Changing of the travelers

Tomorrow afternoon, my brother is going to fly out of Dar to Vietnam. Three days ago, a young Englishwoman (Lz) arrived. In theory, they are switching places, although I'm beginning to think that we may end up splitting up a bit more now that it's two couples, instead of me, my boyfriend, my brother and a friend from Peace Corps. Before, we didn't split up for side trips hardly ever. Not since South Africa and the reconvening after the departure of Whit have we been apart for more than a few hours. Until Tz.

A. and I went to visit a friend of his, Jn, and her husband in a small town called Isangati. My brother and Al. went to Dar to start on embassies, visas, and to meet up with Lz. The village was delightful! How wonderful to spend time with people who have no designs upon your money and/or posessions. Who are rather happily living their lives as farmers, fix-it men, cobblers, or all three. It was nice to sleep in a bed that belongs to someone instead of a hotel. It was wonderful to help our hosts with their garden, and go on a walk. We found and ate wild bananas. They are bright orange. They are full of large, black seeds. They taste more like bland papayas than bananas. They are called ndizi pori here, and the kids love them. I learned that banana trees are full of water, and are not actually trees but plants.

Meanwhile, Dar is still Dar, and the bureaucracy continues to be unpenetrable. Thus, I try very hard to be productive... hence the blogging. I'm a bit behind. :)

I'll miss my brother. I'm so glad he came! It was wonderful hanging out a bunch, and awesome to go to the World Cup with him. It's been fun to be there to see him become aquainted with Africa, and it's ways. I hope he values it, like I do.

And now, onward. And northward.

Dar es Salaam, 5 years later

Well, here we are in Tanzania!
If anything, the traffic is worse in Dar than it was last time. It takes quite a while to get much of anywhere, it seems.
Crime on the street also seems worse than I remember. Three attempted pickpocketings, and one mugging that I know of amongst my friends.
The heat is nice, the rain is lovely, and there are many things to do here. If only they were accessible online! I need to get a visa for my next country, but I cannot find where the embassy is on googlemaps. Neither is the embassy listed in my guide book, since it's an English language guidebook, I guess they decided there is no reason anyone would want to know where the Asian embassies are.This will make it difficult for me to figure out how to get there. I suppose I could just take a cab.
Tanzania has been fine so far, outside of the bus stations and transport hubs. The country is full of lizards, though (our name for the touts and crooks and scumbags who hang around looking for the first opportunity to take advantage of the momentary disorientation all travelers have to deal with when they arrive somewhere new). They are clever, friendly, and speak English in a country that doesn't really speak English. They must make a fair living, since there are so many of them. I dont' remember Tz being this way quite so much before, but I was also sheltered by the program I was with. Thank God I speak Swahili, it helps a bit. If only I had a magic button to evaporate them all... Malawi was full of them, too... all the minibus guys were always trying to rip us off.
I'm tired of meeting all the scum of the earth.
Where did all the good people go?

You may have heard of african minibuses? The general transport for the masses, they stop frequently and fill up to far, far beyond capacity. Cramped, hot, cheap.

We took a "minibus" ferry. It was from the south end of Lake Malawi, up to about a third from the top. It started out not so terribly crowded, but oy it was PACKED by the time we got off. Not that there wasn't room for more; there is always room for more. Lake Malawi is gorgeous, blue like Lake Superior, and clear in places like it too. It's inhabited by the endemic ciclid (chiclid? sp?), which are lovely electric blue and black fish. We snorkeled around and watched them nibbling on algae off of rocks. Unfortunately, one of the cargo I saw on the boat was definitely fish headed for 1st World fish tanks. I hope but doubt they were harvested properly...

We camped out on the top deck, which was supposedly first class, but that's the lamest first class I've ever heard of. They charged us extra for mats, didn't provide bedding, food, tea, or even hot water. This after paying over 70 USD for the tickets. Rip off, if you look at it that way. Economy would have been the cheap way to go, and is by far the most popular with locals. In any event, it was nice to be up top, with enough room to lie down and strech your legs without worrying about theft too terribly much.

I had fun on the Ilala Ferry, especially in the winds and swells, but it turned out to be a minibus after all. :)