Finally I have managed to upload the code for this website! But not a great deal of the text and pictures I have assembled. Power cuts and limited time in internet cafes prove to be a problem…
But now the possibility of more regular updates exists. Expect to see some new content in the near future!
Dunx
Another visit to town. Mary had to go to Tanesco sice she got an electricity bill in December for TSh500,000. She couldn’t possibly have used $500 worth of electricity in one month! Even if she was running a factory, but she only really used a fridge, a TV and her radio…
Yuki and I walked around Arusha. It can be pretty bleak, people with no fingers reaching out to you. Many many beggars. And then touts trying to sell safaris, batiques, bangles etc etc. We ended up in the quiet shade of the Jambo Cafe, eating and drinking. That is what I remember spending most of my “traveller” days doing – eating and drinking. What is it that attracts people to such travel. There is such disdain for tourism, but at least tourists do something. As a traveller when I wasn’t hunting out booze, drugs, food or accomodation I don’t know what I did most of the time. Guess it is called soaking up the atmosphere…
Leah took us to a scrap metal place where people break apart old cars and machinery in order to build new things. Leah is buying a lot of iron poles from them in order to build a fence around the shamba she is buying with her new boyfriend. In a small shack two men were using a small hack saw to slowly saw through a thick iron girder, reclaimed from some old colonial warehouse. Another guy was splattered with red oxide paint with which he was painting the finished fence posts. Leah is buying over 400 of these posts. I can’t imagine how much sweat is generated by all that sawing.
I made the mistake of getting my camera out to get a snap of all this. In the middle of a secluded industrial area, full of men who toil for little reward I pull out the latest state of the art digital imaging equipment. Duh! Suddenly a group had gathered, some to get their picture taken, others to demand a fee for my taking any pictures at all. I managed to get one shot of Mt Meru and a scrap heap before putting the camera away, and cowering next to Leah’s car feeling sheepish. I think Yuki found the whole thing a little distressing.
We talked a lot about the internet cafe . The place she has found costs TSh25,000 per month – about £15! It is cheap because it is owned by the government. We went and had a look. It is just next to the football stadium. It is currently a motorcycle spare parts shop. They are moving to a different location. I took a photo so we could do before and after shots…
That you can now see the photo of Mt Meru to the left shows that the site works! Hooray! That took a lot of messing around on a couple of computers at the Bethel Internet Cafe here in Arusha. Problems such as a faulty CD drive, and not being able to find all the info I need quickly about my web space meant I had to buy another 15mins. But here we are. I have been trying to get this sorted for nearly four weeks now. A big smile is on my face, and Yuki just walked in with Beatrice. Of course, we still don’t have the internet cafe up and runnning, so I will have to plan carefully in order to get pictres and words to you. But it is now possible. Expect more in future!
Today brought much. We woke up at about 9am. Outside bright sunshine, pink roses and the rest of Mary’s garden. After breakfast (mango jam) we looked around her shamba. Mary visits the forest up Mt. Meru and collects plants she finds interesting. She then plants them in her garden. She grows many things in the garden.
She also keeps two cows, for milk, and three geese which haven’t yet produced any eggs.
We disembark from the back of the plane, and my mind fills with nearly 12 year old memories of arriving for the first time, greeted by Uru Secondary School’s finest singers, dancers, drummers, feeling ill and overwhelmed at the time.
KIA hasn’t changed a bit. Only our time of arrival is different. This time it is dark, but the Milky Way spread across the sky hints at the continentness, the vast weight of land I felt the first time.
Kilimanjaro International Airport. Dark, woody. A familiar smell I can’t quite describe. Waiting in the queue to get our passports stamped. Anxiety fades. We can do this.
Waiting for our baggage I spot that Leah has poked her head through the door by customs. I walk over. “Hujambo, Leah”, I say. We get our hags and are unhindered by customs. We are in Tanzania! I am here again! It is all new for Yuki though.
No sign of our cargo. Leah says we can check in Arusha tomorrow.
Leah drives us in Mary’s pickup back to Arusha, and we fill each other in on what has been going on with mutual friends. Freddie Mambo has gone of the rails. Stuart Hardcastle stole his dad’s bird. I am sure I haven’t seen Leah in ten years.
Leah leaves us with Mary, who drives us to her house where we can stay. Mary has three sons. Her husband, a Norwegian, died. Her sons are 18,21 and 26. Her house is big and nice and airy. She feeds us soup and we chat. She has flu and probably shouldn’t have driven to th airport, but Leah insisted.
Ants in the (ensuite0 bathroom.
I think we may share with Mary, but I am not sure. The place is quite remote. But I just discovered we can recieve text messages with our mobile phone…
What will tomorrow bring?
Not much to say about the flight really. Arriving over East Africa I started to get excited and confused by the reality of the situation. The sun set, but I could only clouds below. Later on, as we approached Arusha I could see little dots of light in the distance. Little constellations of homes and shops. Not joined up by yellowing strings of street-lights like in Europe or North America. Crisp looking white lights, reflecting the star filled sky.
As we got closer we began counting down to arrival with the help of the SkyMap on the screen above our heads. The plane, with its bland food, bland entertainment and plastic interior, a familiar transportation to the unfamiliar and new.
The temperature guage showed 20°C, then 24° then 29, then 32 as we descended towards Kilimanjaro International Airport. Touch down, and it is all real, surreal, and I really feel like any preparation is wasted, or pointless, or useless. Do we need all the things that we have brought? Do I know enough to do what I want to do? Would it have been better to stay in London and find a more familiar way of fulfilling myself, our selves? What does it mean to be ready? Is it something one can feel?
