CHAPTER 1 Getting It Done. Crossing Tanzania in a 30 Foot Truck

11/8/15: My jouney across Tz  in the truck with 2 drivers was epic. Never will forget it. A big diverse country. very poor and full of contrast. I know, sounds like a travel brochure or geography book , but so true.  I will try to write in my blog about the trip but there were so many events. Most of all I feel like I closed the case on the shipping container. And for that I feel much better. In my life I feel like I have a weakness or deficiency or inability to get things done.  “ Get it done” is one of my secret mantras. So hard to come to closure some times. That must be why I like work at MMC. Its easier to ‘get it done “ there.  Certainly easier then at home and way easier then here.  So it seems  very ironic that I find myself in maybe the worst place in the world to get ANYTHING done….Sub Saharian Africa!!

What is wrong with me?  Is this my destiny?  Or am I just Catholic masochistic?

   Anyway the loading at Caritas in Dar es Salaam was hilarious.  I hired 8 workers  to unload the container , separate and pack the truck.  Then pack the stuff we didn’t take back  to Rulenge into the container. It was boiling!!  After lots of back and forth  ( just hilarious) I agreed to pay them 200,000 Tsh.  About $100.  For 8 guys that’s $12 for a days work in the sun…..it was boiling!  Whats the min hourly wage in US?  Turns out the container is in a toxic waste dump behind Caritas. Not Love Canal but…    There were about 100 fifty gallon drums full of oily tar. There was a slow glacier of tar leaking from a drum near the container. Everyone avoided it like dog shit but as the day went on and the temp got way over 30 degrees that glacier of tar started to move closer. Soon somebody stepped in it.   These guys don’t wear shoes or some have flip flops. Then it was everywhere! In the path of moving boxes and equipment. Soon it was on our stuff. Then one of the guys slipped in it!  I will have toxic tar on the bottom of my hiking boots for the next few weeks.  Anyway I found some cut up 4x8 plywood and tried to keep it to a minimum…impossible.

  As the afternoon went on and it got even hotter, more and more boxes got opened to see what was in them and make a decision: bring or leave.

I began to notice more and more workers were wearing winter hats and some had gloves. Like the kind of clothing you might find in Vermont! Some of the guys had sweaters on!! It had to be 35 degrees in the sun!     That was the day I learned that even a very black African can get a sunburn!

Next chapter: we all (3) spend the night sleeping in the truck.

Hope to get pictures and more story web permitting.

Miss you all tons. Exhausted and a little scared at times but having a blast.   Larry