DSM

i'm in dar es salaam, the most boring city in the world probably... there's not much apart from the headquarters of some big banks and intl corporations and government buildings. it doesn't mean that the city is modern and hype though. it's covered with dust, slow, with hardly any street-stands and street markets. but i have to admit, that we've been here over the weekend. maybe tomorrow and outside the city center will be more interesting.

we got here by a so-called 'slowboat'. it definitely is slow, but it was a rather comfortable night on a bench in a large cabin, sleeping and watching a movie, stopped for the swahili news (each time there was a fight between those who wanted to watch the movie and those in favor of the news). the boat normally carries a huge pile of bags full of flour from dar to zanzibar (zanzi is too small to produce enough of it for the whole populatin). on the way back, the deck was empty.

yesterday we went to bagamoyo, a small town on the coast where the most interesting thing is the college of arts. it's very interesting... during the summer it offers courses of african dance and art for tourists, but during the academic year the student schedule is full. thanks to the college, bagamoyo has become the tanzanian center of art. there are artists' workshops everywhere. some are really good. painters and sculptors. there's also a wonderful fish market and a harbor (just wait to see the pictures of the boats... :)).

but one thing that made my time in bagamoyo the sweetest ever: the children. there are lots of them everywhere: at the local school and outside of it. they run around, play soccer, race. every time they see you with a camera, they demand a photo (there's no way to say no). then they jump, make funny faces, climb on one another and watch the photos on the camera (thanks god for the digital cameras...) forever laughing and joking. there's nothing better than that.

blazej and cyprian've just left. they're going straight to dodoma-mwanza-musoma-kenya. i want to make a bigger loop (going far south first), so we've split up. just keep your fingers crossed so that i don't get malaria while i travel alone. that's the only thing that would make it really nasty...