» posted on Thursday, September 22nd, 2022 by Linda Lou Burton

Damn! That Traffic Jam

Linda Lou Burton posting from Serengeti National Park, Tanzania– “Looking in my rear-view mirror I saw myself in the next car back.” My entertainment was observing what everybody else was doing, as I hummed a tune from way back in my James Taylor days. Damn! that traffic jam. This time it wasn’t Ben’s fault that we were running late. In fact, Ben, (at least he claims) is responsible for resolving the middle-of-nowhere traffic jam we found ourselves in at Checkpoint Serengeti. “I called the President’s Office!” he declared, face contorted in anger. “The President of Tanzania?” we asked, unbelieving. “You bet!” was his answer. “This is no way to promote tourism in Tanzania!” Ben paced back and forth between our two 4x4s, ranting a bit as he told his story.

There is no fence around the Serengeti, no guarded gate as at many national parks to monitor who goes in and out. But there is a checkpoint on the road, where every vehicle is stopped to pay fees and register. All this information is then fed into a computer. Today, however, the computer was DOWN. So, the “data collector” PIC (person in charge) simply disallowed entry any further into the Park! Trucks were backed up; buses were backed up; and worst of all (for the tourism industry) SAFARI vehicles were backed up! Ben (remember, he’s working on his Masters in Tourism) suggested, over and over to today’s PIC “Just write the information on PAPER! You can enter it into the computer LATER.” Said PIC was too scared to go against protocol UNTIL – Ben made his phone call to the President’s Office. Ben declared that the President himself made the phone call back that unplugged our traffic jam.

Following are photos I took from my seat in the 4×4 as I watched what people do in times like this. Some folks, I noted, just say “pole, pole,” an attitude it’s often useful to adopt.