I better not stay too much longer as I will be running out of things to put in front of “week in Africa”. There is however always plenty to write about if you can be bothered. I am on the way back to the central part of Tanzania (Bulyanhulu). There was an “incident” at the drillers camp the other day. In just about every remote place in Tanzania I can think of that has some sort of developement or permanent fixture, locals move in looking for work or to sell goods. The work locals are after can vary from security to manual labour (gardener, cleaner, carpenter etc). Goods sold can be bananas, bags of potatoes or rice. People literally come from 100’s of miles on foot. It just so happened a grass hut bar (and brothel) sprung up near the drillers camp. One of the drillers went down there and got drunk, came back to camp, had an arguement with one of the cleaners and decided to pull a knife. The situation was diffused very quickly (Ghurkhas-correct spelling). When I went running past that evening all I saw was a guy handcuffed in back of a Toyota. He was taken to jail the next day.
The justice system here is difficult to understand. If you are taken to jail and have money then you can usually pay your way out. If you don’t then you are either beaten or raped (if you are female). This may sound harsh but let me assure you it is a fact of life here. This is the side of Africa you hear stories about all the time which is unfortunuate. I try to rationalise it by comparing it to what might happen on a weekend in Perth. A robbery or maybe a stabbing in a night club? Like any place with a lot of peolple it has it’s bad and good parts.
We had evening with the Ghurkhas. These guys are some of the kindest people I have ever met. The Ghurkhas (Raj, Lok, Sam and Durgar) are famous for their curries and boy they don’t disappoint. Some of their favourites are Ox and goat but we had lamb (probaly mutton for the country folk out there). There was plenty of food. If I had to rate the chilli factor from one to 10 it was about 4 with a side tomato dish with a chilli factor of 12! Add them togther and it was about an 8. Lets see what that does to the stomach! The Ghurkhas are also famous for their knives (kukri). Sort of curved, alot of weight in the blade with a small notch next to the handle (yes we had one out). Legend has it that if a Ghurkha draws a knife then it must draw blood. I didn’t ask if it was fact. There were some ornimental knives on site as well as some “working” ones. The notch above the handle is so the blood drips off the blade and doesn’t get on the handle to make it slippery. They make them by hand out of old vehicle leaf springs… impressive.
I have been running with (syadic sp? nerve) pain for the last week or so. I twisted my back early on bringing my bags into the country. I was loaded up with a fair bit of work and personal gear. I have been stretching it as much as possible but nothing seems to happening. Travelling for hours on end in cars bouncing around doesn’t help. Hopefully it will ease up. I’m starting to look forward to the next chance I get to ride a bike. I guess that will be back in the hotel gym at Dar Es Salaam.
Well I arrived back at Bulyanhulu alot quicker than anticipated thanks to a travelling salesman (geological processing lab). He was coming into camp for a visit using a small charter plane. They offered to drop me off at Bulyanhulu on the way back to Mwanza. It was alot nicer than the drive. Mwanza is the base for most drilling, lab, 4WD hire and exploration companies exploring in the Lake Victoria Goldfields area. Mwanza is a port town on the shore of Lake Victoria (the worlds largest fresh water lake). It is Tanzania’s second largest city and is very close to the western entrance of the Serrengetti National Park. The fishing is supposed to be very good (Nile Perch up to 40kg!). I might have to give it a go one day.
The next day or so before heading back to Dar Es Salaam went very quickly. Last minute planning and late nights. I was the second last to leave the office one night when the guy before me said by the way be careful walking home as a cobra was spotted hanging around the office yesterday. As I didn’t have a key to the front door I had to let myself out the back door. You can probably already guess that there were no lights at the back so I had to walk around the building in the dark thinking about that cobra I hadn’t seen yet. Not nice.
Well back at Dar Es Salaam the pace was a little more to my liking. I had a day before flying back to Johburg. On the flight out of Bulyahulu I was asked out to dinner by one of the senior guys on site (Dave Scott). Dave is part of a group on site that organises a regular Tuesday run. Every week all the times for the run are collated so you can track progress or lack of. Dinner was at the Europub with Dave’s daughter (Sarah) and her friend/house tutor (Deserae). It was across town so it meant I had to take a taxi. It was my first real solo trip across town at night. It was an experience. The taxi had the usual urgency. Usually the doors are locked and windows up but the night was hot so the windows were down, it was a nice night. A funny custom here is one of indicating. For example when you are driving along (left hand side) and a car travels past in the opposite direction it seems appropriate to turn your right indicaor on as they are approaching! Both cars go past each other with their right indicators on. I hope it doesn’t catch on in Perth.
The next morning constisted of a paddle with Dave and one of the mine captians (South African eqivalent of manager but there are more than one) from site in a kyak. The kyaks Dave and I had were called “stubbies”. There weren’t more than 6’4″ long. I jammed myself into one and then pulled on the skirt (the bit that covers the hole in the top). Now I have never been in one before, so when I was asked can you eskimo roll I shook my head. They said you’ll be right just don’t fall out. Famous last words. Now I can paddle a sit on (long) ski but this thing was tiny and the harder I paddled the quicker I spun in a circle. The kyak was controlled by your waist movement not paddles. It was difficult to get used to. After about a 30 mins in the water (and 2 km from shore) I fell out. Not wanting to try my first eskimo roll (for fear of not being able to get out) I crawled out and swam to the surface. Now what to do? Swim it back I guess. A had swum for about 15 min when the others came over and they managed to empty the kyak and get me back in (another 15 mins). It is very hard to do in open water. The only thing we didn’t put back on was the skirt. Bad move. I got about 800m from shore when finally the splash of the waves and my weight in a small boat managed to sink the thing again. This time I was on my own. I swam the thing back to shore.
The afternoon constisted of a bike/run in the gym, dip in the pool before some food (chakula) and then onto the plane. Anyway another week in Africa…
Baz