't know the number of people that actually have died. Some were hurried to the hospital, but the search for survivors still goes on. It’s a very sad day for Dar es Salaam and everyone is still in shock. 

Maybe they learn something from this. Maybe from now on they will check the materials used more carefully and supervise that buildings are built properly. They only had a permit to build a nine story building, but they went for 16 (during collapse it had 12 stories). So there you go. 

For more information, videos and pictures please visit 

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/29/17517633-rescuers-dig-for-survivors-after-12-story-building-collapses-in-tanzania?lite

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21980028 (with pictures and video material)

My heart goes out to the mothers of the children still missing and to all those families that lost someone due to the collapse, which I think could have been avoided by respecting some permits and rules. 

Blah blah blah and a stupid cock

The week was spent doing a whole lotta nothing. Done a lot of reading though, so that’s good. Otherwise it’s the basics; walks with Otso, cooking with Marina or her mom (whoever is home) and watched a movie on a rainy day after got tired of reading all the time. Today Marina didn’t go to the city in the morning, so we went to a tailor and another one and did some shopping and printed photos for Marinas wall. She got lovely frames as a wedding gift and now they have lovely wedding photos in them decorating the bedroom.  So yeah, what an achievement.  My plans to go to Diani for Easter weekend went downhill since I reacted too late.  Now trying to buy a ticket for the morning bus tomorrow would be a total hassle. Also miscommunication led to this point.  So I’ll probably stay in Dar for the Easter, maybe hit a beach or a shopping center or go see a movie of some sort. Maybe there’s a wild Easter party around the corner. Who knows. But deffo something completely different than it would be chilling at Diani beach. Beach bum life will have to wait.

I might add that I haven’t been sleeping that well. There’s a stupid cock (or rooster as you may call it) that has no timetable at all. It’s like the cock from Donald Duck, which turned out to be a Chinese one, which explained that it woke everyone up in the middle of the night. This cock however is more random than ever. One night he woke me up at 2 in the morning. Most nights 4 A.M. and today it started making noise after 8. Though… the sun was already up! Maybe I have never owned one or don’t really know that much about cocks, but aren’t they supposed to wake people up when the sun is rising?

Costume parties and the final (finnish) reception

On Friday Marina left to the city for a religion class in the morning so I took a ride to sasatel (where my mom used to work) to go visit my moms former colleges. With me I brought chocolates and such from Finland and I was lucky since they were all at the office at that time.  Afterwards I walked to Shoppers just to find out there was no fish since it was so early. I wanted to make red snapper for dinner so I was bummed, but stopped on the way home to buy potatoes and stuff and also some vegetables. The day I spent reading a book and took a walk with Otso. Marina informed me that she wouldn’t be home before dinner so Merja and I went shopping for the fish and other supplies.

We had a lovely dinner together. I couldn’t find red snapper but got another white wish which was okay as well and went good with the veggies I cooked in the oven. David picked me up shortly after dinner and we hit a fund raising party, which turned out to be a costume party. It was a space party, but gladly only a few people were dressed up so we fit right in. The night went quite fast and I ended up at Sea Cliff to watch the sunrise before heading home for some sleep. 

The next day I went to chill at the Nordic school pool for about two hours and tried to get a nice tan while swimming a lot as well. I was quite hungry  since hadn’t had a bite to eat in the morning so I rewarded myself with a meal at Marybrowns where Abbas and Marina took the twins in the afternoon. I headed home before them so I had just enough time to take a nap before another costume party:  the finnish embassadors husbands birthday party, where the theme was “bad taste”. Merja killed it with her outfit and I tucked a lot of scarf’s in  my leggings so I made my ass look huge.  Met some people I remembered and a lot of people I didn’t know. After some awesome food and a speech I took a ride home with Abbas and Marina, cause they left early. It was time to get some sleep before the wedding reception the next day…

During the night I woke up to dogs barking and a lot of weird noises. I heard a very big bang, like an explosion of some sort. It sounded like there were some kind of hooligans on the streets and one mans voice sounded like he was being tortured. He was crying and at some point the sound was close to some kind of animal being killed. In the morning I found out there were robbers in our neighbors house (twiga apartments) and the guards got 3 of them caught. 

getting things ready

I woke up 8 in the morning with a bit of a headache, but that didn’t stop me from getting up, cause it was time to start preparing for yet another reception. We went to the store with Merja and I bought a coffee maker for Marina as a birthday present (a little beforehand since her birthday is in April, but we needed the coffee maker now). I focused on baking while Merja started making sandwiches. Mr. and Mrs. Murji took of shortly after waking up, since they were supposed to pick up some drinks, samosas and the cake that was ordered before.

children gathered around to see the cutting
of yet another cake

We had a very nice little gathering. There was a nice bunch of people and everyone seemed to be having a good time. After the guests left we were all quite tired, but also really happy since we all had a good day as well. Marina and Abbas opened their gifts, which were very nice. They got a lot of fabrics and useable stuff like another coffee maker, a vase, service dishes and such.  After everything was cleaned up we still had some of the left over sandwiches that were very tasty (way to go Merja) and Abbas and Marina cooked some chips for themselves, whilst went to bed, since she had an early wake up call to Zanzibar for some meetings. All in all it was a perfect day!

Merja and Suheil posing while Teemu
is taking a photo on the backround

lazy dayz

On Tuesday I surprised the new couple with breakfast in bed, since it was their first morning as a couple, at the “new house”. Abbas lives here now and I guess they will live here until September, when Merja moves away and then they look for an apartment of their own. Tuesday was pretty chilled. Went out for a walk in hunt of mishkaki for lunch and found a great place just around the corner. So I bought mishkaki for all of us and cooked rice and a sauce to go with it, but Marina and Abbas were stuck in the city so they never made it for lunch. So I went for a swim with Merja. We were supposed to go out for Ethiopian food, but Marina and Abbas were quite tired so decided to stay in instead. As for me, I went out for a beer with David, whom I haven’t seen in two years. It was good to go to George and Dragons (a pub). Everything was the same. Nothing had changed since I left. …

the roads in Msasaki after the rain

schoolgirls in the city

I went to the city with Marina the next day, because we had to get a new iron. We went to see the mother in law, who gave me three suits (so sweet of her). We also had lunch there with Abbas’ family and then hurried back to the house before traffic got bad. Ethiopian plans got cancelled again, cause the new couple went out for dinner with Abba’ sister and her family. So, instead of staying home alone I went out for some dinner with David and with dinner I mean the fine mishkaki I also had the day before. It was heavenly. For some very odd reason there was a Michael Jackson concert dvd playing at that local restaurant, which was pretty scary cause people were crying and got carried away after fainting all the time (in the dvd I mean). We started thinking about MJ and bet on how many surgeries has he had. David went for 45 and I aimed for 47. Guess what: he’s had 37.

me and Otso

Merja, Teemu, Abbas and
Aasiyah at Ethiopian restaurant

That’s pretty much what my first week has been like. I’ve been enjoying long walks with Otso, enjoying amazing fruit salads and fresh fruits in general. On Thursday I walked to the tailors to make my mom a dress as a surprise (except I blurted it out to on skype later that day).  Even though I was pretty tired of the morning walk I spent more than an hour with Otso again, but got rewarded in the evening since we finally made it to the Ethiopian restaurant and omg was the food heavenly. So good. The only thing that bummed me out was that there was no electricity in the restaurant so we only had two candles and no air con while waiting for the food. The good news is that when the food arrived they finally managed to get the generator working so we were able to see what we were eating. Haha.

ethiopian omnomnom

Ps. I miss my mommmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

The reception

Marina, me and the twins

The reception for the Indian side of the family was held the day after the wedding. While the couple  took their time getting home from the suite, I took Otso for a run. Finally the couple made it home, happier then ever and we started prepearing for the  night.

They reserved a restaurant, with an Indian buffet and a beautiful cake. Well… actually they organized and Marinas mother paid for it. Men and women sat on different spaces again. There was a curtain dividing the two spaces, but Abbas sat on a sofa with her new wife on the women’s side.

Marinas mother, Merja, held a beautiful speech.  Also the sisters of Abbas said a few words about him and Marina, welcoming her to the family. The only sad part was that they got news that someone died (target shooting) and then they prayed a lot and people (including Abbas’ mother) cried so they passed napkins around. Soon people started enjoying themselves again and the evening could go on.

cutting the cake

Abbas feeding cake to Marinas mother Merja
after cutting the cake

After the “program” the men went to get food first while we watched the cutting of the cake. Abbas fed cake to Marina, then Marinas mother and his mother (tradition I guess). Soon we got to enjoy the delicious food that was served. It was spicy (duh) and I had to drink so much water, but it was so good. Amazing. I never got to taste the cake, cause I was so full, but I heard it was delicious as well.

We took like hundreds of pictures (again) with different people. You can’t even imagine. People were running between pictures correcting Marinas hem and positions from time to time. It seems to be very important that the hem is at its best. Me and Merja sneaked out pretty early, since we were both so tired and  of course ended up having a bad outcome with the Tanzanian police. We have diplomatic plates on the car so no police has the right to stop us, but this one had the nerve to follow us and come at the window holding a gun (I hate that they have guns). Merja just opened the window and shouted at him and we drove off while he stood there first trying to stop us but giving up really fast. This is how they are; when they want some money they stop you for fun and make up something.  All in all it was a good night.

For the end I wan’t to point out that the wedding wasn’t all about sitting in mosque. Marina signed papers before and at the mosque we watched Abbas signing the papers on the screen. Forgot to mention before. Haha.

Abbas' close family: his brother, older sister, father, younger sister,
mother and the twins (children of the older sister) on the sofa
with the couple. 

The Wedding

We arrived to the fiancés (Abbas) house in the city around five o’clock (well not exactly his house, his neighbors place upstairs, since the other floor was for men and upstairs for women). We waited for Marinas hairdresser to come, but even when she came, nothing really happened for the next two hours. There was a lot of talking, laughing and preparing with all of the girls in the family running around until finally Marina prayed with her religion teacher and the “getting ready”-part could begin. Marinas hair took a while and after getting the hair done it was time for make up. After make up Marina had to put this certain kind of oil around her body, which would give her a nice scent, before she could put on her wedding dress. Also she had to have brand new underwear I guess that she was clean and pure or something for the wedding night. The wedding dress was absolutely beautiful and Marina looked amazing wearing it. For her it was really rough since the dress was so heavy, even mine was and it was a “normal” one. Still we had to sit down and wait. Marina was anxious to get out already and me, well, I was sweating like a pig, but we had to wait since the guys weren’t ready yet and they had to clear the floor. Marina was suppose to be the last one leaving and not risking it so that she wouldnt see her husband before the wedding.

Finally the guys took off. We heard the screams of a goat that was being killed and by that time Abbas’ mother said it’s time to go. We had to make a quick stop downstairs to complete the traditions.  Of course when we stepped inside the house the goat was right there being killed and Marina got pissed, because she said earlier on that she didn’t want to see the goat. It would spoil her evening. Well…. too late. We put on a flower decoration on Marina and then the mother in law gave her milk. She explained that the mother always gives milk to her daughters before sending them off, because when you are a baby, your mother feeds you her milk, so when you get married (move away) she gives you milk again. I think that tradition actually is pretty sweet and makes sense. She even let me taste the milk after her, she was so nice and welcoming.

The bride Marina and her mom Merja

Getting to the mosque wasn’t  a piece of cake. A girl had to hold the Koran  up on Marinas head while she was walking. And  it looked funny and real hard at the same time since Marina is very tall and the girl barely could reach it. But I guess the effort and idea is most important. The mosque was beautiful, but yet again we had to wait and reorganize Marinas dress before going in. There was more the a hundred women sitting there when we walked through all of them on our way to the sofa where Marina was suppose to sit, with her own mother on the other side and the mother in law on the other. There were two other couples getting married as well so it took time.

Me at the mosque

I actually didn’t know until this point that they were going to get married in different rooms. The men had their own room with the groom and suddenly I saw Abbas on a video screen (in mosque, so advanced) and we looked at him getting married on it. I found this very weird. Marinas job was to sit on the sofa reading the Koran and they were blessed in a language I couldn’t understand so I just kept hearing their names and that was it for the most part.

After the ceremony there was lots of kissing and about a hundred people came to kiss the mothers and sisters and the bride and brought gift. Even I was congratulated (probably thought I was Marinas sister or something). And one thing I forgot to mention is that from this point on Marina got a new name, so she is called Aasiya from now on. Aasiya Abbas Murji (former Marina Lischi).

The new couple back at home changing decorations.

Afterwards we went to Abbas’ house to wait for the new couple to walk in and the mother in law blessed them at the door. They changed decorations and rings right there in the living room and there was a lot of picture taking, with different people from the family. We stayed for a meal as well, while leaving the newlyweds  to their own privacy. Marina was told before that she has to spent the first night at a mosque in their house, but the next morning she told it was just a lie. Actually Abbas surprised her by taking her to a suite with candels and roses everywhere so they were well rested when they came home the next day.

I was exhausted after the wedding and since I didn’t hear from Marina I decided to take Otso, their dog for a walk, which ended up being quite a long one, since we spent two hours outside walking around. Otso is a huge dog so many of the locals were scared of him, though the truth is he is the sweetest dog ever and I bet he wouldn’t hurt anyone.

All in all the wedding was very interesting and nice. Abbas’ parents and sisters were very welcoming and warm. I felt right at home there. Everyone was very helpful, polite and sweet. I can just say Marina is very lucky to marry into their family. Now she is part of this beautiful family.

the mosque

Back in Dar

Once I got off the plane in Istanbul I was really tired and it seemed that the first flight was delayed since I only had 20 minutes till my boarding to Dar began. As a first time at Istanbul airport I was amazed. It was crazy. I checked for my gate, which was 502 and I was standing there somewhere around gate 200 maybe and just decided to walk really fast since 300 gates seemed quite a long way to go.

I managed to make it to my flight and was lucky since there were only a few of us, so I got a whole row to myself, which meant that I could for once sleep on the plane, so when the plane landed in Dar I was well slept and had the energy to wait in line for my visa. Something I have to mention however is how much stupid people piss me off. I mean, you know when they always say “please remain seated until the aircraft has come to a full stop”… right? Well, NO ONE did. The seatbelt light didn’t even go off and we were still at the middle of the airport waiting for a green light when people started standing up and gathering their bags. So in a short while the plane started moving again and they actually had to call “please return to your seats, the plane has not come to a full stop yet.” I hope they felt even a little bit embarrassed realizing it was just a red light. HAH! And to top it all it happened on the second flight as well (except only one guy got up and he really did get embarrassed). I just don’t get it. What is the rush? The doors won’t open immediately, so why are you all in such a hurry to get up and stand in a row for a few minutes? And what is the hurry to get out? You want to rush so you can wait for your bags a little longer? Cause really, the bags won’t be faster then you, I promise.

Otherwise the flight was nice. I felt the nice humid air of Tanzania as I stepped outside and saw a familiar face: my friends fiancé was there to pick me up.  The first day I hurried to the store to get the essentials, because there were no fruits in the house and I wanted to get the oatmeal me and my mom used to eat. Of course going to Shoppers (a supermarket) brought back many memories and I had to buy a couple of tasty samosas for lunch as well. All the vegetables and fruits had to be bought elsewhere, from the street, cause they are cheaper and better there. I made a good fruit salad and had my first Safari beer in two years, which was fantastic. Rest of the day we just watched tv, made facials and talked about the wedding which was taking place the next day. Marina wasn’t suppose to leave the house before the wedding since she had hennas all over her legs and hands, which is the Indian way of preparing for a wedding or celebration.  We actually got a little too excited and Marina decided to practice by decorating my hands and legs with henna too. Well it looked nothing like the ones she had on her hands, but it was fun and I respect the effort. She ended up making a really pretty flower on my right foot actually, so yaaaay.

Marinas home made crisps! <3

Since my friend Marina is a muslim now, we couldn’t have a proper bachelorette party, so our way of celebrating her last night as a “single” woman was to get pizza and watch a great movie. So that’s what we did….