The hubbs and I are HOME now!! Very excited, but the boys are still at grandmas house until tomorrow; so we still have puppy love to look forward to. What thing was I most looking forward to when we got back from Africa?? Brushing my teeth with water pressure. Ahh, the sweet luxuries in life. I must have spent an hour cleaning, flossing and picking. TMI? Sorry. Anyone out there ever try brushing your teeth with activated charcoal as a whitener? I think I’m going to try that. So far off the topic I wanted to talk about — our cross-country adventure!

The drive across Tanzania went surprisingly well, not without hitches, but it still went well. We didn’t get to stop for as many photo ops as I’d thought we would; we were on a serious time crunch. We left Kigoma at about 7:30 on Wednesday morning with a goal of reaching Singida, well before dark; little more than halfway. Driving at night is not advised as there are no street lights — why would there be in the middle of the third-world country?? Not only is the dark dangerous because of occasional Congolese bandits, but the most prevalent thing I discovered was that your fellow night travelers on the dirt road kick up so much dust that it’s like driving through the thickest harbor fog you have ever seen and you’d have to slow down to a slug-like creeping pace to feel safe — thereby prolonging your nighttime adventure. So what to do? Gun it and try to get ahead of your predecessor, naturally. Two jaw-clenching hours after nightfall, we ended up safely in Singida around 9:30 and we were thankfully met with dinner and clean, comfy beds.

The government of TZ has been working on creating a paved road from Dar Es Salaam to Kigoma, so luckily, much of the dirt roadways have been leveled and cleared, which made much of the journey much easier and less bumpy than was anticipated. Of course, driving cross-country in a 4wd LandCruiser is a much easier thing to do than if you were traveling by bus; I discovered this when we passed by a lineup of 30 busses and delivery trucks stuck in the mud created by a recent downpour on a twisted mountain road and literally hundreds of people who have been milling around for hours because you don’t have any other option but to wait, you just don’t. Mental note never to take a bus.

Besides bathroom breaks, traffic diversions, and speeding tickets, some other delays on the first day were made by a couple stops we made to get B-roll of local scenery and wildlife. I’ve become fascinated with storks on this trip; I really had no idea they are such nasty creatures, I’d never seen them in real life. We came across a muster of Marabou Storks scrounging around in a trash pile. There were about 10 of them, some up to 5ft tall. Wiki them, it’s fun. Unfortunately I made the mistake of asking a Tanzanian friend traveling with us where you could find stork feathers. I will not go into the acquisition process, but I am now the owner of two Marabou stork feathers. Don’t worry, the stork’s fine. I pick up feathers all the time, mostly when walking around the neighborhood with the boys. I’d been warned before that feathers are nasty and to be careful, but I thought that just meant to only pick up the pretty ones and wash your hands after handling. Needless to say, I found the nastiness that are feather mites. We stuck the plumes out of the way near the ceiling panel of the SUV — since we’d just seen the birds scrounging around a trash pile, we’d thought enough not to fondle the feathers much. It wasn’t until we’d gotten an hour down the road that we realized the ceiling was crawling with tiny bugs. Not knowing what they were, we naturally freaked out and were paranoid that bugs were crawling all over our heads for days after, particularly because I did catch one creeping out of my hairline. I just googled them though and found out what they were and that humans aren’t a good host for these mites. Phew.

As we were prepping to leave Singida the second morning, we headed to the nearest gas station to fuel up. Come to find out that there was a gasoline strike across most of the country in which all of the gas stations refused to sell their fuel. Apparently the government lowered the price of gas and the gas station owners didn’t like that, so they decided to strike until the price was raised back up… the dispute was over 5 shillings, that’s about 0.0031 Canadian cents — and it had been going on for a month. After about a half hour trying to unsuccessfully talk people into selling us gas and trying to figure out what to do, we called the hotel we’d stayed at and got some help from the owner who said that you have to know someone in order to get them to sell it to you. So we were taken to a station that apparently knew a lot of people because it was teeming with people experiencing the same problem. This was the only guy in town selling gas and there was major kerfuffle trying to get in. Luckily, most everyone waiting wanted petrol and we wanted diesel, so because we “knew the owner” we got a way to the front of the lines. We even ended up getting in the news because someone had taken video of us on their phone and sent it in. Wish I had footage of that.

Driving across Tanzania is similar to driving across the US in that through the middle, there’s a whole lot of nothing. Most of the landscape is the same, but just outside of Singida you see these huge rock formations pop up and little straw huts scattered among them. Unfortunately we didn’t stop due to our delay, so you’ll have to take my word on it. It was amazingly beautiful. I did get this shot of a lonely boulder that is reminiscent of my logo. This would be at least 100ft high, I’m guessing.

We did make one stop in Morogoro to wrap up some interviews and see the language school that Josh’s parents went to. On that property is this absolutley massive Baobab tree; it’s hollow in the middle. I’m going to butcher this story, but as I remember it, during the slave trade in the 18th century, traders set up camp for a night under this tree. In the twilight, 37 slaves climbed up this tree and dropped down into the hollow. The next morning the group set off, leaving the hidden slaves behind. They stayed inside for days until they heard the bells of a Catholic mission ringing a few miles off. They then climbed out, made their way to the mission and found refuge. There is a lot of slave history in Tanzania, but it was interesting to find out that most of the exportation was to the Middle East.

We ended up getting to Dar Es Salaam a bit later than we wanted as well, but the gorgeous hotel and room service we were met with was well worth the wait. The next morning, the guys went off to wrap up the last interview, get some ice cream and relax. Ma and I went to blow of some steam our own way; first we went to a local shop she deals with to show the owner all the new designs I’d come up with for the training center. She loved them and placed a huge Christmas order. Then we went to the market and got serious about souvenirs. More on that later.