It’s been a week since my last post and in that time I’ve returned to Atlanta, had a chance to catch up with all of my family and friends and get some much needed sleep!!

I just wanted to take this time and thank everyone who had anything at all to do with AFAR’s travels through AFRICA!!! This was an unbelievable, life altering experience that was only made possible through the people that supported us!

Special Thanks to:

• Alexis Ortiz and staff at JALC
• US Department of State
• Richard Johnson (Bestest Tour Manager in the World!!)
• Ismail, Tebogo, Brother X, Julius and crew at the Embassy in South Africa (I know I love that girl!!!! SMOKEY!!!!!)
• Mark Weinberg Our “stand in guitarist” in Zimbabwe (he was only a stand in for the autographs!!!)
• Deborah Hooker in Mozambique! (A few more days and we would have had you on stage!)
• Pilots and Drivers
• And everyone that checked out the blog while we were gone! I really appreciate the love!

AFAR has some more tours coming up in the beginning of 2007. Keep checking the blog for more information!

The time has come for us to head back to the airport and grab a jet back home.  In one breath, it’s a bitter sweet moment because we’ve had some good times performing together and just kickin it and having fun, meeting new people and learnig about music and culture.  In another breath…..It’s just time to go home.  Everybody here is missing their families, wives, new babies, girlfriends, dogs, goldfish, JR Crickets, Super Fast Internet Connections, Cell Phones…. just miussing life as we’re used to.

We’re flying from Tanzania to Amsterdam, which adds an hour or so on to our flight… hooray!!  You know, it doesn’t really matter because I think we all would do anything to get back home now.

Keep watching the blog because I’ll be doing trip recaps all next week and posting new pics and video from the trip.  I’ll be able to do a little more with a faster connection!!!

Thanks for taking the ride with us!

“D’

We’ve been playing here in Dar since Sunday night. Sunday’s performance was AFAR with the Parapanda Theatre Lab.

We met with them earlier in the day, shared music and performed together Sunday night at the University of Dar Es Salaam. » Read more: Playing in Dar Es Salaam

Notice that the sign is on a Clear Channel board…

So we’re here in Tanzania. Funny thing at the airport… they make all the people waiting on the arriving international flights stand outside of the airport and it was kinda funny to see like 300+ people crowded less than 10 feet from the door just staring and blowing their hot breath on the glass, fogging it up so that in the end, no one saw anything. Funny.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that for this to be a third world, developing country, the cellular phone companies advertise very heavily in Africa. You can’t go anywhere without seeing a logo or advertisment (I am not exaggerating). I found this to be a bit odd… but more on that in a later post.

Anyways, we’re staying in a place called Dar Es Salam, and they’re celebrating 45 years of Independence here. Check out some pics of some of the things I’ve seen:

» Read more: Welcome to Tanzania

I just wanted to drop you all a few pics from the past couple of shows. We had three shows in Mozambique, One in a place called Xia Xia and two in Maputo (RJJazz wrote a song about Maputo. I’m sure that if you ask him, he’ll sing it for you).

We had an audition for Jahah dancers and this is the best we could do:

Ha Ha! Those kids would not leave the stage. It’s all good though. We even paid them for their services. Jahah mentioned something about a photo shoot for the “Mama’s Two Sons” album! Here is another Xia Xia shot. If you look really closely, you can see me playing through a very very very very small amp… my musician friends know this is not a good thing:

» Read more: Catch Up Pics

We’ve been moving the past few days. Since my last post, we flew in to Joburg for a night and now we’re in Tanzania. In Joburg, the great people from the US Embassy – Ismail and Tebogo – met us at the airport and had dinner with us. It was especially great to see them again, mainly because they’ve been the best hosts AFAR has ever had. You don’t meet great people too often, but when you do, it’s such a breath of fresh air to see that there are some wonderful, genuine people still in the world.

» Read more: Last Few Days

I know most of my people back home were telling me to “kiss the ground” when I made it to Africa. To myself though, I was like, Do I really want to kiss a nasty airport floor when I land?…or some nasty asphalt flavored with tar, dirt, grime, animal secretions and road kill?? I think not! So let’s just say I did it in spirit, not for myself but for everyone that thought it was so important to do so.

My personal goal was to try and catch pictures of the sunrise in Africa. I really didn’t think I would have a chance to do it, but the chance presented itself and I just had to go for it! I didn’t get any sleep that night and I probably had bags under my eyes for the t.v. interview the following day, but it was all worth it. Here are some pictures of God in all is glory!

These pictures were taken on the cost of the Indian Ocean in Maputo, Mozambique.

In the Beginning:

The Sun is trying to come out, but doesn’t seem like it’s quite ready:

» Read more: The Sunrise

Check out these articles written about AFAR’s Africa Tour:

• Zimbabwe: US Hip Hop Outfit Set to Rock Zim
• US Hip Hop Musical Group, AFAR, To Tour Zimbabwe
• Zimbabwe: AFAR Holds Workshops for Aspiring Artists
• Zimbabwe: Christmas Present From AFAR
  
• Hip Hop Group AFAR Rocks Johannesburg and Mafikeng
• AFAR’s Zim Tour A Success

The state run newspaper here, which is the only daily newspaper, was nice enough to do an article on us.  Here are a couple of clippings:

» Read more: Newspaper Articles

So, the last couple of days have been kinda hectic.  Let me summarize the events for you:

• We went to a “musician hang out spot” (but the only musicians there were us)
• Had a long bumpy ride to a place called Xia Xia (pronounced Chi Chi)
• Did an outside show for the communty there
• Drove another hour to our hotel in a place called Bilene
• Drove back to Maputo
• Did Soundcheck and a show

All of this without being able to speak a lick of Portugesese!!!! Ha ha

I tried to be Superman and take pics while I did the gig, but uh, it didn’t work.  As soon as I can get some pics from the photographer that was there I’ll be sure to post here.  Until then, hopefully these will hold you over:

» Read more: The Last two days…