Mzee holding a stick of sugar cane in Pangani, Tanzania

Postcard

The back of the postcard reads “Swahili coast ‘Mzee’ holding a stick of sugar cane”.

Pangani is a town in northeast Tanzania near the Swahili coast. The Swahili Coast is an 1,800-mile stretch of Kenyan and Tanzanian coastline. ‘Mzee’ basically means “old person” , but is also a title of respect for an older person.

Stamps

The bird stamp was issued in 1997. The Cactus Wren is a species of wren that is native to the southwestern United States. It nests in cactus plants.

It took almost 4 months for this card to reach its destination. Well, Tanzania is not around the corner, but….. there’s another reason. Our local mailman decided not to deliver all of the mail, but save some in his garage. He was caught recently and some days ago I received 60 postcards in my mailbox. My missing postcards since 2011!