Barry's African Adventure

normality

Sat, 16 Jul 2005 12:54:00 +0200

The longer that I live in the in Africa, the less I seem to notice. It's not that any less is happening in my life, it's just that things become normal when you see them every day.

Then on certain days it is apparent that life is different here. Example; Over the last few days I've stood on a snake, massacred mosquitoes, and there were monkeys outside my house.

I also just returned from a school trip. We went to Tarangire National Park, Olduvai Gorge and Ngorogoro Conservation Area.

Olduvai gorge is where, in 1979, Mary and Louis Leakey found the 3,7-million year old footsteps of Australopithecus Afarensis, and where, in 1957, they found evidence of the 1,8-million year old Nutcracker Man. The significance of this was a tad lost on the kids. They were far more interested in the elephants, lions, rhinos, cheetahs, etc. that we saw in Ngorogoro and Tarangire.

The soda lake in Ngorogoro crater looked particularly nice as it evaporated in the afternoon sunshine.

The drive around the crater rim is an experience. It really is a long way down.

This picture shows just how big a crater Ngorogoro really is.

mwanza

Fri, 08 Apr 2005 18:16:00 +0200

As yet another school holiday came onto the horizon I decided once again to see a little more of Tanzania.

Mwanza was my destination. Mwanza is a large town on the shores of Lake Victoria. I was going to take the bus as it looks quite reasonable to reach when you look at the map. However, maps and reality are two different things when African roads are taken into consideration. One and a half hours by plane or eighteen hours by bus. Easy maths.

I felt that the whole holiday would be enhanced by traveling with wine. Everyone along the way was impressed by my approach to traveling and luggage priorities. I travelled with James, a teacher from the school.

I stayed on a permanently moored boat in Mwanza which had been made into a hotel. Incidentaly the boat was the one used in �The African Queen' starring Humphrey Bogart.

(Pictured behind myself and the show stealing macca tree.)

I took a ferry to a place called Nansio on Ukerewe Island. No electricity, no flushing toilets, and warm beer led to a short two day visit.

Back in Mwanza I stumped up the cash to stay at a lovely hotel on the beach. A very relaxing, wine soaked, few days were had. The sunset across the lake was marvelous.

celtic game

Mon, 21 Feb 2005 21:46:00 +0200

Fate transpired to be both cruel and kind this weekend.

For the past year and a half, I have checked the Tanzanian television channels, both terrestrial and satellite, before every old firm game in the hope that the game may be televised. While going through this exercise last Friday I was ecstatic to find out that DSTV, the African version of Sky, were showing the Celtic, Rangers game live on Sunday. 3.30pm kick off, local time.

Not only that, but Monday was also a school holiday. How good can life be?

I managed to explain all I could to the regulars in Top Hill Bar on Saturday about �the big game' the following day. To little effect, everyone still is only interested in Arsenal and Man U.

Madaraka did wear a t-shirt closely resembling a Celtic jersey though.

Engrossed in the game.

Celtic vs Rangers live in Arusha. Get in!

�and then Celtic went and lost.

Malawi2

Mon, 03 Jan 2005 09:21:00 +0200

Happy New Year!

As you can see, I had a lovely Hogamany. My festive season was spent in Malawi. In fact, the rest of the time there was pretty good too. I saw a lot of people who I haven't caught up with for a while. And a few bottle stores too.

Carlsberg, the widely available beer in Malawi, played a part.

On the flight home I was impressed with the view of Mount Meru from the aeroplane.

manyara

Sun, 12 Dec 2004 09:26:00 +0200

In keeping with my recent form, I had yet another free trip. This time I went on a school trip to the Lake Manyara National Park.

Lake Manyara is less than two hours drive from the school. It is not the largest national park, but it is packed with wildlife.

However, possibly the most amusing point in the day was when we arrived at the park in the morning. I was prepared with my form which entitles school trips to free access. Unfortunately, the woman working at the gate didn't believe that I was a teacher. And while I did have my passport with residents visa stamp, it did not state my place of work. I felt that the busload of school children was proof enough.

We were eventually allowed in and the children had a great time. Much amusement. The only problem was trying to get the children to not shout out wildly when they saw an animal. I couldn't be too annoyed because it is just a natural reaction when kids are excited. It just means that you get a bit less time to look at the animals.

Runaway!

junket

Sun, 28 Nov 2004 21:29:00 +0200

Over the weekend I stayed at a luxury lodge near lake Manyara. I don't make a habit of going to two hundred dollar a night places, but I got it free.

I was there, along with others, to be in the hotel's brochure. Cheesy publicity snaps. The food was lovely, the rooms were nice, and all I had to do was look as if I was enjoying myself. The view from the pool was also rather pleasant.

I climbed up the escarpment on Sunday to see a waterfall. This was on the way.

A big macca was, unfortunately, deemed unnacceptable fo the publication.

gecko

Thu, 18 Nov 2004 22:06:00 +0200

Yesterday morning it was time for assembly, and the kids were a touch restless. The kids were just beginning to go into the hall. The children nearest the school office were the last to go in. While waiting, they had noticed a monkey sneaking in to one of the rooms opposite. As this was the room of the primary head and she was busy with assembly, I headed for the office. The monkey just looked around and legged it.

The large insect outside my door was not so shy.

However, I imagine the gecko is rather pleased about the late evening snacks on offer.

dudu

Mon, 15 Nov 2004 12:51:00 +0200

Over the past week it has been raining now and again. Whenever the rain comes one or more species of insect gets its moment and comes out in droves.

This is the view out of my front door after one such evening of rain.

parks

Sun, 07 Nov 2004 09:22:00 +0200

The national parks of Tanzania are large in both size and number. Many of the main roads pass through them. A bus journey can prove rather interesting. It's not a paid up safari with rambling, but it is free.

I was impressed by this story on the bbc about the Selous Game Sanctuary.

Success story

Tree-climbing rangers help save Tanzania's endangered rhinos

Unfortunately, while passing though a national park in the bus, I've never seen a rhino. In fact I've never seen a rhino on an actual safari in Tanzania. I did see a rhino on a safari in a taxi in Zambia. The national park is connected to Victoria Falls, and has hippos in the Zambezi.

I took that photograph from this bridge.

Zambia is on the right hand side, and Zimbabwe is on the left. With a temporary pass from the customs chaps you can go onto the bridge without going into Zimbabwe. The bridge isn't in either country.

back in arusha

Sun, 31 Oct 2004 14:40:00 +0200

Hodi�.

For those who care, I have been conspicuous by my absence.

This was largely due to my British tour over the summer. Dates in Ayr, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Nottingham, Andover and London made for a rather hectic schedule and many a hangover. Here I am in London.

Since my return to the sunny shores of Tanzania, the future that is the internet has not been something which I have had much access to. Matters have been out of my hands, and in the hands of a dodgy virus on the network. What can I say? Sometimes communication is just not possible.

Anyway, I'm back and Arusha is just fine. I've moved into a new house. This is the front room.

I've also been promoted, I am now head of department for the upper primary. More work, but more money. Good stuff.

Recently I have been trying to improve my Swahili. Most of the week it doesn't matter whether I can speak Kiswahili or not, because it is an English school. However, at the weekend my location for football viewing is Cheetah Bar, and there Kiswahili is definitely necessary. So I asked the Kiswahili teacher in school to give me some lessons. I do have a �teach yourself Swahili' book, but strangely it doesn't have a chapter for discussing football.

Some useful words and phrases;

Tobo � nutmeg

Refarii anahitaji miwani. � The referee needs glasses.

Una kunywa bea ipi? � Which beer do you drink?

The only good mosquito (mbu) is a dead one.

town

Thu, 20 May 2004 19:42:00 +0200

After school today, I went into town. It only takes about fifteen minutes in a car, most of which time is spent in the area around the bus station. You could try and take another route, but that would mean all sorts of dirt tracks.

The road into town is actually really good. This has a lot to do with it being both a road to Dodoma and the main road to the Serengeti.

There are small shops and various types of business for most of a kilometre stretch of road. Nice tractor.

Almost all of these shops currently have red crosses spray painted on them. Not in any sense vandalism though. The council decided that the road wasn't wide enough, so they measured a distance from the centre of the road. Any buiding within this area would have to knocked down and moved the requisite distance away.

However, it's unfortunate the camera cannot properly illustrate the ten speedbumps crossed to reach town.

cats

Sun, 16 May 2004 14:26:00 +0200

My next door neighbour, Steven, recently returned from a trip to the Serengeti. He took some jolly nice photos.

Thankfully you don't get these kind of things in Arusha. Although, there is the odd monkey and baboon.

work

Sat, 01 May 2004 10:52:00 +0200

Once again, getting back to work has been interesting. After a months holiday I find that I'm quite ready to get into the whole work thing.

Actually, my holiday ended a little early as I spent the last week of holiday helping the art teacher, Theo, paint a murel on a wall.

However, now that school has been going for a week, I'm rather enjoying myself. I've cut down on the beer and entertainment and have been working hard. I may even get healthy at some point before it all falls apart again in summer.

Anyway, in Swahili a bus journey would be 'safari ya basi'. It sounds almost Glaswegian.

I'm just back from a

Fri, 16 Apr 2004 13:39:00 +0200

I'm just back from a rather pleasant little jaunt to Kenya.

The main purpose of my visit was to buy guitar strings, as these are unavailable in Tanzania. I completed this on the second day of my travels. So I decided to go for a ramble to Lake Victoria. Various small and uncomfortable buses later, I arrived in Kisumu. I found a hotel on the lakeside and promptly set about relaxing. I read a pile of books, drank some tusker and had a jolly good time.

On one evening out, I got chatting to a bloke who had got a loan a government ministers car for a few days. It was a black merc with flags on the front and special plates. In a car like this you can go wherever you want, no one is going to stop you. Although, I was not convinced by the chap's driving, and I imagine that he will have to get the damaged fixed before the car is returned.

My return to Nairobi was also quite an experience on the overnight train. A twenty year old British rail number. I was initially a bit down upon seeing the no smoking signs everywhere, but these had never been taken off since the train had been in Britain. When I asked a guy who was working on the train if there was a certain place where you could smoke, he replied, "anywhere."

Anyway, here is a picture of Lake Victoria from Kisumu.

Insects are great. The large

Sun, 04 Apr 2004 09:51:00 +0200

Insects are great.

The large beetle, pictured above, was being taken around the school by some primary school kids. Much the displeasure of a number of other students. I thought it was funny.