HUMOUR : “In Bongo land”

The child that does not wander about thinks that, its mother is the best cook! Literary, if you do not travel, you will have your mind locked up; what else would you know, what would you compare with what? It is that perspective that The Villager is always wandering about here and there in a bid to know this and that. As usual, my travels take me here and there, I come to meet many villagers be they white, yellow, navy blue or black! This time around, I found myself drifting off to “Bongo” land. Maybe many of you are wondering and your minds are wandering off, trying to figure out what this land is! I for one do not know the origins of the name but what I know is that, it is the name used for one of East African’s capital cities. Bongo Land happens to lie at “zero metres” above sea level. Is the picture getting clearer? If not, I am talking about the city of Dar-es-salaam. My journey took me through Kenya, Zanzibar and finally Dar-es-salaam. Yes, you heard me right; I left Kigali aboard Kenya Airways to Nairobi; while in Nairobi, I missed my flight out of Nairobi to Dar-es-salaam and had to spend a night in Nairobi. Since Nairobi was not my destination,I will not talk much about it. The next morning I found myself onboard a Precision Air flight destined for Dar-es-salaam via Zanzibar. Zanzibar despite being an island in the Ocean is a very beautiful and busy place. There were lots of planes landing and taking off; the amazing thing is that, they were mainly full of “Bazungu” coming on holiday. As we began taxing to take off, the pilot cut the power and we came to a standstill, then he announced that, there had been a plane mishap at Dar-es-salaam’s Julius Nyerere International Airport and that we had to wait until it was cleared before proceeding; for that reason, we had to disembark and wait in the Airport Terminal building. There is no need for a Sauna in this place; the place is quite hot and humid. According to the temperature displayed in the terminal building, it was 39degrees centigrade and that is not the hottest! Going by that, Kigali’s hottest at around 28degrees is just like winter here! After about an hour’s “forced” holiday, we were told to board our plane and let Zanzibar see our backs! It is quite amazing, as soon as the plane gets airborne, Dar-es-salaam coast line can be seen. After about fifteen minutes of leaving Zanzibar, we touched down at Julius Nyerere International Airport. The Airport has a quite remarkable main building despite its small size; it has the boarding bridges that we lack back home. As soon as we left the plane, we were welcomed by the heat and the hordes of flies that inhabit Dar-es-salaam. The locals have a joke about the flies that goes as “inzi kwamucana, umbu kwa usiku” (flies by day, mosquitoes by night”. Mfashumwana@fastmail.fm