Surfing the Savannah: Proper, good and proper

Bye bye beach

Oliva, a helpful host at Kipepeo

In the states you don’t hear the word “proper” too much unless you are talking with a Brit. Well we have taken to using the word proper often. It really started during our research for the trip. We read many blogs by Brits, Aussies and the like who used Proper and Kit often. We started incorporating proper in our vocabulary, but until this weekend, we never truly understood proper.

So, we had some security concerns out on the beach which is notorious for banditry and what not. We decided to come back into Dar and get a proper place. But in order to feel very secure, we decided to splurge and stay at a proper hotel. Okay, we had a bed, shower, and toilet at the beach and they were adequate, however they were definitely not proper. At the beach the hot water was “on demand.” I use quotation because we demanded a lot and got very little in return. The hot water should really be called “on begging and pleading you may get 5 minutes.” The bed was all very adequate, but hardly a thing you look forward to at night. The food at the beach while safe was unoriginal and expensive.

Now we are in Dar and getting gouged, and I must say that this place is proper. The food is expensive but great, the room is expensive but very secure and has a proper shower and has the life sustaining TV. The boys were so excited to have TV again, that they watched a French cartoon for 20 minutes before they would even dare allow me to check for an English channel. I guess they were concerned if they left the channel they may never again get back to cartoons. In short, proper is a great descriptive word, I also think it is a word very directly linked with money.

We found a local Super Market, but I am not sure why they use the word super. We decided we need to make some hotel room meals to save money. I know back in the day people made bath tub gin, which seems a little too complicated and dangerous. However I did do some bath tub laundry. My running gear doesn’t “go” as many times as our other clothes.

Local dates and cashews are heavenly

In the higher latitudes I think I have a good internal furnace. Running with the temperature around freezing with a thin long sleeve shirt and shorts is no problem…Snowboarding, the colder the better. Running back home on a day in the 70’s I sweat buckets. Or so I thought. Here I have discovered what sweating buckets can be like. For example, I was helping a guy at the hotel push our bags in a cart through some deep sand. The sweat was literally dripping off my nose and hat in 3 minutes. The guy from the hotel did not break a sweat. Maybe he was letting me do all the work? Anyway my running gear needs some frequent attention and at $2 an item for laundering I will do some bath tub washing. Our place in Kenya comes with a house maid that charges $3 A DAY!

We knew that the coast of Tanzania and Kenya, had a heavy Arabic influence, but we had no idea to what extent. At our first hotel, the neighborhood was primarily Arabs, and Indians. Our hotel had a ban on alcohol and the gym had separate use times for men and women. The architecture is also very dominated by Islam and Arabic culture. Actually most of the packaged food items are labeled in Arabic and English and very little Swahili. We had a candy bar today that had writing in Arabic, Russian, and English and was produced in Turkey? One thing we have really come to appreciate is the Islamic call to prayer that starts before sunrise. We heard it the first time we were in Kenya and were enchanted by the melodic sounds being broadcast over the city. As we struggled with jet lag in the first few days we were easily woken by it but today we all slept through it. It seems we've finally switched time zones. If you've never heard it: call to prayer recording

I bring up the Islamic influence because this weekend is the end of Ramadan and is a national holiday in TZ. I bring this up to help explain why our car is still sitting at the port. We got all the paper work done Wednesday last week, but the Holiday started Thursday and goes until mid-day Monday. I am told mid-day Monday because even though the holiday ends Friday, business doesn't snap back to work when the vacation is over. We all hope it happens sooner than later. Hotel living is fun for a few days but not what were here for. We're all anxious to hit the road and get up to Kenya where a cottage awaits our arrival.

Chris