The Tea Man

The Tea Man

By: Reynold Nangawe

Introduction

                In Dar-es-Salaam city there are numerous young adults who make money by selling tea in the town streets. This is a very popular trend as many people like to have some tea with sesame seed snacks. These men prepare the snacks and carry around traditional tin tea kettles of roughly 5 liters of black tea, some tea men like to put spices in their tea to make it more interesting the tea cups are roughly 100Tsh which is 150ml and the snacks are 300Tsh each. This means that a person with 700Tsh can have a tea break.

Costs Calculations

                700Tsh is enough for one serving of tea. The Tea Man carries 5000ml of tea each day. If he manages to sell all of the tea that means that 33 servings are available and the Tea Man is able to make 23,100/= by the end of the day. This means that in a working week of 6 days 138,600/= can be made per week if he is lucky. This amounts to roughly 560,000/= per month which is decent money. They however do not make this kind of money, in reality they make about 120,000/= per month which is close to minimum wage. This enables the Tea Man to go about his business in an inconspicuous manner.

Situation Analysis 

                The job of a Tea Man is inconspicuous. No one can really see that he is making some decent money. He prefers to work near bus stands and parks where a lot of people are seated and more likely to buy. Tourists come along and love local foods and cultures and often want to get involved in it. This is why the Tea Man is very popular. I have considered why they do not use plastic cups. And have found out that maybe it is because it make it look like a cheap hot-dog stand. The tiny Chinese cups bring that 1800’s flavor of Tanzanian history that encourages especially tourists to buy. However in modern times such as these small paper cups can be used in the stead of glass cups, these cups will mean that they can be disposed of easily and allow the buyers to be free to move around with their tea and snack while eating. Paper cups are preferred to plastic ones as they are biodegradable. The traditional style of these Tea Men tea carriers are one steal pan with hot coals in it on which the kettle is placed to keep the tea warm. This is one savory tourist attraction.

                Although they appear poor you find that these tea men own farms where they cultivate their tea and send some of it to companies that package these goods while selling some to keep a decent income. These men are very wise in china some of these men are known to put proverbs in their tea.

The Hazards of Blasts at Kunduchi Dar-es-Salaam

Kunduchi quarry is a place that has been bombed for quite some time. THe result is a place that has been leveled down with a few stacks sticking out.

It is my concern that the place is now occupied by houses and now it will cause a problen later where the water floods in heavy rains. If you look at the place the situation is dire,how can people live there? Knowing the land is too low. This is a major concern because people who pass by will relise that that is a potential place for flooding. Even if they have stopped bombing the place the goverment is iresponsible for allowing people to live in suc an area. They could at least have made the area a park where visitors can come and stroll, read and watch birds and animals or even swim in a public pool. The aesthetics of the place are to be changed completely to make the place favourable as it allows for a good view of the ocean.






























There are other places in Dar-es-Salaam which seem to be victim to this problem of mislocation of houses and bad land use. If you go to Tabata Matumbi which is on the road from Tazara to Ubungo, you will notice that there are houses on your right that are in low lying areas I suspect that a similar situation as the one in Kunduchi avails itself here. There is another location on the road from morocco to illala area after the intersection of Morogoro road on the way to illala there is a mosque on your left. you will see another low lying area which they now use for proffessional digging after which you meet a market on your left. This place used to have houses but they removed the houses as flooding was a big problem at the time, sewage water running on the streets and being a cause of cholera as steet kids walk on the water which polluted. WHo can know what ilnesses these people would suffer?

The people living at Kunduchi are to leave the quarry site and find someplace else to live. There are numerous flats that people can move into and the place could be converted into a park for leasure.