Just Answers to Questions about my trip
Jambo!
Habari? (Swahili for ‘How are you?’)
Nzuri! (Swahili for ‘I’m fine!’)
I’ve received many questions on the trip so will make a quick attempt to answer all of them:
First of all – no Africa is not like a war zone 🙂 it is an underdeveloped continent (much like most parts of India – maybe as India was 50 years ago!)
About the Truck:
I was on it for 2 weeks – this was a big lorry essentially with a wooden roof and no sides (actually roll down plastic). I was traveling in the back of it. We’d drive all day and at the end of the day set up camp – literally pitch our own tents. We’d stop at Supermarkets every few days, and stock up on food. At night we’d cook dinner, and have a campfire. Some days we’d take lunch breaks – sandwiches. Mostly we bounced around in the back on African roads (surprisingly LARGE parts of Africa is still connected by dirt roads – no tarmac – even to major “cities”).
Africa has a VERY STRONG INDIAN INFLUENCE. It seems India is a part and parcel of African culture – right from food habits and immigrants to Bollywood Hindi movies – in fact I saw a Hindi movie at a theater in Kampala (Uganda) – the first theater I walked into. Dar es Salaam has only ONE cinema hall – and it shows Hindi movies exclusively! I went to a night club in Kampala and the first song was a Hindi song 🙂 In Nairobi too – same thing! In Dar es Salaam it was lots of Hindi songs 🙂
[Yes, I’ve gone clubbing every Saturday nite!]
The African food includes a lot of chapati, biryani, pulao, samosa, kabobs etc. so eating is no problem… Add onto it Ugali (idli-like-bread), Nyama Choma (Grilled Meat), beans, & spinach and u have a 100% authentic African meal.
Well that answers most questions – should have an update coming soon on the tails of this one…
Kwa heri,
_Rohit!