Adventures in Dar

Where ever we seem to go turns into an adventure. Even a lonely boring day in Dar was able to give me some excitement. Yesterday I was hanging out trying to kill time at a Mzungu hang out in Dar, when the heavens opened up. It is the rainy season so I decided to wait it out. But after two hours and no sign of letting up I decided to find a taxi and make my way home. What should have been a 20 minute drive turned into an hour adventure. The roads were horribly flooded. The driver decided the main (and only paved road) was too flooded so he started wandering the back roads. I had no idea where I was, the rain was coming down so hard you couldn’t see out the windshield, the water was so deep it was coming up over the hood, and the car kept grounding out because we couldn’t see the giant pot holes and huge rocks in the road. But luck was on my side and we made it back to paving to get stuck in miles of traffic. The water was up to the doors of all the stores, people were carrying their shoes walking through knee high water, and I could feel the water sloshing back and forth on the bottom of the car. Taxi drivers never like waiting so my driver decided to drive into the on coming traffic dodging pot holes, waves of water, people, and telephones to avoid the traffic. Wadding up to my knees in trash filled water to my hotel I made it home, never a dull moment!

Start of flooding

The carts, people, and flooding that the taxi driver tried to make his way through.
This is typical traffic in Dar. Now add water up to the hoods of the cars to picture what it was like yeterday.