The Ultimate Day

DAY 206: In the morning I had no plans to do much in and around Tony and Ted's apartment while they were away at work (Ted was feeling better, so he went in too) other than continue to catch up on Blog duties. Little did I know then that the day would be an "ultimate" day.

The daily cleaning crew came in the morning and cleaned up while I worked on my laptop. Lucy, the head housekeeper took my grimy laundry to wash, leaving me to just concentrate on my work, which ultimately was a good thing because I finally finished everything that I had handwritten up until that point. I went off to an internet cafe in town and uploaded everything over a two-hour session. Afterwards, I confirmed my flight tickets at the travel agency under Tony and Ted's flat -- and paid for it with cash dispensed from the local ATM since I finally received a Visa PIN from the States -- and went back upstairs. The phone rang.

"Erik, it's Tony."

"Hey."

"Do you have any plans for later on?"

"Actually I was wondering if you guys were available for me to take you out for dinner."

"Well, before that, would you be interested in playing a game of ultimate frisbee?"

"Yeah!"

I met Tony at the apartment, where we both put on shorts and then head off to meet up with other ex-patriate and local children at the campus of the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center where most of the ex-pats worked. Getting there wasn't as simple as it usually was for Tony; when we got on a dalla-dalla (the Tanzania term for a shared minivan) bound for KCMC, a cop stopped us about a third of the way there. For some reason, the police that day started to have a conscience about overcrowding in the vans and buses and started stopping them to take people off. (To be fair, I suppose it wasn't safe for me to be riding in an upright position while hanging out the open doorway.)

"Wow, it's always an adventure with you, isn't it?" Tony commented while we waited at a dalla-dalla stop for another minivan to come. One with enough space never came, so Tony called one of his three usual taxi drivers to pick us up.

I HADN'T PLAYED ULTIMATE FRISBEE in over a decade when it was in the curriculum in high school. I do remember that I enjoyed playing it and when the game started going (picture above), it all came back to me. The only difference between playing in high school and playing there at the KCMC campus was that the field had a lot of ditches and potholes that tripped almost every player. There were about sixteen of us playing, most playing for the first time,from KCMC workers to local children to other ex-patriates from Sudan and England. We played eight on eight, although it was hardly even because for some reason all the tall people ended up on the same time. No matter, the two-hour game was just-for-fun, and it really worked up a sweat -- and an appetite.

Tony and I hopped in a taxi and went back to the flat to put on some pants and to pick up Ted. From there we went to Salzburger, a steak house in town frequented by ex-pats and other more well-off people, which was created by a Tanzania who had visited Salzburg, Austria once and loved it so much he wanted to recreate a little slice of it in Moshi. Although their definition of steak was a crudely cut portion of beef, it tasted good and the presentation was decent. I thought I might not have enough cash on me to cover all three of us -- I only had about $40 worth in T. shillings on me -- but when I saw the menu I discovered the most expensive thing was only about three bucks. I gladly paid the bill of food and drinks and left a tip as well.

WITH FULL STOMACHS AND BEING TOTALLY BEAT from running back and forth an uneven field playing ultimate frisbee, Tony and I didn't feel like doing much afterwards. Ultimately the night ended in just vegging out in front of the tube watching Kill Bill Vol. 1 on DVD, the first half of Quentin Tarantino's ultimate tale of revenge.

The next morning, I swore never to overuse the word "ultimate" and its derivatives ever again.

If you enjoy this daily travel blog, please post a comment! Give me suggestions, send me on missions, let me know how things are going back home in the USA. Knowing that I have an audience will only force me to make this blog more entertaining as the days go by. Don´t forget to bookmark it and let a friend know!

Posted by Erik on May 13, 2004 01:40 PM
TrackBack | Category: Tanzania

BOY IS THAT A RELIEF! I feel like a huge weight has just been lifted off my shoulders; I'm finally all caught up with The Blog after 2 1/2 days of intense writing pretty much non-stop.

MUCH KUDOS TO TONY AND TED for letting me crash their pad so that I could work on it in peace and privacy!

Anyway, I could be NIZ for a day or two from now... Use that time to catch up!

BTW, did anyone find a site contest we can enter The Blog into?

Posted by: Erik on May 13, 2004 06:55 AM

you are definitely going to have some kind of culture shock when you get back and have to pay the normal prices for stuff out here. wait till you see what gas is going for these days.

Posted by: edwin on May 13, 2004 08:34 AM

SIM - yeah man it's a sport! although i doubt there is a really huge competitive circuit.....

EDWIN - gas prices suck!...good thing Erik will just ride his bike around and prolly borrow my car and not pay for gas....hahahah

Posted by: markyt on May 13, 2004 10:46 AM

Hey Erik, I'll have to catch up when your NIZ. hope all is well! sounds like a pretty good Day 206 and for $3 for a steak dinner, who could ask for anything more. as for me, the craziest thing happened on the way to work, it snowed! and tomorrow, it will go up to 70 degrees! N :)

Posted by: nikkij on May 13, 2004 12:33 PM

thanks erik for updating the blog. That's alot of work and it shows.

I was a bit overwhelmed when i clicked on your bookmark only to do a double-take. 14 freakin new entries! I did something for the first time...i printed 'em all out! Reading is one thing but coming back online to view the pictures really adds to the experience. Its always a pleasure reading thru your (mis)adventures, it gives us cube-dwellers respite from the monotony. thanks dood...keep it up!

Posted by: LovePenny on May 13, 2004 01:40 PM

Whew... all caught up. Nice going Erik, that was alot to write/type/upload.

It's been a long time since I played ultimate. I just came across my frisbee when cleaning the garage. Hmmm... a game might kill me though--so outta shape. But hey, you just climbed Kili, you probably didn't even break a sweat.

NIKKIJ: where the heck are you that it SNOWED?!

Posted by: Christy on May 13, 2004 07:03 PM

Yes, there are ultimate tourneys all over the place - I drove by one in San Diego not too long ago.

SNOW? It's 80 today here in SoCal. Happy for me!

Erik - I'm glad you're in one piece and thank you SO much for yes, giving us a break of the monotony!! You rock!

Posted by: Noelle on May 13, 2004 08:50 PM

Ultimate Frisbee and something called tongue splitting (couple of entries back) - can't wait for these trends to hit Australia! Thanks Erik, for all the hard work you put in to this blog, your devoted readers salute you!

Genuflections,

Posted by: Shelly T on May 13, 2004 11:45 PM

Erik: Just received the PC from MALAWI .. thanks alot its really coo, must've been great on that lake. As for Martha, well she's gonna make Michael her Bee-otch!

Posted by: sim on May 14, 2004 08:48 AM

woohoo!!!! i caught up. ultimate frisbee looks like fun but i can never throw the disc right. that and i am too lazy to run after it. i'll stick to sitting here and reading your blog all day long instead. =P

Posted by: alice on May 14, 2004 11:02 AM

ERIK: so...the new Michael Moore movie about 9-11 and how the Bush family is link to the Bin Laden family should still coming out, even though Disney (who owns Miramax) decided to drop it, but they did allow the movie to find another distributor...

Disney again making stupid moves, yet again....

Posted by: markyt on May 14, 2004 11:10 AM

MARKYT: Watching CNN London (like CNN meets BBC) in Moshi, they say it's because W. is linked to Jeb, governor of Florida, and he was going to take away Disney World's tax breaks if they kept the Moore film on...

The Bushes are like the Corleones...

Posted by: Erik on May 14, 2004 12:45 PM

holy crappers batman ... that's a lot of reading!!!!

... and no, the women on the postcard do not look like they got hit with an 8 ball ... at least not while doing a cartwheel on 14th street =)

Posted by: rozzie on May 14, 2004 10:41 PM

Fuzz-E: Just got my postcard from Malawi--it' kick's booty! After waving it around and shoving it in people's faces "I got another postcard from Erik.. from Africa!" It is proudly displayed on my office door. I'm constantly spreading the word of your trip, the BLOG, and how envious we all are of you. Half the fun is chatting it up with the Fellowship.

Keep the Blog alive... we feast upon it from our cubes. Food for cube-dwellers and armchair travellers.

It doesn't look like you'll be hitting Ireland (I'll be there in Oct), so my dreams of having a guest-appearence are shattered. Boohoo.

Keep up the great effort... it's very appreciated!

Posted by: Christy on May 17, 2004 05:48 PM