Iringa-Dar-Zanzibar

We finished up our short trip to Iringa, and took the looong car ride back to Dar es Salaam. We heard from various people that the car ride between Dar and Iringa is anywhere from 5 to 8 hours. It took us 10, door-to-door. Part of that was because we went into Morogoro town, partway between the two cities, to eat at a certain Indian restaurant that was recommended by someone on another project team. The food was fabulous, but they apparently had to prepare everything from scratch after we ordered it (actually, this is the norm for mid-priced restaurants in Tanzania; we should have known), so we were there for a while. The distance is about 500 kilometers, so we could make the trip in 5 hours...if there were absolutely no other cars or slow-moving transport trucks on the road, no construction, no pot-holed sections, no rain, and no stops. Which will never happen. Next time we go, which will be as soon as next week, we’ll call ahead to the Indian place to give our order, so it’ll be piping hot and ready when we reach the town.

Everyone kept telling how cold it is in Iringa, and giving their sympathies for having to endure such cold. To them, the heat of Dar is the default, the normal, so Iringa is not only cold, but too cold. But to me, the cool of Iringa is awesome, and Dar is far too hot and sweaty. The weather was downright pleasant in Iringa, and uncomfortable in Dar, even in the cool season that we’re in now.

We’re in a little bit of a waiting game on the project with some bureaucracy, so we decided to come to Zanzibar, our second home. It’s lovely to be back. We’ve already run across some people we know and visited a couple of our old haunts. We had a couple of meetings with people in the US today, so we conducted them via Skype from a rooftop restaurant while a great view of Stone Town and a lovely breeze, and then while having gelato at our favorite little Italian place just off the beach. Justin commented that it’s too bad we have to do work while we’re in Zanzibar; I said, “Yeah, but we’d be working anyway; might as well do it from Zanzibar!”

One our second day here in Zanzibar, we went to our oldest friend, Juma's, house. His wife gave birth to their first child in February. We'd been waiting almost 5 months to meet her. Since our Juma is named after big Juma, they named little Sarah after me!

meet Sarah Juma Hussein