Waking up to the sound of Africa is amazing. Roosters, the clanging of church bells, the musical whine of the Muslim call to prayer. There is a mosque just behind our compound in Dar Es Salam, and the call to prayer sounds many times a day. There is a sizable Muslim population here, and women in burkas can be seen on the streets. I was actually pretty startled by that.
Originally our plan for this day was to leave immediately after breakfast and drive west all day, stopping along the way for lunch, and staying the night in Iringa, then finishing the drive the following day. The drive would take us through a beautiful natural preservation, high, and into the mountains. But as the hours ticked by with the bus not showing up, we became more and more concerned that we were going nowhere that day. At one point we actually tried to use a different vehicle, but after loading it up we realized it was too small. We were going to be in it for 7-10n hours a day, two days headed west, and two days headed back. So, we dragged everything back out and chose to wait it out.
While we waited, Brian and I took a short walk to see what a few of the locals were peddling. I found a liquor store (which looked more like a farmer's roadside stand) and bought a few gifts to bring home. Brian found a guy with a cart full of Sugar cane. He was really excited, and bought a stick, which he cut into smaller pieces, and handed out for us to taste. It was weird, but delicious. You just kind of put it in your mouth and gnaw on it. After a few bites, I didn’t care for the texture of it, and spit it out, despite how tasty it was. My misgivings aside, gnawing on sugar cane is really common here. There are people selling it everywhere on the side of the roads, and even more people walking around with it sticking out of their mouths.
Finally around 3:30, we a bus arrived, this one was big enough, so we loaded it up and got it on the road pointed west. The goal for the day was to get to Iringa, a town at the midway point of our trip to the village of Chpole in the Songea region. Leaving at this time meant we were going to get to Iringa very, very late at night.
The drive was long, starting with a predictable hour long traffic jam getting out of Dar Es Salam. We couldn't tear our eyes from the spectacle of traffic, the likes of which we'd never seen. Every kind of vehicle a person can nail together crowds the streets. Intersections are totally unmanaged usually lacking traffic signals at all (not that they would be obeyed), and there are few laws and absolutely no enforcement at all. the shops along the street crowd into the traffic, and deep trenches needed to accommodate the frequent flash flooding flank the traffic. bicycles and motorcycles weave between traffic, and everything from rickshaws to lorries and cattle cars creep along in the traffic, honking and creeping around each other causing absolute chaos. As if that weren't enough, peddlers carry goods through the road zig-zagging between cars trying to sell nuts of fruits to drivers. they make the traffic even more complicated. I have no idea how one would deliver goods around the city if you needed to.
Once we got some distance from the city and the traffic improved, the kids entertained themselves with jokes, books, singing, and playing with their phones. For my part, I wanted to see all that I could as we drove along, so I was content to watch people doing all sorts of things along the roadside as we drove. We saw a lot of very foreign-looking activities that I could go on for ever about, but here are some of the more interesting ones:
• We crossed over a river and an official government sign that said, “Tanzanian River Healing Ministry”
• We passed a low lying area that at first looked marshy, but the bus driver told us it was a broken oil pipeline, and we were looking at an oil spill. No one ever bothered to clean it up, they just cut the flow of the pipe.
• We drove into the mountains, and had full, incredible views of natural countryside and mountains.
Just after dark we stopped for dinner at an open-air restaurant (ok, they’re pretty much all open air), and shoveled in dinner as fast as they would serve it (which seems never to be very fast- though I am aware that living in northern jersey means I do everything too fast). Our host Cassian passed around his cell phone amd let us call home for a couple minutes each, and I was so happy to hear Jen’s voice! The boys also took their turns, and then we got back on the road. More interesting sites:
• Our route took us through a game preserve which we would have a safari in on the trip back. Since it was dark, we didn’t see any animals at all, though we did pass a sign that asked us not to feed the baboons. In any case, we all agreed that it would be really lousy if we broke down in there amid the lions and whatnot.
• Heading into another set of mountains, we passed an overturned tractor trailer. We were concerned at first, but then we realized it had been there a while. The road is narrow, and removal of something like that would be difficult and expensive, so they are usually pushed off to the side of the road and left for a long time. And, as it would turn out, this was only the first we would see of several of them.
• On a steep, twisty, narrow mountain road we passed a lorry with no headlights driving through the pitch black.
• We communally noted that this dangerous narrow road is the only east/west road from Dar Es Salam to the western part of Tanzania. Transport of all goods has to use this road. That's crazy, because the road is pretty much just like old Rt. 24 through Mendham, only steeper and twistier.
• We realized that the drivers here use a complicated system of flashing and blinking headlights, honking, and a variety of hand signals to communicate with each other, or to warn pedestrians that they are coming. It is much more complex than anything we do in the US. They literally honk at everyone.
• Somewhere in the dark we stopped along the side of the road to pee and as we did we notices the stars for the first time. They were amazingly bright and rich. I have heard frustrated people try to describe them unsuccessfully before, so i will not try here, but they were absolutely amazing. I had never seen the milky way before!
We finally got to Iringa and clambered into our hostel for badly needed rest at about 1:30 am. The hostel was also a school, and for Tanzania was a pretty nice place. I fell asleep to the sounds of dogs and crickets, and woke to the singing students, and of course, roosters.
Finally around 3:30, we a bus arrived, this one was big enough, so we loaded it up and got it on the road pointed west. The goal for the day was to get to Iringa, a town at the midway point of our trip to the village of Chpole in the Songea region. Leaving at this time meant we were going to get to Iringa very, very late at night.
Once we got some distance from the city and the traffic improved, the kids entertained themselves with jokes, books, singing, and playing with their phones. For my part, I wanted to see all that I could as we drove along, so I was content to watch people doing all sorts of things along the roadside as we drove. We saw a lot of very foreign-looking activities that I could go on for ever about, but here are some of the more interesting ones:
• We crossed over a river and an official government sign that said, “Tanzanian River Healing Ministry”
• We passed a low lying area that at first looked marshy, but the bus driver told us it was a broken oil pipeline, and we were looking at an oil spill. No one ever bothered to clean it up, they just cut the flow of the pipe.
• We drove into the mountains, and had full, incredible views of natural countryside and mountains.
Just after dark we stopped for dinner at an open-air restaurant (ok, they’re pretty much all open air), and shoveled in dinner as fast as they would serve it (which seems never to be very fast- though I am aware that living in northern jersey means I do everything too fast). Our host Cassian passed around his cell phone amd let us call home for a couple minutes each, and I was so happy to hear Jen’s voice! The boys also took their turns, and then we got back on the road. More interesting sites:
• Our route took us through a game preserve which we would have a safari in on the trip back. Since it was dark, we didn’t see any animals at all, though we did pass a sign that asked us not to feed the baboons. In any case, we all agreed that it would be really lousy if we broke down in there amid the lions and whatnot.
• Heading into another set of mountains, we passed an overturned tractor trailer. We were concerned at first, but then we realized it had been there a while. The road is narrow, and removal of something like that would be difficult and expensive, so they are usually pushed off to the side of the road and left for a long time. And, as it would turn out, this was only the first we would see of several of them.
• On a steep, twisty, narrow mountain road we passed a lorry with no headlights driving through the pitch black.
• We communally noted that this dangerous narrow road is the only east/west road from Dar Es Salam to the western part of Tanzania. Transport of all goods has to use this road. That's crazy, because the road is pretty much just like old Rt. 24 through Mendham, only steeper and twistier.
• We realized that the drivers here use a complicated system of flashing and blinking headlights, honking, and a variety of hand signals to communicate with each other, or to warn pedestrians that they are coming. It is much more complex than anything we do in the US. They literally honk at everyone.
• Somewhere in the dark we stopped along the side of the road to pee and as we did we notices the stars for the first time. They were amazingly bright and rich. I have heard frustrated people try to describe them unsuccessfully before, so i will not try here, but they were absolutely amazing. I had never seen the milky way before!
We finally got to Iringa and clambered into our hostel for badly needed rest at about 1:30 am. The hostel was also a school, and for Tanzania was a pretty nice place. I fell asleep to the sounds of dogs and crickets, and woke to the singing students, and of course, roosters.
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