GETTING THERE AND HOME FOR 10 WEEKS

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Arrival Tanzania was pretty much plane sailing, the flight was horrendous, no in flight entertainment for 13 hrs, Swiss air aren’t in my top 10 airlines to fly with again! First impressions were that the country is very much like Sierra Leone, just slightly more affluent, and this impression has remained valid for the duration of my stay. The people are mostly very friendly, my travel companion for the last 3 weeks has met a nastier side on a few occasions but that’s his story to tell. I’ve been made most welcome and once away from the cities and tourist areas, where you feel everybody is just after your money, you can relax into a much slower pace of life.

On day one I met up with the gang I was to be spending my time with out here. A total of 21 other volunteers like me, and the 4 research staff who were driving our programme of work. A heady number of people to learn the name of on a single sitting!! We left Dar Es Salaam on day 2, departing on a local bus, chickens and all, for our 8 hr trip down south. A very sore bottom experience, but an opportunity to see the country first hand and luckily for us to see some wildlife. My first sighting of Elephant was a herd less than 2m from the road side, what more could I ask for. After the bus trip to a town called Ifakara, the nearest civilization to our camp, we then had a 2 hour truck ride to the camp itself. Ah, and was Simba camp, as it was called, a sight to behold. There should be some pictures attached for you to fully appreciate what an experience it was. A number of bamboo shacks for eating, sleeping and generally living in, a particularly attractive long drop toilet and best of all a river, with a handy beach, for washing in.

The camp was in the middle of the miombo, or bush as I would have called it. Open to all kinds of wildlife, and boy did we have it, monkeys, baboons, bushpigs, snakes, genet and fortunately only heard calling over the river Leopard! There were also a number of lesser critters which just served to either amuse or scare. Shoe checking in the morning was a must, luckily I only had a frog living in mine, other house guests included scorpions, baboon spiders (big ugly buggers) and hissing ants.

The only contact we had with the outside world, excluding the emergency radio, which didn’t usually work for radio check anyway, was when we ventured to the village for food re-supply. Occasionally a trip to Ifakara was required, visits to doctors etc, fortunately we had no real serious illnesses on camp, and then we got to buy whatever luxury food was available.

I never thought I would consider pasta and eggs luxury items! But they did make for a good slap up meal after subsisting on beans/vege and rice for weeks on end!! I can safely say my cooking skills and inventiveness in the kitchen have never been so stretched. Cooking over a log fire, which I noticed one day I had even developed the knack of controlling the temperature of by moving logs in and out, was an eye opener and often the cause for much hilarity and burnt food! It is amazing what culinary delights you can make from beans mixed with herbs and spices, my Sheppard’s pie became a legend!

After 4 weeks a number of the volunteers time was up and they headed home, leaving 8 of us to take up the mantel. Life in camp became slightly less cramped and hectic, and food more plentiful and varied, luxury!! The outgoing lot were good to their word, the absolute stars, and sent us food parcels, what a day it was when they arrived, even more so as it was Charlottes 21st Birthday and they sent us a party kit, alcohol included!

What more can I say about life on camp, it’s amazing how quickly you get use to having no luxuries and the simple pleasures you can get from the most basic of things; hot war in a large plastic tub to bath in being my fondest memory…..

Next installment, hopefully tomorrow, I’ll tell you what I got up to for the 10 weeks.

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