Saturday 2 October 2010

Tanzanians in Canada

So a lot has happened since my last post, too numerous to chronicle on this blog so i'll just fill you in on a few. As it turns out, there actually is a Tanzanian community in Toronto!! In fact a relatively large and active community that has it's members on a listserv by which they communicate all the various events organised by the community.

I've been fortunate to meet with a few members and i've it's been a pleasant surprise to be honest with you. In fact the owner of the Tanzania Canada Association website happens to be a friend and colleague from Block 41 in Dar-Es-salaam. He just recognised me because i look so much like my brother (if you ask me I don't know how anyone could come to that conclusion!!), we exchanged numbers and the rest is history. I'm gonna generalise here when I say this but, based on my judgement there is a significant difference from the Tanzanian's I've come across here and the ones i've had the privilege to meet and experience in my previous home in the UK. The majority here are well educated and are professionals in their own right. I'm talking about Doctors, Teachers, Project Managers and Engineers, people working in the provincial Government, major financial institutions, Universities and so on and so forth, it's amazing, and i'll be honest I'm pleasantly surprised and quite happy about this. Maybe I was mixing in the wrong circles before and like i said I'm grossly generalising but this difference is palpable to someone who has experienced both cities and communities.

So far i've been to a coouple of events organised by my fellow Tanzanians and in both, i've been pleasantly surprised. I mean there is the usual, i.e guys sticking by the edge of the club or whatever too cool to dance, but you can tell people are there to have fun and enjoy themselves. I haven't yet seen any over the top gestures form anybody.

On a different note, as is common amongst the Tanzanian community when they see something good, there's been a huge number of people who have taken to blogging, the more the merrier if you ask me, but what has also happened is thta you see more or less the same information regurgitated from one blog to another. A few have managed to distinguish themselves and keep ahead of the competition by focusing on various niches in the market, for example Bongo Celebrity which gives it's readers a wonderful insight into the minds of various celebrities and dignitaries from Tanzania amongst other issues. If there is one thing in common in all blogs and this seems to be the crucial in the success of the blog is the language used. All these blogs communicate in swahili, and this is something i've been contemplating on doing as well, but then again, lets see how it goes.

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