I woke up early this morning, because Jeffrey and I were going into Dar to pick up dad, who was flying in from Ghana. I was strange to be outside of the small area surrounding Ras Dege, however the roads were still potholed, and seeing a car was a rarity, and so it wasn't too much of a shock to the system. It took about an hour to get to the ferry crossing at Kigamboni. Along the way Jeffrey taught me how to identify the different trees, including the Mango, Cashew. We passed through many villages, each containing small shops selling Coke-a-Cola and Fanta, or Tigo sim cards (the main mobile phone provider in Tanzania)

The queue for the ferry was not too long and so we decided we would wait, instead of to go the long way round, over the bridge inland. There was a market along the side of the queue, but I decided to save my shopping for Dar itself. We boarded the ferry, with its minimal safety and crossed over into Dar, amidst crates with chickens, sweet sellers and milk churns. We were meeting dad at the Kempinski Hotel. The Kempinski was a shock to the system. For one it was air conditioned, but also there were lots of people sitting typing away on their computers. The difference between the Kempinski and the rest of Dar es Salaam over the wall was very striking.

Dad had a meeting in the afternoon but until them, we had some time to go and do some shopping for mum, Fig and the rest of the family. The only real place that this could be done was at the Slipway. Allan had a few errands to do in town but soon we were in the affluent suburbs of Dar Es Salaam, driving past the Norwegian ambassadors walled compound.

The Slipway was a bit of a tourist trap, with some all to expectable 5 ft high carvings of giraffes. However we did find some things that we could give as gifts. We went to the bank, and I was put off by the two guards with AK-47s sitting outside as we went in.

During the meeting that afternoon I got to explore for a bit. It was enormously exciting walking around the vibrant city. I went some way into town and through a market, I was fairly surprised that even in a city people would still give me high fives and shout 'mzungu'.

The trip back was uneventful, the ferry queue was the shortest I had seen it and soon we were driving along the dusty roads.

Hudson

Last Day at School

Habari

I spent the morning preparing for my final final lesson with the kids in Mbutu Primary. It was the Baobab lesson and I had to find some containers for mixing paint. I managed to get some things together , including a shell.

Again, I left at 2:30 and went on my final bike ride to the village. Again I was met by Thomas and we started the lesson immediately. Lots of the kids had brought their notebooks and I could see that they had an array of pictures in them.

We began the lesson and shared some stories about the Baobab. The kids didn't know that butterflies came from caterpillars. So I was able to enlighten them in this respect. After the learning part of the lesson we painted a huge banner of the Baobab which we will hang up on Monday.

Hudson

Habari Za Jioni

Short post today because nothing much really happened. I had to leave for the school at 2:30 and so spent the morning pottering around, reading my book and putting pictures on the blog.

Jeffery and Jay were waiting for one of dad and Jeffreys clients who was coming from Dar so I had lunch by myself, before leaving for school on the bike.

I got to school and noticed the kids sitting around waiting for the class to begin - which was a good sign. I ran a short lesson about habitat destruction, with a game to start which resembled musical chairs. There were pieces of paper on the floor - chairs but instead of sitting on them the kids would pick them up. After an initial two rounds of politeness, the children realy got stuck in, and lept down to grab the paper before they were all gone.

The lesson was short in order for me to have enough time to make a banner with the children. The banner was intended to make the idea of a club for 'wildlife watch' more physical, rather than just a concept. The kids voted on calling their club Environment Researchers - which I'm told has more of ring to it in Swahili. Thomas then drew out the letters and the kids colored them in, and surrounded the paper with pictures of sea turtles, fish and trees.

In the end that wasn't too short for a post. Good!

Hudson

Habari za Joini

Jay and Jeffrey had to go into town today. I went for a long walk along the beach when the tide was out. I walked across the usual stretch of sand but then had to climb round the side of the cliff with the waves crashing by my feet. There were a couple of coves each with small beaches, and I managed to get to the beach that we had crossed on the Sunday before. I could see the huge Baobab from afar. I decided to turn round because I wasn't sure the tide was going out, and I was conscious that if it was coming in I would be trapped in a cove.

I came back and again saw an array of marine organisms: I saw a number of small eels, as well as a potentially lethal sea urchin. It had a pink appearance with short red and white spines. The spines contain sacks filled with a poison which can kill humans.

I got back and it was nearly time to go to the primary school. My backpack was unbelievably heavy. I had to carry the 30 sketchbooks for the kids. When I got to the school I handed them out at the beginning of class and they were really happy to get them. Throughout the lesson they carried them around.

The kids really enjoyed making the models in class and took them home. The teacher had been going around in the morning asking the kids about facts that they had learnt the day before. They answered correctly which showed that something was sinking in.

Hudson

First Day at School

Habari Za Joini

I had to wake up early this morning in order to get to Mbutu primary for my first lesson at the school. I breakfasted by myself and left by 7:30. I cycled past all the kids and they shouted mixtures of 'Mzungu' - as usual as well as 'Habari'. I was unaware of what Habari meant and so smiled and just waved back, which seemed good enough for them.

I got to school and managed to find Thomas with no difficulty. All of the kids were in their school uniforms, which consisted of White shirts and blue shorts for the boys and blue skirts for the girls. They were all sweeping the ground outside the school with small brushes - Jeffrey told me later that this was on order of the president. Apparently every school child has to sweep in the morning before they go back to school.

Thomas introduced the 30 kids who I would be teaching to me and me to the kids. They all repeated my name and we sat down in a big circle. We ran through the lesson. They really enjoyed the bulldog style game, in which they pretended to be sea turtle hatchings.

I got back and quickly and realised that I was half way through my reading book so managed to find Bill Bryson's Notes on a Small Island. Which we have on tape and which we listened to on the way up the Scotland one time, but which I had never actually read. The book was a brilliant find and it was nice to read the book with greater knowledge of Britain.

Hudson

Whale!

This morning we went for a morning brunch at the beach. The beach was just past the village where Mbutu primary is situated. The beach was idyllic, made all the more stunning by a pair of huge Baobab trees.  We had brunch under the Baobab and I managed to find a fresh baobab fruit which after some vigorous hitting with a rock, I cracked open. The fruit of a baobab is amazing; it's completely dry and powdery, and bears a strong resemblance to freeze-dried lemon.

We walked back from the beach along the coast. The beach was full of rock pools with loads of small fish. We had to climb up to the cliff and around the headland.

Dad had to leave at about 4 in the afternoon to go to Ghana. He was desperate to see some whales before leaving. Jeffrey has recorded the dates of the first whale to pass past Ras Dege annually for the previous 3 years. The whales pass on their journey back down to the Antarctic past the Cape. The whales had come on the 21, 22 and 23 of July in the recorded past.

About an hour after dad left I was writing the blog when Jeffrey called me. He said he had just seen a whale off the headland. We all rushed down to the cliff and stayed for about 30 minutes. We didn't see the whale.

Hudson

Dynamite

This morning we went with the Stamps (another family staying at Ras Dege) for a walk out along the beach. We had to leave fairly early in order to get across the two creeks and over to the beach on a semi-island.

The first creek was easy to get across. The water was only flowing about an inch deep and the dogs could cross easily. Then suddenly we heard a huge explosion further up the creek. - Jeffrey informed us that this was almost definitely a stick of dynamite, probably intended for dynamite fishing. He deduced that the dynamite had most likely exploded in the air, because of the magnitude of the explosion.

After having a quick look around, we decided to keep going, and crossed the creek. This was far deeper and Killy, (Kilimanjaro) - the part jack Russell - found this difficult. The creek was flowing pretty quickly and in parts Killy had to swim and began to drift downstream.

We managed to get to the other side of the creek and found that all the rock pools on this side of the beach were full of small fish. Kilimanjaro caught his small fish - about the size of a Whitebait - and we debated taking it home and battering and deep frying it.

That afternoon we had sundowners on the cliffs, from where we saw a number of sea turtles  feeding on the grass.

Hudson

The Meeting

Jeffrey and dad had to leave early for Dar this morning, in order to go to an array of meetings - so again I was left to my own devices.

I went for a number of walks along the beach again and saw many brightly colored starfish and sea urchins. My lack of activity throughout the day was in prepartion for me to mentally prepare myself for my visit to Mbutu and my meeting with the village elders to discuss the project in the school.

The idea was that I would take a bike to the village. The bike eventually arrived, some hours after it was expected. At 3:30 I was able to cycle the few miles through the bush to Mbutu. There were kids along the whole route who stopped and shouted 'Mzungu, Mzungu!' (White. White.) When I eventually got to the the village there was no one at the school. I managed to stop two small kids who knew enough English to direct me to a teacher. I found one guy, who I recognized from the day before, and he saidthere was nobody around and that I should come back at 6 (which meant I would have to cycle in the night), or on Monday. I prepared  to leave, when, fortuitously,  I recognized Abraham, another man I had met the day before. He ushered me into the Community Center, where I saw photos of the president and a Tanzanian flag hung ceremoniously.  Abraham managed to find the rest of the village elders, as well as the teacher, who was also the translator.

I explained the purpose of my visit. They were all very interested in the example materials I had provided and seemed very keen on the idea. However, about 20 minutes into the meeting they had an argument. I was unable to understand what they were saying and so sat back for about 5 minutes. The teacher explained that the elders were worried that because my material was in English, no one would be able to understand it. Luckily I was able to persuade them that it only took one person to understand the material for the whole village to understand and teach from it because that one person could explain in Swahili.

The meeting was a great success and I was told that Mbutu warmly welcomed me. However, before I could go I had to answer one of the teacher's questions. He told me he had heard on the BBC about the high levels of knife crime in Britain and waited for my reply.

I cycled back to Ras Dege and immediately went fishing, the sea was huge and I was just about able to find a rock close enough to the sea to fish, but not at risk of getting waves crashing over it. Sadly i didn't catch anything, but all in all the day was great.

Hudson

Disgruntled

To compensate for the 2 hours of sleep the previous night, I managed 11 and a half hours last night! Dad and Jeffrey had a meeting in the morning, so I was left to my own devices until 1:00pm.  I finished my book and went down to see the shore below the house. It was totally different to any coast I'd ever been to.  There were loads of crabs in many bright colors, as well as colourful coral and lizards.

By lunch the meeting had finished and I was able to meet the legendary Joel Strauss from the Ozark mountains. He is a huge jazz buff and dad had bought him some Charley Mingus which he assured us was only appreciated by real jazz people.

Joel entertained everyone at lunch and began a number of heated arguments about the word 'fink' as well as continuing an ongoing discussion about the word 'disgruntled', its origins and its apparent equivocal nature - If a grunt is uttered in displeasure why is disgruntled a bad thing (any input much appreciated).

In the Afternoon I visited Mbutu primary school for the first time. The school is situated a couple of miles from Ras Dege. I met two of the teachers at the school for an introduction, as well as a local Sea Sense leader. All were very friendly and welcoming. I will be going back by bike by myself tomorrow so I will be able to tell you more about the school then.

On the way back we stopped off at a beautiful beach with a huge Baobab tree. The beach was covered in crabs and it was an amazing setting. I rode in the back of the pickup with the rest of the guys.  As we passed the little villages I received stares and waves.

In the evening when we got back, we were informed that there would be a guest coming over for dinner.  Jeffrey informed us that he was a real character and called himself the only Tamil speaking oyster shucker in the world. He owned a vineyard in Cornwall and came to Tanzania throughout the English winter and a couple of weeks in the summer.

Thats all for now again. Hudson

The Journey

I have left out all of the elements of the trip when not in Africa. Strictly speaking the journey began at 6:30 on Tuesday morning when we got into Dave's taxi, but I will begin from when we landed in Jomo Kenyatta International Airport - Nairobi.

Dad had prepared me for the worst while on board the plane.  Despite the poor design of the building, it was not boiling hot as I had expected (A cool 19 in Nairobi !). The whole single terminal building is very long and thin, with shops on either side and very few seats. On making a quick tour of the strip, we decided to spend our 6 hours wait in Nairobi Jambo Coffee house.

Dad and I managed to watch two episodes of Top Gear, but I was somewhat jaded, having only had 2 hours of uncomfortable sleep on the plane. We decided to save the shops (which all sell exactly the same duty free merchandise) for the return trip.

After some delay scares (We saw that the 8 o'clock flight to Dar had been delayed until 3 in the afternoon) we boarded our plane. For the first time I was outside in Africa. I swear that Nairobi at 5500 ft above sea level (the highest I had ever been) was making me take more breaths. I was also amazed by the lack of hills or even slopes around Nairobi, It is flatter than Suffolk and maybe even Holland.

On board the plane I was able to see Kilimanjaro poking through the clouds, as well as the beaches and islands around Dar es Salam.

Dar es Salam airport was more of what I expected than Nairobi; it was hot and humid and the underground immigration office was disorganized. Luckily we were given an easy time by the immigration officers and went on to meet our driver Alan. We traveled along the central strip into Dar, passing dala-dala (share taxi-buses) and vans with goats and chickens.

We managed to get to the ferry terminal in downtown Dar es Salam. The ferries were similar to those on small Scottish Islands (without the the health and safety).  People milled about between cars, trying to sell sweets and peanuts and climbed rusty steps with no rails.

On the other side of the river we got into the more open countryside, passing small villages every so often. Eventually we got onto some smaller and smaller dirt roads with deeper and deeper pot holes before eventually reaching Ras Dege . The Maasai guards were on duty and greeted us before we eventually got to Jeffrey's idyllic home. On this evening we went for a quick walk, and saw Baobab trees, sea turtles and the rugged Indian Ocean coast.

Thats all for now Hudson