Home again

After Peponi I began the very long and tiring journey back to England. Getting back to Dar es Salaam involved a broken down daladala and an eleven hour bus journey. My flight had a stop-over in Doha, a glitzy and tacky shrine to extravagance and materialism; amongst dozens of exclusive luxury boutiques there were four supercars that were being raffled in the departure lounge, a vulgar contrast to humble Tanzania. In my sleep-deprived state I first got on the wrong train from Heathrow, and when I found the right one I had to buy a new ticket since my railcard was amongst my stolen possessions, but eventually I made it back home.

Here are a few of the great number of things I will miss about Africa:

1. I love it when young black men call me "brother". It makes me feel cool and accepted even though they are almost always trying to sell me something.

2. I love the culture of politeness. It is customary to say pole, roughly "my sympathies", in greeting a person who is ill or doing any kind of work, and to greet elders with shikamoo, roughly "I show my respect". I'm always startled when kids say it to me.

3. I love the optimism of Tanzanian people. It's considered bad manners to be negative, such that when asking how someone is (Habari...) you are basically expecting to be answered with "good" (mzuri) or similar. Even when a patient is terribly ill or dying they are unlikely to admit it and will usually report that they are "not too bad" when asked.

4. To an extent, I like the pace of life in Tanzania. There is literally never ever a hurry, and I am very surprised when things occur even vaguely on time. Even in truly horrendous traffic there is no stress or time-pressure, every driver seems in good spirits and reassuringly utters polepole (slowly slowly) to excuse any tardiness.

5. Whilst I'm not a huge fan of Tanzanian food I do like the drink. Stoney Tangawizi (unfortunately coca cola company) is a delicious ginger beer, kilimanjaro coffee is awesome and Zanzibar spiced tea is fantastically exotic. I've also developed a taste/dependency on some of the beers especially Serengeti and Tusker lagers, and I'm a fan of a generous glass of konyagi with ice and lemon, a fragrant mystery spirit.

6. I like the genuine enthusiasm some of the children show when meeting a mzungu (white person), some of the more outgoing younger children in more rural areas are likely to frantically wave, shout, sing and dance when we are spotted and it makes me feel extremely important.

7. I really like the friendliness of Tanzanians including the absurdly long greeting rallies undertaken when greeting even complete strangers, the openers and corresponding responses confusingly change depending on who is talking. It's a challenging but warm ritual.

It's nice to be home but I'll be back to Africa soon, I hope.