showers usually don’t last and the sun warms up everything pretty fast, as if nothing had happened.
this dirt road is quite damaged but it’s still a nice short cut to go home. On the left a typical water truck. The caption says “maji safi”, clean water. Well I’d still boil and filter it. These trucks are common. Some areas, for various reasons are not connected to water, whether it is due to incompetence from Arusha water supply or because the underground doesn’t provide any water either. On the right, originally a Korean truck, then copied by the Chinese. 90% of all trucks in Tanzania are made after this design. The factory offers the choice for colors providing it is blue. This one has been repainted.
after the downpour, the puddles disappear fast. Women carrying burden. As for the pictures below, this area is not a slum, but the side of the main road in Arusha, a few hundred meters away from center town.
lost of street vendors and craftsmen try to make a living near the road side. It’s not always clear what they’re up to. This one looks like a shoe shiner with 2 idle accomplices.
sofas and furniture display in front of a grocery.
tractor salvaging. I like the half buried tyre, nice seat. Won’t be stolen at least, priceless.
grilled corn for sale.
cops and traffic jams. You can’t help wondering if things shouldn’t be left to motorists. 4 of them at this junction, only one working, 3 looking at girls, chaos is the rule. I sometimes have the same feeling in Belgium though. It reminds me of a reader’s letter in the local newspaper. Something about Middle Ages in Europe when road thieves ransoming travellers were tortured and hanged but nowadays in Tanzania they were given a white uniform and a salary (obviously not enough he added). I thought it was a gutsy double comparison, thieves and cops, and Tanzania and Middle Ages, but maybe the local editor missed the second allusion…
Muslims, 33% of TZ population. Some Indians, animists…the rest is Christian. The Coast is mainly Muslim though. Cohabitation looks pretty fine. It gets a bit hotter during elections but it is quite contained. Well it depends where you got your standards from. In Zanzibar street fighting can be hot with cop heads displayed on spikes! I can’t imagine how a crowd can get that crazy as to behead cops in the streets! In turn cops got on the revenge mood and started to fire in crowds a bit indiscriminately with their AK47’s. Dozens died. Then they were also accused of sinking fleeing boats with a total of 300 dead people, this with the help of a gunship helicopter. Problem is there is no proof as no bullet-riddled bodies have been found, only so-called survivors. I can imagine cops doing that but propaganda has no limit either or the overloaded boats might have just sunk …
ninja women, luckily not so numerous. I feel sorry for them and I pee on the “Politically Correct” concept. I don’t care about mean comments or jokes on Belgians (from Froggies), I don’t get upset when girls make comments on men’s numerous faulty designs, well that’s easy since most don’t apply to me ;-) and I don’t care about jokes on bald people. If we leave the PC reigning free, humorists will be endangered species soon. Some stiff asses even attacked Walt Disney’s “Aladdin” because a carpet seller was too stereotyped (that is middle east). Sigh…
street market, daily occurence.
20lt jerrycan, a 25kg flour bag and I don’t know about the bag with the red stripe but it must be heavy too as the 25kg bag is on top! Kudos to these bikers.
I’ve never tried this kind of ice cream because I don’t trust the cold chain efficiency of these coolers.
cop with AK47 being distracted.
market ladies going home at the end of the day.
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