Getting through the Washington Tunnel bridge was horrible, making a four hour trip six hours long and demonstrating NYC’s desperate need for Landscape Architects!

The 12 hour flight from JFK to Dubai on Emirates was A-mazing!  Aisle seat with no one beside me.  Amazing multi-course meals, free wine and candy bars.  All the movies you could ever want to watch on your touch screen.  Also flight infor, music, and news.  Same carrier from Dubai to Dar es Salaam – smaller & not as new + more passengers = uncomfortable!  What do you expect when traveling 19 hours?

It was a blessing to land in Tanzania though it is bloody HOT here!  Piled all 13 of us into an air conditioned van (thank God!) and made our way from southern Dar es Salaam (Dar) to the northern side.  We are staying in a super nice hostel on Old Bagamoyo Road.  It took much time to make it through the city.  Rush hour.  Groups of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people waiting for buses. to return home for the day.  Finally made it to the hostel and very ipressed.  Large, white, clean, 3 story building with outdoor hallways, tiled floors, hand painted floor and room signs.  Staying in a separate little building – air conditioning, the mattress is memory foam – king size!  I did not expect this in Africa…little did I know.

Best thing: I saw a skinny bus driver stop a bus and leap out, taking a tall and portly woman by the wrist.  He led her to the rear door of the bus (like the escape door on American school buses).  He opened that door and literally pushed people back to make room for her, a huge smile on his face the entire time, as if to say “there is ALWAYS more room on my bus”.  He then picked the lady up from behind, her butt on his chest and spilling over his arms, lifting her over 3′ up into the bus!!!  Classic.  Both were smiling the whole time!

Worst thing: Child with polio or other crippling leg deformity crossing an extremely large and busy intersection by dragging himself with is arms.

Location: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania