The Mountain of God
neil posted in Travel, Tanzania on July 14th, 2007
Our second meeting with the president of Tanzania happened on a main road near the airport. A more serious police roadblock stopped the traffic on the main road as the presidential motorcade turned onto it. The motorcade was composed of fourty seven SUVs of varying quality. Press, aid agencies and plenty of security. It took awhile but soon Enough we were heading to our Mt Kilimanjaro photo oppertunity.
Frenzied photo taking in the oppressive heat followed by lunch in the shadow of the truck. I spent awhile sitting at the roadside photgraphing the brilliantly painted busses that passed. One advertised the Hesbollah on its front windscreen. I did’nt make a picture of that one.
We pass some choice establishments after lunch. The Tanzanian enthusiasm for advertising made for some entertaining signage. “Magic Con Shop” “Golden Shower Hotel” “Las Vegas Grocery” “Maximum Miracle Centre” and the amusingly named “Kill-view pub”.
Our campsite is up a hill through a village of waving kids. It has the luxury of a tiny swimming pool and a Hawian-eqsue bar. The sun sets as Kathryn books our Zanzibar accomodation (against the wishes and advice of our fixer) and we chat to Boris.
Boris is from Zimbabwe and worked for the campsite. He was a cook, truck driver and fixer for twelve years. He calls Zimbabwe “Zim”. His mother still lives there. His father designated 2/3 of the family land as a cemetary just before the government would have taken possesion of it. He is happy and articulate but seems to be having trouble keeping the bar tabs in order. We pay up and think of the sun rising over the Indian ocean into the beach bungalows we just booked.
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