I got a e-mail from Rob Nooter which included a long note from Barb. On January 5, Rob, Barb and their three kids moved to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Rob is starting up a dairy improvement project. Although Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world, the letter indicates that they are getting successfully settled.

Here is a couple of excerpts from Rob's letter:

The kids have been wonderfully adaptable and accepting of the changes. They enjoy the school, have made friends and have handled the constraints of hotel life and now life in a mostly empty house with ease. ... they have been real troopers. When I asked Wes how the move was affecting him, he said, I really like it here. I said what is it you like, and his response was “Everything, I like it all.”

I am astounded that we have been able to get it all accomplished in the time we have had. Issues like getting contractors to start and finish their job, finding the right parts, etc. would be a challenge in the US, but we have been successful getting it done in a place where nothing is supposed to work efficiently. It is known as a place that moves at a pace described in Swahili as “pole-pole" (pronounced like the Spanish bullfighting cheer ole [or o-lay]). "

pole-pole adv.

from polepole "slowly, gently, softly, quietly; be calm, take it quietly, don't excite yourself, never mind": slowly; take it easy [< Swahili].

• "Our head guide, Godliving, reminded us to go, 'pole, pole' ('slowly, slowly') to assist in acclimatization to the altitude." Barbara Glavish, "Mt. Kilimanjaro, then intriguing Zanzibar" International Travel News, Jan. 2001. This is a misinterpretation that the word was repeated. Pole-pole (Swahili polepole) is actually one word, although pole is another Swahili word with a similar but different meaning which would not have been used in this situation.

I posted Heringer's in the Philippines, Day 13.