Tanzania 0ct 6 - 18/2010: Bugoba/Mwanza

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October 14th 2010

Published: October 15th 2010

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Andre and Linda

Kingfishers in the harbour of Bugoba

Bukoba
"What to do in Europe as a retired teacher? You can better come to Tanzania", says the man in front of me. With my knees I poke in his back in an overcrowded minibus from the Tanzanian border to Bugoba, a village at the Victoria Lake. "The governement opened a lot of new schools, but we cannot find the teachers. Specially on science", he says. We try to shake hands, but we cannot see eachothers faces. Medard is his name and he is about to finish his study medicins at the university of Kampala. We exchange mailadresses and telephonenumbers and promise to meet eachother in Mwanza.

Mwanza
In Bukoba we book a first class hut on the 'Victoria' ferry to cross the Victoria Lake from Bugoba to Mwanza the same evening. In the harbour we see Black storks, Egyptian Ibisses, tens of Kingfishers, White herons, Egrets and Cormorants. Fishermen come from the lake with lot of little fishes and Tilapia's. I suppose the little fishes are cichlids. It is difficult to see, because they lay in thousands in baskets, bleaked by the sun. These cichlids are what makes the Victoria Lake so famous for biologists. Within a short time

Black stork?

sympatric evolution took place. Little changes took place, here a green spot under the eye, there a yellow stripe at the back, and the fishes do not recognize eachother anymore. So interbreeding slowed down and even stopped. Evolution! Till the moment that wellfare workers introduced a big perch in the lake to help the people. But the people do not like the fish and the perch only disturbs the ecosystem, because it blurs the water. The cichlids cannot see each other spots and stripes anymore. And what happens? The cichlids begin to interbreed again. Reverse evolution! Tijs Golschmidt from the Universiteit of Leiden describes the wonderful story in his book 'Darwin's Hofvijver'. He won the Ako literature prize with it. The documentary movie 'Darwins Nightmare' is about the social impact of the introduction of the perch. It won a prize on the IDFA some years ago. And now I am on the Victoria Lake myself, sailing from Bugoba to Mwanza. We meet Medard again and we talk about living and working in Tanzania.
At 6 am next morning I awake and I see from the window of our hut the rocks of Mwanza passing by. One hour later we go

The ferry over Lake Victoria to Mwanza

ashore and find a room in the luxurious New Mwanza Hotel.

At the 9th of october we celebrate my birthday. We have a nice dinner together with Medard. My kids Majorie and Robin call me and I get nice mails from my friends and also from some of my ex-pupils. Medard takes us to the hospital where he works. It is an academic hospital, the second biggest in Tanzania. It is grey, depressing and sad. Some nice colours would do wonders to the patients, we suppose.

We prepare our trip across the Serengeti to Arusha. Talk it over with Nawur from Serengeti Services, bargain about the price, do shoppings in the supermarket for three days and on the local market we buy the vegetables. We will camp for two nights in our tent in the wilderness and we will cook for ourselves. Rajab will be our guide and driver.

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