Geo-Science and Politics

The purpose of the trek to Moshi was to attend the meeting launching the United Nation’s International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE) in Africa. Since I’m sure you haven’t heard of it, IYPE is essentially United Nation’s sponsored campaign to raise awareness of Earth Sciences around the world. A few of the Tanzanian scientists I’ve met were involved in planning the African kickoff event and they invited me to participate. The meeting was held at a nice lodge resort at the base of Mt. Meru, Tanzania’s second highest peak (see above picture). About 200 government officials, scientists, and students from all over Africa attended. The Opening (and mostly scientifically accurate) addresses were given by Tanzania’s current and former presidents along with statements from assorted UN officials. This was followed up by a polished performance of a song about saving the world by a group of Tanzanian school children. It was all very impressive….and made me feel like I had somehow passed into an alternative dimension because it in no way resembled the Tanzania that I know.

I’ll spare you the details of the meeting and just cut to the cocktail hour(s). Brandt came down from the more modest lodge up the road where we were staying for a fraction of the price. We sipped on wine and watched the entertainment- a band of bongo drum players followed by a pretty amazing acrobat act. Eventually, I started chatting to the guy next to me. He turned out to a parliamentary staffer who was accompanying a member of the parliament of Zambia, who arrived and joined us about 5 minutes later. Brandt and I had a fascinating geo-political conversation with them for over an hour which ended with them changing their accommodation to stay at the place we were staying and plans to have dinner the following night. When they left, we grazed our dinner from the various appetizer trays, mingled some more and had some interesting chats about (the lack of quality) education in Tanzania, (the lack of) women in science in Africa and everyone’s favorite- American politics. Many Tanzanians are suspicious about Bush’s 4 day visit here back in February (does he want to build a military base here? is there oil somewhere?). Suprisingly, they are perhaps even more skeptical of Barak Obama. You’d think as Africans they’d be excited about the possibility of a black, half-African man as president of the U.S. Nope. And why? We don’t really get many straight answers on that one but it seems to be just the simple fact that Barak’s father is Kenyan. Talk about missing the forest through the trees.

After the all-star parade of the first day of the meeting, the second day was…interesting, but not because any cutting edge science was being presented. Let’s just say, we were back to the good old Tanzania that I knew. Everybody wanted to make a speech, sound smart, and show off how much they know (which was very little) by rambling on in front of the microphone. The result was one million words spoken and zero chance of these words resulting in anything.

Following the gab-fest, dinner with Mr. Member of the Zambian Parliament and his very smart sidekick was great. Beyond the fact that Zambia is south of Tanzania, I didn’t know much about Zambia. It was fascinating to hear about the State of Africa from an actual African politician, especially considering many of the problems in Africa stem from or are exacerbated by the unabashed corruption that has plagued the governments on this continent. Just as we were getting into it, Debbie, the petite Zimbabwean owner of the lodge rolled up and joined the conversation. She almost immediately went after him for Zambia (and every other country) for doing nothing about Mugabe. You’ve (hopefully) heard something about the scam elections, the violence and the inflation. We’ve met a few Zimbabweans here and the tales we’ve heard are so unbelievable that we should write a post just about that at some point. For now, I’ll just say this- in the 1990s Zimbabwe had a population of 12 million people and produced enough food to feed 16 million. Today, Zimbabwe has a population of 8 million people and they only produce enough food to feed 4 million. The rest of Africa sits idly by as what was once one of the most prosperous nations in sub-Saharan Africa descends into violence and chaos. The Bush Administration, with all its rhetoric about defending and spreading democracy through the world also sees fit to do nothing. I, for one, find that suspicious.

It was funny watching this little women destroy this Member of Parliament on a variety of issues. It is sad that those who should run the country, those that could make a difference, are not the ones in office. Following this interesting discussion, the MP and his sidekick invited Brandt and I to Zambia and then headed off to bed. Something like this would never happen in the States, we don’t have the money to spend two hours over dinner talking politics to a Senator or Representative. Though, I don’t think a lot of Africans would have the same opportunity as we had.

Overall, the experience was a good one. I saw the president and ex-president of TZ talk, had dinner with a MP from Zambia, and had a good laugh at some of the posturing during the talks of the second day. Beats an average weekend at home.

Six month-aversary!

We've officially survived 6 months in Tanzania! We're still malaria free but we will be celebrating the occasion with a ceremonial deworming. Yummy! In a way, it seems like we've been here a lot longer than that but I guess that's because it takes a week to do what can be done in an hour at home. It warps your sense of time. Anyway, to celebrate this great milestone, I thought I'd spruce up the blog with an interactive reader poll! I hope you all are as excited as I am! The first one is a big one. Brandt has begun the process of negotiating a contract to continue his work here while simultaneously applying for a couple of jobs back in the U.S. We've been living month to month in the best of times and day to day in the worst and our future is completely up in the air. We flip and flop on a daily basis on whether we want to stay or go. So we figured we might as well hear what our beloved family and friends have to say.

I also thought it was about time to change out the photo for one of us here in Tanzania. So now we have a self-portrait of us taken outside the little burger shack (and when I say shack I literally mean shack) that serves as Bagamoyo's take on McDonald's (it's not fast but it is real food so it's a good tradeoff I think). We've fallen about way behind on the blog but we're trying to get caught up and hopefully we'll have some posts up soon on our new life in sleepy Bagamoyo.

e-hugs,
Robyn

Arusha National Park

Robyn had previously been on an amazing one day safari (“safari” in Kiswahili means trip or travels) while she was in Mwanza, so I was all excited for my first opportunity to see stuff in the wild that I had only seen in zoos or on the Discovery Channel. After talking to the one of the owners of the lodge we were staying at, we decided that we would do a one-day safari into Arusha National Park. While the park is quite small (we saw most of it in one day), it offered an opportunity for a walking safari. Now, most people think of an African safari as a rough and rugged adventure. Typically, it is rough because the roads are so bad and rugged because of the bathroom facilities (poop in a hole). However, the safari companies just drive you around all day in the back of a jeep or truck and feed you like a pig, so you are often in worse shape coming out of a game-watching safari vacation than going in. That isn’t to say that they are bad, because they are almost always awesome experiences. But, if you have a chance for a safe walking safari, take it, it is worth the extra 20 bucks and effort to set foot to ground over here. So, we signed up for a 4 hour walk with an armed park ranger.

We were excited as we had a sneak preview of the park earlier in week. Luckily, our lodge (Mt. Meru Lodge) was only a 15 minute walk from the entrance of the park. There is no fence around the park but there’s an archway marking the boundary. On one side there are houses, a school, crops, children playing- a completely human-dominated landscape. On the other side of the arch, there were thick bushes, trees and about 20 giraffe. It was awesome! Some were no further than 10 yards away from us. They would just stare at us while they chewed their cud—often for minutes at a time. They are amazing, and huge, creatures. We decided to plop down on the side of the dirt road and watch them watch us. We spotted a small hill along the border of the park and we climbed up for a better view. Town on the left, herd of giraffe on the right. One really big one walked into path we had taken so I had to walk directly at him when it was time to go and hope he moved out of our way. Now, giraffe are essentially little more than a cow with long necks, long legs, and pretty spots. They seem to be relatively dumb and harmless. However, when you are walking towards one that is over double your height and is four to five times your weight, it is a bit daunting.

We spent the next few days at a scientific meeting (more about that later) and on Saturday it was safari time! Robyn and I ate breakfast and then climbed into our pimped-out safari van and headed off. On our drive to the point where we would start our walking trek we saw giraffe, water buffalo (mean looking animals), wart hogs (super funny when they run), baboons, and blue monkeys. Nothing like Robyn’s Serengeti experience, but not bad for an early Saturday morning drive. We finally arrived at the ranger station, grabbed our pack lunch and headed up into the forests at the base of Mt Meru. The first thing we saw dart in front of us was a dik dik, which look like tiny, elvish deer about the size of a house cat. I didn't even know anything like this existed. 

Well, we walked and walked and walked. I am not going to bore you with a step-by-step description, but I’ll list the highlights:

-Highlight #1--About 45 minutes in our hike, we heard a very loud snap in the forest off our right, like a small tree breaking in half. In the park, there are mountain elephants, and startling an elephant only means bad things. Our guide immediately side stepped, bolted his rifle, and told us wait. We waited in silence for a few, long minutes; my heart was pounding, ears straining for any noise, both hoping that an elephant would come rumbling out of the forest and hoping that no elephant was anywhere near us. We listened for a bit longer, then the culprit popped into view- colubus monkey. So we plunged into the thick forest to watch the colubus. We trekked a bit and then heard and saw these huge, beautiful, black and white, long-haired monkeys running and jumping through the tree canopy right over our heads. We were the only people around, so it was just us, the forest and the monkeys. It was incredible. They are apparently pretty shy as monkies go so this is why walking safaris are a must.

-Highlight#2--After about 2 hours, we came upon this really big, really interestingly shaped fig tree with a hole through the trunk so big that you could drive a truck through it. As we arrived, a troop of about 60 baboon showed up and all climbed up into the tree. Seeing 60 baboons hooting, hollering, and eating is overall pretty entertaining to watch. Figs rained down from the tree but luckily, Robyn and I avoided being pooped on.

-Highlight #3—After the baboons, the ranger got it in his mind to find us an elephant. We then spent the next hour tracking elephants. We were walking on paths through the forest and bush likely made by elephants, making sure to avoid stepping in the elephant dung. It is really intense to be walking in elephant footprints, it makes everything seem a bit more real. The guide was leading us quietly through the trail with his gun at the ready, periodically stopping to listen. Sadly we didn’t see any elephants, but it was a great time nonetheless.
After the walking part of the safari, we clambered back into our truck and saw the rest of the park. It was pretty, but saw nothing super interesting…

…Until we were heading out of the park. As dusk was settling in over the park, our driver saw it first. A leopard…about 30 yards ahead of us on the road. Our driver was excited as he has been doing safaris in the park for several years and this was only the second leopard he has seen. For the next 10 minutes, we slowly followed it; we would get to close, it would faint like it was heading for the bush, we would stop, then it would continue on. Awesome! The park was closing and we had to call it day soon. The leopard went up into the bush on the side of the dirt road. As we slowly drove past the spot where he/she had disappeared. We assumed she was gone, sick of being followed by our van. But there she was! Sitting just inside the weeds yards from our van. Holy shit! All I saw was its face and glowing yellow eyes staring at us. Robyn and I yelled at the driver to stop. We stopped about 8 yards beyond where it was hiding us. At first we said back up, but then realized that it could easily jump into the truck, so decided to stay put. After a few tense moments, it finally took off, and so did we. Overall, the safari was a great experience, we got to see things few people ever get to see. It is because of times like this that you fall in love with TZ.

Road Trip

Robyn and I decided that I would meet her up in Moshi following her week of work up in Mwanza. She was going to fly to Moshi, I was going to take the bus. I am detailing this trip to give you a sense of how travel via public transport works over here. To any Tanzanian, my journey would be totally unremarkable. However to me, it was an immense pain in the ass (literally).

The buses for Moshi/Arusha typically leave from Dar between 7 and 10 AM each day. So I started my trip with a two hour dalla ride from Bagamoyo to Dar. I paid 1500 tsh ($1.30) for the 60 km trip. I definitely got what I paid for--I was cramped into the back seat, packed into a space over the left rear tire well, with my large backpack on my lap (and partly on the lap of guy next to me). It was an typical trip, down in just under two hours. I got to Dar, decompressed out of the dalla, and started my mile hike through mud and water holes that engulfed major portions of the side “road” that would bring me to the front steps of Chris and Cathyrn’s place. All of this was done in the dark.

I rolled into the haven of peace that is C and C’s house, unwound, and went to bed early since my day would start at 6 AM (which is very early for me). I awoke the next morning excited to get up to Moshi and see a new part of Tanzania. I walked out the door at 7 AM the next morning, and retraced my steps through the water obstacle course I conquered the previous night. As always, I got plenty of stares from locals, amazed as that a mzungu was actually walking and not taking a taxi or driving an SUV. I arrived at the dala dala hub of Mwenge and jumped on a dala for a short 20 minute trip to Ubungo to get a bus to Moshi.

So the dala stops about 100 meters outside of the bus station. Before my feet hit the ground, I was absolutely swarmed by people determined to help me find a bus. I knew this was coming, but it is still a bit overwhelming. Not really dangerous, just crazy. I just ignored them and plowed my way towards the station. As I got close, a woman in a uniform grabbed my left wrist. I told her twice to let go of me, but she obviously was trained in the ways of the Force to thwart attempts of getting her to release her vise-like grip. So she literally dragged my into a ticket office all the while fended off other people who wanted my business. So she succeeded in capturing her prey. However, she gave me a reasonable price (for a mzungu) of 17,000 tsh to get to Moshi, wrote me out a receipt, then sent me off with a runner who walked me to the bus. The bus supposedly left around 9:00, it was 8:30, so everything seemed to be on track.

Now, the bus station at Ubungo is complete chaos; buses, taxi, vendors, and travelers everywhere. The buses sit idling for hours, spewing noxious exhaust, as the operators try coerce anybody who drifts by to fill the seats so their bus can take off towards their various destinations. Here, you actually see bus line operators chasing other operators away from potential customers. It is a big, smelly, noisy chicken fight.

After sitting on the bus for 90 minutes waiting for it to fill up (apparently the departure time was just a guess), our bus finally took off. In 7 to 8 hours, I would be in Moshi. This is assuming no blowouts, breakdowns and/or accidents which are almost as frequent as mosquito bites.

As you have read previously, Tanzanians don’t exactly follow any rules while driving. Well, except for the “bigger car/truck/bus always wins” rule. So buses are one of the big boys on the TZ highways, and the drivers drive like it. Driving as fast as they can, potholes and speed limits be damned. They pass slower moving cars at will, often just squeaking back into the proper lane before careening headfirst into oncoming traffic. I find it best to never, never stare out the front window of the bus, it is simply too terrifying for your own good.

So I settled into my window seat and plugged into my I-pod. Over the next eight hours, the Tanzanian man seated next to me and I proceeded to get to know each in a very physically intimate way (at least to me). This middle-aged man decided to press his left shoulder, mid-section, hip, leg, and foot into my right shoulder, mid-section, hip, leg, and foot. If I shifted to put some air between us and regain my dignity, he would immediately shift to occupy said space. I don’t even hug Robyn this hard. I got annoyed and pressed back, but he never seemed to get the hint (btw, Tanzanians have a completely different idea of personal space than Americans). After the trip ended, I wondered if it was Tanzanian custom for him to ask my hand in marriage.

Anyway, over the first four hours we only stopped quickly for patrons to board the bus. At these stops, hoards of venders swarm the bus selling water, cashews, oranges, grilled ears of corn (presented on the end of coat hangers stuck into the end of a stick), gum, candy, bread, wooden spoons, newspapers, etc, etc, etc. It is crazy. This is how you mainly feed yourself over the course of the trip. To feel like a true local, just toss your trash out the window when you are done—you get extra points if you hit a chicken or a goat. Also, you must realize that there are very few opportunities to use the choo. We only stopped twice for bathroom breaks: once at a road-side food-stand area and another time when the bus just pulled over and people got off and ran off into the bushes (if you were a woman) or just pissed on the side of the road (if you were a man). Ahhhh..the joys of public transportation.

That about sums up a typical bus trip in Tanzania. I got to Moshi in one piece and feeling only slightly violated. We need to get a car!!!

Carnivory

When I left for Tanzania, it had been over eleven years since I willing ate meat. The last few months in Santa Barbara I started practicing eating meat so that if I got into a culturally sensitive situation here I’d be able to do what needs to be done. By the time I left SB, I was choking down single bites of steak and sausage. The first couple of months here when we didn’t have a fridge it was pretty much all beans and rice at home. Then we went out to dinner at a Tanzanian restaurant with friends. The menu was beef, chicken, goat, ugali (a Tanzanian staple- flavorless corn mush), rice, and fried potatoes. I was officially off the wagon. I ordered the beef. I think Brandt may have written about this already, but meat isn’t really prepared the same here. At home, a cow would be butchered into different cuts of meat. In Tanzanian, they just take a big axe and dice up the carcass. It’s served well done in roughly cubed pieces that may contain bone, tendon, rubbery lard, whatever. In fact, the unofficial motto appears to me the tougher to chew, the better. So while I was very proud of myself for tackling the plate of meat on my own (see photo!), I ended up picking through to find the pieces that happened to be only meat and causally shoveled the rest onto Brandt’s plate.

My downward spiral hastened when we moved in with Chris and Cathryn. I think the average South African eats meat 7 times a day, which is impressive considering there are traditionally only 3 meals in a day. Let’s just say there was no need to ask “Where’s the beef?” when it came to dinner. But I did good. I even made a pretty good meatloaf for dinner when it was my turn to cook. Then I went to George’s and his housemate asked me to make sure the stew of chicken livers and other miscellaneous organs didn’t dry out or burn while they played racquetball. Ummm…ok. So I dutifully stirred and added water to the bloody, meaty stew. Fortunately, George realized that one would be over the line for me and didn’t even attempt to serve it to me. Not a problem since there were 3 other forms of meat on the menu. When I left Mwanza, I was running to get back on the old vegetarian wagon. My excursion to the dark side is officially over. Sorry Lynne. I tried. J