Maybe I should bag me an African expat as well...

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I am sitting at the Ethiopian Airlines office on Ohio Street across the way from the golf course here in Dar es Salaam at about 10am. I have come back from Zanzibar early this morning to book a flight out to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for later today. Originally I had thought I could travel through Kenya and then up through the border to Ethiopia, but as things go I decide to skip Kenya out of lack of interest, and furthermore decide against traveling overland as North Kenya seems to be really dangerous and dodgy with bandits and god knows what else for a single female traveller... Ok well I didn't really think this far. The Ethiopian Airlines lady is checking on availability for my requested routing: Dar with a stopover in Addis TODAY, final destination Johannesburg, South Africa late November.

Lady: ... *click click click*
Me: ... ?
Lady: ... *click click click*
Me: ... ?
--10 minutes later--
Lady: Sorry, all Economy full today to Addis Ababa. The flight is at 5pm in the afternoon every day. Can't fly today. Next flight with economy to Addis from Dar is Saturday.
Me: ... Damn. Really?
Lady: Only Business class available today.
Me: You want me to spend two more days in Dar with nothing to do? ... (think for a bit)...
Lady: Would you like to upgrade to Business?
Me: ... Yes, please. I want to get out of Dar as soon as possible. Do not want to spend any more time here!

Man: I don't blame you. I'd want to get the hell out of here as well.

Man is not a Tanzanian Man. Man is a Chinese Man, much to my surprise. Or not actually, I have been seeing quite a few Chinese men here in Africa which is not a surprise. The Chinese have flooded to Africa as China is one of the few powers currently to shower strategic attention onto the governments of this continent. Numerous African governments now have agreements to allow Chinese mining companies (including some which I helped IPO in my last job from Hong Kong) to drill, mine, and take all their minerals and oil (probably stupidly, but they don't have much of a choice.) In return, the Chinese government is helping to build roads and install much-needed infrastructure.

Back to Chinese Man, whose name I soon learn is John. However John the Chinese Man in Tanzania does not speak with a Chinese, Africa, Tanzanian, Indian, or Swahili accent. No he does not, he speaks with of all things, a SOUTHERN AMERICAN DRAWL. Wow! Man has it been long since I've heard one of these. John is tall at probably 6'2"+, wears a button down shirt, sleeves rolled up, jeans, and a big brass belt buckle. He has a mustache and eyes that seriously look like they never stop laughing. He looks like a very happy man. He is loud, sarcastic, funny, and awesomely all-American. John leads an extremely interesting life to say the least. Born in Dar, he describes the Tanzanians as "ruthless vipers, all of them!", his parents then moved them to Oklahoma where he grew up and thus acquired a southern drawl. Since then John got into the drilling and mining business and soon found himself all over Africa, living in countless countries over thirty years I cannot even remember. He speaks 9 languages and currently now lives on project in Chad.

Through more conversation at the Ethiopian Airlines office, I learn that John is there to sort out tickets for his wife and his little girl who are flying home from Dar back to Chad on Ethiopian. They fly today on Business as well and his wife has accumulated over 100kg (yes, 100) of Africrap to take back to Chad. He needs to figure out how the airline will allow this. We talk and bond over too much, being from America, being from the South, being Chinese in ethnicity, being in third world Africa. Before I know it, I accept his offer to give me a lift to the airport, but as it is merely 10am and we don't need to check in until 2:30pm, we will head back to his house to pick up his family and relax a bit.

Well, his house is not a house. It is a compound, it is gated, it is guarded, and comes with two drivers and two nice cars. I soon learn how African women that land expat businessmen fare in the afterlife, and man it is good. In fact when we get back to the house, his wife Miriam, a beautiful, curvy Chadean woman, is not even there but is back at the salon to get her hair done for her midnight arrival in Chad. His daughter, a mix of Chadean and Chinese roots, to me looks a bit Middle Eastern/Indian and is covered in gold bangles and pink everything.

While we wait for Miriam, a couple friend of John and Miriam's drop by to say goodbye: a British guy with his Ethiopian wife. What luck! For the next two hours, I sit relaxing in a large parlor with ice cold Cokes and beer, soaking in all the tips and highlights of what I have been convinced since the beginning of my Africa trip to be the best, my favorite country of the continent. The country of its own, the country unlike any other in Africa. The country with a bit more to offer than animals and scenery, oh.. much, much more. It has been at least seven months since I have flown business class, and I haven't flown it at all on this stint of travel since May. By the time I find myself in the B-class lounge ordering with Miriam and her daughter a couple hours later, I am relaxed, rejuvenated, and newly excited in anticipation of Ethiopia to come.

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