Another diverse trip

Mambo vipi?

I’m back in Dar again after a nice trip. In ten days I travelled 3000 kilometres through pretty landscapes once more, though dissimilar to the ones I already crossed. The nice thing about this job is that life is so diverse. For instance; within one week I snorkelled of another island near Dar to find even nicer coral than I found before, crossed Mikumi National Park on my trip up-country spotting a tremendous diversity of wildlife, and walked in the Mbeya Range Mountains near the Zambian border. Oops, now I forget to mention about my work. The work is also nice and diverse, but less interesting for you to elaborate on. Let’s start where I quit my previous New-Testament-like update.

After the preceding up-country trip I really felt like partying; I had to have some people around me and enjoy myself. Despite several attempts I simply could not find anyone to join me. Also, plans to go to a beach stranded. In the end, it was probably best; I had to recover a bit from having malaria for the second time and skipping the night in the long bus-trip back. Alternatively, I wandered through our neighbourhood to find all kinds of small artefacts shops. The day after I went with Judith, one of our neighbours, to the swimming pool of the University of Dar es Salaam (the yellowish-greenish colour reminded me that I would probably regret taking an accidental sip).

Speaking of malaria and the like matters; I have been warned by something that happened to Ronald. Ronald and I were simultaneously diagnosed to have malaria. However when he was for some days in the Netherlands he still had some health issues (I could imagine as the days before he left he was still looking awful and had a nasty cough) and went to a doctor again. It appeared that he had never had malaria! Instead he had to stay in hospital; he was contaminated with three tropical parasites, among others schistomasis (bilharzia). His nasty cough was a result of his swollen liver pressing on his lungs! The other two parasites also gave some abdominal issues, but are less serious. Luckily, once the diagnosis is made treatment is easy and effective. Probably I am currently infected with one of the abdominal parasites as well as it is highly contagious and I’m having regular abdominal issues. I’ll have myself checked in a number of weeks once I check for schistomasis (the check is only effective after six weeks). For the rest; I found that Tanzanian and mzungu doctors have completely different opinions about whether or not to take malaria prophylaxis. Tanzanian doctors said that it is better not to (as you will get resistant to malaria to a certain extent), mzungu doctors said that it is dangerous not to (as getting resistant starts only after years), especially when being up-country so much. In the end I decided not to take any, but I do carry three pills that I can take in case I experience the symptoms, but lack the proximity of a doctor. The risk cannot be that large as by now I should be able to recognise the symptoms timely;)

After one week of working in Dar I finally did what I was looking forward to; having some party. In fact, already during the week I had a drink with the neighbours and Oliver, a humorous Scottish PhD student I met through Claire and Josh. The occasion was a drink at the Holiday Inn hotel. Apparently they serve free drinks and bites every Wednesday to motivate expat-networking. We did not mind the networking, but had great fun. Oliver enjoyed himself that much that he carried out a nice Britney Spears karaoke performance later on in the Irish Pub.. In the weekend we had a nice party as well in an outdoors discotheque, which served as kind of a goodbye to Claire, Josh, Judith, Caroline, and Judith as they would all leave in the weeks I would be up-country. After having gone myself to a beach nearby on Saturday, Oliver joined me on Sunday to Mbudya Island. This island offers even better snorkelling than Bongoyo Island. There is much more coral in perfectly shallow water, and a lot of fishes. I was able to spot (among many species in all colours that I would never be able to determinate) geep (=Dutch) and the lethally venomous and both pretty and ugly scorpion fish. (A fun fact is that in 2000 only some kilometres away in one month five people were killed in shark attacks [due to unclear reasons one or more South African “man-eating” great whites migrated to Coco Beach]). It is a bit of a pity that such a significant part of my new friends have left last week. But in the meanwhile I have also met a nice Dutch guy from Groningen; Bert. Proving that the world is a small place, he actually did his internship as a sports teacher at het Maartenscollege (my secondary school!). He is not only a nice chap to have a drink with, but also a partner in crime to do some sports! Furthermore, I met the people at whose place he stays; Karel and Leen, hospitable Belgians with whom I will probably have more drinks in the future.

After having worked in Dar for a week I really felt like going up-country again. The traffic jams on the way to the internet cafe, waiting for documents to be printed, agreements that are not met, and arranging all kinds of secondary issues does not satisfy me in the end of the day. Even though I know that I cannot change the circumstances, I hate the inefficiency. Minor brainless jobs such as withdrawing money and changing it into US dollars for the official registration of the Foundation (a process which already took numerous visits last year) cost me four hours due to the ATM nearby not working, and traffic jams in town. Having some documents printed cost me another four hours; in total one working day. On the one hand it is nice to experience the slow pace in life and reflect on the Dutch lifestyle. On the other hand; sometimes people appear to walk that annoyingly slowly that you really start to belief that they are making an effort to keep you of your work. To that extent I’m facing a hate-love relationship with the local pace of life; I could learn from the Tanzanians to a certain extent, but realise at the same time that being efficiency-driven is a good characteristic. Many people appear to be totally unmotivated and lacking any initiative. Companies have employees just standing by in case a brainless job needs to happen. The fact is that labour is embarrassingly cheap. And painful, but true; sometimes I would like to have such an employee myself in order for me to be able to do the satisfactory work. Although Tanzania has been politically stable for many years (especially when you compare it with many [neighbouring] African countries), it does not show the economic development you would expect. However, when you realise that even at the University of Dar es Salaam (the most prestigious University of Tanzania) currently students still are sleeping with their professors at a large scale to pass their exams, and bribe-hungry police officers stop you ten times during one bus-trip (whereas since ten years zero of such bribery cases have made it to Court), it is obvious that development will not accelerate in the nearby future.

Once on my way up-country I met the beautiful sights the Southern Highlands offer. The trips went predominantly through green landscapes. I drove through clouds over forested hills making hair-pin turns, admired wild reddish-brownish rivers, and was amazed to find un-African pine forests (which unexpectedly reminded me of les Hautes Fagnes in the Belgian Ardennes). This time I was lucky; most of the trip followed Tanzania’s central highway, a comfortable tar-road. Nevertheless, the trip became a bit more adventurous on the way to Mbeya. The bus pulled over off the tar-road. The soil appeared stable (I would not dare to blame the driver as I would have parked it there myself as well), but as a result of the rain the night before it was in fact saturated with water. Consequently, the bus sunk for a part in a ditch. When the driver wanted to get out of the ditch the bus eerily angled over even more. After everyone had gotten out of the bus, a lorry attempted to pull our bus out. In the first attempt the chain broke and I feared for a moment the bus would drop at its side. I was filming the occasion in order to have at least a funny picture if I would have had to wait for hours. The second attempt the bus really appeared to flip-over, but at the final moment the lorry managed to get the bus out which (un/)fortunately kept straight. Another remarkable moment was when I passed Mikumi National Park. I knew I would pass it, but had simply forgotten about it. Making unmotivated attempts to study my Swahili booklet I was gazing out of the window. My eyes started focusing instantly when I recognised rather characteristic shapes; giraffes! Learning Swahili instantly was even less of a priority and I admired zebras, all kinds of antelopes, warthogs, cape buffaloes, baboons, and elephants (up to only 20 meters from the bus)!

I’m really starting to love the up-country way of life (travelling, buying some snacks on the way, arriving, looking for the location of the solar dealer and finding a guesthouse, and foraging for some street food); life is simple, but dynamic. Maybe it should be attributed to the fact that I am more used to it now, I have become more blunt, the towns I visited this time have a stronger economical position, or because I improved my Swahili (to a certain extent) and am making more small talk; I got less annoyed with the requests for money. Still, in Mbeya I had to bluntly ignore several annoying and persistent men around the bus station. I was already prepared for it however, as I was warned about the presence of relatively many criminals due to the proximity to the Malawian and Zambian border. More and more the people’s hospitality impresses me (and then I am not referring to invitations of people that want to take advantage of you, but to sincere invitations).
Wandering through a town after work in search for some food and drinks makes that in two days you learn to know the place. For the same reason I strive to have a nice early run every first morning that I have arrived at a town. After having acquainted to it, the solitude in the nights is something that I perceive as very relaxing. I simply do not have a lot to do in the nights, which I initially really hated as I am used to always have something on the agenda. But now I enjoy having a coke or beer on my own or in company of people I just met, reading a bit, or watching a DVD that I bought in Dar (you can get any movie for little money; I have now even seen Soldaat van Oranje and Zwartboek). I feel a bit embarrassed to say it, but studying Swahili in the nights is not really working out; I simply do not feel like it after a day of work.

The first town I visited during this up-country run, Morogoro, is only four hours from Dar and situated at a beautiful place; the Uluguru Mountains impressively overshadow the town. Although in an absolute sense the mountains are not very high, the difference in altitude is about 1500 meters and steep slopes start directly at the edge of town. Of course I had to explore them within the one and a half day I would be there. After three kilometres of running the angle rose, but as I was not willing to give up the tempo I have had muscle aches for five days;). For a solar promotion seminar I went to a small village where we first had a chat with the chief. He guided us around his village and gathered in no-time a crowd to attend our presentation. After the presentation a hospitable villager invited us for a coke in his house.

The following town, Iringa, is positioned on a cliff overlooking the vehemently meandering Little Ruaha River at a comfortable altitude of 1600m. I made a walk to a large rock on a hill nearby to have a good view over town and because of its historical tribal significance. However, nearby the rock I had to turn back as a result of some very acute abdominal issues. The decision to turn back was wise for another reason as well; the place was infested with ticks and my legs, since I had to cross long grass and bushes, were crawling with them. When I had almost reached my guesthouse a nice tropical rain started bursting, which made that I was glad to be back. Remarkably, at the time I was in town there were huge grasshoppers everywhere. In the morning the guesthouse was crowded with them as the insects were attracted by the light during the night.

Mbeya’s climate also was comfortably cool because of its altitude at 1800m. The green mountains around town were inviting me for a run and a hike. I wanted to mount the dominating Mbeya Peak (slightly over 2800m), but because of rain and a large horizontal distance I had to turn back before I made it to the summit. In the meanwhile I had crossed petite villages, small banana plots and forests. The rains in this season can start abruptly and often rage at an impressive intensity. Luckily I was offered a lift by a friendly old man before being totally soaking wet. Still, because of the temperature it is not that bad to get wet. And, more importantly, the sun always breaks through after a while and instantly makes you forget it had been raining that day.

Songea obviously is positioned in the Southern Highlands as well. Despite the relative cool temperatures I did not mind a run when it was raining cats and dogs. It is nicely refreshing, but certainly not cold. Yet, the mud and spontaneously originating small rivers make it a bit of a slippery challenge. On a foraging trip I came across a small shop where a woman did not wear anything to cover her breasts. Of course I felt a bit embarrassed, but when I saw the baby she was carrying on her arm I was relieved; breast feeding in public is generally accepted in Tanzania. When dawn was approaching vast swarms of, what I first thought to be crows, crow-sized bats dominated the skies over Songea; an impressive sight.

Here I am, back in Dar. As up-country temperatures and humidity were comfortable, but in the meanwhile it has only gotten hotter in Dar (37 degrees Celcius and humid) I am sweating like a pig. I had my first beach party together with hundreds of Indian Tanzanians and made some Christmas plans. I am going to have dinner with Pepijn and his family and we will be making a boat trip on his dingy. On New Years’ eve we will be going to the Yacht Club for some decadent expat integration;) I’ll need to find myself a tuxedo somewhere. I may have to visit Kenya in the near future to prolong my visa. Furthermore, I am really looking forward to the 31st of January as then Suzanne will arrive and we will be having holidays and consequently visit some nice National Parks, coral reefs, and other beautiful places.

Enjoy the days!

Peter