Doug and Ted's Excellent Adventure

On Monday, unfortunately leaving Franatee in the office, her outreach visit temporarily postponed, woefully underpacked I set off with 2 co-workers for a stint in a rural village. I was informed that the village, Kisiwani, at least at one stage had a 40% of the total population HIV/AIDS prevalence rate.

After a scenic 2 hour drive past mountains and plains, a stop at a Hospital to drop off supplies and finally skirting through the Mkomazi National Park (I was told we could not stop or get out of the car due to lions in the Park) we were at the village. It was bustling actually, lots of convenience stores, kids everywhere shrieking and laughing at the white guy (ie me). I was reaaal careful not to drink the water, nor to eat anything without obsessively washing hands first.

Went round to visit local chicken and goat projects, took some snaps for work of happy goats. Sat in on interviews with people living with HIV/AIDS to assess the level of care they are getting. At first it was a shock to see (particularly young people) AIDS sufferers looking so tired and thin, but once you all start laughing at a joke (usually my mangled Swahili) you can make human connections.

(As an aside, as this is a ‘G’ rated blog I cannot talk too much about the ‘toilet’ at our accommodation which basically was missing every single feature a toilet should have…)

Tuesday we had a meeting with a community group and local leaders to determine why a fish pond project was failing. I was told by my co-workers that ‘Mr Lawyer’ (as I am called) made a useful contribution to a productive meeting. We made some more home visits and uncovered one significant process issue…I think there is plenty for a ‘Rights Officer’ to do here.

Wednesday, we drove 35 kms to another village surrounded by natural forest to meet some more clients. I am finding the language barrier frustrating but slowly and painfully I am recalling words and phrases. We finished in the afternoon, stopped for a risky photo of me and a new mate in the middle of the National Park while the driver watched for lions, then did the long drive back to Moshi to wifey.

I've only been here 2 weeks or so but am continually being struck by the contrasts here of the high highs and low lows. Such a beautiful, welcoming place, yet so much poverty and want. Again, just when you think you can’t take anymore frustration or people staring at you or asking for money you will share a funny moment with the locals/co-workers or see a wonderful vista. Hmmm.

Lots to mull over tonight with the wife I think, aided by a cheap bottle of the local brandy. Off to meet a local lawyer tomorrow to discuss some issues.

Thunderstruck

Heavy rains this weekend. Luckily it hit after we had done our shopping in town, we are getting more confident and more recognised in the local CBD. We got home just as the heavens opened then realised we had to go out again in order to get a pineapple to welcome a guest who was coming over. So off we went in minimal visibility on our bikes. Though we were drenched the rain was warm and refreshing and we have added to our local notoriety. We got a coconut in the end.

Then we had what sounded like a bomb going off at Monday 5am, it was a gigantic crash of thunder preceding 3 hours of torrential rain. We taxied to work.

Now I wait to see if my 'Heart of Darkness' mission 180km away to visit a community for 3 days is still on.

Because you requested it..

No, not the giant wasp, I'm still working on that. Instead, here is my new cubicle in all its glory. Note strategically placed fan. I share the office with 3 other guys: MOJ MAN POD REBORN!!


Friday update. Not only is a NZ volunteer boss coming for a visit Monday but Francoise and I are heading into the field. She is going to the Uru District 7kms away. For a day trip. Lucky me I get to go to the Kisiwani District which is 180km away for 3 days. Sob...what do you pack to go away for 3 days into the wild? If I don't make it back, save the brain...

We now return to our reguarly scheduled blog

I had locked myself out of my Gmail account and thus the blog...but Im back. Its been a busy couple of days.

We've just attended a 2 day liaison meeting with community health care supervisors. Group exercises/discussion in Swahili was challenging. Saw water purifying techniques, discussed 'actual and reasonable' expenses (flashback to my gambling policy days) and got to know the stakeholders/processes. Good times.

Its been a raining for long periods lately. People at work told us we brought it with us. I told them we are Rainmakers (little indulgent 'Power of One' injoke). We are trying to lose our reputation as the muzungu who can't make their own way to work. Monday it was raining so we got driven to work. Tuesday we tried walking to work for the first time. Perhaps because we were distracted by awesome views of Kili we got on the wrong road and started working towards Dar Es Salaam, a mere week's walk away. So we had to get rescued.

(the view as we trudges in the wrong direction)
Wednesday night and Thursday morning we finally got to use our new bicycles. 2 Chinese made bikes of the type the locals use lent to us by our employer. Mine is greenish as a homage to the green Raleigh 20 I used to race around Taradale on in my younger days. It was fun coasting home ringing the bell past guffawing locals and beeping dala dalas (minibuses). 'Por!' (Cool!) I kept yelling out with the thumbs up.

We have a mosquito net now thankfully and an electric fan. Still no hot water, minimal curtains (Im bashful) and the toilet still is leaking…new security guard is pleasant, dogs barking and people singing in the AM hours not so much. No wasps in the house last night, rather 2 gargantuan beetles lumbering around on 4 wings each…

Stop the hooting already!

(our house!)
First Monday at work, had a 3 hour budgetting session, interesting to learn how limited aid grants are aportioned. Reading up on UNAIDs Committee material when the internet is working. We moved into our house yesterday. We have our own guard. I caould take him. Our house is in the Rau neighbourhood...no street names...er its off a main road onto a dusty, winding side path/road near a residence for street kids, some Maasai people and a concrete ruin? Still a lot of teething problems eg toilets leaking, no funiture, hooks, sink, anything and it is so freakin hot inside. Feels like a constant 30 degrees at night. We so need a fan.

Our first night in the new pad was pretty sleepless. Too many (malaria ridden to my neurotic mind) mosquitos getting in to keep spraying (we have no mosquito net yet), salamanders in the room, then arguing outside, music, a girl singing at 4am, an owl hooting loudly for half n hour, calls to prayer, roosters argghhh we need to shift rooms. So pretty tired today. Started spacing out in the budget session till a wasp coming in the room brought me back.

However, good outweighes the teething troubles and the neighbours are very welcoming. It was nice going for a dusk walk around the place, avoiding chickens and racing bicycles to meet people, see the surrounds. Nice African sunset. Our swahili is getting better. I must ask for some of the sugar cane people sell on our street. The local kids are real cute, we are like fairy tale creatures to them. Sucks telling people we don't need cleaners, have no money to sponser educations etc

Crikey, hes going to have me

Its a hot Saturday here, just did the first mission into city centre to buy pots, change cash etc...got followed the whole way by a philosophising scammer trying to get money in return for safaris/language training/ AIDS care/youth work/beads anything...sigh. We rang the cell number he gave us as a 'volunteering' contact...they had never heard of him. For shame.

Still at hotel as our house has no sink at all (to be installed) and the toilet is leaking. We have our gas stove now, the gas bottle for it looks like a ex-WW2 bomb. I think a lot of Tanzanians use foam mattresses and ones with springs are a novelty. Our single bed matresses in the hotel (I have yet to use a double bed here) are so hard its like sleeping on the floor. Jumping on them, executing 'ram jam' wrestling moves has not loosened them up at all.

Friday, after watching 'Crocodile Hunter Diaries' in the clothes we have been wearing out of our suitcases, after a crude attempt to shave that sliced up my top lip, we both headed to our place of work for the year, the Mildmay International Office, Tanzania Branch. The people were really friendly to two awkward Petone-ites, I was writing down people's names and titles furiously in a notebook. We share two adjacent seperate offices, thank (insert Deity) that we are not sitting next to each other. She's already showing me up with her better Swahili!

We were briefed on our roles while I terrifiedly watched a monster wasp the size of a butterfly buzzing around the head of the presenter. The wasps here look like something from King Kong. I needed Steve Irwin to tame it. I'm still thinking about it. I'll try to take a photo of one by disturbing a hive and photographing what comes out. Just kidding. But not really.

Francoise is to find ways to bring individuals together into sustainable, productive community based enterprises. My role is a bit of a new thing. Introducing a new 'rights based' perspective into the HIV/AIDS support role of the organisation. Lots of planning to do. Stop laughing Adam.

We had a communal lunch (best Mango ever. Seen that Seinfeld episode about the Mango? Better than that) then spent the rest of the day reading, annoying Francoise in her office and talking a big game in front of my office mates.

Got a lift home from a kid who looked younger than Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Finished the day with a bomb in the pool over Francoise while Mount Doom..I mean Kili watched disaprovingly and a beer and a bananna split that tasted awesome but looked like a flamingo killed by a bannana.

The waiting is the hardest part

Still cooling our heels at a local hotel, waiting for our house to be completed, gas ovens to be installed (I hate gas cooking), painting to be done etc. Things move slower here, but its all good. More time for watching 34 Indian TV channels, swimming (while the locals stare, I guess stubbies are a novelty in this region) and eating food in the dark as the power comes and goes, and avoiding monster ants. Our volunteer contact told us especially to avoid the brown wasps. Extremely savage if provoked. I told him I was allergic to bees, Francoise just bit her fist in shame.

It rained quite a bit yesterday afternoon...I went a bit rain crazy and ran out into it (again in stubbies). Those were some warm, heavy raindrops.

Hope to get some more pics up once I get access to a computer that wasn't assembled pre-the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. Eeek work tomorrow, I have no clean work clothes, let alone a 100% firm idea of what I will actually be doing.

However as they say you're not selling the steak, you're selling the sizzle!
Bring it on!

Get up offa that thing

Writing this at a hotel in Moshi, following a swim in a pool and 3 'Kilimanjaro' brand beers. Volunteering is hard work.

I do love Africa. I love its smells, its craziness, colourful street signage, the donkey carts, chickens, wierdly decorated minibuses with people spilling out, cute children that smile and wave to the white folks, colourful birds, coca cola branded townships, ultra relaxed service industry and insane traffic conditions. Even incidents where I break a chair while registering for the Flying Doctor Service or the guy who relentlessly stalked me in Arusha for 3 days in a row asking me to buy tea towels do not dampen my honeymoon enthusiasm for Tanzania (however ask me how I feel in 5 months time..)

Thursday was adminstration day, registering with this, setting up that. Had a bite in a cafe with fruit bats whirling over shrieking American tourists just as rain (finally)started to come down. Love rain. But like many things, over far too soon.

Despite some qualms from my previous role relating to the Privacy Act, I diligently registered my cellphone and personal details with the Government (an anti-crime measure I think). I think my cellphone profile of 'Batman' made the Arusha Vodacom workers laugh a bit. Wait until they see my cape.

Wednesday, we bid farewell to our host nuns and South African chums we had made at the Arusha accomodation and to the sounds of James Brown, moved our mess in a convoy to Moshi...hoping our house (which we had never seen) would be ready to move into. I'll miss how green Arusha is. However, according to a news item in 'The Citizen' a local Arusha/Moshi rag, Moshi is one of the cleanest municipalities in Tanzania, if not Africa.

We popped by the Mildmay International Office (ie the partner organissation)Franatee and I would be working at to say hello. It looked professional and the people seemed friendly, liked the welcoming kisses on our cheeks. The director, a Kenyan, seems really onto it. Plus she ran a half marathon so she loves Francoise. Plus she will be our next door neighbour to our new pad, so no late night parties or domestics for us.

We were told our Moshi abode was 10 minutes walk away from the workplace, actually it is more like 1/2 hour away off the main road as the unfit Doug trots ...oh well walking along is a good way to get to know the locals. We dropped some stuff off (I tried carrying it on my head, now my neck hurts) but our house is not ready for us yet; people furiously painting and installing my trophy room, so we are in a hotel for 1 or 2 nights. I did like how "Welcome to the Jungle" started up on the car radio just as we were pulling away from the house.

So Thursday, more getting to know Moshi, then Friday is the first 'work' day involving setting tasks/expectations at work...gulp. Me hope me know law things good.

joto! (Hot!!)

(Franatee near our current Arusha lodgings with Mt Meru in the distance)

This heat is a killer, its like Im in Africa or something. You can do stuff between 7am-11am...from 11-4pm is a furnace for pasty muzungu (whiteys). Watching kites (ie big buzzard things) circling overhead while you trudge along in the heat is.. interesting too.

Sunday we went to mass at St Teresa's Cathedral, escorted there by a random passer by. It was wierd being the only 2 white faces in a packed cathedral but we were made welcome and the Swahili choir was moving. Grabbed a coupla beers and listened to Gwen Stefani in the nearby Rafiki Bar. Did a solo walk into Arusha then a hasty retreat after being harrassed by every shyster/hard luck story in town (the New Zealand logo on my shirt did not help...nor the 1000 shilling note hanging out of my pocket oops)

Arusha is so green btw. Bananna plants and green stuff everywhere. Yet the rains haven't come yet...must be the volcanic soil. Moshi...not so green. A lot hotter too.

(Kili in background)

Drove there past our first view of Mt Kili (its bigger than Te Mata Peak) and brown plains filled with goats and dust devils (ie whirlwinds AKA genies moving around according to Arab lore, cue Christian Agulira 'Genie in a Bottle).

We went to Moshi to sort out some visa stuff. Depite the 'Corruption Free Zone' sign in the office (Tui add alert) we were held up for 3 hours while the immigration officers tried to extort money from us. Our Massai volunteer liason held firm and we finally got the stamps we needed.Grabbed a hot iced coffee (hm) in a ex-pat run bar watched flocks of swifts swirl around before heading off to cameo at the Building we will be working at. The wife and I have little offices right next to each other. Joy.
Chilled at home as people with loud speakers and causes walked past, tomorrow we see our mud hut I mean abode for the year.
Hurry up rains, Im sweating off kilos here.
Manfred

We are here

Typing this in a sweltering hot internet cafe in Arusha.

Following the flight to Amsterdam, we sorted out the documents for the next leg pretty uneventfully. Cathay felt sorry for mucking up our plans so put us in Economy Plus seating on a KLM flight to Narobi. Love KLM. Lots of food and watched 'This is it' about 3 times. Flew over the Swiss Alps, which was breathtaking.


Finally got a twinge of panic about what the heck we are doing as we flew over Libya/Egypt over the vast tan desert of the Sahara...feel pretty insignificant.


Nairobi connection was the last bit of bureaucratic drama particularly as we were so exhausted...but we finally got to Kili International Airport and got let into Tanzania at 1150pm there time Friday 12th march, welcomed in by bats swirling around banana trees. Met our Massai volunteer liaison contact, hes cool. We stayed the night at the 'Spiritan House' a catholic dormitory in Arusha. Single beds. Woken up by the Muslim call to prayer at 530am...I did not attend.

Left the house with camera on hip for a walk was told to take the camera back to my room or risk getting robbed then went for a wander with Francoise in downtown Arusha. Mt Meru hangs over the town, strange crows and birds everywhere as we jaunt along. Feel a lot safer than South Africa. I saw the UN Rwanda Crimes Tribunal I was not supposed to take pics but I snuck on in. 2 soldiers/guards with Ak-47s lopping along. Francoise is kickin my butt with her Swahili knowledge, I just stand there with an idiot grin and shake hands 'Matt Damon'

We went for a tour of a typical poor community that we will be working with. People seem happy in their mud constructed abodes, lots of smiles, green and animals balanced by poor sanitation and limited opportunities.

It is so frikking hot and according to the volunteers we met for coffee Moshi is a lot hotter. This is like suck all the liquid out of your body hot. Sob. I miss the swiss alps...

Not without my Tulips

The day did start well. Free shots in Auckland Airport, comfy seats on our Cathay Airbus...then the warning siren came on in the plane freaking everyone out and my tv stopped working. So we got into Hong Kong airport with only 40 minutes before our Kenyan Airways plane was due to go...only to find it had already left...good keen men. So we are off to Amsterdam. Yes, I went (expletive) too. An extra long haul then Nairobi and hopefully Tanzania. So Im loitering in Hong Kong AIrport waiting to go to the Land of Windmills and Clogs with a new Kenyan friend in the same boat (plane?) as us.

Hong Kong Airport: if Im not getting strip searched by Mossad agents trying to get to Israel Im being re-routed to Europe!!

Manfred

I'm going to Holland, isn't dat veird!?!?
Yup, off to Holland as you've heard from Manfred. I've always wanted to go to Europe. Awesome!!! Hope it's everything I've ever dreamed it would be. It's got two hours in the airport lounge to impress me. Made friends with a Kenyan who's been living in... waiting for it Melling!
Well off to get ready for my Dutch experience.
Yah!!!
Frannity.

UPDATE

In chilly Amsterdam (we are not dressed for 3 degrees). It was fun flying from Hong Kong over Russia, Siberia, the Ural Mountains, Baltic Sea etc. On landing people clapped as the plane lurched up on one side then the other...its not cool when people clap on landing. Amsterdam seems pretty from the air um now to hope I get to Nairobi some time this century.

The hardest working man in the goodbye business

This will be my last blog post in NZ. Not totally sure when I'll get near a computer next, flying out in 2 days...I'll be back online as mud huts allow.

You really can live on 3 hours sleep a night. I hope I have a liver to take to Tanzania. Francoise and I have had so many moving, tearful hugs and touching well wishes from mates I've lost count. I kinda realised last night while pulling off my signature floor spin on the D-Floor for the third time in so many days that this is my last Saturday in NZ for a while. Next Sat I'm in a new place. But you'll all be there wit me. As will my anti-AIDS pills.

Why so serious?

I must be at warning label levels of caffeine, taurine, ginseng, guarana etc etc. When not filing or packing under the influence, I'm going to so many short farewell coffees with random people I feel like a politician. 3 days of work remain. 7 days in Wellington. 9 days in NZ. 101 days without a lion scar.

Drinking V and packing into the wee hours. Is it when you start talking to yourself in a gravelly Christian Bale voice at 2am about the pros and cons of taking toaster that its time for a holiday? Or another coffee?


Wheeeeee!