jambo, dar es salaam

Let's go ahead and rewind three weeks. First of all, I want to apologize for being so rude and not introducing the Tanzania crew. A solid ten of us stuck together through Chapters 1-3, Serengeti to Kili to Zanzibar: the five Malans (Justy, Sue, Matt, Hannah, and Abby), Gleb (the one and only), and the four Dovals (John, Marilyn, Tom, and Cal).

If you've ever travelled with your family, you know that as the numbers increase, so do the complications, the confusions, and (especially in Africa) the waiting around. What you also might have found, though, is that your people make the sitting around, the stories, and the slip-ups that much better. My mom was joking the other night that we wish we could have recorded some of the ridiculous one-liners from the trip. You can imagine, as circumstances get more intense and the air a little thinner, things can get pretty funny. Or at least funny in retrospect. I thought Kylie talked a lot of potty talk, and then I climbed a mountain with nine people: "How are the toilets in this camp?" John asks Abby with a look of desperation in his eyes. (Toilets, of course, meaning a rickety cubicle outhouse complete with nothing but a cutout long drop) "Alright if you hold your breath. But the floor boards are pretty loose, so be careful," Abby responds casually.

Anyway, here's the crew, minus Gleb (but you know him already, anyway), looking a bit confused in Dubai:

Behind me, from left to right, we've got Justy, John (barely visible), Marilyn, Abby, Sue, Tom, Matt, and Cal.

And if we weren't awake in Dubai, Dar es Salaam, our touchdown point in Tanzania, certaintly slapped us in the face with a bit of life. The city, like the jam-packed city busses, is colorful and chaotic. The streets are swarming with honking vehicles and lined with people-- everyone just trying to get going and get by. Driving through the main streets, we see the classic images of women sitting at half standing fruit stands or roasting bananas and corn over some open coals. Other locals are trying some more "inventive" approaches, weaving through the traffic with baskets of cell phone SIM cars, cold drinks, miscellaneous clothing items... We even saw one guy with a fully equipped aquarium on his head, complete with water and fish. That was a first.

It's official: we made it to Tanzania

Dar es Salaam

Abby gets settled in at Jambo Inn

Bus station to catch the "Dar Express" to Arusha

On the 11 hour bus ride from Dar to Arusha, we drove north up the eastern side of the country. Front point to point (650km), villages were sprinkled all along the rugged two lane road. Bricks, sticks, mud, cardboard: whatever could hold the huts together was used. Women carried water on their heads or worked in fields or played with children in the dirt. The men mostly sat around chatting in groups, from what I could tell. I spent all 11 hours with my eyes glued to the window, hoping Gleb would stay asleep long enough so he wouldn't want to switch seats. I studied each hut, shop, and person we passed, realizing this was everyday life in Tanzania, and wondering what the future here might hold.

Dar, right center, to Arusha, right 1/4 down from top. Note the locations, also, of Kilimanjaro and Serengeti. Arusha is the major jumping off point for both these attractions.

I wonder how far she carried that water

Common village center scene

Rich red mud flats and homes

Masai men. Masai are the sort of "last standing" tribe in Tanzania. They can be identified by their red garb and most usually live in very rural areas where they live independently of the rest of society and herd cattle and goats. They're the guys who drink cow blood mixed with milk and stuff like that.

Like mama like daughter