Half-way point

So I have officially hit my half-way point through the trip and, as always seems to happen at this point, I've started getting a touch homesick. This has been a fantastic trip and I'm looking forward to my holiday, but I do miss my family and my neighbors.

This morning was our last breakfast at the hotel. We were amused that Dennis tried to make himself some toast but it was completely burned on one side and completely raw on the other side. Strange toaster.

Today was filled mostly with driving from Dodoma to Morogoro to Dar Es Salaam. It was a long trip but it was good company and great scenery.

So I just have a bunch of random observations that I don't believe I've discussed before:

Many of the houses have metal roofs that are held down with really large rocks. Some of them also have big tires on them to hold them in place.

We had a really interesting discussion about language. In Swahili the word bara means continent but the word barabara means road.

Compared to Dar Es Salaam, Dodoma is chilly in the evenings.

In the national parks the trees are kept pruned by the giraffe. They all start their branches at about the same point. I was told I should expect to see nymbu or wildebeest in the Serengeti.

There are some towns that become the Tanzanian equivalent to a truck stop. All of the trucks pull over and get food, drink, and other goods at this point.

I just noticed that I haven't been asked for my passport since I left the airport. When I was in Mozambique and Ghana I was asked for my passport any time someone wanted identification. I was always asked for my passport when checking into a hotel.

Roads have these deep ditches for runoff during the rainy season. They have these crazy, rickety bridges to cross the chasms. Some of them are really falling apart and I don't know how they can be used.

Poa means cool. Nzuri means good. Safi is also used to mean good, but it technically means clean. There is no X or Q in Swahili. Pole means I'm sorry. Pole sana is what you say when someone sneezes. Pole pole means slow down.

The strips on the road that tell you when you can pass are just suggestions that are rarely consulted. Many of the roads seem to be melted. There are signs that read, "Caution. Pedestrian (zebra) crossing ahead." That doesn't mean the zebras cross there. It means the painted stripes in the road are for pedestrian crossing.

People carry unbelievable amounts of things on bicycles and motorcycles.

They sell only Premium and Diesel gas. Since the premium is in comparison to nothing else it is a vestigial reference.

Kobil Gas station

We bought cashews at the Kobil station. They were $5,000 for a medium sized bag of cashews. That's about $2.50.

I'm impress that all of the drivers I've met do not answer or even check the phone for texts or calls. They pull over or ignore it.

I've been through four regions so far, Dar Es Salaam, the Coastal Region, Morogoro and Dodoma. By Sunday I think I will have doubled that.

There are these very cool looking trees all over here called Ashok. They look sort of like enormous pipe cleaners. Here's a picture of an Ashok tree on the left behind one of the hundreds of banners put on the Obama route.

In addition to these banners there were billboards, posts with the American and Tanzanian flags everywhere, and ads, "Great entertainment for the 1st Family!"

There are actual traffic lights in Dar. They mystify me. I have been taken through several red lights and there was one light today that went from red to yellow to red.

I got into the office a little after three. Masharubu (Joel) and I caught up, I filled in the Chief of Party here with the status and then we came back to his house for our meeting with the US Staff. The Skype connection was so poor that we ended up typing the whole meeting.

We had a fantastic dinner of Ndizi kwa nyama (Banana Stew) and greens and told jokes until I tore myself away to enter this blog.