The First Condition

"The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it." Rudyard Kipling

I am usually the last to agree with Kipling's take on anything, but in this case I think he may have a point. I had a South Asian friend who always used to say that he knew he was back home when he got off the plane and was hit with the wall of smells that is India.

Tanzania has its own unique collection of smells. In Dar Es Salaam, the air is filled with a combination of diesel, gasoline, and charcoal from the cooking fires of the street food vendors. Out here in the country, gasoline and diesel are replaced with the smells of earth and plants and, on occasion, goats. Everywhere you go you are likely to recognize a slight undersmell of perspiration, unless it is so cool that nobody sweats.

Even church smells slightly different. I went to Mass with the orphans today and I experienced a not unpleasant mix of perfume, perspiration, and incense.