Likizo - vacation

Competing buses

We noticed a sign in town about another bus company that would go directly from our town to Dar es Salaam daily. The whole time living here we have only known one bus company that did that, and quite frankly they are not the best company: Often times they wouldn't leave Dar es Salaam for a while, once for two hours, so we'd sit in the bus before it finally left; they overbooked the bus so many people would get angry that they would have to stand the whole 8 hours when they paid for a seat; they would stop at every opportunity to pick up more and more people to jam into the aisle to make more money - sometimes this made the bus ride to Dar 10 hours; and since the bus company had other, more important routes which had competition, our route usually got the worst bus - dirty, windows that didn't open, missing windows (lovely in the rainy season) - which broke down many times (I heard once it got to our town from Dar at nearly midnight). And this was the only company to go to Dar directly (there are alternatives which I have taken in the past - take one of the many buses going to Dodoma and drop off at the tarmac junction then catch anything going from Dodoma to Dar) so if you didn't want to chance the junction route, this was your only option.

This happens a lot in Tanzania - where there is only one company that does something and even if they are terrible or the prices are high you keep going back because that is the only place you can get that thing you want or need, especially hardware or electrical stuff. But things are slowly changing.

Anyway, back to the competing bus companies... I was glad for the competition, however, the old bus company wasn't as thrilled. For the debut of the maiden voyage of the new bus company, the old bus company hired a lot of muscle to harass the customers and workers as they were getting ready to leave. They yelled at the conductors and grabbed people trying to get on and took their luggage away. Our local law enforcement got whiff of this before it happened and broke up the fighting at the bus station. A great way to get customers, right? Well, after the yelling and being childish about competition didn't work, they started to think about it and got a really nice bus for our Dar route. That gesture didn't work for us and we bought tickets and boarded the new bus company to start our vacation. The new bus leaves half an hour after the old bus and there were police present when we boarded, but really there were no problems at all.


Likizo

The evening before we were to leave it rained paka na mbwa (cats and dogs) so we expected the road to be bad - and it was a bit. We only got stuck once for about an hour. We passed the old bus company stuck in the mud about half an hour out of town then we hit the impassable area where there were three freight trucks stuck in the mud and sand. We waited while the conductors thought of an idea. Everyone got off the bus and we noticed a bunch more buses behind us waiting to see what we did. Our driver stepped on the gas and tried to go around the road where it looked passable but he was wrong and got stuck. As they were digging our bus out I snapped a few pictures of the situation. Another bus tried to go around our stuck bus but got stuck as well. Finally our bus made it through and we were on our way again.

We made it to Morogoro where we hung out with fellow PCVs all going their separate ways for various reasons then were on our way to Dale's site in the Moshi region. He lives in the Pare Mountains and is so close to the Kenyan border he can see Kenya on a clear day. We chilled in his mansion and caught up on movies and tv shows (we now like both versions - British and American - of The Office). We cooked spaghetti and had an eggplant-olive oil-cheese sauce with Gatorade. They are so spoiled up in Moshi where you can get cheese, olive oil, and tons of imported goods because they live on the tourist highway (Arusha-Moshi) - although it's pricey.

The next day we relaxed a bit, saw his school and village, then walked over to Clay's site, about a 2 hour walk along the road which is flanked by a cliff and a mountain. I used my "just don't look" approach when riding the daladala or coaster through the mountains. Clay's house isn't as big as Dale's and you have to walk up a steep hill to get to his house, but he has an awesome view of Kilimanjaro from his front door. His accommodations reminded me of a college apartment in the states, complete with flushing toilet, hot shower, and a living room with furniture. That night we ate out but brought back some beers (and flavored vodka for me) and listened to music and chilled.

We left Clay's site mid-morning and made our way to Alex's site a bit closer to Moshi town, and therefore more in the tourist area. In fact, Alex's town is the start of the most popular route for hiking Kilimanjaro so lots of wazungu pass through. Alex, by far, has the most cushy PCV housing. He lives in an apartment building with four bedrooms, European toilet, hot shower, running water, fireplace, full kitchen, and a balcony including a grill. His place is nicer than most apartments I've lived in in the states! That night we dined on beer boiled brats with mashed potatoes and veggies with Clarissa and her dad who was visiting at the time.

The next day we made our way to Moshi town, met Brendan and picked up some vegetables, and then went to his house. He happens to live at the start of another hiking route for Kili, but his route is not as popular. For dinner we had sausage sandwiches and mashed potatoes and hit the sack as my allergies started to come back in full force (the new, wet environment I suppose). Next morning Brendan had to teach so we slept in and stayed around his house until lunch time when we went to the staff room and had rice and beans. We took a nice stroll around his area, they grow tons of bananas and corn, and the guys played catch with a baseball and gloves with a few neighbor kids while I read in the living room. We didn't see Kili from his site as his site is so close to the mountain, actually, he lives on it at the base, that for a lot of the time it's overcast. Stir-fry veggies and rice with pineapple for dessert were on the menu that evening and it was oh-so good.

The next morning we went with Brendan to one of his classes and observed him teach maths to a Form 5 class. He's an excellent teacher and I really learned a lot about his teaching style and I'll try to emulate it in the classroom, but who knows. He's very calm and attentive and supportive of his students. For example if they got the answer to a question wrong, he would point out what they did right and give them hints or ask other students to work together to come up with the solution. We then headed into town and bought bus tickets to Morogoro, took a nap, then had some awesome Indian food and pizza (the best I've ever had in this country) with red wine.

We reached Morogoro so Russ could attend a computer seminar for two days then headed back to site. It was nice to be back - there really is no place like home. On the list...laundry and preparing for Christmas visitors.

While at Brendan's site I was reading his Rough Guide to Tanzania (The Rough Guide to Tanzania, The Dodoma Region: the destruction of a fragile environment, Rough Guide Ltd., Distributed by the Penguin Group, NY, 1st edition, January 2003) book and saw this blurb about the Dodoma region. It describes where we live so well that I have quoted it below.

The Dodoma Region: the destruction of a fragile environment

Passing through in the 1870s, the explorer Henry Morton Stanley was enchanted by Ugogo, the old name for what comprises most of the present-day Dodoma region. In the whole of Africa, he wrote, "there is not another place whose environment has attracted me as much of this". Mr. Stanley, one presumes, would have been somewhat surprised to see the changes that have occurred over the 130 years since he was here. A large part of the region is a savanna plateau which receives little rain (around 570mm a year), most of which falls in heavy bursts in December and March or April, leaving the rest of the year hot, dry, windy, and dusty. As a result, the region has long been prone to drought and famine, a natural cycle whose challenges the region's dominant tribe, the Gogo, mastered by developing a cyclical system of communal grazing that ensured than no one piece of land was ever exhausted.

The region's present problems can be traced back to the arrival of the Europeans, who made every effort to discourage the Gogo's nomadic lifestyle, which they considered backward (not unlike the present government's attitude to the Maasai). Land was confiscated, reducing the grazing ranges of the Gogo's cattle and encouraging the Gogo to settle and practice slash-and-burn agriculture instead, whose destructive long-term environmental consequences can now be seen in the dust that billows through Dodoma for much of the year, and in the eroded run-off gullies and sand-filled rivers that scar the landscape. By clearing the land of permanent bush or tree cover, the soil in such a harsh climate quickly loses its consistency and is more easily dried out by the sun - after which the wind blows away the topsoil and the rain carries yet more of it away. And so, as cultivators clear another patch of land to replace the one that has blown to dust, the cycle repeats itself...

With a population of over 1.3 million, the Gogo of today can hardly turn back the clock to revert to their previous way of life. One solution now being developed by the forestry department is to introduce sustainable modes of agriculture and plant varieties that won't leave the soil uncovered. But this will take time - and time, unfortunately, has all but run out.

Note on rabbits
So with all of the travelling we are doing and the fact that we can't let the rabbits outside because they will run away, we gave our rabbits to our mzee house help. Instead of sitting in their little cage all day in our store room, they get to jump around in a bigger cage with other animals at our mzee's house. He's also going to use the rabbits as a business and will sell their baby rabbits for money. Although we miss them, we thought they would be more useful and active living with our mzee.


sling or no sling, still at 90 degrees
Our neighbor's kid climbed the cell phone tower that was being built and fell, breaking his left arm in two places. He had to go to the hospital for a few days and returned home with his arm in a sling, arm bent at 90 degrees. We told the family "Pole" (my sympathies) and I saw the same kid a few days later, arm still bent at 90 degrees, but this time without a sling.

Let it Rain, Let it Rain, Let it Rain...

Thanksgiving
For Thanksgiving we were invited back to the American ambassador's house where he didn't make any mistakes with the food or drinks. Among the beautiful setting of his home, we were served wine and beer (on tap) and water (with ice and a lemon!). As it was 2 pm or so in Dar es Salaam and very hot and humid I opted for a little wine but then chugged down the ice water. Mmmm....ice... The ambassador had 20 turkeys cooked and we had all the fixings. It was a great Thanksgiving.


World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day is December 1, but in our town we celebrated it on December 4 due to scheduling conflicts. Russ worked with a local non-profit group on a project for World AIDS Day in which students from a local secondary school would paint three ceiling boards with images and sayings and they would go up in the school and hospital. Russ prepared everything, wrote a grant and received some money for the small project, and we met with the students one last time to go over everything. On the morning of December 4, we walked to the start of the parade/march at around 8 am. There were a few students (30 or so) standing in lines with their arms streched out so they were an arms' length away from each other. A few official looking people drove up in land rovers and got out and we greeted them and then we all stood around for a little while. I was wondering what we were waiting for as everyone, including our dancing and drumming group, were prepared to walk. So after half an hour or so we decided to sit down and a few minutes later we saw a sea of school children running towards us. Hundreds of children dressed in their school uniforms were singing/chanting as they all ran towards the start of the parade. I snapped a few pictures of them coming as they were like an army ready for battle. They all lined up, each separated by an arms' length, and I snapped a few more pictures from higher up. Then, Russ got a call saying that our house help mzee was locked out of our house, doh!, and I remembered I forgot to unlock the screen door. So, I walked home to unlock it and Russ marched with the students to the next village where the events of World AIDS Day would take place.

It's about a half an hour walk and I felt a little silly walking by myself after the large crowd had passed and just told people I was late as they said all the students have already passed. I got to the field and Russ had already set up the ceiling boards and the students were already drawing. There was a program of some sort and our singing/dancing group peformed a play and we were to sing at the very end of the program. So I watched and listened to the various speakers and performers and took some pictures of the students drawing and painting. Then I looked up at the mountain right beside us and noticed gray clouds moving quickly over it. Oh no - rain. I mean it's great that it rained, it just wasn't good timing. It began to downpour and most of the students ran down the hill into classrooms at the school, the students who were drawing and painting on the ceiling boards took them to a classroom and continued their work, Russ and I had umbrellas and provided shelter to a few Tanzanians, and everyone else took cover under the makeshift tarp area (which wasn't waterproof and rain collected in some areas and began to pour through) where the important guests sat. The important guests took cover in their land rovers and continued their speeches through a loudspeaker on top of the land rover. This went on for ten to fifteen minutes or so until the rain stopped then said this event has been postponed - no date was given. My guess is that it is postponed until World AIDS Day 2007. So we didn't get to perform our song but the ceiling boards were finished and hopefully we raised awareness of the growing problem of HIV/AIDS in Africa and empowered people to make good decisions so they can lead healthy and happy lives.


Rain
So the rainy season has started on time this year! Our mzee house help built a fence for our garden out of thorn bushes to keep the chickens, turkeys, goats, cows, kicheches, etc. out. We started double-digging the beds and it soon became tiring as after a few inches of nice soil there's rock-hard red clay that you have to break up. Over the past week we all had our share of work preparing the garden. Just yesterday we finished four beds which will be plenty for our garden of (hopefully) cucumbers, pumpkins, carrots, onions, peppers, beans, lettuce, cabbage, raddishes, collards, and squash. So in the rest of the fenced in area we planted beans, peanuts, and soy beans. We hired some vibarua (day-laborers) to turn the topsoil in the shamba (farm land) and have planted sunflowers, peanuts, and beans, again.


Visiting the mentals

As we had a bit of a stressful week: Russ was the mgeni rasmi at a local fundraiser (see his blog for details), the Larium/Mephaquin anti-malaria medication we take is making us crazy, and double-digging our garden and preparing our shamba for the rainy season is tiring. So, we needed a little break/get-away from all of this and left for the villages to visit some environmental volunteers.

We hopped on the bus, put our bikes on top, and made our way to James's village, the last of the three environmental villages on the west side. His site is about 2 and a half hours from town by bus and is up in the mountains. We walked around his village and met some of his cool friends and cooked vegetable stew for dinner over his charcoal stove while relaxing in his courtyard. There's no electricity (or cell phone coverage) in his village. His courtyard is awesome! He's got a little garden going on and created cement walkways to his outside bathroom/toilet and kitchen.

The next day we rode our bikes to the middle village, about 1 hour and 15 minutes by bike (down a really steep hill where I thought many times I was going too fast and would wipe out!), where Becky and Jason live. We toured their cute, cozy house and the walked to their neighbor's house to greet them. The girls played hopscotch while the boys played soccer in the road. I took a picture of their neighbor's baby girl who was making faces as if she just tasted something sour. Later that night we made vegetable stew (a popular dish in the bush) and since the moon was so bright (no need for flashlight outside) we walked over to the neighbor's house again with drums and Jason brought along his guitar. We sang a song and they sang a song and danced and we kept trading off until we couldn't think of anymore songs to sing. Sweet Home, Alabama was a hit.

The day after that we rode our bikes to Holley's village (about 45 minutes from Jason & Becky's site) and had some peanut butter and crackers at her house before continuing on home. It was a grueling 3 and a half hour bike ride home up a gradual hill. We had to get off and walk a few times, but we made it home right before the rain started. It was a great visit and I was so happy to see where they live and they people they work with along with getting great ideas for our house and garden.


We are headed to Moshi again tomorrow, but this time it's vacation. We'll be visiting some PCV sites of our friends and then we will be in Morogoro on our way home as Russ is attending an ICT seminar for work. Then we'll be home for Christmas.