Tanzania - Part V

More Maasai

If you've been reading the blog you know that I have been interested in the Maasai people. There are many different tribes of people in Tanzania (over 120) but for some reason I find the Maasai the most colorful and interesting for my camera.

I had the opportunity to spend some time with a few groups in the past couple of weeks, but I needed (or rather wanted) more.
I befriended a local guide (Dogo) in Moshi and asked him if he knew of any Maasai places where he could take me. He said he knew of a couple and that the are not a "t0uristic" group that lived out in the "bush".

He suggested going to visit them and spend the night with them. The idea sounded great to me so I jumped right on it. While talking about the details I suggested we bring them a tangible gift (as opposed to give them money) and Dogo agreed. We agreed that bringing them some food would be a good idea, so the next morning I spent a few hours walking around town with Dogo's friend John gathering all the supplies.
We got 50kg of rice, 50 kg of beans, 25 bags of salt and 25 bars of soap. We split the rice and beans in bags of 2kg, so we had 25 small "kits" that we will give to the Maasai families who would host us. We also got a bunch of fruit, water, and other supplies for him and I. The "bush" is a very hot and dry place, so water was basic.

We left a little past noon. Dogo has a 1991 Land Cruiser, but I can say that my dad's 1964 Land Cruiser is in much better shape than Dogo's.

Just having left town the car was acting up. One of the front wheels was locking up. Dogo had just taken the car out of the garage... I guess it is universal that when you take the car to the mechanics... they fix something but something else must break!!
To cut the story short, Dogo ran out to get some help.... and we were up and running again after an hour or so.

Back to the maasai....

About 2 hour drive out in the bush we bumped into two man on the side of the road. (they were both maasai). They signaled us to stop. Dogo and him spoke for a bit and soon after they were both inside the car. We had found our host!!! He guided us a little further out onto his "boma".

There were a bunch of children and women out going about their business and of course as soon as they saw the car they all stood up and wanted to see who was coming.

I had brought some candy for the kids, so as soon as I said hello to the women I started giving the children some candy... they went crazy! and had smiles all over.

Our Maasai guide started introducing us to everyone in his "boma". Everyone was very welcoming and wanted to touch the "musungo". Kids specially will come next to me and touch arm and feel my hair!.

After a some time we stood up and started walking to another "boma" where we met the father. He had 4 wives and 500 heads of cattle! (In maasai world a very wealthy man). He was also very welcoming and showed us around his place.
In all this time, people were excited about me taking pictures of them (which was a bit unusual, but I was happy about)

The night started falling and we needed to set up the tent and get settled. Remember, this is out in the bush with NO light so we had to do it quite fast.

Once we set up all the women and children gathered around for some singing and dancing. It was dark so we decided to turn on the Land Cruiser's headlights... guess what? The battery had drained!!! I don't know what day did at the shop where they fixed the breaks, but they must have touched some wiring that will drain the battery.

So what did we do?.... got a few maasai warriors and pushed the car! It was dark, so we were trusting that there was no ditch where the car could get stuck... finally we did it and it started.... The light was made!!

We spend about 30 min singing and dancing.... I joined them jumping and jumping... all the women were happy to see me join. It was such a fun time.

The night was windy and I had a hard time sleeping, so I was up before sunrise... the animals around us also helped the process (they couldn't stay quiet). I got up and walked around the boma greeting people. The men were taking their animals out for their daily walk and the women where milking the goats for breakfast.

Soon after I was told that someone had died the day before and that the women were not told until that morning... the rest of the day was pretty quiet as most people had gone to the funeral.

After having lunch with a small group we collected our things and started our journey back to town.

It was such a great experience.... Dogo was a great guide!

Tanzania - Part IV

I am taking a day of rest back in Moshi after about a week spent around Lake Victoria on the north west part of the country. Moshi is a smaller town that is among other things used by trekkers that climb mount Kilimajaro as their base. The starting point for treks to the mountain are a few kilometers away. I arrived yesterday afternoon and had a clear sky where I could see the entire mountain. It reminded me of the landscapes of Ecuador.

So my week in Lake Victoria...

After the long bus ride from Arusha (described in my last post) I arrived to the welcoming Mwanza. In general, much more friendly than Arusha. It is the second largest city in Tanzania but with a small town feel. It sits next to Lake Victoria and is made out of huge rocks. It was very intersting to see how the buildings and houses use the rocks as part of either their landscape or the buildings themselves. It is the first place in Tanzania where I get to see a neighborhood that looks a bit more developed. After asking around I found out that it is mostly where the "musungos" (mostly business people live (miners, telecommunications, and people from the fish exporting business). A little disappointed by that, but it is the reality of this country.

I like water, so I decided to stay a little longer in the area and explore, so I took a bus up to Musoma (about 3 hours away). Everyone kept asking why am I going there.... I didn't really know... I guess it was partly that I wanted to stay near the water, partly I had read something in my guide book and also I remembered my friend Lourdes mentioning it.... so I went.

Musoma... not much going on really. It is a fishing town with little infrastructure. I arrived there and as in most small towns I was the only "musungo" so I got a lot of stares and a lot of kids yelling out "musungo, musungo". After having a few (half) conversations around with the kids and people around I ended up at the outdoor space of a hotel for lunch.

As I was eating my "Samaki na ugali" (Fish with Ugali) I see this older looking man walk in and sit on a table accross from me. We just greeted each other in English, but he didn't look to me very "anglo". He looked more familiar actually! So I asked where he was from.... "I'm Juan from Mexico" he said! and of course he asked me where I was from.... I said "what is a Mexican doing in Tanzania?" from what he replied "what is an Ecuadorian doing in Tanzania?"

He turned out to be a missionary from Mexico (cannot remember the religious branch) that was sent 18 years ago to build a school about 2 hours north of Musoma.

Soon after a younger guy walks into the restaurant and greets me as well.... Another Mexican! "no mames" I said! Guille, a young and very animated guy from Guadalajara, was working with Juan at the school as an English teacher.

They were in town just to buy supplies for the school (they come in once a month) After a brief lunch they had to go shopping before their 2 hr. journey back to their village. so it was a brief hello and goodbye.



The Lukuba Experience
The next day I took a small boat to go to Lukuba. Lukuba is an island about 2 hours into the lake (it is actually 2 islands from which I was going to the smaller one) that hosts a variety of birds, monkeys and lizards. I had read that there was only one hotel (a few bungalows) in the island and that it was quite expensive (mostly used for upscale safari travelers) so I wasn't planning on staying there. I was just going to make it a day trip.

When the boat dropped me off at the beach where the hotel sits I had agreed (so I thought) with the boat conductor that the boat will pick me up from that same beach on the last trip to Musoma at 3:00 pm that day (I checked and double checked the time... in English and swahili). There was only one person in the hotel just doing some cleaning. He directed me to a foot bath to go around the island. I told him that the boat was going to pick me up at 3 and if I could arrange any food before I left. He looked at me a bit suspicious and said.. I'll see what I can do! So I went on my way to visit the island. The island is almost made up of the huge rocks typical of the area. I bumped into a few "BIG" lizards (which I thought one of them was a crocodile... but confirmed later that there are not crocodiles in the area), lots of birds and a few playful monkeys.

When I went back to the hotel to wait for my boat... there was nobody there.... just some monkeys playing in the sand (I guess no lunch for me ). Actually at some point I was witness to a monkey fight of about 10 on each side... it almost look like a gangs fighting.

About 3:30 a boat landed on the beach and a few people got off... it wasn't my boat, it was the boat from the hotel, with the hotel manager and two other people. We greeted and I told them that I was waiting for the boat back to Musoma which was supposed to be there a half hour ago.
The manager was nice lady from Zimbabwe who had been living in Tanzania for a couple of years. As we were talking and time went by I realized that the 3 o'clock pickup was never going to happen!! So I asked if I could stay the night. She said that of course, but they would have to charge me the regular fee. At that point I was more than happy to stay. (or I had no choice!! rather)

The beach was beautiful, cool bungalows, infinity pool, the playful monkeys around ...
I even went on a kayak ride out to some islets in front of the island, and climbed to the top of the highest rock in the island to watch the the sunset!

They were not really prepared for me to stay. They usually have guest arranged a few days in advanced, but somehow they pulled all their resources together and fixed one of the bungalows and prepared a delicious dinner with cake and all (you have to understand that this is in an island in the middle of the lake!!, nothing around except Tilapia fish). It is a hotel that usually caters to "wealthy" clients, so they are used to giving good service. And I got it!
It is incredible what a difference it makes to receive a 1st class service... I was more than happy.

The next morning I woke up to see the sunrise!

3:00 pm the next day, the boat to Musoma finally picked me up! A day late, but very worth it's while.!!!


Aquatic Dalla-Dalla

The trip back to Musoma was quite a ride!!! First I have to explain the concept of a Dalla-Dalla. A dalla-dalla is a mini van that people use for local trasport around the country. It is usually a mini-van with a capacity of between 12 and 15 people. For Tanzanian standards this will be multiplied by 2... it usually carries 24-30 people!!
The trip back to Musoma was the aquatic version of the dalla-dalla. I don't know how many people where in that boat, but it was definitely more than it's "legal" capacity. Not only that, but the weather that day was a bit rough... windy... windy... windy. This meant waves that would be taller than the boat itself sometimes!!
Needless to say, the ride back to Musoma was a very wet one (splashes of waves coming into the boat for most of the ride)
I was worried at some point, but a few people on the boat looked like that was business as usual, so in a way that calmed me down.... if they have survived that before, than it meant it can happen again! We did.

Tanzania - Part III

The past two days I've spent in Mwanza. It is the second largest city in Tanzania, but it has a much more relaxed feel than Dar Es Salam. I feel like the people here are more friendly.

One story that I have to tell is what happened yesterday.
I stopped for lunch at a local restaurant near one of the ports of lake Victoria. I wanted to get some fish, since this is the place for it.
I ordered fish and rice with a glass of passion fruit juice.

Lunch was good and I even made one new friend, Job, who was sitting in the table next to mine.

When I finished the waiter brought me the bill and I paid shortly after. The bill was left on the table as I was talking to Job. A few minutes later a man walked around us very slowly inspecting the bill that was in front of me. It looked kind of strange, but I didn't say anything and kept on talking.
The man said something and picked up the bill. Job asked him if he was the manager and he knotted. His expression was definitely reveling something out of order.

He asked me if that was what I paid and I replied yes. He made a face and called his partner who inspected the bill as well. I could already tell that probably the bill was more than I should have paid!

The manager called the waiter and took him to his office in the back of the restaurant. Shortly after they called me to the office as well! I don't speak Swahili, but all the actions spoke for themselves. The boss pointed at me and said something... the waiter took money out of his pocket and paid it back to me. I had paid twice as much as I should have!

I don't know what happened to the waiter, but the boss definitely taught him a lesson.

When I returned to my table. Jeb laughed and told me a saying in Swahili that goes like this:

"Siku za muzi ni arobaini" which means " 40 days for a thief" He explained that a thief will always be caught after 40 times of doing so.

I found out soon after that this was the 3rd time for this waiter....

Tanzania - Part II

I had a long journey in the past couple of days. It is worth another story to tell...

I traveled from Arusha to Shingida (a 12 hour journey!) It started at 5:00 am where I was waiting for a taxi to pick me up to take me to the bus station... it never came! So I had to walk about a mile to get one on the road (still dark in the morning). I was accompanied by a maasai so I was safe. I had someone buy the ticket for me the day before, and they had bought the wrong ticket. There are different routs and they bought the ticket for the one I wasn't going to do.
At 6:00 am I was in the bus station with swahili screams from left and right trying to make me go their way. Finally I found the right bus and when I got in it and sat on my assigned seat I found out that the window right in front of my seat was not there!. So I asked if I can change seats. It was a chilly morning and it was going to be uncomfortable to be there. It was not a problem and so I crossed to the other side of the isle and sat on a new seat.

The bus was packed and soon after we left I realized that my new window was not closing! It had a small gap but it was bearable. At that point I couldn't change my seat again. I decided to wait until someone gets off the bus and then changed... well, this didn't happen and I had to stick with it for the next few hours.
The road was a really tough one for the first half of the journey... no asphalt and plenty of potholes.

Half way on my journey the window started to come loose and I warned one of the people who was working with the company. He tried to put it back together, but it wasn't working so he left it saying "Not worry, not worry".

It was a long journey and I kept on falling asleep...so I couldn't check the status of the window.

At one point we hit one big pothole where all the passengers were taken out of their seats (we were all flying) and when I woke up THE WINDOW WASN'T THERE anymore!

Needless to say, the second half of my journey wasn't the most fun... but that is part of the experience.


This experience was shadowed by a good encounter once I got to my destination. I met a really nice man "Jason". He works as a security guard at the hotel where I was going to stay the night. In his half broken english he asked me if I needed any help. I told him I wanted to walk around the town and find a place to eat. Not only that he told me where to go, but he came along and we had a great dinner. We also met a friend of his. A 17 year old kid from Dar es Salam who wants to be a pilot. A very smart boy and with a great personality. We walked around town for a bit and finnish the night with a couple of games of pool in the local bar.

Cultural Shock # 2 : TIME!!

There is Ecuadorian time, there is German time... and there is African time.

The former is about 1 hour after the time agreed. The second is on the dot and the 3rd is about 6 hours difference.

Let me explain:
Not only that African time is similar to Ecuadorian time, where people arrive 1 or 2 hours after their agreed meeting time, but the time system is completly different!!

The Swahili time system is quite different to what we are used to. It starts six hours later than the time I am used to. Let me explain. The Swahili clock begins at sunrise, which close to the equator, occurs at about the same time each day all year round (6 am).
The fist hour after sunrise is 1 o'clock in the morning which corresponds to 7:00 am for me! Counting continues until 12 o'clock in the evening, which corresponds to 6 pm.
I know, I know... a bit complicated.

This made me realize of the evolution of a couple of situations... Remember the taxi driver who never came at 5:00 am to pick me up?? Well, now i think that he probably did come, but actually came at 11:00 am (my time) (because that is 5:00 am in Swahili time)

I conversation with other people I've heard some strange times... and I thought that it was a language thing, but it turns out it is not... it is a system thing.

I'll have to keep an eye on this from now on.

Maasai

[internet connection is slow so this is the only group of images I could upload]

Tanzania - Part I

It's been two weeks since I arrived to Tanzania and I cannot believe how fast time has gone by.

This is my first visit to an East African country. I had wanted to come to this side of the world for a while now because of the cultural richness, the diversity of its people, outstanding landscapes and the unique wildlife. So far it has been a very interesting experience. I have had some cultural shocks (if you will) and also some great interactions with the people. I'll talk about the cultural shocks latter.

The first two weeks have been a combination of urban cacophonies, rural villages and outdoor experiences. I first arrived to Dar es Salam. It is not the capital city, but is the biggest one, the center of political and commercial activities.
I come from Ecuador and I live in New York so I thought I had seen some wild driving in my life. I was wrong... my welcome reception was a traffic jam from the airport on my way to the hotel. Cars were packed on the streets and some of the drivers (including my taxi driver) would chose to take the sidewalk to pass the other cars..... CRAZY. The poor pedestrians had to squeeze on the sides of the rode just in case a car decided to take that route.

I live in a big city and visiting another one was not my priority, but it was the place that made the most sense to land in. It was a good place to took care of some organizational business (buying a cell phone, electrical converter, air ticket to Arusha and more).

The day after I got on a plane and flew to Arusha. Arusha is a smaller city in the north of the country. It is where most people use as a hub to start their Safari trips and climbs to mount Kilimanjaro. It is a city that sees a lot of tourists, and although being a smaller city it also has a very active street life. (my guess is that this is the case in most cities in Africa). This brings me to one of the "cultural shocks" I've experienced as a tourist.

Being a white "musungo" person in an all black country I stand out of the crowd so easily. So I become a target from all the street hagglers that want to sell souvenirs, introduce me to safari companies, and of course as a "rasta" push some ganja! This is a non stopping thing... Not knowing the language makes it more difficult to get away from it as well. In a way this is part of the colorfulness of traveling in Africa, but having to experience it every day it becomes an uncomfortable experience.

It has been a while since I traveled to a country where I do not speak the language. I forgot how difficult it can be to not be able to communicate with people. It takes longer to get things done and it can be funny at times, but frustrating on others. Mostly it has made me want to learn the language, so I have been trying to learn it little by little....but it is hard!!

Continuing with my account... After spending a couple of days in Arusha I booked a Safari for 6 days. The Safari took me to different Parks with different landscapes and wildlife, there was the Serengeti, Gnorongoro, Manyara and Tarangyre.
Many tourists come to Tanzania for Safari. It is definitely a unique experience and quite interesting. I got to see so many animals that I have never seen so close, drive around the big planes hoping to find the next surprise, but I have to say that animal watching is not my strongest interest. I don't want to sound disappointed, and I am happy that I did it.

I kind of joked about it with the group of people who I was traveling with, but if I want to see animals I feel like I can go to the zoo, but finding groups of people of different cultures is impossible to do it other than when you are traveling around. This brings me to my favorite part of my trip so far.

For a long time I had heard about the Maasai. They are a group of people that are traditionally nomadic. They live in both Kenya and Tanzania. Today a lot of them have assimilated and live close to the cities, but keep their traditional dresses and jewelry. Their features are unique, their clothing is colorful and the jewelry catches your eye... especially the women.
The maasai live in smaller groups of about 50 - 150. The houses where they live are called "bomas" and are built with wood and dirt. There are a few bomas in an area where the group lives and are placed in a circular configuration, leaving the center as the "courtyard". It is a bit hard to explain...

I visited a few bomas in the past few days and it was a great experience to be able to photograph them. I also went to a maasai market. It happens once a week and it's the time when a lot of them do their food shopping and cattle trading (selling and buying).

Tomorrow I am leaving to the north west part of the country to a town called Mwanza. I will be seeing lake Victoria and hopefully some small fishing villages.