Well, you haven’t seen any pictures yet, have you. I’ve just not been able to do what it takes (even with good help from afar) to post them on this blog so until I gain some more skills everyone will just have to use her/his imagination. Just take it from me that my immediate environment is beautiful here, especially since we’ve had a nice shower of rain almost every day.
When I went out the other day I was reminded of one type of vehicle on the road that I didn’t mention previously: the cart. A lot of goods are transported around the city on two wheeled pull/push carts. These are made by placing a wooden frame with short sides on an axle with two rubber tires. The axle and tires are taken from old vehicles and the wooden frame, about 3-4 ft. by 5 ft. is fastened to it. There are two poles extending forward at the front, with a shaft placed between them. That front part is used to pull the cart, and sometimes these are very heavily loaded. Sacks of potatoes or rice or fruit or vegetables, boxes filled with anything and everything, crates of soda and beer, carcasses of cows or goats going to or from butcheries, live chickens - - these are only some of the things I’ve seen being transported this way. When the load is heavy there is often a second person pushing from the back as the person in front pulls. And remember that these share the road with everything else: cars, buses, lorries, bicycles, people. It’s actually a very “green” way to transport goods; everything from which the cart is made is recycled and no fossil fuels are used to run it. One can’t help but empathize with the men pulling them, however, when you see the sweat running down their faces.
I guess the slower pace here applies also to the internet. This morning I wanted to read the local newspaper from North Dakota (Divide County Journal – a weekly that has news of the county including the nieces and nephews and their sports activities). It took 15 minutes to download, and that would normally take three or four minutes in the U.S. Maybe that also affects my ability to upload pictures to this blog???
Tomorrow is the trip to Morogoro and it will take us about eight hours, I suppose. The distance is about 500 km. We will drive in a newly serviced car, a Toyota Rav-4. Since the other three Sisters are all drivers I’m sure I won’t have to test my ability to remember that I need to drive on the left side of the road ….. That will come, however. I did get my Tanzanian license the other day. It had been expired for over three years but all I did was pay the fee and it was renewed for another two years. The fee included the eye examination, which I didn’t need to take!
I'll write again as I get the opportunity.
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