Posted 8:55 PM by MelanieandSteve
AFRICA: MOSHI, DAR ES SALAAM, ADDIS ABABA, 8 Oct to 14 Oct (written 26 November)

AFTER KILIMANJARO CLIMB AND AFTER SISTER MEL TOOK OFF we had a few days to look around in Moshi and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania's main city, before heading off the beaten track to Addis Ababa for a quick two-day look around Ethiopia's Capital. Then, back to Cairo.

TANZANIAN LIFE AFTER KILI: SLOWING DOWN, READING UP, SINGING OUT, DRIVING AROUND, RAINING DOWN AND FLYING OUT

--TANZ... S-L-O-W-I-N-G D-O-W-N, : the climax of our Africa travels over, we slowed down for a while in Moshi at the base of Kilimanjaro. Slow being the operative word. In all the world, Moshi gets the reward for slowest service. No meal took less than an hour to prepare. We waited an hour and a half for one plate of beans before the waiter informed us they had none. Oh well, it's Tanzanian attitude: AKUNA MATATA or AKUNA SHIDA - "No Problem", the answer to every question and the solution to every problem.

--TANZ... READING UP: We didn't have a TV in Moshi, but the U.S. Presidential debates were in full swing and we had strong opinions and absentee ballots waiting. We downloaded the texts of the first two debates as well as the Vice Pres debates and read them out loud to each other - all the 'er's and 'uhms' included. We resolved not to miss the live third and final debates.

--TANZ... SINGING OUT: Tanzanians and music go hand in hand. In the mornings, school students would march by our hotel singing beautifully in cadence. We'd run to our balcony to try to catch a glimpse of the uniformed chorus through the trees. On Sunday morning, the Christian Church by our hotel rang out with gospel music, not from a choire but from a feeling and talented congregation.

--TANZ... DRIVING AROUND: Hoping to fly out of Tanzania early, we took a chance at flying standby. The flights were full, and there wouldn't be another flight for days. We thought we'd try heading to Dar es Salaam, a travel hub, to see the big city and seek a flight out. Wrong again - the flights to Dar were all full. And yet, a Blessing was behind it all. We decided to share an 8 hour cab ride with Graham, a New Zealander living in DC who needed to get to a meeting in Dar Es Salaam. We enjoyed hours of interesting conversation and great political perspective with Graham, and in the end he generously made the expensive cab ride his gift.

--TANZ... RAINING DOWN AND FLYING OUT: Dar es Salaam is the gateway to Zanzabar - the whitewashed resort beach town which draws many travellers to Tanzania. We had wanted to go there, but the prospect of beaching was quashed by the perpetual monsoonal storms. It became clear that our calling was to Fly Out. But not before a stop at the impressive National Museum, a walk along the shore, and a wet stroll through the town. Fortunately, we were successful in changing our flight tickets and we were soon airborn toward Ethiopia.

ETHIOPIA: ADDIS ABABA, MARKETS, ETHNOGRAPHY, THE BIG DEBATE, THOUGHTS ON LITIGIA

--ETHI... ADDIS ABABA: We discovered an Ethiopia far different from our preconcieved expectations. It was a delightful mix of modern and old with antiquated buildings next to new ones and donkeys and sheep trekking near modern cars. Crowds of people walked the streets in colorful modern clothing. High on a plateau at an altitude similar to Denver, its climate was temperate and the land was plush. From the glass walls of their new airport we saw an expanse of green (a surprise when we'd grown up hearing about the Ethiopian drought). In the main parts of the city, the roads were well developed and clean, while in market areas they could be a little torn up. Their University grounds were a testament to education, care, gardening, and clean presentation. This capital city of a formerly communist state appeared to be surprisingly well-developed. But the country had no ATM's - a benchmark we've come to hold for development and tourism. Another benchmark of non-development was the high number of apparently unassisted disabled people.

--ETHI... MARKETS: Ethiopia boasts the largest market place in Africa. We strolled by the curios, the donkeys, the counters covered with scoop-it-yourself butter, the veggie sellers, and the sections smelling of rancid meat... of course, we were looking but not buying. Afterwards, we headed to Churchill street for some fresher shopping places and found a few neat additions to our future dream home (...given our expenses and U.S. real estate, ... maybe a cardboard box.)

--ETHI... ETHNOGRAPHY: We spent the day at their ethnographic museum learning about tribes, culture, history, and artisonry. Our oldest human ancestor, Lucy, was found in Ethiopia.

--ETHI... THE BIG DEBATE: the next challenge for us was -FINDING CABLE TV: We had to do some searching, but we found a budget hotel that had a TV with English coverage for the presidential debates. They started at 4 am. Seeing the third debates live was very different from reading the first two. We found when we read the text aloud, we made both candidates sound better than they did in person.

--ETHI... THOUGHTS ON LITIGIA: People say the U.S. (or at least California) is too litigious. Probably true. But here's a case for the Devil's advocate. At our hotel in Ethiopia, Melanie fell down some wet marble stairs that had no hand rail or wet floor warning. Heavy pack on her back, light day pack on her front, and thermos in her hand, she weighed twice her self. She found herself lying on her back at the bottom of the stairs with a broken thermos, surrounded by hotel staff trying to drag her to her feet. Afterward, the hotel's main concern was getting reimbursed for the thermos - as opposed to the safety hazards. These hazards are not so overlooked in Litigious California. There may be some benefits to our system.

NEXT TIME: MORE TO DO IN EGYPT: We'd already spent one week in Egypt. That was enough to know that we wanted more. We returned to Cairo to begin another 11 days of Egyptian adventure.

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS TO: Dave G., Dan G., and Dave W.