Home » Tanzania » Back in Dar Es Salaam- December 15, 2004 - Laura

I hope this email finds everyone well and not panicking too much from Christmas shopping frenzy. There are a few Christmas trees around Dar Es Salaam, even though the city is mostly Arabic and Muslim. However, it is close to 100 degrees today, so it does not feel like Christmas to me in the slightest. Will feel even less like Christmas when I arrive in Sri Lanka in two days since it is a Buddhist and Hindu country, and, therefore, I don't think Christmas will be an extravagant affair like it is back in the good, old USA. I don't think it will be an affair at all, which will be odd.
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Back in Dar Es Salaam- December 15, 2004 - Laura

Lasulo
2006-01-06 18:11:46

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whilst sitting drinking tea (no coffee, as per bloody usual), I stared out the window and tried to drink in the scene so I could keep Africa with me. It will always be with me in my heart and my mind. When it comes down to it, it is not the animals or the landscapes that remain in my memory; it is the people - the kindness, the craziness, the difference in lifestyle and economics, the smiles, and the seeming happiness despite the odds and the amount of material items that they don't have as compared to us, the rich mzungus.

Last week, when I was hiking in the hills above Lake Bunyonyi in southern Uganda, I couldn't help but wonder - who is really the advanced civilization? Sure we have more computers and cars and washing machines, but if it all went bottoms up, could any of us survive? Many Africans would and could survive by living as they have for centuries, plowing with a hoe made from the village blacksmith, getting water out of well, raising animals to kill and eat, etc. Currently rereading Cold Mountain, and I thought, 'How many of us in this world are like Ada (unable to survive on our own land without the help of others), and how many of us are like Ruby (know how to plant and harvest and use the land to survive)?' I had a difficult time choking down a few pieces of the goat offered to me in the village because the head was still warm and bloody right outside the door.

Couldn't imagine if I had to actually kill the goat myself, and then clean it, and then cook it, and then eat it. However, Africans do it all the time. They survive on very little. And still, they smile, all the time. Even the children who are wearing clothes you wouldn't use to wash the floor and who are playing with a wooden hoop or marbles, they smile Even the women carrying incredibly heavy loads on their heads and a child on their backs, they smile. That is the image which will remain.

There is no place like Africa.

On the other hand, there is no place like home. I miss, miss, miss everyone. Keep the emails coming - they are like a lifeline to home.