5th of December 2008

I decided before I came to Africa that I wasn't going to shave for the entire trip, my intention was to attempt to grow some form of facial hair, fingers crossed it will resemble a beard. My partial beard has had many comments and looks, over the duration of it's life so far. One girl has even threatened to smash a glass and rough shave me if she has to.. I seriously hope she was joking.. Some women definately have a thing against facial hair no matter what culture your in. Anyway, some days I wake up, look at myself in the mirror and imagine myself as a Tom Hanks (cast away), or the original Robinson Crusoe himself in the making, African style. I'm not sure what kind of first impression I make with people or what the children say secretly behind my back, but to me its liberating. To add to my new African image I have recently acquired an old mountain bike to get to and fro and to assist me in exploring this large city, this is Mrs Huckstable's old thing, she kindly offered it to me as she doesn't use it, ridding it sometimes you can see why, still it's very convenient. Can you imagine, me, making my merry, bearded way around Africa on a bicycle, people would think that I had joined the Green party if I was back home.
The amount of exercise I do everyday has now suddenly doubled, so has the amount of sweat, water intake and washing of my clothes, ridding around Dar-es-Salaam is not all peaches and cream either. If you remember my brief deceptions of the Swahili bus driver and the ba-ga-gi wielding maniac, combine that with a lack of foresight on the part of road planners when it came to bicycles and this basically sums up my situation. It is a dangerous affair to attempt to travel by bicycle and I certainly found this out fairly quickly, yet many people use bikes on these roads daily. At first I kept thinking, shit, did I make sure I had insurance 4 bike travel? One joker I passed was riding his bike with a front loading tray stacked almost to the point where he couldn't see with an unsecured load of trays of eggs! Crazy, good luck with that mate, I thought. Another guy I noticed was running as hard and fast as he could sweat pouring off him dragging a massive wooden cart that looked like a trailer full of all sorts including his more than able friend, and I thought I was sweating, man I hope they took it in turn. some of the people's occupations and daily struggles here are incomprehensible, even when you see them going through it your thinking, there is no way that he does that every day of his life right... for these guys using the road is a must, the sound of horns follow their every movement, drivers here are dangerous, unpredictable and crazy. Iv taken to cycling off road, I soon discovered that while doing this, it is impossible to sit on the seat unless you want to find that your backside has changed colour over night, it is a bumpy, sandy, rough ride, the bike looks like it has suspension but practically that was asking too much, so Iv pioneered a new technique for dealing with the terrain, maybe someday ill show you. dodging people and learning effective sounds to warn them has been fun aswell.
It has not taken me long to get my sense of direction and Now am very comfortable with my surroundings, at least those within a certain radius of our home. Up until now iv visited many markets, small villages, residential areas, shopping areas, towns and attractions, I am able to direct myself to these places and back very well, but once I get outside this comfort zone I'm back to the old no street name and every place looks the same problem. Still everyday I am extending this comfort zone seeing and experiencing more of this crazy place. I have become a local in a few of my many routes and continuously recognise familiar faces, with whom I exchange regular greetings. One guy I see all the time lives a few blocks over from me and I could not figure out why every time we greeted each other he would point to his house and say welcome in, this is even strange for this friendly culture. The man is always dressed like a hippy, wears Rastafarian colours and has an even more chilled out aura about him then most, music like bob or some other upbeat, African sound always pumps from his residence. It suddenly dawned on me as I was biking and caught a whiff of the local leaf, I now know what business this hawker is involved in, crack up.. there are so many characters over here I could go on forever...