Back to Work...

4th January 2010

The past couple of days have been really quite dull. I have in essence achieved nothing, and I thought that you would probably like to read about things that I have done, rather than the things that I haven’t done.

This morning I headed out to work, at about 10ish. I was out interviewing people for my research into the performance of the BDA. We had a different taxi driver this time, and we had the usual fun of sitting in an aromatic car.

Our first interviewee was with a woman of about 40 who runs a tailoring business out of a container. I spent the whole of the interview wishing that I had my camera with me. The lighting, and the setting in general made the scene look like it would fit quite nicely into a National Geographic magazine. I still am kicking myself that I didn’t have the camera, but knowing me I probably would not have asked her if I could take her photo. Alas, I will endeavour to keep my camera with me in future.

After this interview we went to visit a man who had borrowed money to buy a cow. The guy was quite interesting, but his cows were smelly enough for me to wish that I wasn’t so close to them. He has tapped quite nicely into a constant market where he’ll be able to sell milk for a long, long time. The chap has struck a deal up with the prison in Bukoba town where he provides them with 50 litres of milk each day! It is some clever dealing indeed. He should hope that people keep committing crimes!

It became apparent that this taxi driver must have been a stunt driver at one point. On the way to the next interview the car came close to toppling over as he was driving along an incline of about 50-60 degrees. Judy, one of the people from the office, nearly fell down from her seat on to me. The notion of seatbelts assisting with safety issues is lost on some taxi drivers in Tanzania.

Our eventual destination, after the circus act, was a chap who breeds pigs. Having read Orwell’s Animal Farm that day before, I couldn’t help myself, and started assigning names to the animals. There was Squealer, Snowball, Old Major, Napoleon and then a series of nameless piglets. So after the rather heavily scented visit to a pig farm we drove on to a land that time forgot. We were in search of a vegetable grower who apparently lived in really, really rural Tanzania. We had to get a local chap to direct us to the guy. The car went through spaces that I am sure would have been difficult to walk through. Eventually the car had to stop so we walked into the bush for another five minutes or so before seeing what can only be described as the world’s biggest tree. I refuse to believe that any other tree will be bigger than this one. It must have been well over 1,000 years old. I half expected it to start talking really slowly like the trees in Lord of the Rings. I didn’t though, and I was quite disappointed.

We arrived at a traditional Tanzania hut which was the residence of the interviewee. The local kids started kicking around a makeshift football and then another one came running out whilst steering a tyre with a stick. A very scrawny cat ran out of the hut and started sniffing around for something to eat. Eventually the chap came along and showed us a very impressive plot with a variety of vegetables growing.

It had been dry but quite heavy for the whole day and it looked like it was going to rain heavily. On the way back to town the roads were horrific if you were behind any other vehicle. The amount of dust that was spat up from the cars in front caused bouts of coughing, and even with the windows up it still felt like you were taking in mouthfuls of sand. Such is the price of a couple of very dry days in a row.

I arrived back at the house to the suggestion that I should head back into town for lunch. I headed to the Victorious Perch Hotel. I have had lunch there before which was very nice, and I was there the other night with the Professor, Jimmy and Mary. It was a bit odd sitting there on my own but was quite good to watch the world go by. I decided to read the leaflet of the Doxycycline tablets (anit-malarial drugs that I love taking) which said that they should not be taken with alcohol. I found this to be a recommendation, not an essential. So far the tablets have been washed down with red wine, and Kilimanjaro lager. I don’t feel any worse for it!

The afternoon and evening were spent relaxing, and it is about time for bed. I am still suffering from excessive tiredness after days of work. I have definitely slipped into lazy habits. I’ll have to sort that out before it really kicks in!