The First Month
It is difficult to believe I have already been in country for over a month. It has been strangely fast paced in overall time despite the slow pace of the individual days. There are still a lot of things to talk about which I am shocked over because I figured I would have run out of things to say by now, but I actually have a list of topics to cover in the coming weeks at least as I try to keep this blog current and hopefully interesting. On that note I apparently had some very interesting articles at the beginning of February because those got a viewership of between 85 and 130 but the last couple are back to averaging right around 60. I hopefully can find some more interesting topics to cover in the future like communication/banking (yes they go together), solar energy topics, changes in the 13 years since my first trip to Tanzania, and the close community with those of differing faiths.
This week I have been back to the Full Dimension Ministry site in Yulansoni. The trip out was very similar to the previous one. We got a minivan bus to the intersection on B3. This time we used William's favorite driver and I was surprised when he crammed in several more people than the first driver that William complained about but this time no complaints. He also does not understand the purpose of the speed humps is to slow vehicles down as even fully loaded I think we got all four wheels off the ground. I was in the back row with three other adult males crammed so tight we all could not put our back against the seat, we had to alternate one leaning back and one leaning forward for the trip. After that William ate some food at the local hut. I chose not to since I knew we were planning to walk into the village from the Balboa tree and I did not want to do that on a full stomach. Next was our Piki Piki ride from the intersection to the Balboa tree. This went much better since I only had the backpack this time to balance and had knowledge of what we were doing so I balanced it out better this time. From the Balboa tree into the site was our 1 hour hike which was much easier going downhill.
It had rained for an entire day the day before so some of the river beds had flowing water in them and there was some new road erosion. My first surprise was when I saw a foam mattress lying on the pile of wood from the tree that was recently cut down. They had placed the bed close to the windows that have nothing but a screen and some metal bars on them. The bed had become soaked with rainwater. Fortunately we had a lot of sun that day and it was mostly dry by bed time.
Now hopefully after reading my blog you have come to realize not many things in the life here make me uncomfortable, I mean really uncomfortable, but there is one thing that does. The four young ladies that work on site-two nurses/midwives, one lab tech/nurse in training and a school teacher-and the culture that they do a lot of things for the men in addition to their normal jobs. At first glance I thought this may be because I am a visitor but I have noticed they do it for most other males who come on site and for William as well. The only one they don't do a lot of this for is the doctor but I assume that is because he has his family on site. Don't get me wrong, I am used to folks who don't want you in their kitchen. I assume I would have to teach myself to use most of the charcoal fire systems they use (no lighter fluid here) and things of that nature. But the fact they have to bring the food to me, set me up a place to eat, must carry the chairs for me, must come pick the plates up from me after I am done, must take the hot water to the bathroom for me to bath and come pick it up when I try to carry the bucket back that is a little hard for me. I have tried repeatedly to do some of my share but they always go-let me help you and take it from me again. Along with this is the 2 large cooked meals every day of rice and beans. I have told them how good it is but that I can't eat that much food everyday but they keep bringing me more. One day I got back to site around 4 and they had cooked lunch at 2 so they brought that to me. Then at 7 they came with a plate of scrambled eggs and some unleavened bread. So I assume they would not feed me anymore, tried to take my plates back. At about 8 I went to my room to lay down and they knocked on the door, they had set me a place with rice and beans to eat in the pitch black of night by my headlamp. William keeps telling me they like to do this for men, I am not really sure. It is a cultural thing I am trying to respect but hopefully they will allow me to do more as they get used to me and I learn more language to hopefully get only one cooked meal a day and do a light lunch and breakfast on my own with the food I bring with me.
The second day on site, William and I took the site's motorcycle out to visit some of the areas he would like to do his Bible training programs at. We visited several sites, one of which no one had been to before other than William. There William got some scrambled eggs for us (yeah more food) but she undercharged us because I was white. Obviously we paid her the fair price. Then I bought some meat for the site and William bought some vegetables including corn. The corn is cooked but never tastes fully done. To eat half an ear will make you tired. William and the motorcycle is an interesting thing as he loves to go fast. More importantly is his chest protector to avoid damaging his lungs from the wind. I have never heard that one before but notice all those who are occasional drivers have one but none of the people who make a living driving one do.
While on site I finished reviewing items that need to be worked on including our bat problems that seem to never go away. We have to keep them out of the medical clinic and overnight ward building but the only humane way seems to be to seal your building up which is not really practical with the local construction methods.
I also did some solar water heating experiments on a small scale (500 ml coke zero bottles). They worked well with the final adaption getting hot enough in three hours to actually make coffee (though because we used a plastic bottle we will not do that). I will do a full blog on this at a later date.
There was some basic repair work I started on like removing the pipe from a rain water harvesting tank that not properly sealed or set so I look for repair kit in Singida as well as look at some of the issues with the playground swings (they don't use washer a lot here and so the bolt nuts have worked their way through the holes in the wood seats. What I would give for some WD-40 and no I am not asking for someone to ship it to me I will just have to find it here.
Now for the fun part-the trip back to Singida. Rehema, our head nurse and mid-wife, was going back to Singida as well and William wanted to take the motorcycle to Singida for some maintenance. So William took Rehema to the Balboa tree and I mostly hiked there though he came back to get me. We left early 6:30 AM so we could be there before the bus arrives at 7:30. It actually got there about 9ish. There were about 12 people there to get on. When it arrived it was full with some people hanging out the door. It was a full size bus but all the seats were full and people were standing almost on top of each other in the aisle. We got on and squeezed past to find a spot in the aisle. One interesting note-you put your bags in someone's lap who is sitting down and they hold it for you-just part of your ticket price if you sit down I guess. I worried about not having my bag with my nice camera in it. But the person holding it never even looked at it. Every stop people from the rear of the bus had to get off and squeeze (I do mean that word) through the mass of bodies on the bus in the aisle. This would be a pickpockets dream come true. We finally get to the B3 stop and get off by climbing over everyone. Then we watch William eat another meal at the local hut. I was too full from all the meals the girls feed me so I passed.
Then we get on the big bus headed to Dar Es Salam with a stop in Singida that they decided to add because of the 15 people waiting on a ride there. We actually got a seat on this bus and it was very nice ride into town. While going to the big bus station, I noticed a glass building on the right that looked just like the picture of a hotel on a sign that I had been looking for. So after hiking the 40 minutes to the Stanley and getting settled in to a new room again. I took off to look for this hotel again. I found it and talked to them about rooms. Was surprised when she said it would be thelathini elfu (30,000 TSH) only about 5000 shillings more than my room at the Stanley. Then I saw the room, it was amazing with a real shower (doors and everything). It was small like all the rooms here being filled with the oversized ornate bed frame and a small desk, refrigerator and wood cabinet. It also had an air conditioner unit. After some thought I decided to leave the Stanley to spend a couple of days at this new hotel to see if I would like to negotiate a long term contract. I have just spent one night here and the main thing I am worried about is that I could really love this hotel too much and it may not be the best stewardship of my resources. The earliest I could get an apartment would be April so I have some time to consider this and see what kind of deal I could negotiate considering that I would not have to pay water and electric utilities. It is secluded, quiet, and the A/C has only been used as a fan by me. It is still under construction I honestly think I may be the only guest here. William had never heard or seen this hotel either. May be that diamond in the rough, will just have to see when the other Tanzanian shoe drops.
Those who stay at the Stanley, it is still a nice hotel with nice people, but in the 13 years of coming here they have many of the same facility problems (running out of water, control of hot water heaters not working, noise from the three bars that surround it).
Link to Facebook Photo album on Yulansoni
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10203356886431309.1073741835.1485606206&type=1&l=b9fc9435da
This week I have been back to the Full Dimension Ministry site in Yulansoni. The trip out was very similar to the previous one. We got a minivan bus to the intersection on B3. This time we used William's favorite driver and I was surprised when he crammed in several more people than the first driver that William complained about but this time no complaints. He also does not understand the purpose of the speed humps is to slow vehicles down as even fully loaded I think we got all four wheels off the ground. I was in the back row with three other adult males crammed so tight we all could not put our back against the seat, we had to alternate one leaning back and one leaning forward for the trip. After that William ate some food at the local hut. I chose not to since I knew we were planning to walk into the village from the Balboa tree and I did not want to do that on a full stomach. Next was our Piki Piki ride from the intersection to the Balboa tree. This went much better since I only had the backpack this time to balance and had knowledge of what we were doing so I balanced it out better this time. From the Balboa tree into the site was our 1 hour hike which was much easier going downhill.
It had rained for an entire day the day before so some of the river beds had flowing water in them and there was some new road erosion. My first surprise was when I saw a foam mattress lying on the pile of wood from the tree that was recently cut down. They had placed the bed close to the windows that have nothing but a screen and some metal bars on them. The bed had become soaked with rainwater. Fortunately we had a lot of sun that day and it was mostly dry by bed time.
Now hopefully after reading my blog you have come to realize not many things in the life here make me uncomfortable, I mean really uncomfortable, but there is one thing that does. The four young ladies that work on site-two nurses/midwives, one lab tech/nurse in training and a school teacher-and the culture that they do a lot of things for the men in addition to their normal jobs. At first glance I thought this may be because I am a visitor but I have noticed they do it for most other males who come on site and for William as well. The only one they don't do a lot of this for is the doctor but I assume that is because he has his family on site. Don't get me wrong, I am used to folks who don't want you in their kitchen. I assume I would have to teach myself to use most of the charcoal fire systems they use (no lighter fluid here) and things of that nature. But the fact they have to bring the food to me, set me up a place to eat, must carry the chairs for me, must come pick the plates up from me after I am done, must take the hot water to the bathroom for me to bath and come pick it up when I try to carry the bucket back that is a little hard for me. I have tried repeatedly to do some of my share but they always go-let me help you and take it from me again. Along with this is the 2 large cooked meals every day of rice and beans. I have told them how good it is but that I can't eat that much food everyday but they keep bringing me more. One day I got back to site around 4 and they had cooked lunch at 2 so they brought that to me. Then at 7 they came with a plate of scrambled eggs and some unleavened bread. So I assume they would not feed me anymore, tried to take my plates back. At about 8 I went to my room to lay down and they knocked on the door, they had set me a place with rice and beans to eat in the pitch black of night by my headlamp. William keeps telling me they like to do this for men, I am not really sure. It is a cultural thing I am trying to respect but hopefully they will allow me to do more as they get used to me and I learn more language to hopefully get only one cooked meal a day and do a light lunch and breakfast on my own with the food I bring with me.
The second day on site, William and I took the site's motorcycle out to visit some of the areas he would like to do his Bible training programs at. We visited several sites, one of which no one had been to before other than William. There William got some scrambled eggs for us (yeah more food) but she undercharged us because I was white. Obviously we paid her the fair price. Then I bought some meat for the site and William bought some vegetables including corn. The corn is cooked but never tastes fully done. To eat half an ear will make you tired. William and the motorcycle is an interesting thing as he loves to go fast. More importantly is his chest protector to avoid damaging his lungs from the wind. I have never heard that one before but notice all those who are occasional drivers have one but none of the people who make a living driving one do.
While on site I finished reviewing items that need to be worked on including our bat problems that seem to never go away. We have to keep them out of the medical clinic and overnight ward building but the only humane way seems to be to seal your building up which is not really practical with the local construction methods.
I also did some solar water heating experiments on a small scale (500 ml coke zero bottles). They worked well with the final adaption getting hot enough in three hours to actually make coffee (though because we used a plastic bottle we will not do that). I will do a full blog on this at a later date.
There was some basic repair work I started on like removing the pipe from a rain water harvesting tank that not properly sealed or set so I look for repair kit in Singida as well as look at some of the issues with the playground swings (they don't use washer a lot here and so the bolt nuts have worked their way through the holes in the wood seats. What I would give for some WD-40 and no I am not asking for someone to ship it to me I will just have to find it here.
Now for the fun part-the trip back to Singida. Rehema, our head nurse and mid-wife, was going back to Singida as well and William wanted to take the motorcycle to Singida for some maintenance. So William took Rehema to the Balboa tree and I mostly hiked there though he came back to get me. We left early 6:30 AM so we could be there before the bus arrives at 7:30. It actually got there about 9ish. There were about 12 people there to get on. When it arrived it was full with some people hanging out the door. It was a full size bus but all the seats were full and people were standing almost on top of each other in the aisle. We got on and squeezed past to find a spot in the aisle. One interesting note-you put your bags in someone's lap who is sitting down and they hold it for you-just part of your ticket price if you sit down I guess. I worried about not having my bag with my nice camera in it. But the person holding it never even looked at it. Every stop people from the rear of the bus had to get off and squeeze (I do mean that word) through the mass of bodies on the bus in the aisle. This would be a pickpockets dream come true. We finally get to the B3 stop and get off by climbing over everyone. Then we watch William eat another meal at the local hut. I was too full from all the meals the girls feed me so I passed.
Then we get on the big bus headed to Dar Es Salam with a stop in Singida that they decided to add because of the 15 people waiting on a ride there. We actually got a seat on this bus and it was very nice ride into town. While going to the big bus station, I noticed a glass building on the right that looked just like the picture of a hotel on a sign that I had been looking for. So after hiking the 40 minutes to the Stanley and getting settled in to a new room again. I took off to look for this hotel again. I found it and talked to them about rooms. Was surprised when she said it would be thelathini elfu (30,000 TSH) only about 5000 shillings more than my room at the Stanley. Then I saw the room, it was amazing with a real shower (doors and everything). It was small like all the rooms here being filled with the oversized ornate bed frame and a small desk, refrigerator and wood cabinet. It also had an air conditioner unit. After some thought I decided to leave the Stanley to spend a couple of days at this new hotel to see if I would like to negotiate a long term contract. I have just spent one night here and the main thing I am worried about is that I could really love this hotel too much and it may not be the best stewardship of my resources. The earliest I could get an apartment would be April so I have some time to consider this and see what kind of deal I could negotiate considering that I would not have to pay water and electric utilities. It is secluded, quiet, and the A/C has only been used as a fan by me. It is still under construction I honestly think I may be the only guest here. William had never heard or seen this hotel either. May be that diamond in the rough, will just have to see when the other Tanzanian shoe drops.
Those who stay at the Stanley, it is still a nice hotel with nice people, but in the 13 years of coming here they have many of the same facility problems (running out of water, control of hot water heaters not working, noise from the three bars that surround it).
Link to Facebook Photo album on Yulansoni
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10203356886431309.1073741835.1485606206&type=1&l=b9fc9435da
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