Letter from Tanzania ( Africa) .... August/September 2007

African dance to welcome us into the village

When I was in Kenya I lived very much in my own little Indian community, away from any black Africans and there was a saying I still remember, which went like this “if you are white, you are all right, if you are brown, stick around and if you are black stay back”. During my time in Kenya I lived my life surrounded with lots of prejudiced against black people and for a long time I wanted to overcome them by experiencing a short stay with an African family, silly idea but true! 

My chance came in 2007 when I accompanied three others (one black male African, two white females) from England for a mission to build a medical centre in a small village on the border of Tanzania and Zambia. For me, going back to East Africa was like going home; the continent where I was born, the language (Swahili) I had adopted as mine and Tanzanian (Kenya’s neighbour) long stability made it lot easier for me to have my unique experience I longed for!

 

Four of us landed in Dar-es-Salaam, the capital of Tanzania where we were met up with an African family who provided us with accommodation, their one bed room, their food which was scarce and their water for washing and drinking which was even more scarce!! On our arrival we found out that the host was suffering from malaria and we made sure that we took our medication daily so that we can continue our journey to the village to start our mission. Our group of four became a group of six when two more family members (an elderly lady and a little girl) of the host joined us; it was their village we were visiting. The bus journey to the half way house, the town called Sumawanga was late, no surprises there but it was also unbelievably dusty, bumpy, and noisy; the bus had an African soap opera blaring out for our entertainment! Upon reaching Sumawanga, the elderly lady had to be admitted into a hospital because she was suffering from the dreaded malaria and the little girl stayed with her. After a night’s rest in Sumawanga with another very hospitable family who happened to have water well for a good hair wash, we continued our journey to the village.

 

The road journey continued to be dusty and bumpy and we arrived in the village far too late but the villagers stayed up to welcome us with their drum beats and dance which did not stop for one whole hour; we felt like a royal family! Our accommodation was a newly built house for the head master. We put our mattress on the floor to sleep and made ourselves at home with a sitting room, a kitchen, a bath room and a loo, all surrounded by four walls, we were well protected. We soon set up our daily routine, most importantly receiving the water for cleaning, washing and the loo. The village children brought buckets of water from the boreholes before they went to school. We managed to cook our breakfast on the open fire and our evening meals were provided by the head of the village. We were given a cockerel as a pet to keep but he soon found himself in the cooking pot as we needed our sleep most mornings! My room mates, all three of them suffered bad tummies, runs to the loo, a bit of malaria and I fortunately escaped all that with a mere tooth ache, luck me!!

 

 It all looked idyllic village life at first however the cracks started to appear in the second week of our stay. The village, which was once a green and pleasant land was dusty and barren with very little lush jungle life left for the villagers to breathe. The wind blew dust in all directions and we always went out fully wrapped up. The wild hyenas would come out at night searching for food, mainly live stock which the villagers had to shield every night. The villagers often drank water straight from boreholes thus suffering ill health; there was also shortage of fuel too, not many trees left to burn. Everyday, electricity was in limited supply, some villagers kept generators which were often faulty. The life was hard and villagers took to drinking hard stuff, alcohol was a problem they did not how to handle! The young girls were often enticed by older men for good life in big city and then dumped as prostitutes with child or two!!

 
 I could go no and no about the plight of the remote villagers but I shall stop here and write a little bit about what Tanzania has to offer to a tourist from the West. The sun, sea and lots of sandy beaches: Kigamboni Island beach is only a boat ride away from Dar-es- Salaam. Town of Bagamoya which was founded at the end of 18^th century and has German flavour is small and friendly place. There are  lots of safari trips to see the wild life, make sure you go with somebody who knows the road, we almost got lost, had an accident and came back without seeing any wild beasts. There is mighty  Mount Kilimanjaro to climb if others adventures are too much for you?

 If you get sick of all that is said above and want to escape into your own little world, visit the top hotel in Dar-es-Salaam with a good book where you can sit and relax and can treat yourself to  “Movenpick” the best ice cream in the world!