Every morning on my walk to work (I really have to be getting fitter with all this walking), I compose hilarious blog entries. As soon as I get in front of a computer, they disappear from my head faster than the clouds around Kilimanjaro at sunset. Oh well!
So observation number one: littering. I accept that the Tanzanian government and people may have more on their mind than the eco-babbling of an avid recycler but the littering round here is appalling. For example: when we visited the village in Umbwe a couple of weeks ago, we were walking along with one of the teachers from a nursery school here – so a relatively educated woman – and she finished drinking from her water bottle and just lobbed it on the road. It may sound over-dramatic but I felt like I’d been slapped in the face – it was just so odd to see someone do that! Anyway, turns out that all rubbish basically gets thrown into various heaps along the side of the road and when the heaps get too big someone sets fire to them – the smell of burning plastic is a fairly ever-present feature. In addition, I have no idea what fuel goes into most of the cars here but the thick black smoke that comes out makes me believe it isn’t one of your fancy Optimaxes or whatever. And my final rant on the odd environmental practices in this fair land, is the bizarre waste of water that goes on. You would think water was a rather precious commodity in these here parts, especially as most of the houses do not have mains water – but the amount of the stuff that gets wasted through random hose pipes all over the place – it’s just very surprising.
I have no idea how the concept of recycling and environmental awareness would be received but people here do understand the concept of global warming – they got very jittery about the unprecedented recent rain plus it is forecast that Kilimanjaro will lose its snow by 2020. I think I may try to ask my ladies…
Random observation 2: all women seem to love bingo! I was playing bingo with my ladies today and I can tell they are a whisker away from demanding their own dabbers! They’ve never played before and we weren’t even playing for prizes but it’s amazing how quickly they picked it up and became incredibly competitive.
Random observation 3: some people carry very strange things on their heads. I have twice seen women carrying a single boot on their heads. Neither time have I had a camera so I am now carrying my camera with me everywhere I go!
Random observation 4: give up the constant sweeping. I have no idea why people sweep constantly here: pavements (such as they are), roads, dirt paths all get swept by people wielding these peculiar scratchy brooms and it doesn’t make the blindest bit of difference because Moshi is covered by a layer of red dust which no amount of sweeping is going to remove.
Random observation 5: I may have mentioned this before but I don’t think my feet will ever be clean whilst I’m in Moshi. I have this strange permanent staining around my heels and ankles that looks like I’ve had a really bad fake tan put on – it’s just so delightful. But no amount of scrubbing or scraping will remove it.
Random observation 6: I don’t think I’m going at all brown but the amount of freckles on my face might indicate some form of tanning is taking place. I have been putting factor 50 on my face (I really don’t need any more wrinkles thank you) but somehow that sun is creeping in. The thing is it’s really difficult to tell if I have got the sun because – let’s face it – I am usually the palest person in the room!
Random observation 7: some internet cafes have slightly over-zealous policies when it comes to stopping people looking at porn. I couldn’t work out why in some places I couldn’t log on to my webmail account. Then it occurred to me that the word “virgin” is being blocked – argh!
Random observation 8: every dala dala ride is an adventure. The other day I was forced to sit rather too close to my Swahili teacher – I mean he’s a very nice man and everything but virtually sitting on his lap was ridiculous. In future I may have to check out who is on the dala dala before I get on.
