Two months in

Last week we ticked over the two month mark which is one third of my assignment, though it feels in some ways like half way as I’ve put in 9 weeks at work and will have only a further 10 weeks working next year.  I have one more week of this term before the Christmas break but I can feel things winding down. 

Making liquid soap involves a lot of stirring!

We do continue to be busy. Friday just over a week ago we had an unplanned and un-forewarned visit from a Lutheran Church team to teach the making of liquid soap as a possible entrepreneurial activity.  That took up most of the morning and unfortunately coincided with a (planned) visit by some Canadian occupational therapy trainees who had arranged to do a tour of the centre.  Oh well, we have to be flexible and chaos is the default.

Lunch at Four Points Sheraton

Monday last week was International Volunteer Day.  We had lunch out with the local Australian Volunteer staff and representatives from partner organisations.  The AV staff came for a visit to Olkokola as well to see the library and gym that AV grants have funded.  It was their first time to see the library even though it has been in operation for a few years as covid regulations have restricted their work related movements.  I’m pretty sure they liked what they saw!

Visiting the Gym

My tasks for this AVP assignment are well in train.  The agriculture leader has taken on the Business Management Training enthusiastically using the resources I’ve prepared and the trainees are enjoying the lessons, some with great success and some not so much!  They will all have 6 months next year to continue working on the program so I’m hoping they’ll all be well prepared for the challenges of running a successful business when they graduate.  The focus is mostly on money and record keeping 

Learning basic accounting

I have just added a lesson on ‘Quality Control’ to the syllabus.  A Tanzanian friend, half joking, told me there is no Swahili for that!  I could use this ruler to show that it can be a problem in many businesses but some would not be able to see the issue.  The tailoring group have been making more menstrual pads to a changed design which I hope we’ll be able to successfully market.  It meant a trip to town to find fabric and the tailoring assistant and I eventually found something that will do the job at the second-hand market behind the main shopping strip.  Between her directions (she doesn’t drive) and the horrendous midday traffic in the CBD I was forced into several illegal acts in completing the journey!  I still say it’s the traffic that will kill me - it won’t be the electricity as we rarely have any these days.

It still gives me a straight line I suppose

Friday on the drive to Olkokola Steve noted how quiet the roads were and the absence of school children anywhere.  We arrived at the centre where there was a definite festive atmosphere - I’d forgotten the public holiday for Independence Day so no work for me!  It turned out a bonus as we did the shopping on Friday and spent yesterday in Lake Manyara NP.  It was a lovely safari though with the lake so high at the moment some of our favourite spots are under water.  The Hippo Pool is gone.  The highlight yesterday was this beautiful Maasai Giraffe.  The patches are more incised than usual and really do look like snow flakes.

Beautiful!

Speaking of snow, we again saw Mt Meru with a decent dusting last week.  It doesn’t mean it was cold here (it hasn’t been!) and we also have not had the rain we desperately need.  Many families are in dire circumstances and the Olkokola Mission where I work is giving food aid to about 150 local families.  Even if the rain comes this week the maize and bean crops won’t be harvested for three months so the situation is ongoing.  At least the tourist industry is back in full swing so some families are experiencing better times.   

We've seen this a few times now

Today I am relaxing.  I need at least one day a week to sleep in and recharge my battery.  Like all rechargeable it is failing with age and doesn’t hold its charge as long!  I think this will be my last full-time work placement.  Much as I enjoy the work, the physical demands are a challenge.  

One week until the holidays start then full on planning for the Kenya trip and Liz and Sophie’s visit.

Happy Christmas to you all and very best wishes for the coming year.

Love from Jenny 

Getting sorted at work

 

I’ve had a month at work now and it’s going well. There are things happening on the curriculum front and more plans in the pipeline.  This new group of trainees are getting to know me and my ‘Mzungu’ ways. They were thrilled to know that I also am Maasai.  All sorts of other possibilities are opening up too so life is exciting.

My primary task in this assignment - apart from the never ending task of being less task oriented and more people oriented!! - is reviewing the curricula documented when I was here in 2020/21 and updating it.  Trainers are already coming to me with changes they want so that is going well.  They are not running a mile when they see me heading in their direction with notebook in hand!  Plans for Business Management training are also underway.

The carpentry boys have been busy making furniture for The Plaster House, a rehabilitation centre for Maasai children who have come to Arusha for surgery and need time in a safe place to heal with less risk of infection.  Here they are with 40 wooden stools completed a week ago.

The tailoring students have been assembling the new sewing machines they will be taking home when they have finished the course.  That was cause for celebration with smiles all round.  They have also started making the washable reusable menstrual pads that are so important to help women of limited financial means manage menstrual hygiene.  It should have happened months ago - note: When a man is in charge things important to women can get lost!  We have provided the materials needed to make the pads and each female trainee will get 5 to keep for herself.  Some that the trainees make will be donated to organisations that support women and there is also the possibility of collaborating with an organisation where an Australian Volunteers Program volunteer has been working over the last few months.  Some also will be sold from the centre's 'shop' to fund buying more materials.  We do have to have a sustainable business focus.   

In 2021 the Australian Volunteers Program gave a grant to the Olkokola Centre to enable the creation of an exercise room with gymnasium and physiotherapy equipment.  I have made this video for AVP and DFAT public diplomacy.  I was very happy with it and Sereya’s smile always makes me smile too!

Currently we have a visitor from The Netherlands staying at Olkokola Catholic Mission.  Anna is a pilot with KLM holidaying here to rest and recuperate after a difficult 2 years but also to visit a primary school in Tengeru she set up and funds.  On Friday I showed her a set of The Kagera Reading Program we have in the centre library.  It is a set of 60 laminated reading cards each with a story in English and comprehension questions.  It is like the SRA reading cards we used at school in the 60s (and something similar is still being used at Baimbridge now!)

Anyway Anna’s teachers were very excited and now I have to make three sets for her.  I’m sure the creator David Jackson will be very pleased when I tell him! 

On visa news, my visa application has been approved but I’m still waiting for my ‘Alien Card’ and passport stamp.  Steve will need to pop across the border in January to get a further 3 months tourist visa.

We have 4 weeks until the Christmas break.  Expect an update in early December by which time I hope we’ll have our holiday and visa renewal plans for Steve sorted.

Love from Jenny 

And we're here

 This blogpost will be about life here; it’s strange coming back to somewhere that has been ‘home’.  So much is different but so much is very much the same!

Me NOT buying curios

We are back living in Oliver’s Compound in Kiranyi village, Arusha.  A week before we left last year we had moved from Bamboo Cottage to The Loft and it is to The Loft we have returned.  It’s a big open space with an adequate kitchen and a bathroom down a treacherous staircase.  It has the wonder of hot water in the kitchen!  There is no functioning oven so Steve made us frying pan pizzas.

Our car has returned to us in excellent condition and now after two weeks is as filthy as it’s ever been with the dust.  The short rains - usually October and November - which allow two harvests a year have so far failed to arrive and people are starting to worry about food security.  If rain doesn’t come soon it will be a disaster far bigger than a dusty car (ndiyo, chafu sana as I said to the small girl who scrawled gari in the dust on the back window) and my choked sinuses.

I am not yet able to work - my visa has not been finalised - but I can visit the Olkokola Centre and talk to staff and students.  My friend Sr Jacinta at the Archdiocese is on the job and is insisting to the immigration office that I am here to do God’s work so why should they stop me! I hope it will be sorted soon so I can do more than ‘visit’.  I did go with the centre staff and trainees to Sanaa, a social enterprise organisation that makes beautiful things and where people living with disabilities have the dignity of work and earning a living.  More about Sanaa here and pics of our visit here.  

Things both beautiful and interesting!

What is abundantly clear is that I need to work on my Swahili.  All conversations in the workplace are in swahili and although there is plenty of goodwill and patience there is also an element of frustration.  I also need to work on my social media skills and make a small video about the exercise room that Australian Volunteers funded and is now up and running with a very competent Maasai physiotherapist Lengay who I finally met on Friday.  He had organised this volley ball game.

In the compound there has been a little change.  The staff is much the same and Gladness, the housekeeper, was pleased to have us back.  I don’t know that Rooney and Socksi, the dogs, remembered us but they’re used to us now.  Where there had been a huge clump of bamboo in front of our previous cottage there is now a frog pond and that adds to the variety of sounds.  We have the Evangelical Shouty Man at 5am followed by the more harmonious call to prayer from the mosque at 5.30.  The birds hit their peak at 6 am with Rüppell’s Robin-Chat most prominent.  During the day there is plenty of traffic in the newly named Bendera Street with evangelical shouting, particularly towards evening and on weekends, and regular calls to prayer. In the evening the frogs start at about 6.30 and they are LOUD.  Over night it is mostly quiet though occasionally various dogs in the area get excited and raise a ruckus.  We have squirrels which can be noisy on the roof.  Yesterday there was a wedding somewhere close with interesting musical choices.  We don’t come here for the peace and quiet.

We do come for the chance of wildlife watching.  Last Sunday we had a day in Arusha NP.  When I entered our names in the park register I was directly below the only other entrants for the morning - another Australian couple in a private vehicle!  This was quite weird.  So I spent as much time trying to spot them as I did giraffes and birds until we located them near Small Mondella and had a good chat.  They were a couple from Queensland, a bird watcher and her partner, holidaying in Tz for a month.

As I mentioned earlier, our street now has a name.  All the streets and lanes nearby have been named according to Apple Maps and the dry creek bed that runs the one and a half kilometres up to our place is Sakina Avenue! There are street signs going up everywhere and houses and shops are being numbered.  We are number 8.  I wouldn’t get too excited though - I don’t think home delivered post is going to happen and I doubt that if I told a boda rider I wanted to go to Bendera Street Kiranyi that he’d have any idea.  Still, I can put it on the official forms Australian Volunteers sends me as my residential address instead of the Farm Plot number I used to use.

Sakina Avenue

Those of you who see my fb posts know that Australian honey and Vegemite are freely available.  What is not available is muesli.  We used to buy a South African brand for about $6 for a 500g bag.  It was very nice.  It was in the big two supermarkets and a few of the smaller ones including two we go to regularly.  Now it is just not available.  The manager at Image Supermarket says they’ve tried but it’s not around.  Someone last night suggested that the increase in Safari traffic means the lodges have bought it all and the wholesalers haven’t caught up. Anyway, there is only Dorset brand (owned by King Charles’ Duchy of Cornwall) for 26,000/= (~$18) for a 400g box which is outrageous!  We did have a win with a 20,000/= toaster which works very well after jibbing at paying 160,000/= which is what Shoppers Supermarket wanted for a similar model.  I can make do with toast and jam for breakfast.

Pikelets for a treat on Saturday

I hope my next blog can be about work - that’s what I want to be here for - and you’ll all know soon how it goes; also keep watching for a blog from Steve with his perspective!

Love from Jenny 

ps Flying over UAE in the predawn I managed this shot through the plane window.

Return to Tz

After 17 months at home we will return to Arusha on October 8.  I will be back at Olkokola Catholic Mission as a volunteer with the Australian Volunteer Program funded by the Australian government.  Steve will be a man of leisure.

I will endeavour to post regularly to keep you up to date with our adventures.

Jenny xx

This is me with Sinyati in 2019. We'll be working together again. 

And that's Oldonya Lengai in the background.

Quarantine detention

Returning to Australia, quarantine detention is unavoidable and was something we were dreading.  But is was something we could never complain about as we had chosen to go overseas against Government advice and were choosing to return knowing there would be complications - likely cancellations, passport issues and the one you didn't think of. (It's always the one you didn't think of!)

Steve had joined a Facebook group* called Melbourne Hotel Quarantine and knew the difficulties (horror stories!) of other returnees.

From the time we booked our tickets in April I had been expecting to be 'bumped' or cancelled. It was a narrative that fitted well with my ambivalence about leaving early. I was telling anyone lamenting our leaving that it probably wouldn't happen.  I was saying 50-50 even as we climbed into Abraham's taxi.  And I'd paid Abraham extra to hang around in the airport carpark until we were safely through immigration.

We knew of people with onwards flights from Doha who were rerouted or postponed and had ended up with layovers there of 36hours+ so we'd packed an extra change of undies in the backpack and were resolutely prepared for anything!  And every time nothing went wrong we breathed a sigh of relief and approached the next milestone.

The flight from Kilimanjaro to Doha is an overnight flight but was fairly full so we were sleeping in our seats.  We had to entertain ourselves at Doho airport from 5:00 am until boarding at 7:30 pm.  It's when you ignore currency exchange rates and just buy the croissant and juice (breakfast) and Burger King meal (lunch) without thinking about what that number of Qatari Riyals means!  

The flight from Doha to Melbourne seemed ridiculous - fewer than 40 passengers in a plane designed for 400.  So although we were all in one section of the plane we could all stretch out over a bank of seats to sleep.  I don't think I've ever been so excited to see the Western District and suburban Melbourne from the air.

Arriving at Tullamarine was a totally different experience to the usual.  We spend a long time waiting to disembark but there were no crowded aisles and waiting while others fetched down their carry-on luggage from crowded overhead lockers.  We were very orderly and kept the required 2 metres distance from every other human.  We were sanitised frequently and had several changes of disposable mask.  In the bureaucratic process of getting through immigration and customs we were asked at least four times if we'd been in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh in the previous 14 days (no we hadn't) but not if we might have been with people who had (probably yes as there is constant traffic between Tz and India for health, education and trade).  We ticked the Yes box for bringing in wooden objects and plant based materials and having been in rural areas but for a change no-one was interested in looking at my curios or shoes and AQIS just waved us through. It's lucky I know by now what I can and can't bring in so I probably haven't imported any pests or diseases.

The longest wait was sitting on the Skybus waiting to be taken to our detention hotel - close to an hour - when I was again thankful not to be travelling with children. 

Again, we were very lucky.  We had seen photos from families of three, four or even five people in one standard hotel room with barely space to walk around for luggage.  We had seen unappetising food delivered cold in plastic containers and heard of detainees spending fortunes on Uber Eats and Deliveroo to get food they wanted to eat. We heard stories of people having a view of a brick wall and being unable to even get UberEats or Deliveroo because they were stranded out at Tullamarine.

We have a corner suite right on the Yarra River at South Wharf.  There is plenty of space and though no windows open the air quality is fine.  Food is delivered three times a day (There's a knock on the door, we sing out "Thank you" then wait 30 seconds.  One of us dons a mask, opens the door a very little and fetches the paper bag in) and though the food is in plastic take away containers it has been hot, varied and appetising.  The amount of plastic waste is disheartening but probably unavoidable.  The precautions being taken to make sure there is no transmission of virus are stringent.  

We have a bird's eye view from the 11th floor up and down the Yarra and around to the Bay.  There is always something to look at.  There are helicopters buzzing through at eye level and all manner of boats on the river.  Yesterday we watched an old steam train hauling red rattler carriages go through Spencer Street Station.  Of course having binoculars helps!  When the Traffic report on 774 says there are delays on the Bolte Bridge we can check that he's correct.  Steve is of course doing a bird list and has found a new species most days - he has 18 but still no magpie.

Steve has spent his time continuing his review of senior secondary mathematics.  I have done a bit more family history research.  Trove - the digitised collection of newspapers and other documents kept by the National Library -  has been a wonderful source of information and entertainment.  The news articles of the time show how language has changed!  We don't read of "little street arabs" or "nymphs of the pave" these days.  The family notices have been a good source of information too that is not in the official registers.  

We still have two more days to survive but I'm hoping our luck holds.  On Monday morning we will be released from detention and drive home to Hamilton. (Thanks Jeremy for delivering the car!). My new passport is somewhere between Nairobi and the Melbourne passport office.  No rush on that but I will start thinking about our next adventure.

* Yes Steve is on Facebook, it's the only way he can get the birding information he needs and is in 13 groups, but he has resolutely refused to have any 'Friends'.

West Usambara Mountains

Last week we had a five day excursion to Same and the Magamba Forest above Lushoto.  This was essentially a birding expedition to increase Steve’s Life List but I found plenty to entertain myself as well!

We went with a Norwegian friend (who is far more familiar with Tanzania’s birds than even Steve) and a Tanzanian friend.  We had two nights in a hotel in Same and two nights camping in the forest.

Same is the town close to the Mkomazi NP and the birding we did was in woodland close to the park boundary.  Steve had a list of ‘targets’ but I was happy to see a couple of my favourites - the African Hoopoe and the Abyssinian Scimitar bill (these photos are Steve’s but not from this trip), a very interesting plant (Caralluma speciosa) and some industrious dung beetles.

The more interesting part of the trip was the time we spent in the forest.  Magamba Forest is a government forest reserve in the West Usambara Mountains.  The road up to Lushoto from Mombo is steep and windy.  It was built pre WW1 and is called “the German road”.  Lushoto was where expats went to escape the heat and humidity of the coast in colonial times.  The road is tarmacked and in very good condition.  Culverts and bridges are in bluestone with pretty arches.  It just shows if something is made properly it will last!  The down hill side of the road is lined with eucalypt trees - blue gum, spotted gum, swamp gum - all the way up.  This was supposed to stabilise the soil and prevent land slips and it seems to have worked!  At each hairpin bend there was a gushing waterfall - some muddy, some crystal clear, depending on the land use above them.  It rained all the way up the mountain and I was silently contemplating the folly of camping during the rainy season.

The road from Lushoto up to our camp in the forest was steep, wet and very muddy.  Slipping into the gutter would be disaster! But luckily it didn’t happen thanks to an ancient LandRover and some very competent Norwegian driving.

Our camp was in an abandoned sawmill so theoretically we were protected from rain but as we were in the cloud it was damp everywhere.  Getting a fire started took remarkable persistence  - no one had thought to pack firelighters, or even dry paper and corn chips!  It really was a very comfortable camp and despite the Forest Department officer’s concerns that we’d be cold - she sent a pikipiki rider up from the reserve’s headquarters with a bag of old curtains to use as extra blankets! - we stayed warm and dry.

 

The sawmill has been non-operational for several decades but in its heyday it must have been something special.  There was the mill building (where we camped) which still had some of the machinery. It had been powered by a steam engine undoubtedly fed with wood waste and saw dust.  There was a large shed stacked with sawn timber, now well and truly cured!  It is a resource that should be used by whoever has ownership.  Then there were the administrative offices in a solid brick building and still with all the filing cupboards and office equipment in place.  There were many residences I guess for the bosses, not the ‘workers’.  What we presumed to be the manager’s house was quite a mansion complete with swimming pool and magnificent garden.  There were assorted other, mainly weatherboard, cottages in various states of disrepair.  All had English gardens.  There were hydrangeas, fuschias and roses along the road and into the forest as well as arum and other lilies.  It was quite magical!

 

The ‘birding’ consisted of walking the road close to the camp.  The forest was too wet and too thick to venture too far off the road.  Birds are hard to hear and even harder to see.  It’s a job for which I have neither the patience or perseverance needed.  So I just enjoyed the walks!  Steve at one point tried to get a photo of the river we could see rushing below us and nearly ended up in it. His fall was arrested by a chameleon (the West Usambara Two-horned Chameleon) which didn’t seem to suffer too much from the experience.

Steve had to return to the scene of the crime to retrieve his binoculars

The Usambara Mountains are part of the eastern arc mountains that run from north to south in Tanzania.  The natural biodiversity both plant and animal is astonishing.  There are still new plants and animals to be discovered by those intrepid enough to try.  We know a herpetologist, a neighbour here in Arusha, who has identified many new species of frogs and toads just by going in to the forests and having a good look. He camps for weeks at a time in the forest collecting samples.

As well as, or even possibly despite, the natural diversity there are invasive species in the forests in both the Usambara and Pare mountains.  Locals like to plant eucalypts which are fast growing and have no natural enemies.  There are also pines, which along with eucalypts and Australian acacias, have ‘escaped’ from managed plantations.  It is sad to see them but I don’t think the native trees are suffering too much from their presence.

As we plan for what may be our last week here in Tanzania we can reflect on having made the most of our time and maybe we’ll sneak in one last trip to Arusha NP before Friday next week when we are due to fly home.  Fingers crossed that they’ll be no last minute SNAFU though as the acronym makes clear they are ‘normal’ especially in this part of the world.   

 You’ll all know soon how it goes, keep watching for a blog from Steve with his perspective!

Love from Jenny 

Almost done

 I know it’s a long time since the last post!  So much has happened it’s hard to know where to start.

I left you last post as we were about to fly to Namibia.  The covid certificates arrived as they should via email and we printed them.  We printed scans of the receipts from our phones too but they weren’t needed as they are at the road border.  We filled in all the paper work the Namibia Tourism site said was needed and we prepared our selves for long queues and being asked for all the things we didn’t have!  As it turned out everything was stress free and the paperwork we’d meticulously prepared wasn’t needed.  We had a wonderful time in Namibia travelling from south to north through spectacular landscapes and seeing as much wildlife as anyone could want.  Steve’s blog will tell you all about it. And no problems with a new 3 month tourist visa for Steve at KIA on our return so Mission Accomplished!

Namibia shares some colonial history with Tanzania - both were German colonies before the Great War then became British - but their paths have diverged significantly.  Historically Namibia was divided into rectangular blocks and each was assigned to a (European) farmer settler.  The people who had lived on that block were legally allowed, almost expected, to be shot by the new settler.  It was a genocide that Germany is now trying to recompense the people for after more than 100 years.  More atrocities followed including apartheid a la South Africa, as Namibia was governed from Johannesburg until1990 when it gained Independence.

A 1966 map when some parks had been declared but you can get the idea.

All of the land area was assigned but much was totally unsuited to farming and has ended up as national park or conservancy.  Nothing was left to the ownership of the indigenous inhabitants though now the conservancies are often managed locally by the historic owners in partnership with the government.  

At Cape Dias near Luderitz

There are some major differences between Namibia and Tanzania.  In land area they are about the same but Namibia has a population of about 2.7 million compared with Tanzania’s nearly 60 million!  As you drive around you see the difference - Namibia is empty of people!  The difference of course is water.  Namibia has none!  In the entire country there are only a handful of rivers that flow permanently and of those at least one that only happens because of a dam.  There are some excellent bridges - most freshly painted - over dry, sandy river beds.  And because there is no rain the roads, mostly wide, well graded gravel, are also excellent.  We drove on a road that said “Danger - serious washaways”  and just laughed.  It was like our road on a good day after it had just been mended!  We did seriously want to bring the HiLux we hired home with us - no offence to our RAV4 which has been marvellous. It was a joy to travel in.  Anyway, much as I love Tanzania and her little ways, having a holiday somewhere where things just ‘work’ was lovely!

So Rocla Pipes aren't just in Baranduda!

While we were away the death of the President of Tanzania John Magufuli was finally announced after three weeks of uncertainty and official silence.  A few days later the Vice President was inaugurated to serve out the remaining four and a half years of the five year term.  President Samia Sululu Hussein will be the first female President of an East African country and one of few female heads of government in Africa.  We are yet to see what changes that will bring and what effect it may have on our lives here.  Her official picture has started to go up in businesses and offices.

We arrived back on a Sunday and the next day saw me lined up for another Covid test so I could go to Kenya.  My passport expires in October and as travelling in the last 6 months of its validity can be problematic I thought I should renew.  And that means an in-person interview at the High Commission in Nairobi.  The shuttle bus services are only offering morning runs because covid has reduced the number of passengers so that meant a three day expedition - one to get there, one to do business at the HC and one to get back.  The distance Arusha to Nairobi is less than 300 km, all on tarmac, but can take 8 hours if the traffic is bad and the border crossing is difficult.

I had a 10 am appointment at the HC on the Friday.  I arrived early with all my photos and all the other needful documents.  Getting through security was fine - thorough checking of everything I had with me was required and my phone was confiscated for the duration of the visit.  Problem number one was my photos.  I’d had three goes in Arusha to get photos that fitted the DFAT specifications - no, 36 mm from crown to chin is not ok if the rule is 31-35 mm! - and thought I’d nailed it.  But no, I was told the photos are ‘dazed’.  Not me dazed in the photos but the photos being dazed.  I couldn’t get an explanation of what that meant, and being told that they might look at my age and overlook it didn’t help! 

The AHC in Nairobi when it was under construction and what it looks like from above.  These are from Google Earth - if I'd tried to take a picture there I think I would have been shot.

Then we had the problem of a document that proved where I live.  This was not on the requirement list but I was told it was a new security thing.  Tanzania does not do ‘residential address’ .  Our street (track?) doesn’t have a name and the block does not have a number on the gate post. The official told me I’d have to find something and email it to him if I wanted my application to proceed. (Luckily our tenancy agreement with our landlord has a Farm Plot number and Steve scanned it so I could email it before I left Nairobi.)  

The official asked had I paid - this has to be done before the visit either as a phone money transfer in Kenyan shillings, only possible from a Kenyan registered phone, or as a US dollar bank deposit into an obscure bank that seems to have very few branches. (On the Thursday afternoon after 6+ hours on the bus a taxi driver and I spent 20 minutes in the city at the intersection where the main branch was supposed to be and we couldn’t find it - he’d never heard of the bank.). In the end we went to the Nairobi General Hospital which has a small sub-branch - thank you Google Maps! - and I paid there.  So I handed the bank receipt over to the official at the HC and he says “Where’s the other part?”  What other part!!! I told him this was all the teller had given me.  He wasn’t happy.  Neither was I.  His less than reassuring response was “It might not matter”.  

He wandered off, then wandered back, then returned to the photos.  “I think you should get more” he said.  So, back out through security, back to my patient taxi driver, and off to the local mall to get DFAT regulation, undazed photos.  Twenty minutes to get that done, back to the HC, rescanned and phone re-confiscated and after handing over the new photos I’m told they’ll let me know by email if there is anything else needed.  I was shattered by this time and just wanted to go home.  “Interview” sounds so cosy.  In reality were standing on opposite sides of 1” thick glass passing documents through a sliding drawer.  He was poking at a computer, I couldn’t see what was on the screen, and he kept wandering out the back where something more interesting must have been happening.  I didn’t see a single Australian at the HC, no-one to discuss the upcoming footy games with.  Very disappointing.

Nairobi traffic is horrendous.

In Nairobi I was staying at Flora Hostel, a lovely little hostel close to the major hospitals and run by the Sisters of Consolation.  Flying Medical Service use it often.  I’d only just arrived back at Flora when the news came through that President Kenyatta had announced an immediate lockdown of Nairobi - no-one in or out indefinitely from midnight that night.  I was stuck!  The head nun was sympathetic and said I could have my room as long as I needed it as long as I paid!  I talked to Steve and we tried to find where the new regulations were written out.  I texted the shuttle bus company and the Nairobi rep thought there’d be no problem getting back to Arusha the next morning - general consensus on Twitter was that “Nairobi leaks like a sieve”.  Turns out that’s correct.  The shuttle bus breezed through all the checkpoints and the only time we were actually stopped by the police was on the Tanzanian side of the border where I had to show my passport and visa to the immigration police and show I could speak Swahili - the first requirement was official, the second was for his own amusement.  Sister-in-law Natalie kept me updated with footy scores as I travelled down the highway and I arrived home happy with a Demons win and not so happy with the remote possibility that I might get a new passport in the fullness of time - couriered here at great expense as I can’t travel to Kenya, and if I have to send my current passport to the HC in order to get my new one I won’t be going anywhere.

The next weekend was Easter and we decided to give ourselves a treat with a day in Tarangire NP, a night at Africa Safari Glamping and a day in Lake Manyara NP.  We spent time in five different national parks in Namibia.  Each had its own peculiarities at the entrance but all were efficient and straightforward.  At  Tarangire NP the entrance gate is new since my last visit in October 2019.  It has not increased its efficiency!  It was over half an hour of waiting, indecision, malfunctioning technology and general phaffing about before we could get through!

It is the rainy season at the moment so we’d expected the roads to be a bit rough - and they are!  Puddles in the roads have been filled with rocks so while you’re worrying about getting bogged in the mud the greater danger is a hole in a tyre, or the sump, or the petrol tank!  The RAV4 hasn’t quite forgiven us.  All the picnic areas need work - Silele Swamp picnic ground looked like it had been abandoned.  But we saw some great birds and enough giraffes and elephants to keep me happy - some at very close range.  Also cheetahs quite close and lions within touching distance.

We had stayed at Africa Safari Glamping on a couple of previous occasions.  This time we were surprised to find that the lake, usually a couple of kilometres away, had spread to be literally lapping at the steps of the dining room.  It rained heavily most of that night so we decided to give LMNP a miss the next day as we’d narrowly avoided a disastrous bogging incident on a previous trip during the wet and were anxious about what might happen.  Advice on roads is not always helpful from the gate staff.  On a trip there with the Drummonds in January last year I asked if the road down to Maji Moto was ok.  “Yes”, he said.  But what he didn’t add was “but the bridge has been washed away”! So we didn’t risk it.

You used not to be even able to see the lake!

Steve has been worrying on and off about his visa situation.  His new one expires on June 19 and our tickets home are booked for July 1.  So he convinced me to see if I could get our tickets moved to an earlier date.  I assembled all the information - booking references and e-ticket numbers - and rang Qatar’s help desk.  After 30 mins on hold I did get a very helpful officer and we were just on the point of establishing what I needed having proved who I was with birthdates and passport numbers and phone numbers, and how and when I’d bought the original tickets, when the line dropped out!  Boo!  Skype wasn’t being very helpful with what was the problem and I probably pushed the ‘top up’ button a few too many times after an argument with their algorithm about when my MasterCard expires and I was eventually able to reconnect for another 30 mins on hold with 5 $10 top-ups on Skype that will take years to get through!  This time I knew the answers to the questions before he asked them and at the point of what I needed he said I was very lucky as tickets had just been released for May 7th. So quick decision time!  Steve said ‘yes’ so I said ‘yes’ and we have new tickets (The officer said best not to try to change the itinerary again as we only had these because someone “cancellated”).  Now I have the stress of will my new passport be here in time, or will I be allowed to fly home on a passport with less than 6 months validity.  Life is never boring!

So now we have less than four weeks to be organised on the chance that these new flights are not cancelled.  We will miss many of the things I would have really liked to do - a 2 day walk up to the crater on Kili, a trip to Uganda and a trip to Bukoba so there may have to be a next time! - but the idea of seeing all the family again is something we’re so excited about.  We have packing to do, but not so much that we can’t keep living here and a car to sell.  Selling of the car was nearly not a problem.  We knew we had an oil leak and Steve was dutifully checking levels to make sure there was no problem but turns out he was checking the transmission oil not the engine oil and the mechanic discovered just a scraping in the bottom when it went in for a service on Monday but it’s all ok now with a new gasket and no leak and we have a  working car to sell.

Between all of these adventures I have been working at the Olkokola centre.  Two grants submissions have gone in and maybe there’ll be money for a small gym to help our clients who have mobility issues get some exercise.  We’ll need to find a physiotherapist to help in the planning if the money comes through.  The menstrual pads scheme lurches along - I heard for the Dutch NGO today and they still want to collaborate but aren’t quite sure how or when!  I have plans for sourcing /writing and distributing literature about Cerebral Palsy, I’m waiting on some help from another NGO - this time German.  The library and education room is going well and being well used. So all is good on that front.

Sorry there is so much to read.  Let me know if you reached the bottom!  

Love from Jenny