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October 18, 2003

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In Tanzania, all transportation leads to Dar es Salaam, and that's where our train ended its journey this morning. We hopped off along with a passenger we met on the train, John Oturo, a native Tanzanian who knows Dar well. We took a few pointers from him, agreed to meet later, and then flopped in a cheap hotel. The hotel provided AC, beds, and running water, so it was luxurious by our standards.
Dar es Salaam - a humble fishing village until the german colonial gov't decided to transform its protected harbor into a steamship port. Christian missionaries started using it as a refitting station. During the twentieth century it became the economic capital of Tanzania and grew to a population of 2 million.