Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Kigoma

We took a weekend trip to Kigoma, which is on the shore of Lake Tanyangika.



A gigantic, crystal clear lake which is between Tanzania and the Congo. The drive was 4 hours along a narrow red dirt road. I'd have to classify the drive as adventure travel. Our driver, whom Ann calls Mudi Andretti (Mudi short for Mohammud), hit speeds of up to 75 mph on this rutted track. It is barely wide enough to fit two cars, but because of all the ruts, huge holes, and streambeds cutting through it, there is rarely two lanes that are flat. Besides, on both sides of the road the are people walking and biking, carrying things. As we go screaming by, they are all vying for room in the ditches and surrounding brush. It's not nice.



Women carry 40kg loads on their head, children hauling logs, and the stuff they put on their bicycles is impossible. These heavy steel fixed wheels with iron racks on the back are their trucks. You see piles of firewood about 4 feet wide, 3 feet high, and maybe 3 feet deep. You see 8 foot wide bundles of sugarcane, which must weigh about 30-50kg. Those kinds of wide loads had a hard time getting out of the way as we drove by. I pointed out a kid, about ten, pushing a bike that had 3 50kg sacks of rice on the back. Thats 330lbs. I thought that was impossible until our friend Dr. Leul said he saw a full grown pig on the back of one of these bikes. Plus, sometimes you'll see a whole family on one. Pretty common to see a bike with two single mattresses strapped to it or fifteen or so chickens in a wicker cage.

Anyway, we made it after 4 hours with only one fatality, a chicken. The president of Tanzania, Mr. KiKwete, was there. Ann had met him and he had called her by name to say goodbye when he left Kibondo. So we were joking that maybe he could score us a decent pizza. Pizza is highly coveted by the people working in Kibondo, because the diet is pretty monotonous. The food seems OK to me, but it's kind of a universal gripe around here. I'm trying to get enough bricks to build a pizza oven, and we are starting to learn to cook over the little Hibatchi's you have to use. No electric ranges or gas stoves here.

But Kigoma was beautiful, and I put some pictures up before the server froze.

Ann was happy about the hot water:



It is the starting point if you want to take a boat ride to the GOmbe stream to see the chimps. We didn't make that ride, but maybe next time.




Our trip back was another adventure, trying to beat the rain on Sunday, because the roads become rivers when it comes down, and getting back would have been a definite maybe if we got caught behind the water. But we made it, again with only one fatality, one dove of a pair that dipped below the grill.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

In

This morning we were walking to the office and I said 'beats rush hour eh?' there were kids running alongside us holding our hands, goats meandering in the road, and ladies with bundles of sticks on their heads walking by. We just had our breakfast at UNHCR where we eat every meal. It overlooks the most amazing view I have ever seen. The light here is amazing-there is something to be said for twelve hours of sunshine per day-my nails and hair grow like crazy here!
Last weekend was the first flight out for this group of refugees.



It was a very emotional day to see the people we have been preparing for life in the US actually getting on the plane and leaving. They are so hopeful and innocent-I know it is a better life but we still cant help but worry for them.



We will send some pictures-there were dancers and drummers





and the local villagers who look worse off than the refugees. The kids are literally wearing rags.

It is the same airstrip where we picked Reed up. Literally in the middle of nowhere the plane just appears in the distance and pops down on the airstrip which has to be cleared of cattle before landing.
It is great to have Reed here to share this with. We will try to take video of our jogging along with a pack of squealing little kids who chase us and want to hold hands and touch knuckles. They scream 'Mizungu' and come racing out of the bushes. The other day I was nearly gored by a herd of longhorn cattle while I was jogging! It was a close one but they veered at the last second-I felt like a bullrunner in Spain. We are still waiting for construction to be finished on our houses and offices so meanwhile we live in the guesthouse with other staff. It's like college-we all work together, eat together. This weekend we went to two UNHCR parties so that was fun to meet other people doig the same work form all over the world. Most staff is African with some Europeans.
Better run.

My work load is terrifically light. I supervise the staff teachihg the orientation classes five days per week in the mornings out in the camp since I am not teachinhg I have lots of down time. But I am going to get some extra classes going for women and youth.
Hope everyone is well-miss you and love you all.

Ann

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

In Kibondo

Short post, internet is spotty at best. Tried emailing pics with cell but connection bites the deep red dust before anything happens.

Reunited with Ann at the airstrip after a short hop from mwanza on a UNHCR two prop.

Been working on getting the internet here to work better in an exercise of enlightened self interest.

Hard to read anything on a turkish toilet.

It's getting close to lunch, when they shut down the power, so I better post this and move on.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

2 gone




OK. Right now I'm at the Tilapia Hotel on Lake Victoria. Went to a reserve last night, Saanane Islad, means 8 o'clock islanf to check out some wildlife. There were kingfishers, egrets, ibises, cormorants, kites and eagles, as well as some little yellow bird tat weaves its nest together. Alo some free roaming Gazelles. Then there was a spootted Hyena and a Lion in cages.

Plus, some kind of party. Went over in a boat with 10 people, came back in the same boat with sixty people. A little sketchy, ut the chop was only a couple of feet so no big deal.

Friday, May 11, 2007

2nd 2 last am in Nairobi


Well, getting ready to go. Tomorrow, I'll be on a two hopper to Kibondo. Spending Saturday night in Mwanza on Lake Victoria.

Nairobi has been good. I had a lot of fun hanging out with Pindie and David, and we went out to dinner last night with Shana and Louisa. They are doing the same thing Ann did last year, having been chosen to check out the Cultural Orientation program. As we chowed down on Lamb, Frog Legs and Gnocchi at the Mediteraneo, I couldn't help but see something like Ann's present in their future. As well as something like Ann's past in their present.

I really have only left the house to go pick up stuff at Sarit Center. Been working, setting up possibilities for working remotely (using my cell as a modem) knocking back Tuskers and listening to the bullfrogs at night. To me, when the frogs get the call and answer thing going, it sounds like an asthmatic giant breathing.

Monday is going to be a national day of morning here in Kenya, for the people of the Kenya Airlies flight that went down en route Cameroon. I think it was David last night who pointed out how these deaths united the country, while as many Kenyans die in tribal war, there is no similar mourning. Hope lies is resolving this contradiction.

The enemy is the we that is they.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Nairobi


This is the second time I've been in Nairobi in the last four years. Pindie and David have opened their beautiful home to me, and it makes me feel totally different about Nairobi. The first day here, there was a little gathering here celebrating David's birthday, and I got to meet a few expats and got a real warm feeling. I thought six months in Africa was a long time, but it seems like a blink after hearing these folks talk about it.



Went down to the Sarit Centre, a shopping mall, to get a cell phone. Outside the mall, I walked by a blind guy reading a braille bible out loud right next to a guy who looked like he might be a leper. The power blinked out three times while I was in the mall, once while I was talking to a salesperson about a phone, and I saw no visible reaction. It happens a lot.

Monday, May 7, 2007

Arrived Nairobi

30 hours later, I'm in Nairobi. Trying to get cell squared away etc. Was a 7 hour layover at heathrow. Slept most of the flight from Heathrow to Nairobi, then took a cab to Riverside Park. half asleep now.

Friday, May 4, 2007

The Eve of the Eve of departure






In two days I'm going to Africa. I've been there twice. Once in Tunisia. And we went there because of a dream I had in Anacapris. It was the day after Ann lost a contact swimming in the grottoe(sp?) and we towed an Italian couple with engine trouble to dock. Still waiting for the promised free dinner. Anyway, one morning I was dreaming about being some jedi guy and I was sitting at a long table with a podium in the middle, and I had a feeling that behind the curtain lurked a spoiler. Because the event in my dream was that peace had been brought to the galaxy and I was the celebrant. I ended up fighting with some invisible guy whose only weakness was that his light saber only had a six foot extension cord to power it. I cut the cord and once again saved the galaxy, only to wake up in the world.

Rubbing my eyes, I noticed Ann was not in bed. It was morning, she was on the patio reading a travel book and catching some morning rays. I started telling her about my dream and said "I think I was Luke Skywalker or something." She said "Oh my god, we have to go to Tunisia. You are freaking me out. Read this." And she handed me the book she was reading with her finger on a section about MatMata, where part of Star Wars was filmed. The part about Luke before he realized his destiny.

So we went to Tunisia. There was a lunar eclipse the day after we got there.

Three years later, in 2003, we went on a safari in Eastern Africa. Before the safari, we landed in South Africa, in Johannesburg. As usual, we did exactly what all the guide books said you shouldn't, and took a ride from the airport with the first people who offered us egress from the airport. Spent the night by their pool on our backs watching a lunar eclipse.

Last year, April 20 something, Ann got honored with a Cultural Orientation appointment in Kakuma, Kenya. There was a lunar eclipse while she was there.