Wamama Kahawa

As we are heading into our last two weeks here in Dar Es Salaam, Joel is more busy than every at Ardhi University, finishing up his research and map making with the PhD student Kihila he is assisting, and I have been spending my days at a local coffee shop working on the creating a year long unit plan for teaching alphabet letter recognition and phonemic awareness for a preschool called Kidzcare (see below).

The coffee shop is called Wamama Kahawa (Kawaha = coffee in Swahili, and Wamama = the women, or mamas, who roast it). Almost every woman is a "mama" here.. at least married women I think. I may as well not have a name, or a first name in any case, as I am always called mama Joel at our guest house. it is customary to be called by the name of your husband until you have a child, and then you are called mama _______________ (name of first born).

 The interesting thing about living in Dar Es Salaam is that everything occurs outside, in the open air, or under a grass / banana leaf thatched roof. There is a complete lack of walls in public "buildings".  Restaurants, coffee shops, pubs, stores (or dukas) all have a roof but no walls, and their business just seems to spill out on to the streets, so much so that it is often hard to tell where one shop or restaurant ends, and another begins. Everything is outdoors, and there is so much happening in the streets, hordes of people walking and biking, and four lanes worth of traffic fighting to squeeze down a two lane road. Now I am getting off topic, but as a side note I have been thinking about the openness of the community, and the lack of formal walls (or any walls) in public places, and how that is such a stark contrast to the GIANT cement walls that surround many homes here, topped with electric fences, barbed wire, metal spikes, broken glass, and sealed off by giant metal gates. (Gates which are guarded and alarmed of course).  I realize that often it is the foreigners who live in these homes, or wealthy Tanzanians...and that quite honestly the less formal and informal houses here have the same lack of sides and walls as the public buildings in the community. Anyways,the heavy duty super walls are just a contrast to the inviting atmosphere of the shops and local places to eat.  They send a clear message to those passing by, and are anything but inviting.

Back on track... Wamama Kahawa is one of these beautiful outdoor places, and as I found out after a few visits was started by a few parents from the school where I just spent time volunteering at (HOPAC) as a means to provide local Tanzanian women with a business, but also taking measures to do so in an eco-friendly way.. Those two reasons alone gave me motivation to go there, but I must admit the amazing smoothies and sandwiches (and coffee) are almost reason enough.
Their writeup on their website (http://wamamakahawa.wordpress.com/) explains their mission best:

WAMAMA KAHAWA COFFEE ROASTERS

Wamama Kahawa Coffee Roasters is a social business that was started in Tanzania with the goal of offering freshly-roasted, old-fashioned Tanzanian coffee, while creating dignifying and enabling opportunities to unemployed Tanzanian women through fair wage and skills training in the simple but sophisticated art of hand-roasting coffee.

One of the mamas roasting coffee on site.

It is places like Wamama Kahawa that I will especially miss when we leave. How is it already Mid-July?!