Travel Tweets: Dar Es Salaam

During our travels, I found Twitter to be an excellent tool to document the journey as it happened.  Even in places where I had limited internet access, I typically had a phone signal, which was enough to record a 140-character thought for my family and friends to see.

Here are the Tweets from the second leg of our Tanzania trip: a visit to Dar Es Salaam, where my wife was born and her father grew up.  This trip was their first return in 26 years.  Times are in U.S. Central. (See all the pictures on my Picasa album.)

Non-disembarking stop in Nairobi. Come to understand better the phrase "unwashed masses."
11:42 AM Oct 28th from txt

50 more minutes to Dar Es Salaam, and into what I've overheard is a spectacularly slow immigration. Fingers crossed it ain't so.
11:53 AM Oct 28th from txt

Landed in Dar Es Salaam! Air is humid, smells of roasting corn.
1:22 PM Oct 28th from txt

Just got double-charged for entry visa. Welcome to Africa!
1:40 PM Oct 28th from txt

We later learned that we were not, in fact, overcharged.  The cost of an American entry visa had gone up.  Counter to our jaded expectations, we found the Tanzanian people to be among the most honest and welcoming we'd ever encountered.

Dar Es Salaam at night looks like India: industrial concrete buildings, roadside chai, billboards for hi-tech products.
12:24 AM Oct 29th from mobile web

From Dar Es Salaam

Spotty cell coverage in Tanzania means fewer Tweets. And perhaps a more authentic experience.
12:27 AM Oct 29th from mobile web

Using bottled water for drinking, brushing teeth & face washing while abroad is an excellent lesson in water conservation.
12:57 AM Oct 29th from mobile web

Small wonder Indians once flocked to Dar Es Salaam: it looks and feels just like India, with less visible abject poverty.
5:17 AM Oct 29th from mobile web

On a nostalgia tour with my father-in-law in Tanzania, seeing friends of 40 years ago, the hospital where Bela was born.
7:33 AM Oct 29th from mobile web

From Dar Es Salaam

The Indian Ocean sparkles green and deep azure in the powerful African sun.
7:35 AM Oct 29th from mobile web

From Dar Es Salaam

Under the broiling African sun, amidst primally vivid color and sea-smells, he rued what could've been.
10:58 AM Oct 29th from mobile web

From Dar Es Salaam

The Tanzanian people seem relaxed, friendly and courteous. I found myself smiling and nodding at passers-by; so unlike Chicago.

11:07 AM Oct 29th from mobile web

Amazing Indian dining at Garden Bistro in Dar Es Salaam: in large part because of the gorgeous outdoor cabanas under the stars.4:03 PM Oct 29th from mobile web

From Dar Es Salaam

In Tanzania, non-GM, organic, farm/sea-to-table isn't fancy dining; it's the default, and delicious.
10:48 PM Oct 29th from mobile web

Mysteriously, magically, international roaming sprung back to life for me in Tanzania. Let's see for how long...
11:47 PM Oct 29th from txt

The poverty I've seen in DarEsSalaam is stark, but somehow not wretched, despite the visible disparity. I wonder what I'm not seeing.12:53 AM Oct 30th from txt

"K.T." -- allegedly the best hole-in-the-wall kebab joint in DarEsSalaam. Kebabs acquired for picnic on Bongoyo Island. 
2:56 AM Oct 30th   from txt

From Dar Es Salaam

Around $77 for 3 of us to take a small boat to Bongoyo Island to sit on the beach for 2 hours? No thanks - we'll be in Zanzibar in 4 days.3:19 AM Oct 30th from txt

From Dar Es Salaam

University of Tanzania's campus is a beautiful arid park of hills, acacia and dry brush. That the students walk in this heat humbles me.
4:17 AM Oct 30th from txt

From Dar Es Salaam

Enjoyed our K.T. Kebabs on a hill overlooking Dar Es Salaam. Great! Balls of lamb, onion & spices crispy on outside, tender on inside.
4:20 AM Oct 30th from txt

From Dar Es Salaam

Taking a ferry across Kigmboni Bay for no better reason than it'd be cool to take a ferry across the bay.
4:59 AM Oct 30th from txt

From Dar Es Salaam

Aha. Kigmboni across the bay -- that's where the really poor people live. And it's a site of some spectacular white-sand beaches.
5:41 AM Oct 30th from txt

From Dar Es Salaam

Sitting in a beach cabana across the bay from DarEsSalaam enjoying a beer with Bela and her dad, listening to the waves of the Indian Ocean.
5:50 AM Oct 30th from txt

From Dar Es Salaam

Bela, watching men at the beach: "These Tanzanian men are IN SHAPE." Me: "Well, when you grow up in a country without Twinkies..."
5:58 AM Oct 30th from txt

We're at the Patel Brotherhood club. Everyone's speaking Gujarati. I smile and nod.
11:25 AM Oct 30th from txt

From Dar Es Salaam

Bela: "You know you're in a Gujarati restaurant when they give your table only one menu. And then give it to the other table after."
11:45 AM Oct 30th from txt

Bela looked into an empty concrete room and saw second-hand memories of her first 10 months take new shape.
3:24 PM Oct 30th from txt

From Dar Es Salaam

Two-hour flight from DarEsSalaam to Arusha in a tiny single-engine plane! This should be fun...

11:58 PM Oct 30th from txt

From Dar Es Salaam

Thirteen passengers fit in this plane. One as a co-pilot.
1:20 AM Oct 31st from txt

From Ngorongoro National Park

Flying from DarEsSalaam to Arusha via Zanzibar in a little propeller plane affords the most amazing views! Shutter-finger tired.
1:54 AM Oct 31st from txt

From Ngorongoro National Park

Weather in Arusha is too much for our little plane. Stopped in Kilimanjaro waiting for weather to clear or a bus.
3:53 AM Oct 31st from txt

From Ngorongoro National Park

Made it to Arusha! Having lunch at a posh little lodge. Carrots and potatoes actually have a distinct -- and good -- taste.
5:49 AM Oct 31st from txt

On our arrival in Arusha, we immediately hit the road, bound for the Ngorongoro Crater wildlife preserve.  (Go to the Ngorongoro Tweets)

Travel Tweets: The Zurich Layover

During our travels, I found Twitter to be an excellent tool to document the journey as it happened.  Even in places where I had limited internet access, I typically had a phone signal, which was enough to record a 140-character thought for my family and friends to see.  (Previous: Zurich Layover Tweets)

Here are the Tweets from the first leg of our Tanzania trip: our one-day layover in Zurich.  Times are in U.S. Central. (See all the photographs on my Picasa album.)

Bah. 8 kg carry-on limit on SwissAir just nuked our "all-carry-ons" plan. Nothing like last-minute reshuffling to kick off a journey.
5:55 PM Oct 26th from txt

http://twitpic.com/n2v07 - SwissAir #9 to Zurich
6:23 PM Oct 26th from TwitPic

From Zurich

http://twitpic.com/n38gr - Cramped quarters in SwissAir Economy class
7:49 PM Oct 26th from TwitPic

From Zurich

USB port on plane seat means my phone has power! Yay!
8:05 PM Oct 26th from txt

Landed in Zurich. Countryside looks so lovely, I may yodel. Keeping an eye out for Swiss Miss.
4:34 AM Oct 27th from txt

http://twitpic.com/n4rce - Hotel Continental, Zurich: NOT the way to beat jetlag
6:47 AM Oct 27th from TwitPic

From Zurich

Probably shouldn't have napped so long at the hotel, but now an evening circuit of Zurich Old Town awaits.
10:11 AM Oct 27th from txt

From Zurich

http://twitpic.com/n5jr4 - Dusk over Zurich
11:35 AM Oct 27th from TwitPic

From Zurich

http://twitpic.com/n5jvb - Dusk over Zurich 2
11:36 AM Oct 27th from TwitPic

From Zurich

Had an Italian meal in Zurich at La Pasta with perfectly al dente pasta and a comped (?) bottle of Amarone.
1:25 PM Oct 27th from txt

From Zurich

Nope, it wasn't comped, but it was thoroughly enjoyed.

From Zurich

Bela's drunk on Amarone and ready to crash. We have a 5:30am wake-up call. But I'm not done with Zurich. Wolf Bierhalle, I'm coming!
2:18 PM Oct 27th from txt

Found a fondue place: Swiss Chuchi. Trying to decipher wine list in German.
3:03 PM Oct 27th from txt

Ordered a glass of Staatschreiner Wein Cuvee Prestige from Zurich. Pinot noir, Muscat & Gewurztraminer.
3:09 PM Oct 27th from txt

The wine: dry muscat aromatics, ruby-tinged gold color, perfumey Gewurtz in mouth.
3:19 PM Oct 27th from txt

http://twitpic.com/n6f65 - 2nd Dinner at Swiss Chuchi, Zurich
3:23 PM Oct 27th from TwitPic

From Zurich

Enjoyed an evening in Zurich; now preparing for 10 hours on the plane to Dar Es Salaam. P.S. Swiss coffee is surprisingly strong.
1:52 AM Oct 28th from txt

Swiss Miss appeared to me as a hologram in the Zurich airport. She kissed the window and vanished, beautiful and ephemeral as a dream.

2:49 AM Oct 28th   from txt



And then we were off, bound for Nairobi, Kenya, and then Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.  (Go to the Dar Es Salaam Tweets)

Fear and Loathing in America

In President John F. Kennedy's oft-quoted inaugural address, he challenged America to "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."  In 2009, that remark would have branded him a socialist, what with its overtones of a "common good" with nary an individual profit motive in sight.  (One wonders how the Preamble to the Constitution would fare in this current climate, with its "promote the general welfare" verbiage.)  President Barack Obama certainly came under conservative fire in the days leading up to today's address to the nation's school children.  The key objection was to the assignment that was initially to accompany the address: students would be asked to write a letter to themselves to discuss what they could do to help the president.

This scared the bajeezus out of conservative parents, who envisioned this man, for whom they didn't vote, indoctrinating their children into the sinister ethos of giving up some of what they had, to help those less fortunate.  (One wonders how Jesus Christ -- another notorious socialist -- would fare in this current climate.)  A suburban Colorado mom was quoted on CNN saying "Thinking about my kids in school having to listen to that just really upsets me.  I'm an American. They are Americans, and I don't feel that's OK. I feel very scared to be in this country with our leadership right now."  It was sentiments like this that created another of many modern absurdities: a presidential message for students to take school seriously being labeled "controversial."

Of course, this "controversy," like so many in an age when ignorant voices get amplified by 24-hour "news" coverage, turned out to be a whole lot of nothing.  The message was as unassailable as a call to honor the service of our fallen troops:

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?  Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. ... But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

So much agonizing over such a simple, worthy message.  And yet the rhetoric over the President's every comment is the most polarized since... Well, since the last President, actually, when people like me were sneering at President George W. Bush, labeling him an idiot and an autocrat.  It occurs to me that there's a deep and abiding fear on both sides of the partisan rift.  Liberals feared what the world was becoming in the wake of Bush's foreign policy; conservatives fear what the nation is becoming under Obama's domestic efforts at reform.  Both sides can offer cynical theories about why the other side's fear grows more stark, but that's precisely the rhetoric that deepens the divide.

I've given myself an assignment: try to understand conservative fear of what they're calling a slippery slope to socialism.  For a while, I'm going to suspend my own dogma that this is a product of political spin to protect corporate interests and prevent Obama from chalking up any policy successes.  I'm going to do some reading and listening to see the picture of the future that conservatives fear.  Because in the end, fear is not dispelled by belittling it.  It's dispelled by understanding, and casting a bright light upon its source.  I'll update if I find any revelations.

"Only the wealthy should live, and the sick ought to be punished financially."

On Facebook today, many of my friends' status updates read the same:

"No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day."

Seeing it the first time (without the second sentence), I commented, agreeing, and saw the posts of various other like-minded people.  Over the course of the day, I saw more and more such status updates.  In the context of the current health care reform debate, it's a fair statement to make.  It tries to do what Bill Moyers (on Real Time with Bill Maher) so eloquently argued President Obama must do regarding public coverage: frame the debate as the moral issue it is.

I didn't change my own status, despite my agreement.  Among my circle of friends, I would be preaching to the choir with regards to policy, and for those few in my network who take issue with semi-nationalized health care, this assertion is hardly an argument.  Honestly, who's going to rebut, "only the wealthy should live, and the sick ought to be punished financially"?  I question whether anyone's mind has ever been changed by a picket sign, bumper sticker or status update.  Opponents, at least the sane ones who speak in public, attack issues of policy, and cite the relative inefficiency of publicly-run programs in comparison to privately-run ones, or the effects of government interference on health care quality and availability.  In a pinch, they'll make up policy points to attack, like the infamous and fraudulent "death panels."  But most of the objections are things that ought to be addressed, and are amenable to serious debate.  Debatable points invite discussion; attacks on straw men create ideological silos.

My old friend Andy offered me a different interpretation of the status update.  "I believe in solidarity as solace more than solidarity as change agent.  Knowing there are many like you is a great comfort in trying times."  It's a fair point, with an undeniable emotional resonance.  But on this issue, I feel that solidarity, manifesting as partisanship, has done a great deal to stymie real progress on this issue.  Using these new technologies, I hope that copy/paste activism among like-minded folk isn't mistaken for real engagement.  That's not to say that social media can't be used to argue a point.  My wife circulated the Bill Moyers clip on Facebook, which -- though preaching to the choir of Bill Maher viewers -- offers an articulate declaration of the moral basis to the policy that ought to be proposed.  Moyers stated the value proposition, gave its historical context, and made a call to action.

But perhaps I'm committing the same sin I'm criticizing by attacking the sound bite, out of context of the message.  My wife, experienced in social activism, pointed out that political change requires a rallying cry, dissemination of information, and action.  It requires an engagement with your allies as well as your opponents.  If this shared Facebook update is the opening salvo to getting our message straight on this very important issue, then my criticism is misplaced.  I'd go so far as to say, I "Like" this.

Remembering Madison

When I lived in Madison, Wisconsin from 1993 through 1996, I was a pretty solitary guy. I had just graduated from Northwestern, bone-weary of academics and depressed over a breakup. I wasn't looking for challenges and a fast-track career. I was looking to hole up, lick my wounds, and experience living on my own terms for the first time in my life. Madison seemed perfect. It had the right balance of proximity and distance from my friends in Chicago and family in Omaha. It had the familiarity of a college campus, and the distraction of a young nightlife scene. It had beautiful lakeshore parks and cozy coffee shops -- poetic places for a loner to sit and read or write or think.

After I nailed an interview for a programming job in Madison, I wandered the town, identifying places where I would hang out. I already had it in mind that I would claim Madison as my own by haunting it, by making myself a part of its landscape. Living there, I was compulsive about doing exactly that. Most have nostalgic feelings about the places they shared with someone dear. I set out to engineer an anticipatory nostalgia about places I shared with my own self, a young man in his early 20s -- an age when melancholy and loneliness could still look romantic (so I thought) and not just sad. Standing on the little curved foot bridge in Tenny Park, overlooking the lily pads, I imagined myself as an older man, seeing the bridge and remembering... some wistful, romanticized bullshit, most likely.

Last weekend, my wife, brother-in-law, dog and I took a road trip to Madison. One of my fond, un-engineered Madison memories was of going to the annual Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival with office friends and gorging ourselves on sweet, sweet ears of corn, fresh out of the steamer. This trip was to re-vist that experience, and my family indulged me in other such re-visitations. Those who know me will not be surprised that most of them revolved around food. We ate at Ella's Deli, with the carousel out front and a riot of clockwork toys in every nook and cranny of the restaurant. We browsed the Dane County Farmers' Market around the capitol square, and bought my favorite spicy cheese bread from Stella's Bakery, along with some picnic-worthy produce and cheese. We stopped by the Memorial Union -- another old hangout -- to get Babcock's ice cream and frozen custard (my favorite is the orange custard with dark chocolate chips). We stopped by Smoky Jon's BBQ to pick up a couple of bottles of their terrific sauce. And thanks to my brother-in-law's research, we dined at a "new" restaurant, Harvest, where we made some new memories over a stunningly tasty farm-fresh meal with an outstanding Oregon Pinot Noir.

We also stopped by my old apartment building, and my wife remarked that we could hear birds chirping -- in our downtown condo, we mainly hear traffic and construction. We checked out my old office building too, nestled in a forested drive. The picnic table where we sometimes lunched was still there, but no trace remained of my first full-time employer. On the way to the capitol square, we passed Tenny Park and the foot bridge. It was as pretty as I remembered it, but there was no sudden rush of sentiment, no sense of prophesized nostalgia fulfilled. I have other, fonder memories of Madison, it seems. On our next trip, I'd like to go to one of the surviving small music clubs, where I saw bands like Green Day, Garbage, God Lives Underwater and Letters To Cleo. I'd like to have beers on the Union Terrace, and see if the "secret door" to the Barber's Closet still exists. I'd like my wife to see the interior of the capitol dome. And instead of just buying sauce, next time we must sit down to some Smoky Jon's 'cue. I'd like my next memories of Madison to be ones I share.

Blommer's Saratoga Dark

The smell of baking brownies often blankets Chicago's northern Loop and River North neighborhoods. The source is actually Blommer's Chocolate Factory (http://www.blommer.com/) at Kinzie and Des Plaines. My blessing and curse is that they have a small retail shop, midway on the walk between my office and home.

I just bought some chunks of the Saratoga Dark. At 73% cacao, it's black as the ace of spades and has a rich, almost winey odor. The chocolate has a silky texture in your mouth, melts easily, and leaves you with a hint of coffee at the end. A one pound bag is an indulgence at $4.83, but it'll make you so happy.

The Bug Fix Bell

At Firm58, our Quality Assurance manager (a transplant from DoubleClick/Google, like me) set up a Bug Fix Bell like we had at our old job. Fix a software defect? You get to ring the bell. And everyone applauds. It's quite a morale boost. I've heard non-developers say they wish they could fix something so they too could ring the bell. That's the power of even a little apprecition!