Happy birthday Sweden

today is a great day for the monarchy of Sweden. King Carl Gustaf the great celebrates his 65th birthday and everybody is celebrating with him.
Also the king of Austria is proud to wish king Carl all the best for his future live. He says: "I'm so happy that it's your birtday becasue it reminds me how many years I'm younger than you."



And now please stand up for the national anthem of Sweden:

Du gamla, Du fria, Du fjällhöga nord
Du tysta, Du glädjerika sköna!
Jag hälsar Dig, vänaste land uppå jord,
Din sol, Din himmel, Dina ängder gröna.

Du tronar på minnen från fornstora dar,
då ärat Ditt namn flög över jorden.
Jag vet att Du är och Du blir vad du var.
Ja, jag vill leva jag vill dö i Norden.

Earth day

international students are always good for an article in the citicen and our successors do a good job:

The Citizen, Tuesday, 25 of April, 2006
Students clean Dar beach as they mark 'Earth Day'


A group of international students and well-wishers from all walks of life celebrated the 'Earth Day' in style in Msasani beach, next to Roots&Shoots. The event started at nine in the morning and ended around six in the evening.

This exercise was organized by Ms. Sarah Fowler (pictured), a volunteer in Roots&Shoots of Jane Goodall Institute. More than fifty people participated in cleaning the beach.

'There were a lot of shoes and plastic bottles', one of the students, Yohanna, narrated. The group later pieced together the worn out shoes to write the name 'EARTH DAY'. The rest of the garbage was then separated into renewable and non-renewable waste.

Sarah reiterated that they found two long needles in the beach and appeals to those who visit the beach to be mindful of everyone's safety by avoiding careless litter disposal, especially the harmful and non-renewable waste. Earth Day is celebrated on April 22. It is a day when people worldwide show their care and concern for the planets environment and natural resources. This noble idea was started in 1970 by the late senator Gaylord Nelson of USA. This year's theme is 'climate change solutions'. Fowler expects more people to volunteer occasionally to clean the beach in order to sustain clean beaches rather than simply having a one day annual event.

chipsi in my eye

Yesterday after work I decided to make a traditional Tanzanian / Swaheli dinner together with Dani. We had delicious chipsi mayai that almost tasted like in Tanzania - I didn't use enough oil to have the real original taste and the eggs were fried too good. But the result was really good though!
We tried to find some African beer too but no success. All we found was Finish beer, so we took that- Lapin Kulta, not bad and isn't Africa and Finland, almost the same? KIPIS!

shooting at Ubungo

Here comes another exciting news from the capital of the world, Dar es Salaam:

there was a robbery on a money transport in ubungo, and the police came there and started shooting into the crowd, but the thieves got away. Some people went to the hospital, not sure if someone died, but who cares, it's all in the name of justice. Police really do suck here.

Don't know why my correspondant says police in Tanzania sucks?!?
My experiences were just the best. Waiting 3 hours for a police report is not so bad. Is it?

Scandinavia or not?

I have heard that in Norway the rumors make the round that I will come up north soon. I can't promise yet, but it's very certain that I will come.
My plan is to go up north through Germany - Berlin, Hamburg and from there I want to take the ferry to Sweden - I guess I'll land in Malmö?!? Then either clockwise but more probable counterclockwise to Linköping and Stockholm. In Stockholm should go a ferry to Finnland (if not I'll take a dhow). Next stop: Helsinki, then north through Finnland where I'll try to find a ferry/dhow back to Sweden. I'll cross the country to Norway, up to Mo i Rana and from there down along the coast to Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger, Christophers cabin that should be somewhere around there, Oslo, Göteborg, Malmö and back to central Europe.
The start of that trip should be in the first half of June and should not take longer than middle/end of July. Let me know if I forgot an important town I have to visit. See you soon ;-)

Webstats4u.com

Because some people (Canadians) didn't understand what this list is I changed the text of this post. It shows who visited my blog.

1.	Norway	28	41.2 %
2.	Austria	21	30.9 %
3.	United States	6	8.8 %
4.	Tanzania	5	7.4 %
5.	Germany	3	4.4 %
6.	Sweden	1	1.5 %
7.	Singapore	1	1.5 %
8.	United Kingdom	1	1.5 %
9.	Canada	1	1.5 %
10.	Netherlands, The	1	1.5 %
	Total	67	98.5 %

back to work

Finally I'm back in my Austrian everyday life. I have a new job at the Ars Electronica Center - Museum of the future - not joking, that's how this place is called. Yesterday, obviously I did everything else than working and so I found a very nice program called Google earth. I started to look around the world an soon found myself in Tanzania. I uploaded some pictures of University, Mwenge and the highest mountain of the world - Kilimanjao. It's amazing especially on the University picture you can see all the buildings where we were sweting. Administration, Nkruma hall, the huge library, the pool, the mosque, Hall 4, Hall 5 and I'm not sure but I think far up you can also find Hall3. A very nice tool!

Does Africa make people stupid?

This easter sunday I wanted to go Snowboarding one last time this winter. I got up early in the morning got my stuff together and was very looking forward to all the fun in the snow. My dad was so nice to bring me to the trainstation and all I had to do myself was to buy a ticket to Hinterstoder and get into the train. I bought the ticket in a very cool style and then got in the train. But as I found out some minutes later it was the wrong train!!! Alright, out of the train and checking if there is a train back - 1 hour, not too bad. But I had another idea, my aunt lives close and she still has my mum's car so I called her and asked her if she could bring me the car so I could drive to the mountains. All right no problem... After some time she called again: "you better take the train, I can't find the key." Great, the train just went past. More waiting, then the train back to Linz and from there to the mountains - 2 hours later than planned.
I had much fun in the mountains, there was no slope too steep for me and I was jumping and singing with joy!
The way back I took the right train! Also tram and bus was no problem but on the way to my parents house I found out I forgot the key and my parents were visiting relatives. Great, so I had to call them, the agreed to come. Meanwhile I was waiting in the garage and found out that my fancy Austrian phone has no snake! Damn that hurts!
After some hours my parents arrived and I could take a nice hot shower. And if you think things can't get worse you are wrong. When I emptied the pockets of my snowboard trousers I found the keys. Knulla!!!

fuck the police

Today was the first day I could ride my motorbike again. Hurra, hurra, hurra!!! King of the roads, enjoying the freedom and the warm weather.
And then those police bastards had to destroy my dream ride. They wanted to see my driving licence - ok no problem, the documents for the bike - shit, didn't have them with me. First aid kit - also left that at home but I found one single gauze bandage that was really dirty and fucked up. They looked at it very sceptically and asked me if I would like this thing used on me in case I would have an accident. Of course I said yes. Did I have a choice?
After all that they didn't stop searching for things they could charge me for, so they sent me to their headquater where they measured the noise level of my bike. I was lucky! It was a bit too loud but within the tollerance so no more money for them. So in total I lost 7€ because of the documents and about one hour of my life. Bastards!

His Highness Jakaya Kikwete

I left Tanzania too early, no question. I got the news that his highness Jakaya Kikwete came to Chuo Kiko and held one of his excellent speaches but read what my correspondant from Tanzania says about that:

He came to campus and
talked about really
important things and he
really meant them, and
everybody where so
impressed, even I of
course, since he is the
only man I love more than
God. Ok not really. But he was here so I saw some of his
smiling face but it wasn't too exciting and the people
didn't seem to impressed. But there was a red carpet.
Well that's about how exciting it gets here on campus
these days.

Why is all that happening without me. Here we have ultra thrilling eastern. If only our President Fischer would come to my university. That would make me so happy...

The first picture is, as everybody knows, his highnes Jakaya Kikwete, Presitend of Tanzania.
The other picture shows Heinz Fischer our Austrian president.
Tell me guys which one looks like more fun?

Vienna

This is the happy face of my brother when I came to visit him in Vienna, yesterday. On his arm that is Joseph his second child - cool guy. Follow this link and you can watch him eat strawberry yoghurt - Watch Video (Don't do this if you are in Tanzania would probably take years to open it).
Later I went to my insurance company and showed them all my police reports from Tanzania to get some money back. Unfortunately they won't pay me back the cash that was stolen in Nairobi - bastards!
Walking around in Vienna was very nice: cold wind, dark clouds, angry faces, no mambo poa. But as you can see on the picture I already became one of them - there is no more smile on my face...

Back home

Yesterday one of the last heroes in Tanzania had to leave the country and it was not easy for him. But let us listen to his own words...
"Yesterday in the morning I was so happy to go home again because the last days in Dar became a bit boring but that's no wonder without any work to do there just partying and drinking all day long. Anyway the morning was still fine, I packed, took a shower and put on my nicest clothes for my trip to Europe. To get the strength for the trip I had my last chipsi mishikaki at chuo cafeteria 1 where they have the bigget mishikaki ever. To digest the feast I spent some time on the roof of hall four thinking about the good time we had up there. Mashawa Kaka Tony, Jennifer and Saleman joined me, we had some beers and then I finaly had to go. And when I had to go I realized what this means now. The end of a great time, maybe the best time in my live. And I'm always so bad with ending things. That was soo sad!
I tried so hard to stay longer. Even at the airport when I checked in I asked if maybe the plane was overbooked to get a night at the Mövenpick Hotel. Unfortunately it was everything else than overbooked. Empty seats everywhere.
The arrival at the airport in Zurich and later in Munich was a shock for me. Thousands of Muzungus in fancy suits who thought they were very important. And everything so small minded. Just wanted to go back. But as the sign on the exit door of the airport said "after passing this door there is no returning back."
Back in Linz my "home live" started instantly. Went to the museum where I used to work before TZ and got an even better job now which is very nice - 'event technician and sound engineer' - nzuri sana!
I'm pole fucking sana choka sasa hivi but it's my friend's birthday so I'll go for that and tomorrow morning trip to Vienna to get money from my insurance company from all the stuff that was stolen from me in Tanzania. Cross your fingers guys that I'll get rich tomorrow ;-)

Dar sucks

After one week in Dar I already have enough of it! Yesterday I bought seven movies in town but only three work. Today it started raining again. Everything is dirty and full of mud. Cafeteria 1 has a new owner and the food is wors than ever. And Sundays in Dar are boring anyway...
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel - on frieday there will be a big good bye party at Makongo. Karibuni sana! See you there

Mr. Lova Lova

Unbelievable, I returned to Dar university after two month, visited Mama Kaaya and all the bureaucracy and stupid runnig around starts again. I asked for the marks of last semester and of course half of my classes were not in the list, as if I never attended them. So I told Mama Kaaya that there is something missing and she was so nice to fill out 4 forms for me to take them to the head of the department, then to the Professors of the classes, head of the department again and then dean of the faculty. Hurra!!! I thought it would be boring to be in Dar for two weeks but Mama Kaaya saved me from endless boredom.
At university I also met all the "old" students - Alex, Tanisha, Dan, Claudia, Americ, Tony, Caneric and and and. Also some of the new students. They are ok but everybody tells me that they are extreeeemly boring. No parties, no roof gatherings no nothing. They take this university much to seriouse!
After my visit to university I went to town to get money from Barkley's ATM but it was out of order. There was a long queue because the fundi was already working on it. "Just wait for two minutes." But after one month in South Africa I forgot that they meant African minutes. Of course that means come again tomorrow. Well I went to Moevenpick instead for a nice cup of coffee and who do you think crossed my way when I went in? Mr. Lova lova himself - Shaggy. Dar Es Salaam became celebrity metropolis while I was away. He was giving a concert at Diamond Jubilee Hall, karibu Palm Beachi.
The concert was amazing! I never saw something like this before. It started with a Tanzanian dance group that performed to songs of 2Unlimited etc. Actually nice dace but the music... The next two acts were quite popular bogo flava artists. Don't know their names but you can hear their songs in every daladala. And then the star of the night. Shaggy - no restrictions for the volume so it was the loudest and longest concert ever. First he performed all of his song and when he was finished with that he played every Bob Marley song until 2 o'clock in the morning. The people loved him!