11/25  Departing Dar for Korogwe.  We wait for hours in the bus station while the driver tries to fill the bus.  The bus doesn't depart until the bus is full.  The driver keeps lying about when the bus will leave.  Confronted with his continual lies, the man says, "we lie because we are hungry."  Hussein pats the man's large stomach and says, "you aren't hungry."  Everyone laughs, though I have to wait for the translation before I get the joke.  In what is to become a pattern at many bus stops, we see the police hauling someone away -- much against his will.  We see arrests and fights at various bus stops around the country.  I would say they are not the place to linger longer than necessary.

The bus finally departs the bus stop... and within one block pulls off the road to pickup more passengers.  This is a long bus ride.  But we do finally reach Korogwe.  Actually, we get off the bus about 15km South of Korogwe at the road to Kwamsisi.  Here Hussein has arranged for a taxi to drive us 10km down a dirt road to the village.

Kwamsisi is a small village of mostly mud huts.  There is no electricity.  Water is collected from a well about 1km outside the village.  There used to be a closer well, but it is no longer used.  From all appearances, we are the most exciting thing to come to this village all year.  We are in probably one of the very few cars that ever makes the trek down the road.  Hussein spent several summers living here when he was young.  His mother is from this village and is buried in the cemetery just past the new well.  We meet about 100 people, all of them related to Hussein in one way or another.

Funny story... After traveling around the world by plane, bus and taxi.  After traversing a foreign country where English is rarely spoken.  After arriving in a village of mud huts like nothing he has seen in his 6 1/2 years.  After being welcomed by distant relatives he has never met.  After being surrounded by curious children his own age.  After all that, Nassor spots something fascinating:  a stick that isn't quite straight enough to lie flat on the ground.  "Look, a wobbly stick."  He shows everyone his fascinating new discovery.  It appears to me very similar to sticks Nassor  might find just outside his door in Silver Spring.

Another funny story... As we walk through the village with a few dozen children and adults in tow, Nassor and Sophia are constantly hearing the bleating of goats.  Soon they start making their own goat noises.  At the same time, the village children are listening to the constant ringing of our taxi driver's cell phone.  Soon they are producing an excellent impression of the ring tone.

I feel comfortable enough to have both my cameras out and take many pictures.  This leaves me feeling a bit ostentatious as  I realize that my camera equipment is literally worth more than the annual income of the entire village.  I understand that we are rich Americans and they are poor Africans, and that is the way everyone expects the world to be.  But it is an unsettling reminder of the harsh difference between lives in first world nations and third world nations.  Not that they need cameras in Kwamsisi.  What they need (what everyone in Tanzania needs) is reliable, potable water.

Early in the evening we depart Kwamsisi and drive to Korogwe.  This is the town where Rachel taught while she was in the Peace Corps.  Hussein's brothers Touch and Dube live here.  We have dinner with them and retire to a cheap guest house ($3/night) that has pit toilets and no water.  Usually water runs for two hours a day in Korogwe, so they fill buckets.  But the pipes have been dry for a while and the buckets are empty.

11/26  We eat breakfast in Korogwe and spend some time with Hussein's family.  Touch is an artist (it is in the genes) and has a booth where he sells crafts and rubber stamps.  The rubber stamps are amazing.  He takes a small block of rubber and a razor blade.  From this he makes any stamp the customer wants.  The words and designs he produces look like they are cut by a machine.  And everything he creates has to be a mirror image of the desired result.

We take a bus to Tanga.  This is a reasonably pleasant two hour ride and only 1000TSH each (85 cents).  We are delayed a bit near Tanga because the roads are closed for a car race.  They actually open the roads shortly before the car race passes us, so our bus and all the other traffic which had backed up is driving down the two lane road as all these tiny little rice burner cars go whipping past.  The most insane part is seeing all the people lined up along a traffic circle watching the cars make a 90 degree turn.  One skid and at least a dozen people would be taken out.

Arriving in Tanga we find rooms at Shuni's Inn.  I am very excited to have my own room with my own bathroom.  Something that never happened before or after in Tanzania.  My excitement is tempered by the fact that the shower head had been torn off, so there is no shower.  And the sink drains to the floor, so washing my face means getting my feet wet.  And the floor drain is mostly clogged, so water accumulates on the floor of the bathroom.  Not just water since the toilet (which has no seat) flushes to the floor as well.  Yeah, my excitement is quite tempered.  Our second night in Tanga I pay an extra 40 cents to upgrade to a room with a working bathroom.  And fewer holes in the mosquito netting.

11/27  We meet Hussein's half brother Abraham who wrangles up a minivan and takes us to Amboni caves.  Abraham's children, Prince and Eunice, join us.  Nassor and Sophia are thrilled to have kids their own age to play with all day.  The limestone caves are interesting and have lots of bats.  Returning from Amboni, we are passed by yet another car race.  Tanga and fast cars.  The two must go together.

After Amboni, we go to spend some time with Hussein's Uncle and his family.  Cousin Sadiqui makes us dinner.  Then we have another dinner with Abraham, Prince and Eunice.  All this food makes me happy and I'm finally getting the hang of only eating with my right hand.  Rarely do I embarrass the family by using my left.

Trying to figure out who all the people are? Check out this genealogy chart that Rachel and Hussein made for me so I could identify all the family members we met.