Experiencing the local life in Bagamoyo and Dar Es Salaam highlights the impact of HIV in this part of Tanzania.
After checking into our accommodation in Bagamoyo (A beach side town north of Dar Es Salaam) we complete dinner then decide to venture out into the wild. Its not long before we are standing in one of the bars being greeted by the locals !! “I’m positive” was the greeting on this night, meaning I am HIV positive. After some more investigation we are told that the local area of Bagamoyo has an infection rate of around 80%. Unable to quantify this we move on to Dar Es Salaam.
Dar with a population of 2.5 Million is a mesh of interesting people all going about their busy day to day activities. I note that most of the people are young but I take special note that there appears to be a lack of people aged in their 50’s to 60’s.? (Where have they gone, surely they all can’t be riding bikes in Africa) I do however note the odd person in their 60’s or 70’s I guess. Puzzled with this information we go back to the streets of Dar to solve this issue. Once again we are in the informed side of town, a local side street establishment. The locals explain the impacts of HIV to us, the average life expectancy for a female is 48 and a male is 42.
Unqualified this may explain the “Missing generation of Dar”
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