"Sorry for your vacation"

The most overused expression in Swahili is "pole" which means "sorry." If you fall they say pole, when you work they say pole, if it's hot they say pole, if its cold they say pole, etc. So when I told my friends and colleagues about my trip I received a thousand pole's and pole sana's (very sorry).

What is everyone sorry about? I've chosen to take this trip for my vacation, it wasn't forced upon me. But today reality hit when I was sitting on a mini-bus heading to town and the engine blew, sidelining the bus. As the conductor was trying his best to quickly repair the bus I remembered that I'm in a country where transportation hurts. Today I was able to hop out of the bus and flag down another one to bring me to town. But if the boat I plan to take has the same problem I might be in for more of a hassle. And the inevitable hassles that I expect may prove to be more trying than I expect. Hence, I very well may be sorry that instead of going to Zanzibar to relax on the beach for my vacation I decided to circle the country on its transportation.

The plan: some buses, a boat, some smaller boats, a train, another train.