A comparatively quiet final day in Tanzania, though after all the excitement this week that was no bad thing. We've had a good variety of activities and locations on this break which means that it has felt like much more than a fortnight (in a good way). That Ethiopian meal on the first night seems like a long time ago.
My final book of the holidays has been John Peel's "Margrave of the Marshes" which is of course a bitter-sweet experience. Peel died half way through writing the book and it has been completed by his wife. This works out pretty well, but of course it would have been better in so many ways if John himself had been around to finish what he started. Still worth a look though. And the second book of the holiday written by a pupil of Shrewsbury School (Peel was a contemporary of Michael Palin as well as the original team behind Private Eye).
We all went out for a final massive meal (I am not looking forward to stepping back on the scales once I am home, but hopefully a fortnight of being fastidious will make up for this two weeks of wild abandon). I noticed that the cab driver who took us to the restaurant has a rather unusual decoration hanging down from his rear-view mirror, and if I am not mistaken he is not alone amongst African drivers in having this. Instead of a piney freshener or a gonk he had a CD on a piece of string attached to the mirror. It was I noted a disc for Microsoft Office 2000 or 2002 or something. It seemed like an odd automobile ornament, but I have seen other cars with CDS in the same place. I don't know if they are all computer software or whether any CD will suffice (I guess the drivers enjoy the shininess more than making this an attempt to impress people with which CD they are using). It's a strange little craze, but I didn't want to ask the driver what it was about and in any case didn't have the necessary Swahili (though I have added "asante" - thank you - to my vocab now, which up to now has just consisted of "jambo")
But one massive curry later and it was time for bed as it's an early flight home tomorrow. I hope I will have persuaded one or two of you to visit this fascinating and beautiful country or at the very least to send out some unwanted CDs for the taxi drivers here. It would be nice if the driver we had tonight could upgrade to a more up to date Microsoft package for instance. I am sure I can get the CD to him via Tony if anyone has a copy to spare. Because I think what the people of Africa most need from us are CDs. I have learnt nothing.
Looking forward to swapping the African Bush for Shepherd's Bush. I would say goodbye to you people of Tanzania, but I am afraid I didn't get round to learning that word. But I can say Asante very much for all you have done. You made me most caribou. Hey I knew three words after all. Though may not have got the spelling right.
