The Aftermath

Now that everyone has left campus and things are quite I am starting to realize the affect that closing the school has on the students, administrators, staff, and even on the community of Dar es Salaam. The students get a stipend for the school year and it comes in four installments for the year. They have only received the first stipend when the school closed. Most of the students are broke and have no money. When the school shuts down and all of the students have to leave campus many of them will move in with family or friends who live in Dar es Salaam. Other students who have money will move into a hostel until they find out for sure when school will reopen. If is it is going to be two or three weeks they will just stay around Dar es Salaam because it will be cheaper to live here then it would be to travel home. Most of the bus companies raise their prices when school is shut down because they know their will be a greater demand for tickets. Then there are the students who do not have any money and most of them will end up on the streets. As on Tanzanian put it, the girls will resort to prostitution and the men will go hungry. On Thursday as we were walking to the bus station heading for Arusha the streets were lined will students just sitting and hanging out because they have no place to go. Everyone is just waiting for word when and if the University will reopen.
My roommate, Monica and I were talking about the affects it has on her studies as we were packing up her things. She is a third year students and this is her last semester before she graduates. She had three months till she was done and could start applying for her masters, but now she has to wait for maybe up to three months. It was so hard and frustrating for her because she is so close to being done. She can not continue on with her masters, and she cannot go out and start working because she does not have her degree and since no one knows when school is going to reopen she can not get a short term job. These same frustrations are the same for many of the third year students. They are all so close to being done and now have to put their lives on hold because of some students. Not all students wanted to strike, it was only about ten percent of the students, but it had a ripple effect and caused all of the students to be impacted.
The closing of the university also affects the cafeteria workers because they had to shut down the main two cafeterias leaving about a fifty workers without jobs until the school reopens. We have become friends with the fruit vendors at the cafes and then many of the workers and it is hard to think that they no longer have jobs and are just sitting idol until the University reopens. The impact also goes beyond the University, the daladala drivers also lose a lot of business because there are not students around the University and city who will take the daladalas. All of the dukas on campus and near by will also lose business, because no one has money to buy anything. There are so many people who are affected by this on the university, and also all around the community. I don’t think I fully understand the full affects it has on everyone in the community, or what it is like to be living at the university and then four hours later be homeless.