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Published: August 18th 2006
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on the road
the blissful tarmaced road of massasi It's been an eventful week, full of the unexpected - bumping into people, going to weddings, meeting up with AIDS consultants and gathering material for the library/reception at Kinshai. As ever, nothing ever quite goes according to expectations.
So, having gotten to a conference in Swahili, one of the things I did was take advantage of the location and go for a hike in the Uluguru hills. These are about 3 hours south west of Dar.
I was taken up by a guide - 26 year old James, who wanted to know why I thought some people are poor and some are rich. He asked me about education in the UK, social services, poverty and he also wanted to know what I thought about (the common practice here) of polygamy.
He escorted me on the 16 km walk through the luscious hills. He was a great companion and pointed out all the different fruits and vegetables that are cultivated in the area. Until recently the Uluguru mountains were mostly covered in forest but they have been fairly aggressively farmed by the local Luguru people, whose only way of making money is to grow crops in the hills, pick them
and then walk the 16km to town and back with their produce in buckets on their heads to sell them to whoever they can. I was surprised to see strawberries and the most delicious tasting raspberries I’ve ever had amongst these crops of pineapple, cassava, sugar cane, tomatoes and sweet potatoes, but I guess being in the hills, the climate is cool enough.
The extent of farming is however now changing the face of the Uluguru and the government are now systematically moving the farmers into the town of Morogoro down below. Depriving a whole group of people with agricultural skills of their livelihood and moving them to an urban area suffering from unemployment and drinking problems does not seem like too good an idea to me. But James, was much more positive about this, focusing more on the ecological effects of this legislation than the social ones. I guess that told me.
Even I as an English woman have been surprised at how much people drink here. Men sit at bars nursing a ‘Tusker’ or ‘Safari’ (or my personal preference - a ‘Kilimanjaro’) at all times of the day, regardless of how much or how little food
offering
sellers tout their wares through windows as busses pull in they or their family have. Drink is seen as a way to forget your troubles.
I was also taken to meet the ‘chairman’ of one of the villages. The ‘chairman’ turned out to be a woman (and one with a fairly impressively big house playing Marvin Gaye) who I reckon wasn’t that much older than me. She and her two daughters were all wearing matching yellow and brown Khangas and I sat on their comfy sofa smiling a lot. It was only after that I learned that the Luguru are one of the few people who are staunchly matrilineal. The inheritance of land goes through the maternal line and women have a much higher position of authority within the Luguru than they do in many other tribes and divorce is common, with unruly men often being sent off with nothing more than the clothes on their back.
On the way both up and down the mountain, I was ‘shikamoo-ed’ by children. There are many greetings here in Tanzania - ‘Mambo’, ‘Jambo’, ‘Si Jambo’, ‘Hu Jambo’, ‘Habari’, ‘Salaama’, ‘Karibu’, all of which demand their own separate response, but of all of them, ‘Shikamoo’ is my favourite. Not just for
hero
football unites in stonetown the sound alone, but because it is a sign of respect to elders. Needless to say I just love it when the little ones ‘shikamoo’ me and I solemnly answer them with ‘Maharaba’.
As it happens Swahili is a wonderfully onomatopoeic language.
- Kuku is chicken
- Piki piki - motorbike
- daladala - the shared and overcrowded mini busses that get you about town if you don't mind being sat on by one of the mamas
- baridi - cold
- nani - who?
- nyama choma - chunks of grilled meat
- chipsy maya - chip omlette
- pesa - money
- kababu - miniature kebabs
- ngisi - squid
- karibu - welcome
- hatari! - danger!
Then there are some of my other favourite words, such as a ‘keeplefti’ - a roundabout, bia - beer and nya nya - tomato.
On the way up and down the mountain I was also steadily overtaken by small children and ageing pensioners. Whilst the 5 hour hike was somewhat of a challenge for me (I had to ask James to slow
down once or twice), this is their daily commute to town. God knows how I’m going to make it up Kili, particularly after a somewhat indulgent few days in Dar (well, what do you do if one of your hosts is a wine importer…?)
I’m back in Moshi now, and have actually unpacked my bag and even hung up some of my clothes. It feels weird. After being on the road for so long I’ve now realized just how tired I am. A little bit of staying put is a very appealing thought right now and there are worse places to be.
Though on that note, I'd better head off to my first Swahili lesson.
xx
jam folks - the radio has really come into it's own here. For some reason I couldn't get any reception in India, but I'm happily tuning in to the world service by the pool at the ymca :o). It's been a bit of a lifeline when trying to keep track of just some of the madness in the world. And congrats to the (ex) history team in particular. I heard we had the thumbs up and over a year's
hard work will soon be live. I hope there are some celebrations in order. Wish I were there to raise a glass. Errm. Well, maybe I'll do that from here.
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Brett
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Drrrrrink
I use drink as a way to escape my troubles - like learning a week before the History 5-7 contnet is due to launch that it won't go live because there isn't a narrowband version. Twats.