Sadly my time here is coming to an end and I am moving on to visit friends near Mount Kenya, which I hope I will see unlike Kilimanjaro!
I have been given my Maasai name; Napishai which means happy person, and a Maasi blanket as well as a lovely thank you letter and certificate at a little ceremony this afternoon. The people here at MEAC, see link, have been so welcoming and are so keen to help them selves to improve there lives of the Maasai people. I have been helping in a school, giving lessons on HIV/Aids, Solar power and renewable energy and safe disposal of batteries, not easy when there is no rubbish collection. I have also been meeting with womes' groups and how they are helping themselves by forming savings groupsand making and selling theri bead work etc.
It has been a truley enlightening experience, to live a very simple life if only for a short period of time, and not as basic as many deeper into Masailand. We ran out of tank water, which meant finding deisel for the generator to pump from the borehole a couple of kms away, we took the fuel to the man who pumps, opening 6 valves buried under various stones and bushes on the way; Jackson who I was accompanying had been part of the team who installed the pipe a year or so ago, and so knew how to find them, I hope he doesn't leave cos there is no way of mapping them in the bush! When we got the pump man's house, he was away,so another days wait. Then the generator neededto be fixed, then the valve had to be fixed, not surprising as they are all just buried in the earth with no protection from dust, grit, being dug up by animals or just stepped on and bent!
All in all more than a week of carry ing water from the dam for general use, very brown and murky; or from a neighbours tank for cooking, rain catchment. I am now the expert at the 2litre shower, washing hair, body and underwear; I thought I was pretty good in Uganda, but this is a whole new level particularly when its only every other day or so and I am pretty filthy from the dust and the wood smoke from the fire; and the water is murky brown to start with.
This is the end of the rainy season, and I have only heard one short shower, which barley settled thedust, it is very dusty and dry now so I am not sure how bad it will get before the next rains. The people here consume so little because they have so little, but I think they are paying a much heavier price of global warming than those of us in the west who are enjoying the benefits of our capilatist, consumer culture. I understand there is a drought in E Anglia now, but sure as eggs is eggs, the rain will come around june 22nd,when I return and I will not moan about the british summer, well for at least a week!
Barbs's Big Bike RIde
This year I have decided to stay and enjoy an English Spring. It has been a long time coming but at last it is here and I am off to explore my own back yard. Well actually travelling up the UK mainland as far north as possible before 21st June and see how close I can get to the Midnight Sun.
After my travels along the Camino de Santiago across northern Spain last September on my trusty old iron donkey, I have bought a lighter bike in the hope that I can get up a few more hills and by going from Lands End to John o Groats (LEJOG) I can avoid the killing headwinds of the Spanish meseta.
So here she is, we had a jolly naming ceremony on Saturday and hopefully the good friends, food and weather I enjoyed will carry me through to the farthest northern climes. Thank you all for a great send off, admirably topped off with one too many pints The Village Bike listening to Mojo Triangle.
And she is called Eleanor, isn't she beautiful, I hope I still have such tender feelings after 6 hours in the saddle, but probably only in the nether regions I fear.
The map link on the right will show a rough itinerary and route and I will try try to update with my actual route, if I can work out how and where I am as I go along, you know there will be little correlation but I will get there or somewhere in the end!
If you want an email update, submit your address in the box also on right and hopefully it will find its way through the ether to you.
Saturday, 28 May 2011
Saturday, 21 May 2011
Quick blog from Masailand
I am staying with a 'settled' Masai family who have a compound with tin shelters and a more traditional mud and stick kitchen. We have a little solar power which provides either lighting for one room or tv. All cooking is done over an open fire in the kitchen, which keeps us all fumigated from the flies. We have little water but seem to keep healthy, even though there is little chance to clean hands or utensils, even after slaughtering the chicken and plucking it in the bowl we use to wash up. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger; and these people are mighty strong, both physically and mentally. They rise before dawn, some of the children set off for school at 4am, and retire about 10pm although again the children are often studying beyond this.
The day consists of milking cattle, taking them out to graze, along with the goats, feeding the chickens, growing crops mainly maize, cooking, and cleaning, very time consuming over a fire and heating water too; collecting fire wood and water, etc etc. There is no machinery, just everyone knowing what is to be done, cooperating and getting on with it.
Visits to the loo are interesting, across the cow yard, with or with out cows blocking the gate to the next compound and across another paddock, to the pit latrine, which is fine; but I have now been told not to go on my own after dark!, but have been given a more convenient place behind the house for a 'short call' .
My family are always cheerful, caring and considerate. The children are a delight; for all the hardship they are some of the most cheerful and relaxed people I have met, even those family members working in town with all amenities prefore being on the shamba as it is more relaxing. I think 'modern life' will means something different to ma after this experience.
Hopefully this is a quick flavour of where I am. I hope to blog more when I have more time. This is my one visit to town, in the back of a pick up truck and I must meet with my volnterr coordinator and buy my essentials of water and loo roll before I have to get another matutu to get back
The day consists of milking cattle, taking them out to graze, along with the goats, feeding the chickens, growing crops mainly maize, cooking, and cleaning, very time consuming over a fire and heating water too; collecting fire wood and water, etc etc. There is no machinery, just everyone knowing what is to be done, cooperating and getting on with it.
Visits to the loo are interesting, across the cow yard, with or with out cows blocking the gate to the next compound and across another paddock, to the pit latrine, which is fine; but I have now been told not to go on my own after dark!, but have been given a more convenient place behind the house for a 'short call' .
My family are always cheerful, caring and considerate. The children are a delight; for all the hardship they are some of the most cheerful and relaxed people I have met, even those family members working in town with all amenities prefore being on the shamba as it is more relaxing. I think 'modern life' will means something different to ma after this experience.
Hopefully this is a quick flavour of where I am. I hope to blog more when I have more time. This is my one visit to town, in the back of a pick up truck and I must meet with my volnterr coordinator and buy my essentials of water and loo roll before I have to get another matutu to get back
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Spectacular Serengeti and Ngreat Ngorogoro Safari
I have managed to circle and step on Kilimanjaro but not actually see it. The cloud has been down, but still managed to avoid getting too wet since loosing both my coat and brolly in Uganda.
I continued my 3 day trek to the end of the Usambara Mountains, through many villages, to Mtea in order to see Kilimanjaro, but it was not to be the fog was down and it was much like any other lake district view point, as cold too. I had a great time getting there and stumbled upon a traditional medicine ritual to expel ghosts from a young man, it consisted of him being dunked in a pool below the biggest waterfall of the mountains, being yelled at and sprayed with water, burnt herbs and the blood of a decapitated chicken. It was then the turn of a 4 month old baby, although she was only dunked in the water and sprayed. When I asked how the ghosts manifested themselves, it sounded like a description of stress or depression, triedness, anger, agitation etc. Perhaps we should try this instead of valium!
I decided to move onto Moshi in search of Kili and literally bumped into Susana who I had volunteered with and she works in Windermere, and so had a fun day catching up and going to Marangu base camp on Kili, but again, shrouded in mist and not to be seen.
She did persuade me that I needed to go on safari, this being the low, rainy season, it was easy to arrange but I was concerned that it would be wet and wouldn't see much.
Sure enough it poured and the cloud was down all the way to the rim of Ngorogoro but as we descended the weather cleared and the view of the plain was spectacular. It is so vast and the air so clear you can see for ever. As we continued we came across the Masai and their herds of cattle, goat and donkeys interspersed with herds of zebra antelope, gazelle and the odd Giraffe, quite odd. We eventually entered the Serengeti National park, in which there is no farming or herding and were priveledged to see the migrating herds of wildebeest with zebra; they apparently lead the migration with their superior sense of small and intellect to remember and find the right pastures; accompanied by antelope gazelle and buffalo. There were 100 of 1000's if not millions, as far as the eye can see, and that is a long way here.
We saw cheetah, a lioness so close we could almost touch her, monkeys, fabulously plumaged birds. Our camp for the night was visited by mongoose, hyena and baboon, who made off with one of my companions food. In the morning we visited a hippo pool, pre-dawn (which was stupendous all you would expect of an African dawn) as they were returning from their nights foraging, they are silent and solitary on land but social and noisy in water. The smell of the pool was about 100 times worst than a slurry pit and looked it. You would think they would relieve themselves before they returned but no they seemed to take great pride in doing so as they got back, spraying the community in the process by spinning their tails like a fan. They seemed to be having fun laughing a lot very noisily.
We also managed to see a leopard in a tree with her kill of a gazelle, apparently she had lost her cub, during the hunt to a hyena and so was still scanning the savannah for it.
We moved on to Ngorogoro, which magically appeared just as we began our ascent to camp at the rim, here we were joined by water buffalo which are very big and can be very aggressive, it does wonders for your nocturnal bladder control. The crater was amazing, teeming with wildlife, although it is the rainy season, much of it appeared quite dry. We saw a lion with his kill and again he walked right by us so we could see his bloody mouth, I also managed to see flamingos, which I had missed at Lake Mbeya; And then we actually managed to complete the big 5 by spotting 2 white rhino, quite far away but still so big. I am glad I was persuaded to go and I think even better in the low season as there were few others around only about 4 or 5 other vehicles where as in high season it is just a constant stream of 4x4's on the routes.
As we left our driver persuaded us to visit another museum, which we were rather reluctant to do as we were more interested in the animals, but when we got there it was where the Leakeys had done their work on the early hominids, it was really interesting, we just hadn't appreciated how close we were to the site.
So finally back to Arusha and onto Niarobi for my twoweeks volunteering with the Masia. I am really excited now I have seem some of their culture on the trip through the Serengeti. They are obviously a powerfully strong cultural group as they maintain their traditional tribal villages and dress. They are stand out on the plains for miles and really stride out and cover great distance even as I watched them.
It is sad to leave Tanzania. I have met somwe truly wonderful people and the country is so varied and dramatic, again it is hard to leave.
I continued my 3 day trek to the end of the Usambara Mountains, through many villages, to Mtea in order to see Kilimanjaro, but it was not to be the fog was down and it was much like any other lake district view point, as cold too. I had a great time getting there and stumbled upon a traditional medicine ritual to expel ghosts from a young man, it consisted of him being dunked in a pool below the biggest waterfall of the mountains, being yelled at and sprayed with water, burnt herbs and the blood of a decapitated chicken. It was then the turn of a 4 month old baby, although she was only dunked in the water and sprayed. When I asked how the ghosts manifested themselves, it sounded like a description of stress or depression, triedness, anger, agitation etc. Perhaps we should try this instead of valium!
I decided to move onto Moshi in search of Kili and literally bumped into Susana who I had volunteered with and she works in Windermere, and so had a fun day catching up and going to Marangu base camp on Kili, but again, shrouded in mist and not to be seen.
She did persuade me that I needed to go on safari, this being the low, rainy season, it was easy to arrange but I was concerned that it would be wet and wouldn't see much.
Sure enough it poured and the cloud was down all the way to the rim of Ngorogoro but as we descended the weather cleared and the view of the plain was spectacular. It is so vast and the air so clear you can see for ever. As we continued we came across the Masai and their herds of cattle, goat and donkeys interspersed with herds of zebra antelope, gazelle and the odd Giraffe, quite odd. We eventually entered the Serengeti National park, in which there is no farming or herding and were priveledged to see the migrating herds of wildebeest with zebra; they apparently lead the migration with their superior sense of small and intellect to remember and find the right pastures; accompanied by antelope gazelle and buffalo. There were 100 of 1000's if not millions, as far as the eye can see, and that is a long way here.
We saw cheetah, a lioness so close we could almost touch her, monkeys, fabulously plumaged birds. Our camp for the night was visited by mongoose, hyena and baboon, who made off with one of my companions food. In the morning we visited a hippo pool, pre-dawn (which was stupendous all you would expect of an African dawn) as they were returning from their nights foraging, they are silent and solitary on land but social and noisy in water. The smell of the pool was about 100 times worst than a slurry pit and looked it. You would think they would relieve themselves before they returned but no they seemed to take great pride in doing so as they got back, spraying the community in the process by spinning their tails like a fan. They seemed to be having fun laughing a lot very noisily.
We also managed to see a leopard in a tree with her kill of a gazelle, apparently she had lost her cub, during the hunt to a hyena and so was still scanning the savannah for it.
We moved on to Ngorogoro, which magically appeared just as we began our ascent to camp at the rim, here we were joined by water buffalo which are very big and can be very aggressive, it does wonders for your nocturnal bladder control. The crater was amazing, teeming with wildlife, although it is the rainy season, much of it appeared quite dry. We saw a lion with his kill and again he walked right by us so we could see his bloody mouth, I also managed to see flamingos, which I had missed at Lake Mbeya; And then we actually managed to complete the big 5 by spotting 2 white rhino, quite far away but still so big. I am glad I was persuaded to go and I think even better in the low season as there were few others around only about 4 or 5 other vehicles where as in high season it is just a constant stream of 4x4's on the routes.
As we left our driver persuaded us to visit another museum, which we were rather reluctant to do as we were more interested in the animals, but when we got there it was where the Leakeys had done their work on the early hominids, it was really interesting, we just hadn't appreciated how close we were to the site.
So finally back to Arusha and onto Niarobi for my twoweeks volunteering with the Masia. I am really excited now I have seem some of their culture on the trip through the Serengeti. They are obviously a powerfully strong cultural group as they maintain their traditional tribal villages and dress. They are stand out on the plains for miles and really stride out and cover great distance even as I watched them.
It is sad to leave Tanzania. I have met somwe truly wonderful people and the country is so varied and dramatic, again it is hard to leave.
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Ah Zanzibar
Zanzibar, I made it; and it truly lived up to the hype, sun sand and.... well not quite, lets just say the place and the people are so seductive.
Stone town well deserves is world heritage site status. It is a real working town but still retains the atmosphere of a intermingling of many cultures and trade. The guest house where I stayed had a very happy chappie making the breakfast, singing all the way through to the point that his colleague serving, closed the kitchen door on him, when I asked why he was so happy, he said it was because he was going to give his first public performance on the violin that night as he had just reached grade I. Coincidently, I visted the old customs house now renovated and turned into a cultural centre and noticed that the Dhow Countries Music academy was giving its monthly concert that evening, so I went and sure enough he was there with the beginners, but it was nothing like the beginners recitals at Meldreth! It was a great fun local cultural evening.
Did I mention a previous local event I stumbled upon in Dar es Salaam and the Tribal Village museum. It was an amazingly talented troop of young performers, starting with drum, then singing dancing and circus acrobatics. In the middle of which they staged a mini childrens' african dancing competition. It reminded me of my times with Liz, at Helen and Megan's competitions, even the babies were grinding. The leader of the troop insisted I went to meet all the members and would not let me leave until the end, so another night taxi ride!
And then on to the beach, it is all that I expected. The snorkeling was stunning. Although it is now the low season and there was rain most days and some cloud, it made for welcome relief and enabled me to get some serious beach walking in, a young guide kept joining me so we ha a real hoot walking and swimming as we kept getting caught by the tides. We had a great walk to an island but then again got caught by the tide and I ended up shredding my feet on the urchins and the rocks. Not so sensible as I left for the Usambara Mountains the next day.
Another epic in its self. I had spent an extra couple of days on the beach as I had hoped to get a boat to Pemba, but it was not to be so I took a local dhow back to the main land. For someone who is not good on boats; I get sea sick when snorkeling; this again might not have been the best decision. We all got on, straight from the beach. All the women and children got into the bottomof the boat, I decided to sit on the side, and so I could focus furiously on the horizon. I was quite proud to be the only female not to be sick during the three hour journey, luckily there were plenty of buckets. Their received wisdom is that it is better not to be able to see, I think I prefer mine. The boats are fairly small and are wind powered, I am glad for the experience but probably won't do it again.
I am now back on the mainland and in radio contact, up in the Usambara Mountains, which are beautiful. I have found myself another guide and have just returned from a trek where I felt positively cold when we reached the top. I needed a blanket last night too,it was wonderful after the humidity of the coast. I seem to have fallen in with another community project too and so will spend and extra day or too finding out how things work here.
The Tanzanian people are just so warm, friendly and welcoming, it is hard to move on as planned, but hakuna matata, I am just going with the flow
Stone town well deserves is world heritage site status. It is a real working town but still retains the atmosphere of a intermingling of many cultures and trade. The guest house where I stayed had a very happy chappie making the breakfast, singing all the way through to the point that his colleague serving, closed the kitchen door on him, when I asked why he was so happy, he said it was because he was going to give his first public performance on the violin that night as he had just reached grade I. Coincidently, I visted the old customs house now renovated and turned into a cultural centre and noticed that the Dhow Countries Music academy was giving its monthly concert that evening, so I went and sure enough he was there with the beginners, but it was nothing like the beginners recitals at Meldreth! It was a great fun local cultural evening.
Did I mention a previous local event I stumbled upon in Dar es Salaam and the Tribal Village museum. It was an amazingly talented troop of young performers, starting with drum, then singing dancing and circus acrobatics. In the middle of which they staged a mini childrens' african dancing competition. It reminded me of my times with Liz, at Helen and Megan's competitions, even the babies were grinding. The leader of the troop insisted I went to meet all the members and would not let me leave until the end, so another night taxi ride!
And then on to the beach, it is all that I expected. The snorkeling was stunning. Although it is now the low season and there was rain most days and some cloud, it made for welcome relief and enabled me to get some serious beach walking in, a young guide kept joining me so we ha a real hoot walking and swimming as we kept getting caught by the tides. We had a great walk to an island but then again got caught by the tide and I ended up shredding my feet on the urchins and the rocks. Not so sensible as I left for the Usambara Mountains the next day.
Another epic in its self. I had spent an extra couple of days on the beach as I had hoped to get a boat to Pemba, but it was not to be so I took a local dhow back to the main land. For someone who is not good on boats; I get sea sick when snorkeling; this again might not have been the best decision. We all got on, straight from the beach. All the women and children got into the bottomof the boat, I decided to sit on the side, and so I could focus furiously on the horizon. I was quite proud to be the only female not to be sick during the three hour journey, luckily there were plenty of buckets. Their received wisdom is that it is better not to be able to see, I think I prefer mine. The boats are fairly small and are wind powered, I am glad for the experience but probably won't do it again.
I am now back on the mainland and in radio contact, up in the Usambara Mountains, which are beautiful. I have found myself another guide and have just returned from a trek where I felt positively cold when we reached the top. I needed a blanket last night too,it was wonderful after the humidity of the coast. I seem to have fallen in with another community project too and so will spend and extra day or too finding out how things work here.
The Tanzanian people are just so warm, friendly and welcoming, it is hard to move on as planned, but hakuna matata, I am just going with the flow
Dar es Salaam
Well I though it would be a 12 hour bus journey, but it turned out to be 16 hours meaning that I arrived well after dark, which I really try to avoid, particularly big cities. It seems a feature of Tanzania that the bus stations are outside of the cemntre, thus I had to get a taxi, which filled me with trepidation as I had heard all sorts of tails of unlicenced taxis. In the end all was fine and I managed to find accommodation where I had expected, thank goodness for the low season. I was again well looked after by my tavelling companion who lent me his phone and ensured I got the right taxi.
Dar is hot and humid at this time of year, the slightest effort, leaves you running, if only, for the shower and the fan. It was very quiet during my stay due to the easter holidays and National day. It is a vibrant mix of cultures and good fun to be in; I managed another night out, hooking up with a couple of other traveller to visit possible the best view across the harbour; very sophiticated and I hadn't even washed my feet, let alone change into the LBD which of course I always carry! luckily it was too dark to notoice.
But the call to Zanzibar is strong, and have treated me self to first class airconditioned seat.
Dar is hot and humid at this time of year, the slightest effort, leaves you running, if only, for the shower and the fan. It was very quiet during my stay due to the easter holidays and National day. It is a vibrant mix of cultures and good fun to be in; I managed another night out, hooking up with a couple of other traveller to visit possible the best view across the harbour; very sophiticated and I hadn't even washed my feet, let alone change into the LBD which of course I always carry! luckily it was too dark to notoice.
But the call to Zanzibar is strong, and have treated me self to first class airconditioned seat.
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