International School Community Blog

The journey to work is indeed an important one.  The journey though is not so clear for international school teachers, when looking for jobs at schools in cities/countries to which they have never been.  So let’s share what we know!

One of our members, who works at the International School of Tanganyika (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) described her way to work as follows:

You either walk, drive your SUV, or ride your bike to school. It all depends on where you live and what you prefer to have/use.

If you do decide to walk to work and have to carry something, it should be in a small plastic sac (like what you would get when grocery shopping). Don’t carry a bag that looks like it has something valuable in it (Ipad, computer, etc.)!

I personally drive to work.

On the side of the road, the “African mommas” can be found with their pots making coffee out of (possibly) not the cleanest water.  But boiled long enough, maybe it is just fine. They heat the pots by using actual fire that they have made themselves using wood.

You also see Daladalas going by, the name for the local buses here.  There is always somebody hanging out the window/door of the bus.  He says, “Hey, Hey!” really loudly trying to get people’s attention and to see who wants to get on to the bus.

There are also many locals on bikes passing you by with high-stacked food items on the back or front of the bike; like eggs maybe.  Other bikes have many water bottles hanging off the side. Sometimes you can see ones with fish or sticks of wood.

The extreme bounciness of the road is something you can’t ignore during your short 3-5 minute journey.  Though not the best road in the world, it can be good wake-you-up in the morning, bouncing around so much!

On good days with the sun out, there is a nice breeze in the air (like in October). The soft sound of the wind is blowing through the tree leaves. Lovely!

Currently, we have 12 international schools listed in Tanzania on our website.  5 of them have had comments submitted on them by our members. Check out which ones here by using our school search feature and ticking the box ‘schools with comments’.  International School of Tanganyika is a popular school profile page on our website.  It has 59 total comments on it.  It also has 6 members that either currently work there or have worked there in the past.

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So what is your journey to the international school you work at?  Earn 6 free months of premium membership to our website if you participate in this blog series – ‘The Journey to School’.  Email us here if you are interested.