Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Lately

Now there is a homish place to go to, and we've been cooking dinner and it feels more humane. The beef here is actually pretty good, its just that whenever we have any it is scorched beyond recognition. Finally got a fillet (no idea what part of the cow) the other day and cooked it on the hibatchi thing after marinating in some teriaki Ann made. Tasted lifelike.

Ann and I walked to the market the other day to check it out. There is a gutter on one side that's about 2 feet deep. It creates an effective nausea barrier. If it were in a video game you would lose about 2% health for every second you stood within a foot of it and it would emit a greenish haze. On one side you smell human fecal matter, and when you step over it changes to a refreshing odor of rotting meat. This mixes with the pervasive dead fish smell beckoning you deeper into the market and finally a nice wash of body odor and trash fire completes the milieu. There was a random assortment of plastic bottles on the ground, 12oz orange juice, 20 oz water, 1 liter water, etc. just laying there, in front of some stall selling something brownish green in 10 gallon diesel containers (not diesel). The little plastic bottles looked like garbage to me, but the lady in front of me picked up the 12 oz empty orange juice bottle (with top!) and was carefully inspecting it. I saw the stall guy seemed to be somewhat attentive to her and realized it was for sale. Don't know what something like that goes for in Kibondo but I'm sure a smart shopper can find a real bargain.

We also found board shorts for $2 and actual designer labels. I'm pretty sure there was a t-shirt in there from every state in the US (and most of them spelled correctly).

I wandered into a hardware stall and once my eyes adjusted to the darkness, there was an electric guitar. It had 200,000 written on it in red magic marker (thats like $176) and a piece of twine for a guitar strap. It weighed about 48 pounds and had no markings of any kind. It's the only guitar I've seen in Kibondo, although Ann tells me the refugees make them. Having no amp, I decided not to buy it.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Anns Anniversary Update

We spent our anniversary day meandering around the market in town until I tired of the bad smells (goat meat baking in the sun I suspect) and the constant 'Mizungu!' shouts. We ambled back home and went out for beers with our Ethiopian sidekicks. We laughed about our wedding day and would we ever have guessed six years ago that we'd be living in Africa?





Life is good here, no complaints. Our little house is adorable and comfortable. The countryside is so beautiful-I never thought I would love being in the middle of nowhere so much! It is winter here now so that means long pants and a light jacket at night but really the weather is like Seattle on a perfect day-never too hot.







Last week Reed and I went on a escort convoy. 1300 refugees were moved from another camp up here to our camp by busloads.











We went in the afternoon, spent the night in a nice place (by nice I mean the toilet had a seat) and got up at the crack of dawn to go to the refugee camp. It was nuts-people had all their belongings in piles (mainly one bag and a straw sleeping mat) and they were loaded onto buses.








I was bombarded by refugees coming up to me and asking for help-it's terrible to have to turn people away but there are so many thousands of people it is totaly hopeless.




We rode back in the Land Cruiser(4 hours) with an old man who had an infected foot-it was wrapped in a dirty rag and smelled sooo bad it was terrible.








When we got to the camp here I took him to the hospital which is pitiful. There is only one doctor for 50,000 refugees none of whom have ever had medical attention. One sixteen year old girl on the convoy died after we arrived-terrible stuff. It is so hard to understand how such a rich world can let people suffer like this. People here die or get seriously sick of the most basic of things-malaria, measels, mumps, meningtis. Believe me it puts a whole new spin on the anti-vaccine crusade. I almost elected to not get the meningitis vaccination before I left but the nurse talked me into it. Now there is an outbreak in the camp-yikes.

OK enough sad stuff.








Today is Sunday and we are at the camp. I'm going to go visit the old man with the foot. We will try and film the camp so you guys can see. From the moment the car enters- a steady stream of little rugrats start chasing and by the time I get out the car I am surrounded. It's great.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Dar Es Salaam - the Harbor of Pizza

Every 8 weeks, Ann gets a R&R for a week. I still had to work, but the high speed internet wasn't working at Ann's office, yet, so I figured any populated place would offer me a better working situation. We decided to go to Dar Es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania and its biggest city, on the Indian Ocean, and from there to Zanzibar to scope out the beaches. Our stuff was being moved from the Guesthouse to Kumwayi while we were away and our return promised to be as refreshing as the break. Also, the rooster was being moved. Ann had sent one of the maids to buy us some chicken one day, and she returned with a live Rooster.




It was a test of Ann's compassion for annoying creatures the two weeks before we left on R&R. The friggin rooster cooped up one door away from us and started crowing at 5:45 am every morning. Then it would roost in the sink and drop rooster turds all over the fibreplex surface. I stopped shaving and brushed my teeth in the shower. On the plus side, it ate a lot of our garbage and many insects, including this barely alive roach which I put on a dollar bill for perspective:






After bagging up our stuff and leaving it in Kumwayi, we were off.


Dar Es Salaam, the harbor of peace, on the coast of the Indian Ocean. Ann gets her one week leave after working in the "bush" for 8 weeks and I look forward to faster internet connections. The food options in Kibondo were limited and there has been this yearning for real Pizza, and Dar shines as a beacon of hope in this quest for queso and tomato sauce. So I call it the harbor of Pizza. After spending a night at the Millenium Tower, pretty much a typical western Hotel except for the view of the cemetery, we found our heart's desire at the Slipway.





That was some good pizza. I'm not a big pizza fan, but Ann's desire was infectious. The menu said they had sausage pizza, but the kitchen had a different story. Hard to complain.

We spent the rest of the night irresponsibly, taking pictures of the moon by the pool of our hotel and paying for 2000 shilling ($1.50) half liter Tuskers (outrageous prices, they are only 1000 in kibondo). The other item on our quest, draft beer, was yet to be found. YOu ask for draft beer and they bring you Miller Genuine Draft.





Dar was very refreshing, as any peice of civilization would be after being Kibondo. I didn't really expect to get so excited about food or TV, but its something that gives you a rush of energy. But, as I wandered around the area near the Millenium Towers, I saw this rather emblematic roadkill:




A Raven with three legs. Thats omenous.


The next night we went to the Sea View. Known as the Dar Irish Bar, we got there on Canada day. They had these guinness signs all over the place, and even had Guinness listed as an appetiser, but no Guinness. We settled for Tusker and Began to wonder what Canada Day was as the sun set on the indian ocean.