"The daladala is never full..."

Today, I took my second trip on a daladala. A daladala is a form of public transportation, a vehicle roughly the size and shape of a mid-size van. The daladala has three rows of seats along with two bucket seats in the front. A one-way trip will cost you 300 TSH (about $0.20).

While waiting for our ride, Laura shared with me a local proverb: “The daladala is never full.”

After waiting for about 10 minutes, we were ready to jump on the first daladala into town. As the door slid open, however, I wondered if it was really possible to fit anything more inside. Even though the front row was occupied by a large bag of bananas, a large bag of corn, and a large number of rather sad looking chickens, we still squeezed at least 18 people into the remaining seats. Standing next to the door, I had to exit several times as people got on and off.

As the lady carrying the large load disembarked, I stood along the road and silently counted chickens. Apparently Laura had done the same. I came up with a conservative estimate of between 20 and 30, but Laura insists there were more like 50. The chickens, alive but sullied, were bound together by their feet in groups of what I think was five and she thinks was ten. Our debate waged on until, while waiting for our driver at the Oryx, Laura pointed out that the clouds had parted. For the first time since I arrived six days earlier, the clouds had dispersed, revealing the summit of the majestic Mount Kilimanjaro.