Traffic in Dar-Es-Salaam
Tuesday, September 6, 2005 
Around four o'clock we arrive in Dar-es-Saalem, one of the biggest cities in Tanzania. It is noisy and modern and the traffic is bustling. Colourful matatus, blaring music, fight for lane space on all sides.
"Dar-es-Saalem" means "Haven of Peace",, Wayne tells us. He raises his eye-brows. "You wouldn't think it, would ya?"
There is a school bus in the lane to the left of us and we pull up and are stopped by the traffic jam so many times that one of the children on the bus leans out an open window and introduces herself to Andy, who replies "That's a very fine name, Maria."
I make eye-contact and wave at a very small child who is sitting up at the front of the bus beside the driver. He grins and waves back wildly every time our truck reappears next to their bus. The driver is grinning too.
A huge farm vehicle pulls alongside of us on the other side. Several men are riding on top of it and call out to us: "Water! Give us cool water!"
There are people riding on top of vehicles all over the place, even on top of a garbage truck.
Soon after, we hear George's horn blare again as Anne-Dorte leans on it for all she's worth. The driver in front of us is refusing to move out of our way and he's blocking all the traffic behind us
too. The man in front of us is yelling. Wayne hops out onto the sidewalk to find out what the problem is. I'm not quite sure what was up, but the traffic behind us decides not to wait until we've sorted it out and surges over the sidewalk to get past us. Finally it is sorted out, and we move on.
Around four o'clock we arrive in Dar-es-Saalem, one of the biggest cities in Tanzania. It is noisy and modern and the traffic is bustling. Colourful matatus, blaring music, fight for lane space on all sides.
"Dar-es-Saalem" means "Haven of Peace",, Wayne tells us. He raises his eye-brows. "You wouldn't think it, would ya?"
There is a school bus in the lane to the left of us and we pull up and are stopped by the traffic jam so many times that one of the children on the bus leans out an open window and introduces herself to Andy, who replies "That's a very fine name, Maria."
I make eye-contact and wave at a very small child who is sitting up at the front of the bus beside the driver. He grins and waves back wildly every time our truck reappears next to their bus. The driver is grinning too.
A huge farm vehicle pulls alongside of us on the other side. Several men are riding on top of it and call out to us: "Water! Give us cool water!"
There are people riding on top of vehicles all over the place, even on top of a garbage truck.
Soon after, we hear George's horn blare again as Anne-Dorte leans on it for all she's worth. The driver in front of us is refusing to move out of our way and he's blocking all the traffic behind us
too. The man in front of us is yelling. Wayne hops out onto the sidewalk to find out what the problem is. I'm not quite sure what was up, but the traffic behind us decides not to wait until we've sorted it out and surges over the sidewalk to get past us. Finally it is sorted out, and we move on.
posted by Spider Girl | 10:31 PM
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