"Tambo la mokili"
AUSTRALIA | Tuesday, 4 September 2007 | Views [480]
We'd just finished up at the 15th birthday party of the Fred Hollows Foundation who we work with and I was flagging a ride home to Glebe.
"Tambo la mokili" said taxi driver with a huge laugh as I got in. How did he know I work in travel? Such are the mysterious ways of the world sometimes.
He was from Tanzania and we are thinking of going to Zanzibar at the end of the year so we got talking. Now a 55 year old taxi driver in Sydney with 5 kids to an "anglo" wife, he'd been a merchant seaman in his youth and travelled the world.
He told me this was an old African saying which means "See the world before your eyes close".
What you then have to ask yourself is does this refer to death, blindness or a closing of your mind ...
Mind you, I might be a bit cautious in trying my first phrase if we do make it to Zanzibar because a quick search on Google returns no such phrase so it could mean "I want to make love to your daughter" for all I know!
Tags: footprints network, taxi, stories, language, zanzibar, footprints
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