October gets weird
Was not sure what to actually title this post as I am probably going to ramble a little bit as I have lots of little things on my mind at the moment and I am too tired to try and sort them out. So see if you can keep up with the direction changes.
Those who know me pretty well know I don't enjoy the months of October and November too much because I rarely get a decent sleep during this time frame. This starts lightly in late September and normally wraps up around mid December. However with all the travel and activities of the family vacation here in Tanzania I only had mild issues in September and early October, but it seems to be making up for those days with a vengeance. Add that to the fact a lot is going on in the country and I am pretty far behind on my self inflicted work schedule (that means I set it and I give myself crap about not keeping up with it). These problems infest many other areas of my life such as my creativity outlets as I am drastically behind in my novel writing and crochet work.
Many thanks to those who contributed to the electric tool fund. Isayah, groundskeeper, and Jeremiah, nightguard, are like kids on Christmas morning as I show them how to use them. I started making some of my house items but also got asked to make a drying rack for the slides the laboratory uses. Simply set the circular saw to cut at a 30 degree angle and set the blade depth so it is halfway through and you get to teach about some of the better uses of a circular saw.
Let's talk about a Saturday for me while in Singida. I got up around 6:30 AM to cut on the hot water tank to my room (the switch is outside in the courtyard) so I could get a shower around 7:30. Instead of trying to go back to bed and roll around frustrated, I did some computer work and laid out my shopping lists for the day. I also checked on if any of my sports teams (Everton, Clemson) would be playing while I was awake. After getting a shower I pulled the truck out of the hotel which is a complicated process of moving other vehicles to give myself enough room to get out.
Then to Sarafina's for a couple of samosas and a glass of Mtindi. After that I headed over to the store that has started carrying electrical tools in the last month. First up is to see if they have carbon brushes for the sander since the ones installed in it broke two days after I started using it. Fortunately they do so now I have to take it apart and install the new ones which are the right size but don't have the grooves along the side so I will also have to file those in. I also bought the next tool needed-this is one I have never used in my life an electric hand planer. I have used non electric and electric table units-should be fun. Also had to buy some more welding safety equipment, wood spade bits since they started carrying them and lots of metal cutting discs for the side grinder (rebuilding the gates on site is next on my to do list). After that I headed to one of the stores that carries food and bought some new filters so I can make a new water filter tank for the house (future blog I am sure). I also had to buy some new plastic water buckets for this project.
Next is a trip to the post office to check the box but nothing there and mail a post card to a pre-school group in Kansas I was supposed to send out a couple of weeks ago but forgot with the family here. After that it was off to the Mpesa stand to take out 900,000 Tanzania shillings from my phone to go to my hardware guy John. I had to purchase the metal pieces for rebuilding the gate, building a clothesline for the site so we can quit drying our clothes on the ground now that I found a suitable wire for the hanging, building a wash station at my house, building a table and chairs and building a new bed frame. This also meant buying a lot of misc. items and keeping track of which stores I have to go to in town to find various items like a 6 inch bolt since hardware stores don't carry anything longer than 4". It took about 2 hours to go through my list, find everything, check on metal and wood prices because they constantly go up especially when we stop every 15 minutes so he can help another customer. After that I had to go get the metal and carry it over to his shop. Not really that bad but the pieces are close to 20 feet long so manuvering them around people, motorcycles and other obstacles is a lot of fun especially when you buy 21 pieces of varying shapes and sizes. Because I drive a land cruiser I like to cut them in half before loading them up. His helper was glad I brought my side grinder so I could use a cutting blade and it only took about 40 minutes including the 20 for the power outage. loading them on the truck and strapping everything down took another 45 minutes. Unfortunately the wood shop had already closed so I will have to pick that up on Monday when I head out. In total it took about 4 1/2 hours in 95+ degree heat with high humidity (that weirdness is covered below). It also cost 862,700 Tanzania Shillings for both site items and my personal purchases. Added to the other purchases for the day I spent 1,100,000 Tanzania shillings but that is still so much better than the days of loading a large truck up and spending 4 to 6 million shilling in one day. In other words I love my truck.
I had several more stops to make after I ate half a chicken and some chips or Kuku nusu pomoja chipsi. One of those was to purchase a flip chart for the medical staff to test out doing off site outreach training classes. Then to the one thing I had to get done today-go get a haircut which was really nice because they actually had air conditioning running.
So I got back to my hotel room at 4 PM and decided I could get this blog in before my scheduled call home to the parents at 6. So far I doing ok time wise but I may fall asleep before I finish this.
So I promised weirdness-October is one of the drier months before the region heads into rainy season which starts in December. November is normally the worst but October is a close second for dry, dusty, hot and everyone is unhappy. However at the site we got 4 nights of rain, and last night in town we had a torrential downpour. It has turned everything a little wonky (technical term sorry). Normally it is sunny (bright blistering sunny) in the 100s with 16% relative humidity and the nights are coolish at 75 with 20% relative humidity. This last week it was 95 with 60% almost every day and nights were 81 with 74%. Worse it is often cloudy so my solar water heater is cold every night (they work on sunlight not ambient temperature). So that has made everyone a little weird around here because this is not normal and when things are not normal here people get confused.
2nd weirdness the elections. They have just finished having an election for a new President and all members of Parliament. The current president has finished his two term limit and unlike some other countries nearby with term limits he is actually stepping down. Why they elect all the parliament members at the same time I have no idea why they don't stagger them off but they actually disband the parliament before the elections. The current party in power CCM has been in power ever since Tanzania gained independence. This year is the first time they were supposed to face any real challenges. Add to that a new electronic voting system with IDs they had to issue this year and well I expect no one is ever going to be happy with the results. Case in point the opposition leader claimed victory before the election commission ruled the CCM candidate had won. Add to that all of Zanibar's election results were nullified and will have to be redone. Through in a new cybercrime law that says it is illegal to publish statistics or data without government approval-a law which has been used to jail opposition members who posted information about the election on facebook. I expect it will still be a peaceful transition but I also expect it will be contested and it will set up for a nasty election further down the road. The current results is that the CCM candidate for President won and CCM appears to maintain a majority in Parliament but not as large as before. I would tell you what percentage but that would be data.
3rd weirdness-maybe not a weirdness but actually a nuisance-Power Outages. These happen when the majority of the country's power is produced by hydroelectric dams and they had a horrible drought up to October. They have 6 hydroelectric dams producing 561 MegaWattsHours for the country. They also have 9 Thermal electric plants producing 728 MegaWattsHours for a total of 1.3 GWH. South Carolina produces 210 GWH with just hydroelectric dams and total of 9559 GWH including all sources of production. Tanzania has 49.25 million people and South Carolina has 4.83 million. Tanzania is 945,203 square kilometers to South Carolina's 82,931 square kilometers. It is said Tanzania currently only has electric power to 40% of the residents (I think it is much lower). After a drought, they have shut down several hydroelectric plants and are planning to shut down the rest. The country struggles with regular blackouts that was a major area of newspaper banter during the elections but little was heard from the candidates on the issue. They mainly promised to end corruption again.
Finally some rants from our recent trips:
I think a major problem in the country can be solved if they spent approximately 1% of the money they used to put in all the speed humps on the highways to put up street names and signs telling you which highway goes to which city. It is very difficult to navigate here, it is almost all landmark based and as we found out in Dar that is not fun when they go and rip out the landmark.
The following picture was taken on a major highway travelling between Dar Es Salaam and Morogoro (two of the biggest cities in Tanzania). They tell me the roads are rated for 10 tons per axle-nope the asphalt does not deform like that if they were built correctly. No wonder they have so many wrecks-it is like pulling out of a ditch to pass which the passenger buses do frequently and every time nearly lose control.
Good news: The family brought me some Spam. I also got a can from my friend who is here with the South Korean version of the peace corp. Their group sends their people a care package every quarter that is about 2 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet filled with foods from home. It appears Spam is loved in South Korea. They actually have little caps for theirs so I used that to make mine last a little longer. One day I used a small can and chopped it up and grilled it before adding it to my pasta. On Saturday I made a spam cheeseburger using my slices of processed cheese I have told you about from the pasta which is about to run out and no stores have it any more. Then I saved the rest with the cap until dinner and grilled chunks and put it with my beans for a version of pork and beans.
Those who know me pretty well know I don't enjoy the months of October and November too much because I rarely get a decent sleep during this time frame. This starts lightly in late September and normally wraps up around mid December. However with all the travel and activities of the family vacation here in Tanzania I only had mild issues in September and early October, but it seems to be making up for those days with a vengeance. Add that to the fact a lot is going on in the country and I am pretty far behind on my self inflicted work schedule (that means I set it and I give myself crap about not keeping up with it). These problems infest many other areas of my life such as my creativity outlets as I am drastically behind in my novel writing and crochet work.
Many thanks to those who contributed to the electric tool fund. Isayah, groundskeeper, and Jeremiah, nightguard, are like kids on Christmas morning as I show them how to use them. I started making some of my house items but also got asked to make a drying rack for the slides the laboratory uses. Simply set the circular saw to cut at a 30 degree angle and set the blade depth so it is halfway through and you get to teach about some of the better uses of a circular saw.
Let's talk about a Saturday for me while in Singida. I got up around 6:30 AM to cut on the hot water tank to my room (the switch is outside in the courtyard) so I could get a shower around 7:30. Instead of trying to go back to bed and roll around frustrated, I did some computer work and laid out my shopping lists for the day. I also checked on if any of my sports teams (Everton, Clemson) would be playing while I was awake. After getting a shower I pulled the truck out of the hotel which is a complicated process of moving other vehicles to give myself enough room to get out.
Then to Sarafina's for a couple of samosas and a glass of Mtindi. After that I headed over to the store that has started carrying electrical tools in the last month. First up is to see if they have carbon brushes for the sander since the ones installed in it broke two days after I started using it. Fortunately they do so now I have to take it apart and install the new ones which are the right size but don't have the grooves along the side so I will also have to file those in. I also bought the next tool needed-this is one I have never used in my life an electric hand planer. I have used non electric and electric table units-should be fun. Also had to buy some more welding safety equipment, wood spade bits since they started carrying them and lots of metal cutting discs for the side grinder (rebuilding the gates on site is next on my to do list). After that I headed to one of the stores that carries food and bought some new filters so I can make a new water filter tank for the house (future blog I am sure). I also had to buy some new plastic water buckets for this project.
Next is a trip to the post office to check the box but nothing there and mail a post card to a pre-school group in Kansas I was supposed to send out a couple of weeks ago but forgot with the family here. After that it was off to the Mpesa stand to take out 900,000 Tanzania shillings from my phone to go to my hardware guy John. I had to purchase the metal pieces for rebuilding the gate, building a clothesline for the site so we can quit drying our clothes on the ground now that I found a suitable wire for the hanging, building a wash station at my house, building a table and chairs and building a new bed frame. This also meant buying a lot of misc. items and keeping track of which stores I have to go to in town to find various items like a 6 inch bolt since hardware stores don't carry anything longer than 4". It took about 2 hours to go through my list, find everything, check on metal and wood prices because they constantly go up especially when we stop every 15 minutes so he can help another customer. After that I had to go get the metal and carry it over to his shop. Not really that bad but the pieces are close to 20 feet long so manuvering them around people, motorcycles and other obstacles is a lot of fun especially when you buy 21 pieces of varying shapes and sizes. Because I drive a land cruiser I like to cut them in half before loading them up. His helper was glad I brought my side grinder so I could use a cutting blade and it only took about 40 minutes including the 20 for the power outage. loading them on the truck and strapping everything down took another 45 minutes. Unfortunately the wood shop had already closed so I will have to pick that up on Monday when I head out. In total it took about 4 1/2 hours in 95+ degree heat with high humidity (that weirdness is covered below). It also cost 862,700 Tanzania Shillings for both site items and my personal purchases. Added to the other purchases for the day I spent 1,100,000 Tanzania shillings but that is still so much better than the days of loading a large truck up and spending 4 to 6 million shilling in one day. In other words I love my truck.
I had several more stops to make after I ate half a chicken and some chips or Kuku nusu pomoja chipsi. One of those was to purchase a flip chart for the medical staff to test out doing off site outreach training classes. Then to the one thing I had to get done today-go get a haircut which was really nice because they actually had air conditioning running.
So I got back to my hotel room at 4 PM and decided I could get this blog in before my scheduled call home to the parents at 6. So far I doing ok time wise but I may fall asleep before I finish this.
So I promised weirdness-October is one of the drier months before the region heads into rainy season which starts in December. November is normally the worst but October is a close second for dry, dusty, hot and everyone is unhappy. However at the site we got 4 nights of rain, and last night in town we had a torrential downpour. It has turned everything a little wonky (technical term sorry). Normally it is sunny (bright blistering sunny) in the 100s with 16% relative humidity and the nights are coolish at 75 with 20% relative humidity. This last week it was 95 with 60% almost every day and nights were 81 with 74%. Worse it is often cloudy so my solar water heater is cold every night (they work on sunlight not ambient temperature). So that has made everyone a little weird around here because this is not normal and when things are not normal here people get confused.
2nd weirdness the elections. They have just finished having an election for a new President and all members of Parliament. The current president has finished his two term limit and unlike some other countries nearby with term limits he is actually stepping down. Why they elect all the parliament members at the same time I have no idea why they don't stagger them off but they actually disband the parliament before the elections. The current party in power CCM has been in power ever since Tanzania gained independence. This year is the first time they were supposed to face any real challenges. Add to that a new electronic voting system with IDs they had to issue this year and well I expect no one is ever going to be happy with the results. Case in point the opposition leader claimed victory before the election commission ruled the CCM candidate had won. Add to that all of Zanibar's election results were nullified and will have to be redone. Through in a new cybercrime law that says it is illegal to publish statistics or data without government approval-a law which has been used to jail opposition members who posted information about the election on facebook. I expect it will still be a peaceful transition but I also expect it will be contested and it will set up for a nasty election further down the road. The current results is that the CCM candidate for President won and CCM appears to maintain a majority in Parliament but not as large as before. I would tell you what percentage but that would be data.
3rd weirdness-maybe not a weirdness but actually a nuisance-Power Outages. These happen when the majority of the country's power is produced by hydroelectric dams and they had a horrible drought up to October. They have 6 hydroelectric dams producing 561 MegaWattsHours for the country. They also have 9 Thermal electric plants producing 728 MegaWattsHours for a total of 1.3 GWH. South Carolina produces 210 GWH with just hydroelectric dams and total of 9559 GWH including all sources of production. Tanzania has 49.25 million people and South Carolina has 4.83 million. Tanzania is 945,203 square kilometers to South Carolina's 82,931 square kilometers. It is said Tanzania currently only has electric power to 40% of the residents (I think it is much lower). After a drought, they have shut down several hydroelectric plants and are planning to shut down the rest. The country struggles with regular blackouts that was a major area of newspaper banter during the elections but little was heard from the candidates on the issue. They mainly promised to end corruption again.
Finally some rants from our recent trips:
I think a major problem in the country can be solved if they spent approximately 1% of the money they used to put in all the speed humps on the highways to put up street names and signs telling you which highway goes to which city. It is very difficult to navigate here, it is almost all landmark based and as we found out in Dar that is not fun when they go and rip out the landmark.
The following picture was taken on a major highway travelling between Dar Es Salaam and Morogoro (two of the biggest cities in Tanzania). They tell me the roads are rated for 10 tons per axle-nope the asphalt does not deform like that if they were built correctly. No wonder they have so many wrecks-it is like pulling out of a ditch to pass which the passenger buses do frequently and every time nearly lose control.
Good news: The family brought me some Spam. I also got a can from my friend who is here with the South Korean version of the peace corp. Their group sends their people a care package every quarter that is about 2 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet filled with foods from home. It appears Spam is loved in South Korea. They actually have little caps for theirs so I used that to make mine last a little longer. One day I used a small can and chopped it up and grilled it before adding it to my pasta. On Saturday I made a spam cheeseburger using my slices of processed cheese I have told you about from the pasta which is about to run out and no stores have it any more. Then I saved the rest with the cap until dinner and grilled chunks and put it with my beans for a version of pork and beans.
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