Starting work...or not as the case may be...

28/12/09

I was prepared to start working today. However, like all of the best laid plans in Africa, this did not come to fruition. The Professor’s phone had broken so instead we went to town to sort that out. The Tanzanian government have a new tax collection scheme, occurring through mobile phones. Everyone who owns a mobile phone has to register the SIM card before the end of this month. Anyone who fails to do so loses their number until they can register either the old number or a new one. I am working off a Tanzanian SIM at the moment so this included me. Heading out with the possibility of killing two birds with one stone we set off into town.

The queues for SIM registration have been huge for the majority of the past week, and today was no different. I waited in line whilst the Professor went to see if he could have his phone fixed. The line had shifted about halfway in a half hour or so, but luckily I am under the wing of the most connected man in Bukoba. He had arranged for an employee of the Zain Network to sort out my registration details. Once again the white man in Bukoba managed to jump the queue quite significantly. I am sure that the people of Bukoba are actually getting sick of my presence. Ah well...too late to change it now.

Driving around town the Professor randomly says to me “There’s the fourth.” I had no idea what he was talking about until he reminded me of the conversation we had had the day before. Somehow conversation had got on to the number of white people in Bukoba; I had told him that I’d seen three in the past week or so. He dutifully was pointing out that there was the fourth. About twenty minutes later we passed two backpackers, also of white descent and 10 minutes after that we saw a small white woman walking down the road. This prompted the question from the Professor “Is something wrong with her?” She was quite small, but I wouldn’t say that she was ill...however there was no convincing the Prof, he was sure she was malnourished. I am sure she was just small.

With all the excitement of seeing the many mzungus in town, we headed back to the house where I remained for the rest of the day. I tried my luck at sitting on the rocks and reading again, but sadly there were no close encounters with winged-beasts from hell. Not a vast deal to report to you from the day really. In fact, this has been quite a dull day. I would take the time to recommend to you all to read The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. It’s a good story about life in India. A bit grim in places but you can’t complain!

Well that’s all from me. Let’s see if I actually start working tomorrow.