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