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Sorry - still trying to transfer photos from my camera and post them. Despite a packing operation on the scale of D-Day and brining my own personal Radio Shack store, I somehow managed to bring the wrong USB wire for the camera. So I’ll just have to run down to the Target and …. oh wait, never mind. Could be a couple days. But working on it. Who says journalists dwell on the negative? Here are 5 quick positive things to say about life in Tanzania so far (with the first couple admittedly falling under the category of ‘relative.’) 5. Still non-functioning hot water not such a big deal due to heat. 4. The lizards in and around the house eat the insects. 3. Really, truly amazing fruit and fruit juices. 2. Mindblowing cell phone coverage. Last Saturday, we were hiking absolutely in the middle of nowhere, 20 miles from the nearest (semi-paved) road, not near any town, at a place called Lake Chala which lies exactly on the Kenya-Tanzania border. Never lost coverage for a second. In fact, as our trail meandered within a couple hundred yards of the border, the phones lit up with “Welcome to Vodacom Kenya” (a new geographical concept: “the cell phone border” — the place, near the actual border, where coverage switches over. Kind of like the magnetic poll). 1. The unbelievably good vibe that comes with the simple fact that pedestrians (and the streets are full of them walking long distances) almost always greet each other as they pass. “Habari” (‘What’s new?’ Or ‘How are you?”’). Followed by ‘Nzuri, na wewe?’ (‘Good. And you?). Try to picture New Yorkers doing that with everyone they pass. The funny thing is there’s actually no real reply in Swahili to ‘How are you?’ other than ‘good.’ New Yorkers probably couldn’t process that either. That said, still looking for a decent bagel shop. And expect to be for quite some time.
