A real African Safari

Safari in Swahili simply means journey so anywhere you go you are on safari. In the past week I have been on many. The first one worth mentioning was to buy a map of Songea. In the US this would be pretty simple. I'd go to Google and see if I could buy one online. If I couldn't, on I would go to Google maps to find a map store. Simple, but a rather dull story.
The beauty of Tanzania is you rarely do anything that makes a dull story! So as I said I wished to buy some maps of the Songea area so that we could mark current well sites, construction sites, and proposed future sites of construction. An old friend of mine told me that there was a map store near the docks in Dar es Salaam. Like most cities of the world, the docks area of Dar is less than my favorite place to walk around despite the views of the always spectacular Indian ocean. After I reached the docks (whose main purpose is to shuttle tourists to and from Zanzibar) and fended off various touts selling everything from paintings, to "very good exchange rates", to of course the very best boats to Zanzibar I asked a few guards here and there where I could find "a piece of paper that forces to be shown an area like US, Tz, Dar, etc". It has been almost 4 years since I spoke Swahili regularly and that was the best I could do. I finally had enough brains to ask one of the guards what the word for this wonderous piece of paper was and was informed it was "Ramani". This made my life much easier minus the fact I could not pronounce it correctly and therefore would usually sheepishly return to describing what a map was after saying "Ramani" 3 or 4 times and getting blank stares when asking for directions.
After about thirty minutes of walking around saying "Ramani" to any Tanzanian that would listen, this a very persistent tout said he was going to help me as he new a shop with maps. I didn't believe him for a second but in Tanzania one never knows and he seemed safe so I figured what the hell. Sure enough we ended up at a safari company with a map of Zanzibar on the desk but no maps of anything anywhere. As often seems to happen here though, I actually finally got the information I needed there despite it not having anything to do with my actual goal. I had met safari guy the day before in a bar so he knew I wasn't a tourist and therefore just told me to try the foreign affairs ministry or survey and map department. After I left his office it became very clear that no Tanzanians knew the location of either of these places but thankfully he had given me the name of a hotel near them and had pointed me in the right direction. Three stops and one double back later I found myself staring at rather large building labeled Survey and map department and felt like people should be cheering for me as I walked through the doors.
On entering, I realized my safari was not yet finished as the arrow pointing to the map store didn't really go anywhere.
The interior of the building of itself was unexceptional minus the fact that there was not a single light turned on(but the ceiling fans were turning so there was electricity), no windows were open, and I literally was a little nervous about walking into something as I went down a hallway looking for someone that someone at the help desk had told me would tell me where the map store is. She had not been able to tell me mind you but she swore this guy would know even though she was the help desk. So I find this man in his 50s in a room that I was SURE was the map room since it....well it looked like a map room. It had lots of shelves, documents, and everything was covered in dust which is all as it should be in any respectable repository for information as dry as altitudes, rainfall, and population densities. Plus I hadn't understood her completely and it had been two hours and I was tired, it was hot, and I really wanted it to be the map room. But it was not to be. The gentleman pleasantly informed me that no, this wasn't the map room but he would show me where it was. And where was it I'm sure your wondering at this point? After all this is no ordinary store I am searching for anymore this is an official ministry department! I'll tell you where it was. It was behind the building in a courtyard across from the kitchen (yes the ministry of maps and surveys has a kitchen) where about five Tanzanians sat talking and peeling potatoes! So I eventually did succeed and now I have this long, and hopefully at least mildly entertaining story along with my map.