Steve and Barnabas in Tanzania

Conversations with Barnabas #2 Welcome back to Conversations with Barnabas Bear. A couple of items up front, the conversation is fictional (hopefully that was obvious) but are pulled from some of my conversations and observations during my time here in Tanzania.  The main purpose of these is to help everyone get to know the people in Tanzania a little bit better while having a little bit of fun.  I would love some feedback on these so I know if I should continue and if so what types of conversations Barnabas needs to be having.  The stories are told from Barnaba’s point of view and because of that they are in English though I try to reflect some of the problems with the English translation. Today Dad is busy building a new chair for the house.  It is apparently a complicated chair because he has been building it all day.  It is about 6 PM and the sun is getting low on the horizon even though it will be another hour before it sets.  This has been ...

This week I am back at the Tiny House Tanzania.  A couple of words as we start the episode,  several folks have told me how much they enjoy the show Tiny House Nation on the FYI network which sort of inspired my work on my house.  They have also mentioned that I should try to get on the show in some fashion.  Well the best way to get that done in our new age of tweeting and posting things is for anyone who enjoys these episodes to repost them on Facebook or Twitter and putting the following in their comments #tinyhousenation and #tinyhousetanzania this will get it trending so they will take notice of the blog. Now with that said this last year's episodes that I watched at home had one thing I did not like very much.  They would show ideas for the tiny house as a group of pictures then highlight one or two of them.  There was no followup online so when I went to their website there was no additional pictures so I could see the items better or informatio...

This last week is best described as just one of those weeks.  I apologize in advance for some graphic wording and for this probably sounding like a complainer of blog but it is just one of those weeks-no real complaints they just happen. This was especially tough as I have this idea about a chair I want to make for the house that I had to put off the last couple of weeks for other site related projects.  This was the week I was going to work on it and this blog entry was supposed to be another Tiny House Tanzania.  Then this happened: Then it happened again and again and again.  Since all my work is done outside it killed my project on the chair. The first thing happened upon walking into the house and smelling an all too familiar smell-dead.  Something had died and I am glad it did not take me long to find it.  One of the mole/mice looking creatures had tried to get at my sink which I had forgotten to dump before leaving the previous week and they dr...

This week I had the chance to help out one of my Peace Corp Volunteer friends who started a woman’s group that is now knitting, doing embroidery and sewing.  The volunteer purchased a used knitting machine in Arusha for them last year and has been learning how to use it herself as well as getting some supplies for it.  She recently asked if I could help by building a table for the knitting machine.  It is a simple table 2 feet by 4 feet and 30 inches high but specifically with a top thickness of less than 1” so the clamps she had for the machine would work since they were small clamps. The first thing I did was look at the clamp she had and specifically the one would not full open because side that screwed in to tighten the clamp would drag along the inside of the clamp itself.  That was a simple fix of grinding down the moving head until the clamp would open almost completely. before filing down after filing down Another item that was needed were so...

Welcome to Conversations with Barnabas Bear which I hope to make a regular feature in the blog rotation.  A couple of items up front, the conversation is fictional (hopefully that was obvious) but are pulled from some of my (Steve) conversations and observations during my time here in Tanzania.  The main purpose of these is to help everyone get to know the people in Tanzania a little bit better while having a little bit of fun.  I would love some feedback on these so I know if I should continue and if so what types of conversations Barnabas needs to be having.  The stories are told from Barnaba’s point of view and because of that they are in English though I try to reflect some of the problems with the English translation. It is Saturday about midafternoon and Dad has decided it is time to go do some shopping in town.  Normally I love going into town for any reason and especially to eat.  Only it is very sunny and hot right now and I am sweating away...

Last week I taught Barnabas and a Peace Corp Volunteer friend how to set up an extra electric (umeme) outlet in their new residence.  Yes that is my friend Kyle who came to visit at the site.  Fortunately his organization he extended with has provided him with a residence in town near their site and he is starting to get to work on some projects with them.  This unfortunately means he will not be joining the FDM site but it is good for him. So his new residence has one electrical outlet on wall opposite of his bed so he wanted an outlet near his bed.  Most (all affordable) extension cords in town have a short cord typically one meter in length.  We planned to do this work on Sunday because for some Tanzania reason they are shutting off the power in several regions (like shutting off electricity in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia) every Sunday for the next three months.  They are doing this to install or switch over some electrical equipment ...

Well after writing about habits last time and working to get myself back into certain habits like my blog, Barnabas stories and walking, I have to say the beginning of 2016 has turned into a failure so far.  Not because I have not tried.  I am currently looking at my internet speed of a "lightening" 57 KB/s  (3G is required to provide peak data rates of 200 KB/s and 3.5G is supposed to be in the MB/s).  What has happened to blazing speeds last year of 100 KB/s where I could actually access Google mail without it constantly warning me to switch to the old version for slower speeds (the version that prevents me from doing much of anything).  Well since returning the Vodacom internet I normally use and have paid for is not connecting at all and that has forced me to seek out other carriers who have slower speeds. As for fixing the Vodacom, I have done everything I can do to search out solutions and going to the store in town is a waste of time as they have around...