Transit: DAR-JNB-JFK

Up at 6:30 a.m. Can’t shake the early morning routine. Get all of our stuff packed up and head over to the DTP office. We putter around for a bit making DVD-R backups of photos. I head off on foot to a bookstore that Mwanga had recommended in search of a book on learning Kiswahili. Downtown Dar es Salaam is compact, so it only takes me about 15 munites to traverse more than half of it. I recognize a great many of the places that we have gone to with Hanif over the past couple of weeks.

The Tanzania Publishing House bookstore is great. It is full of locally published books, about half in Kiswahili and half in English. It takes me a moment to find the book that Mwanga recommended. I also find some interesting books on the history of Zanzibar and a Tanzanian Cookbook. I am on a tight timetable and have to head back to the office. My fifteen minute walk leaves me drenched in sweat. Our visit has been during the Winter for the southern hemisphere. I can’t begin to imagine what is must be like here during the summer.

Alex, Maina, Rita and I pile into the Nissan Patrol and head off to the airport. The truck is running on fumes, so we head off in search of fuel. The first station we stop at is out of diesel. I think Alex and I were a little nervous at this point. Missing our flights would be a huge problem. The second station has what we need. The conjestion around the office lightens after about 15 minutes of stop and go.

Alex gets talked into having his luggage stretch-wrapped.

Our flight to Johannesburg is rather uneventful aside from the release of a sanitizing aerosol into the cabin. Appearently all flights originating in other African nations receive this treatment. I did not get sprayed down on the way in from the US. At Johannesburg Intl Airport, we wait in five different lines to have our documents examined and receive numerous stamps before finally getting to the departure lounge for our connecting flight. When our tickets were changed I didn’t think I would need to request vegan meals again. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I head off to find something to tide me over on the seventeen hour flight. After some hunting I wind up with a plate of steamed yams, broccoli and fresh salad. We both take advantage of the wireless Internet access for some last minute communication. It seems blazingly fast compared to what we had in Tanzania.

The cattle call goes out and we all herd over to the plane. My seat is toward the back, next to a window. It is going to be a very long flight. We are delayed an hour due to a no-show who had checked in some baggage. They have to hold us until the bags are removed from the plane. I nod off to sleep and have a fitfull rest until we arrive at Sol Island ten hours later for a security check. Our friends at the FAA require that all flights into the US be checked to make sure that all baggage in the passenger compartment is claimed. We have to remove all of our bags from the overhead compartments and from under our seats. Half an hour later we are on our way.

I spend the rest of the flight reading and watching a couple of films. I check out Bullterproof Monk, Basic and the opening of X-Men 2 again.