Travelled early this morning in a 12-seater propeller plane. I walked out onto the tarmac and saw it and stopped in my tracks with a "hell no". I knew it was going to be small but not that small. I was imagining one of those little commuter jets like you take from NYC to Albany. My team laughed at me so I got on the plane and of course it was beautiful - flying low and slow over Tanzanian mountains and plains. I tried not to notice the pilot reading a magazine in the front seat. I guess those things kind of fly themselves.

At the airport, the national television station was broadcasting an calisthenics and weigh-lifting program with techno "cotton eye joe". It was a bit much for 5am. Also, now i have "cotton eye joe" in my head [i had to look it up.. back in 1995 i guess it made sense to me that that song was inflicted upon us by a swedish dance group called Rednex]

In the evening as we sat on the edge of town eating our dinner, a passenger train rolled out of the darkness... it wasn't moving too fast and inside we could see the passengers moving around, some eating dinner. Instantly i was enthralled with a dream of taking the train from Dar es Salaam to wherever. I travelled all over India by train and it is the greatest. So many dreams, so little time.

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From home, my friend emailed to say a critter got onto my deck and ate all my tomatoes. I guess in my heart I knew the garden was a pipe dream, but it made me feel better at the time to have something to tend.

1:49 p.m. - 2017-06-22