Still more random stuff

At the Arc Hotel in Morogoro they rotate flags of the guests and today (well last week some time, they had ours.  I didn't notice until about 11PM. 

This is the gang at the ferry for going to Zanzibar.   But let's back up a bit,  We drove from Morogorow in 3 and half hours to Dar es Salaam.  The bus hurdled through the night with only five or six times when we thought death was imminent.  More on an example later - well ok now.    This is picture snapped as we drove by a truck that had rolled on its side on the highway.   We were not sure how until today.  When driving back to Morogorow our driver continued to make scary passes on the two way highway.  He crept up behind the truck ahead, with a few feet to spare.  In several cases it was a petroleum truck, with Highly Flammable warning signs and then would sharply turn and move to go around, but it seemed like it was better for him to do this on upward hills, rather than downward. Right, I don't get it either.  Well one time, the truck ahead had to slam on the brakes, so our bus slammed on his brakes, and the truck behind us had to swerve to avoid crashing into the back of us.  he ended up slammed into the dirt hill beside the road and our driver continued on as though nothing had happened.  So the truck below probably had a similar issue.



  After arriving, we thought we thought we had time to go to Precision Air and buy our return tickets from Zanzibar.  We would have bought them online, but their website was not operating.  We walked to the office, about 5 blocks away.  We bought the 10 tickets as a block and had a price, but the price now was 20% more which we refused to pay and they reduced it eventually.  In return, they gave us the wrong time for return even though we wrote down exactly what we wanted and indicated we were getting it.   Time was running short so most of us headed back to the bus and two remained to finish the process.  We waited and waited; the ferry was leaving at 9:30 and we had 20 minutes and we still were not exactly sure how far we had to go.  finally, they showed up after sprinting to the bus.  The bus moved forward through a crowd, hopefully without too many being run over.  Truly unbelievable how these buses move.  Then we were at the entrance and a set of porters helped us unload and took our luggage about 50 yards to the loading deck.  Then they wanted payment although we had not asked and they wanted 60,000 Shillings  - about $36.  So we have 5 minutes to get on and they want this money and we refuse and basically Ian handed them about $10 and we assertively moved away.    Notice that Maria is ready for the beach on Zanzibar,  She is wearing jeans, long sleeve shirt and scarf.  Gets pretty cold in that searing sun. 

 Last Friday, we went to an orphanage.   Mission to the Homeless Children, 10 kilometers from Morogoro.  This is Robert Simba, the Executive Director.  These guys are great. They have about 52 children from very young to a few that are going to college.  So they really do take care of them.  If you wanted to donate to them I can assure you that the money would be well spent.
Mission to the Homeless Children  
email homelessorg@yahoo.com

 The kids sang for us and we gave away paper, pens, pencils, and a variety of other gifts.  We played football (soccer) with them and while our 5 person team had to leave before lunch, the rest stayed until late in the day.  Everyone had fun.  When I took out my Starburst candy, it was a swarm.  I started a keep away soccer game with the kids and they ran me ragged.  I had brought a big map of the world and I took it out and spread it out and then I would point to myself and show where I lived, then pointed at them and asked where they lived.  Then we would say a country and it was a hunt to find that country.  It was very fun for all.

I have drank a lot of juice here.  Most is fresh, some comes in packs.  All of it is very good and rich. 

Last week we finally got out to another restaurant and they came and let us wash our hands at the table, both before and after dinner. 

Agusto check out the Chiles.  The red was nice and hot.  Then he tried the green one, and it was a bit much for him.  He said it was the hottest ever!   He was standing up and walking around.  

 We ordered a bunch of food on  platters and shared.  It was great. Tusker on the right is a Tanzanian beer.

At one of our hosts - Muslim University.  A private university started to help the Muslim community to have a better opportunity to get into universities.  Facility used to be for a telecom company.  They have lots of space and they have a communications center with their own radio station.  The day we were on site the power went out in Morogorow and they took us into very dark rooms, booted up their system on backup power and started broadcasting on their FM station.  The only light was from my phone and the computer. 

Class was out this week on break.  Here is a view of desks.

Muslim University is building a new building.  Nothing like digging your foundation by hand.

Now we go back in history to Mekumi National Park where I forgot to tell you that Philip (our CSC man on the street), continues to find ways to supplement his income.