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Our house

View from our house

View along the track to work

August 1st

Yesterday was a long day! We left our hotel for the airport at 8 o’clock knowing it could take anywhere between ½ and 2 hours to get there in a taxi depending on who else was on the road. The traffic was very light by Dar es Salaam standards so we had quite some time to while away at Julius Nyerere International Airport, especially as the plane to Mwanza was running late!






We had a very smooth flight to Mwanza but were up too high to see much but clouds other than just after take-off and just before landing. The landscape around Mwanza is fascinating. There are many very tall, thin rocks on the escarpments – they look like rows of obelisks. We only had a brief glimpse of the lake as we landed.






We had a four hour wait at Mwanza airport. Abraham, Michelle and I played 500 – Abraham is just learning and is addicted to making a call whether he has the cards or not! Michelle won the first game and was well on the way to winning the second when we were called to be security screened (again!!) for the short flight across the lake.






The trip over Lake Victoria was in a 12 seater plane with one engine and one pilot – Steve would have rather had two of each! The woman I sat next to crossed herself and said rather a long prayer as the plane was taxiing. She and I had been chatting, while we waited on the plane, in KiSwahili and KiHaya. She approved of all the words the VETA students had taught me. She laughed at the thought of me on a pikipiki.






This last flight was only 45 minutes and we saw lots of little islands, lots of little fishing boats and lots of blue water. It looks so pretty! The Bukoba airport is close to the lake and at right angles to the shore. The plane went quite a way inland and banked around to land flying towards the lake. We were able to see lots of small settlements that will be a part of Bukoba Rural’s local government area.






We were met at the airport by Mr Joel (Acting District Education Officer), Mr Josiah (the BRDC officer who will be our assistant) and a BRDC driver with a large 4WD. First Michelle, Mark and Abraham were delivered to their new home down in town and then we were brought to ours.






Our little house is high on a hill (away from the pesky lake flies), just outside town and across from a government girls’ secondary college. It is on a dirt road but there is a bitumen road at the corner just 100 m away and this bitumen road winds down steeply to town – a distance of about 2.5 km. The house has rendered cement block walls inside and out, a cement floor and a corrugated iron roof. The walls and window frames are painted aqua and the doors, door frames and architraves are royal blue. There is a high cement block wall all around the yard with two double gates at the front that we padlock at night. There is a gap in the fence where the front verandah juts out, but that has a floor to ceiling metal grill. There are metal grills on the front door and back door that are also padlocked shut at night. We are very safe!






The house has three bedrooms – one large and two small, a sitting room, a small kitchen with a store room off it, a shower room and a toilet. There is also a lockable shed out the back, in case I get a suitable motorbike, and space for a car, if we end up buying one. The back yard has foundations for a second house, which our landlord, Mr Charles, hopes to build soon (but hopefully not while we are his tenants!). We have plenty of ceiling lights and power points, there is a new double hotplate in the kitchen and a new cistern over the (squat) toilet. We are really very lucky – this is superior accommodation for Tanzania!






Mr Charles has made many improvements to the house and furnishings to exceed VSO standards. We have a dining table and four chairs. There is a new bed and mattress in our bedroom – the varnish on the wood is still ‘tacky’, and all the windows have new insect screens. There are spare (old) beds in each of the other bedrooms for visitors. We have a lounge suite and a wooden cabinet/bookshelf. It isn’t perfect - the outside security light on the side of the house is still to be fixed as well as the kitchen plumbing, which currently drains onto the floor; and a ‘boy’ was supposed to come this morning to tidy up the yard but there is no sign this has been done – but it is far better than it might have been.






We stayed in the house last night, sleeping on the bare mattress. We were cold! What a luxury. And it was so quiet!! No amplified wake-up call from the mosque at 5:15! Today we have bought sheets, pillows and pillow cases and a light quilt at the market in town. We bought some crockery and cutlery (just two of everything so don’t rush over to visit just yet!) We also bought buckets and a basin for washing and washing up. The BRDC driver took us into town and brought us home. We think we will be quite comfortable here.






This afternoon we walked the track from here to my work and back – it is partly on dirt road and partly narrow footpath. It takes about 30 minutes. It follows a ridge so there are no steep climbs but is quite rough in places and winds through what seems to be backyards of houses though no-one seemed to mind us passing through! Along several stretches of the track there are magnificent views of the town and lake. (Also very many new birds that had to be identified!) Tomorrow I think the driver will come and get me in the morning but mostly I will try to walk when the weather is suitable.






The only draw back with our location is that there is no cooked food to buy anywhere close. The little duka next door sells uncooked rice, beans and cornflour but no vegetables or fruit. Later this afternoon we will walk back into town to get some food for tonight and tomorrow morning and we’ll probably get a taxi back up the hill. Tomorrow Steve will need to get his act together and buy a kettle and some saucepans so he can start his adventures in cooking from scratch. (Cooking lesson #1 – In Tanzania food comes raw!) There will be no convenience foods for us. We are going to try to do without a fridge. He also needs to set up the water filter so we can stop buying bottled water. Disposing of rubbish for us will be a problem though the locals just throw theirs wherever!






August 2nd






Yesterday evening didn’t turn out quite as we had planned! We set off for town across the paddock over the way. There were lots of people to greet as yesterday seemed to be washing day and people were sitting watching their washing dry where they had laid it out on the grass. As the road down to town is very busy we though we’d continue on the walking track that seemed to be heading in the right direction. It wasn’t long before we had no idea where we were or which direction it was to town. I used my best KiSwahili on some people going the other way. “Tumepotea”, we are lost! and does this track lead to town? Yes they said. What they didn’t say was that it was the long way! After another 15 minutes of walking we were still on the walking track and still had no idea where town was. A little 5 year old girl took pity and walked with us to find her older teenaged friend. The little one told the older one that we wanted to go into town. The teenager, named Jenny (short for Jenesta she told me), walked with us all the way to the market, about a 20 minute trek, chatting occasionally in a mixture of KiSwahili and english. When we reached the market we were too late, it was padlocked shut! We were still able to buy some of the things we needed at a roadside stall. Jenny made sure the thermos flask we bought was sound by holding it up to her ear. Jenny didn’t ask for anything, she seemed happy just to be our guide. We offered her a soda at the café but she said she had to get home. I gave her Ts1000 which was very little really for the help she’d been but she was very pleased.






After Jenny left us we walked down to the lake for our first close up look. There is a sand beach and small dunes stabilised with marram grass. It is such a pity we won’t be able to swim there – it looked so inviting and we were very hot and dusty – but the Bilharzia risk is too great. There were local youths having a swim, they were having a great time in the waves.






We had an early dinner at the Lake hotel. There is no menu – the waitress said we could have either chicken or fish with one of chips, rice or ugali (maize flour porridge). There was also a little bit of salad on the plate but I wasn’t feeling ready yet to tackle anything uncooked. My chicken and rice was very nice. It is one of the meals I hope Steve will cook for me.






It was still fairly early when we finished our meal so we decided to walk home up the hill. That knocked the last bit of stuffing out of Steve! We arrived home in the semi-gloom to no power. By 8 pm we’d realised we were the only ones on the road with no power so I stood on a chair with a torch to examine the fuse box – the circuit breaker had flipped off! Now we were right! We watched an episode of a science doco on Steve’s laptop before falling asleep exhausted at 9.00pm.






Our landlord Mr Charles had rung us on Steve’s mobile phone while we were down at the lake. He was here at the house with a workman wanting to get the sink drain fixed. He said he’d come back today and get the job done, so this morning we are sitting waiting! We are waiting for the BRDC driver to deliver our luggage that came last week on the bus and we are waiting for Mr Charles. We have no idea when these events may happen and no way of knowing. We also need to go to town to get the things we couldn’t get yesterday.






While we are waiting I’ve had the time to write this long winded saga on my laptop – now all I need is the opportunity to get to an internet café to post it.






More soon, Jenny.