Updates Live from Tanzania

Been keeping extremely busy and journal writing has been an unfortunate casualty. Hopefully we can resurrect the journal and try and remember the past 2 weeks as best we can.

Volunteering has been very demanding to say the least. Days can range from being very good to extremely frustrating and disillusioning. On the good side of things we have started a traveling road-show trying to teach people how to start and manage their businesses. But that story starts a week earlier when we were first told by Genesis (who will hereafter be called the GZA) that we would have to give a talk to 250 people. Then the next day he told us he was going to give a presentation and we weren’t. The day after that it was hinted that we may give a talk. Anytime we tried to ask questions about the presentation we were given the standard Tanzanian answer of a pause and then a yes.

The morning of the presentation we took a white-knuckle Dala-Dala ride out to the village we were speaking at which is an hour outside of Moshi. After a quick stop into the local government and WODEF offices to sign their registers we made our way to a half built school. We could faintly hear singing as we walked into the school which grew louder as we moved towards our classroom. The singing turned to tongue clacking as we entered the classroom filled with around 100 Tanzanians. How to react to that? Do we click our tongues back? Clearly we had stepped about as far away from the classrooms at UPEI and into the furthest regions of bizzardom and possible.

The presentation was a flying success. I spoke for about an hour while Katie signed some certificates for the attendees certifying they had successfully completed a course on entrepreneurship. Afterwards we were the guests of honour at a massive feast and visited some of the local projects.

The people of the village were easily the nicest people we have met so far in Tanzania. They accompanied us to every project and waited for us while we talked to some of the project operators. One of the most touching places we went to was the local dispensary where we stayed for tea with the doctors and nuns who worked there. Their generosity knows no bounds as they often forego a months salary to provide medical assistance to local villagers who can’t afford it. Overall, the day was one of the highlights of our trip so far and an excellent lead up to safari the next day.

Safari is much better told through the pictures we have taken rather than words. We were picked up from Moshi at 6:50 by our guide Davis who took us back to Arusha and then onwards for our adventure. Our first stop was Lake Manyara, one of the smaller national parks in Tanzania but home to a varied group of animals due to its diverse habitats. A lot of the park is forests which made for some extremely close encounters with animals. The highlight of the day was bumping into 2 herds of elephants fighting in front of us and later right beside us. Everyone was a little nervous, especially our driver about making too much noise and having the aggressive giants charge us. Katie loved the baboons the most, possibly because there is a close resemblance. We came across a couple of large primate families who were completely unfazed by us. One little guy even jumped up onto the hood of our jeep and started tasting it. The park also had some very active hippos, with one guy even waddling around out of the water. The next morning we took off for the Serengeti the largest national park in Tanzania and the largest mammal population in the world. May is the perfect time to visit the park as there are around 5 million animals there, half of which are getting ready for the great migration up to Kenya. We had our first encounters with lions, one lioness even eating a zebra a few feet away from us. We camped overnight in the middle of the park and had giraffes in our campsite. We also heard a few lion calls during the night but weren’t going to venture too far out of the tent to check ! We woke up at 6 for the sunrise and took off for another 5 hours in the park before packing up and heading to Ngorongoro Crater. The crater was formed after a massive volcanic explosion millions of years ago when a mountain larger than Kilimanjaro imploded leaving behind the world’s largest crater. We camped in the extremely cold climate of the crater rim for \which none of us were prepared. We had zebras in our campsite there and an elephant came up to drink out of our water tank. The next morning we slowly descended to the crater floor to visit the amphitheatre of death. We saw some jackals hunting flamingo and 2 lions picking clean a zebra carcass but this was no where near enough for Katie’s bloodlust. Luckily for us a lioness was setting up to hunt a large pack of wildebeest and zebras and we had front-row seats. It was very good drama, somehow the animals sensed the lion and began stampeding off in a new direction. Everyone in the jeep was rooting for the zebras and wildebeest to get away except for Katie who was out for blood. It wasn’t meant to be though and the animals got away….. for now. Later on in the day we saw 3 black rhinos (1 of which was a baby) which was very impressive considering there is only 21 left in the world. We left the trip extremely satisfied except for Katie who was hoping to hunt the rhinos for their horns. Her thirst for blood is only matched by her hunger for ivory.

Ok, I’ll take it away from here. As Jamie mentioned, the safari was a once in a lifetime, unbelievable, almost surreal experience.

On Tuesday we were back to the real world and back to work with WODEF. After the success of Thursday’s presentation, we were in high demand – the GZA lined up another presentation for Thursday and 3 for next week. Tuesday we had an office day and we prepared for our presentation and tried to make some leeway with our website (we’re trying to get a website up and running for WODEF to give them a voice abroad and to provide information to potential volunteers). We spent the remainder of the day wandering through Moshi and had our Swahili lesson that evening.

Wednesday morning we were invited to Mwanga where the villagers were putting on a traditional dance (everyday is a surprise at WODEF!). The dance was really cool – 3 male drummers sitting in the middle of a circle while they were danced around. The chairman of the Mwanga group was translating their song to us which was about the dangers of HIV. One of WODEF’s initiatives is to educate it’s members on the dangers of HIV.

We then visited several projects in the area. I had been on the hunt for fabric to have a kanga made (Africa makeshift skirt) and one of the women sold just the item as a project. I found the perfect fabric and I think that it will hold a fond memory of our visit. We then met the African superwomen – the next project was operated by a woman and went something like this: gather giant rocks from the mountains (approx. 1km away), carry rocks via buckets on her head back to home, smash rocks fearlessly with lead pipe (bare hands) into gravel, and repeat. We were blown away by this little mighty Tanzanian woman. She took a special liking to me and actually told me that she loved me – I don’t think there is actually a word in the English language to describe how sweet these people are. We then went next door and met another woman operating the same project. Again, we were impressed. We were then informed that she had given birth the previous day and had actually worked up until she gave birth. They were amused at my utter SHOCK and awe and simply said – well, we gotta eat! We were then given a feast (fried fish, fried bananas, avocado – the usual). I actually think that if I eat one more fried banana I will turn into a fried banana. They taste like potatoes by the way. So we wrapped up our visit in Mwanga and headed back to Moshi.

Yesterday we were off to a very remote village called Kahe – most treacherous dala ride to-date. Because it was headed to such a small village we got a tiny dala. The combination of giant potholes and a low ceiling left poor Jamie with big headache by the time we arrived. The dala was the most packed we’ve seen it and 2 guys actually sat on the roof. Halfway there the man on the roof dropped his baskets so we had to stop and wait while he ran back to get them and we were off again. I thought the only thing that could complete the picture would be some poultry. Low and behold, there was a woman sitting in front of us with a chicken in her bag. So we finally arrived in Kahe and we were greeted by the group members and a girl named Jennifer that would be our translator (she is also the teacher at the school). First stop – village school. Typically when we encounter Tanzanian children, they are over the hills with excitement – can’t get enough of us. These children didn’t really even smile when they saw us.

They welcomed us with a song that they had prepared for us. The translator then told us that there were singing about their needs and deprivations (chalk, food, water, a building that didn’t have walls made of cardboard, etc.).

I was a bit shocked and taken aback. But this was the poorest community we had met by a long shot. The children were quite sullen and a handful of them had very bloated little bellies and probably had severe worms which was heartbreaking.

The people were literally in the middle of nowhere and their land doesn’t have much to offer. Ok so we then started with our presentation. Our translator (Jennifer) made it to grade 8 in Kenya so spoke minimal English – this made for a very frustrating presentation. Also, it was very difficult to give these people advice as what they really need is outside support – to get our of their poverty they would need a helping hand. We then went around the community to visit projects and as per usual, were treated to lunch compliments of the local Pastor. The people were absolutely fascinated by my digital camera and we had a couple photoshoots. The women there were especially fond of me (see picture of women swarming / grabbing me) – they were awesome.

After our long day of mixed emotions we headed back to Moshi. Somehow our 30km trip took 1h30 minutes and we sat in the back of the dala breathing in petrol fumes the entire way. Lastnight we went out for dinner with the hostel gang and had some much needed beers and foosball. Today we are taking the day off and go back in tomorrow and Saturday.