A Car!

Since I have been in Tanzania, I have ridden in cars exactly 2 times, and once was this morning. We ride on Dalla Dallas, the Zanzibari form of public transportation, fairly often- maybe once every two days- but there are very few cars here. It's so ridiculous to think about the cold Feruary days in Minnesota where I got in and out of a car 6 times, or maybe even more. Now it has been nearly three months, and only twice have I gotten into a car. I'm sure that's why everyone is so healthy and strong here.

Let me describe the experience on a dalla dalla a little more to you. Most of the dalla dallas here are pickup trucks with benches all around the edges and a top/canopy thing that they stack high with anything and everything. A few days ago Chris (Chris is actually Christine- she goes to Brandeis University. I realize that many of you thought I was talking about Chris Rice, but it isn't him) and I got on a dalla dalla that had maybe 25 people on it. Everyone squeezed in on benches that face the middle of the truck. If there's a centimeter of empty bench next to you, someone will say "sogea" and then booty-bump you with impressive force over to the person sitting next to you to make room for someone else on the other side. As we looked out the side of the dalla dalla, we saw that the one next to us was piled high with all kinds o things- one one roof we saw an entire bedroom set- bedframe, two chairs, table, bedstand, mattress, and small bureau-chest-like thing. We also saw a 10 gallon bucket, about 10 about 8-foot long metal poles, several potato sacks full of charcoal, and my favorite thing, a banana tree. All of this one one small pickup truck. Sometimes they pass with no less than 30-40 mattresses stacked high, another one of my favorite sights.

When the dalla dalla stops, which is usually indicated by the person hanging off the back banging on the side of the truck with a metal stick or a large coin and shouting a string of words in swahili, you never know what people will take out from underneath the benches where you are sitting. The other day, when we stopped, someone got off the dalla dalla and asked where his chickens were. Everyone looked under their benches, and not one, not two, not three, but at least 5 live chickens appeard, tied up in plastic bags, from under the benches where we were sitting. As he left, he yelled that he was still missing one, and sure enough someone reached under and pulled out another bagged chicken and passed it down the line until it got to the last person in the dalla dalla, who passed it out the back to the man. I love riding on dalla dallas.

Ok my internet time is up. Talk to you all soon!