So, I am finally home. But before I get into some of my memories and thoughts about travelling in Tanzania, I should really wrap up some things I couldn't from my last post, and go through the orphanage and school, Peace Matunda, that we stayed at for our final two days now that I have not only unlimited internet time, but also the knowledge that my electricity won't simply shut off without warning any second now. I will discuss that enjoyment a little more further on.
Some final thoughts on the safari. There were three of us who all stayed together in one tent. Which is fine, except that the 'three' person tent we were staying in had a tent pole right in the middle. It wasn't one of those fancy shmancy tents that has the poles on the outside and creates a tent that has a shape like an igloo. It had the tent pole inside, creating a pyramid. This means that for three people, two must squish on one side of the pole. That was me and Amanada. She was squished along the pole, and I was shoved into the side of the tent. I could only sleep on my left side, because if I rolled over my face would be mushed into the edge of the tent that went up to meet the tent pole. But, on the other hand, the food was delicious. We had a cook named Mary and a guide named Hafidh (pronounced ha-fee-zee), and they were both great. And the food was amazing. Camping out on a safari also means that, since you are in their hood, they are likely to come wandering through your site during the night. Apparently the first night in Ngorongoro there were some zebra's (a la the poo that was left behind) that wandered through. I heard something outside but didn't get up to see if it was zebra or lion or elephant.
The safari, although absolutely amazing, is something that I am happy I did once. You really sit in a car for a long time, and see some really cool shit not as often. Especially once the sun comes up, all the animals are too hot and tired to do much, so between 9.30-3.30 nothing much is going on. And we are only allowed to be driving between 6 am and 7 pm because of the light, so that limits your cool-shit-seeing time frame. But, we did see some cheetahs and lions eating, a cheetah jump on our car, elephants chasing lions, a leopard clime a tree, dikdiks (haha), hippos, giraffes, gazelles, zebras, guinea fowl, owl, eagles, other crazy birds, a bird on a hippo's back, heartebeasts, wildebeasts, and buffalo. And lots of crazy wild German tourists. Just everywhere. Although I didn't get many pictures of them, they were all about. Sadly, no rhino.
After that we went to Arusha for two restful nights (sort of), and then we headed to Peace Matunda www.peacematunda.org. This is an orphanage and school for rural children outside of Arusha. Jory spent a month volunteering there two years ago, so he wanted us to see where he was and what goes on there. It is really less like volunteering though and more like a cultural hostel. Basically, anyone can go and spend some time there, usually between 2 weeks and a month or so, and hang out at the place. There are 23 orphans who live there and somewhere around 60-80 children who come everyday for school. The volunteers have their own accomodations and cooks and get fed thrice a day. The children are in school until the afternoon, and then the volunteers are encouraged to hang out with the orphans. People arrange football games, or just play around, or watch movies or bake cookies, or whatever really. But during the day it is incredibly slow, since the kids are in school. Then they have dinner and go to sleep, so really after 8 or so, not much is going on...again.
Spending time with these children though, even for two days, was an amazing experience. They are so resilient to the hardships of life. They are used to having people come in and out of their lives on a regular basis. I got close to a few of them in just two days, and then I left. I think it was harder on me then on them, since this happens over and over and over. Volunteers come in for two weeks, learn all their names, and end up not wanting to leave, but the kids aren't even phased. This is their life. They are their own family together. They live together, eat and sleep together, and rely on each other. The people who come in and out do truly make a difference to these children's lives, but more so because of how it affects the visitors. They come and want to make a difference. They are doing good things, like helping them with their English, or adding sports and games to their lives, and simply by caring for the children. But, inevitably, the volunteers leave. New ones come and the cycle repeats. The children really only have each other, and it is incredible to see how much they really do rely on that.
(There is only one bus that goes around every morning to pick up roughly 60 children. And they all get into the bus...nay...mini van...nay...clown car. I have a video and it is hilarious. On the downside, sometimes the driver has other responsibilities, and so is unavailable to pick up the kids. On those days, which the children do not know about in advance, they have to walk to school, up to 6km. And they do this starting at 3 yrs old!) The school also runs cultural and eco tours. That is how they make their money to support the school. Tours to the orphanage, up Kili and on safari's.
After leaving Peace Matunda, I headed to the Kilimanjaro International Airport for my trip home. My 32 hour trip home. It went like this:
Kili airport: 4 hours waiting
flight to Mokmbasa, flight to Addis Ababa. 4 hour wait in Ethiopia
7 hour Flight to Frankfurt: 4 hour wait
9 hour flight to Calgary. Woop-effing-woop...
But then I was home, and glad to be home. On the bright side, I really didn't have all that much laundry to do...since I didn't have many clothes anymore...
That was the trip. And back home I am now. You may resume calling, emailing, texting, sexting, and high fiving me. Or not.
Now I have some final thoughts to present about Tanzania.
the first thing Jory said was to never ask 'why' they do things the way they do things. The answer is always 'nobody has a fucking idea because it doesn't make any sense and will simply drive you crazy if you try and find a logical, close to logical, or even possibly adequate response to said question.'
Examples you ask?
Ok sure. For starters, apparently the country produces a lot of electricity. Enough for the entire country. However, the government exports lots of it to Kenya, because they can sell it. This means that they don't have enough to serve their own country and they have constant rolling blackouts throughout Tanzania. All the time. And you can never know when it will come or not. it could last 2 hours, or 1 day, or sometimes 2 days. Or more. Aaaand, no electricity means no hot water or even water pressure. So...cold water bucket showers for all. The people of Tanzania have gotten used to this though.
Some stores and businesses can afford generators, so they have electricity. Some can not, so they don't.
Apparently hotels are meant to have subsidies to buy and use generators (for us tourists and the like), but not all do. This means one of a) there is no subsidy which is lame, b) there is a subsidy but the government simply pockets the money they are meant to be paying out, or c) there is a subsidy but the hotels which are receiving it and do not have or operate (which also happens-they have one but never turn it on...?) their generator are keeping the money.
I guess these actions could be explained...greed and corruption...
moving on. Houses. People and/or companies receive some money to build a house or building. They begin said construction...but run out of money....hmmm... So, they stop building at whatever stage they are at. Then, upon receiving some more money... THEY START BUILDING A NEW HOUSE!!! Why don't they just continue building the house they already started you ask..? And I respond DON'T ASK WHY!! There are literally houses scattered throughout the cities and coutry side that are just not being built anymore. They got to the point where they almost can build the roof, have started building the roof, or simply not even that far, and that is all. In Arusha, there were two buildings under construction, both around the 4th floor stage. One had workers working...the other did not...and presumably will never have again. The only things that get built are the ones owned by foreigners. Why don't they get all the money necessary for building the entire thing at the beginning, you ask?? Well, I have three possible responses. 1) DON'T ASK WHY! because they didn't. Why would they think to do that?? 2) They did, at which point the government, police, contractor, asked for more money a la a bribe, therefore the complete funding became incomplete, or 3) they did and then kept the money anyways.
Final example. School. In primary school, the children learn in Swahili, the national language, and have an english class like we would have French class. Do you remember how much French you really learned? Exactly. So, when the kids go from elementary to secondary school, the language of instruction switches from Swahili to English...which the kids don't even know!! But now, they are expected to take all their courses in English. How easy would science, or history, or social studies be in a language you hardly know. This is why kids in urban schools do so much better than kids in rural schools, because of their exposure to the English language. to move into, I think it is grade 11....Jory???...you need to pass a test, administered in English of course. If you pass the test you can go to government school which is free, and if you do not you have to go to private school which is not free. The test is given in June, and you have to wait until February to find out if you passed. What does a 17 year old boy do between June and February while they are waiting to find out if they can go to school? In the words of Boca, a friend of Jory's who we met in Tanga...."I am doing nothing." good system.
Also, how many poor rural children can afford to go to private school if they do not pass the test? As close to zero as you can get. Therefore they can not continue their schooling, and return to their lives at subsistence living farmers and whatnot.
After visiting a third world country, you realize and begin to be grateful for all the things we take for granted on a day to day basis. There are the obvious ones and some that have been mentioned such as clean running water, electricity, clean air and free education, but there are others that you dont necessarily realize you love until you are living without it. Things such as paved streets and traffic lights and crosswalks so you can cross the street with some confidence that cars will stop for you (except Quebec...), being able to easily communicate with the people around you, whether in a restaurant or at the grocery store (again, except Quebec), the fact that our politicians are generally not corrupt (Quebec again! http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/09/24/the-most-corrupt-province/), and a general belief that things are being done to protect our own society and the people that live here (OK, this is getting ridiculous... http://www.aolnews.com/2011/04/15/despite-pleas-quebec-to-fund-canadas-last-asbestos-mine/).
All hilarious Quebec comparisons aside, it was a strange feeling to be in a place where you felt like you could hardly trust anyone if something went wrong (and it did, so it was). The morning after we were robbed coming out of the airport, we were also stopped by a drunk police officer as we were walking around Dar es Salaam looking for a way to call my credit card companies collect (it turns out it is not possible to call collect from Tanzania...they don't have telephone operators or anything like that). He held us up and asking for our passports. Being the end of the month, chances are he was going to then ask for money to get our passports back, as he needed to keep drinking later that day. Who would I have gone to if he had tried to blackmail us for our passports back? And not having any credit or debit cards, I actually couldn't have gotten any money if I wanted to. Luckily we were able to talk our way out of it, and wasn't dumb enough to actually give him my PP (hee hee). Also, imagine going on an hours drive out of town, and having to stop at five police checks, randomly setup along the way, to pay them bribes to get past. Bribes that amounted to about 65 cents each.
My final thought is that Tanzania is a beautiful country which has vast wealth, but will forever remain a third world country. Despite their resources of fresh water in the north, mines, tourism and the largest and most important port in Eastern Africa, the population and society will forever remain held down. No matter how much aid we send in the form of money, volunteers or technology, the corruption that stems from the lowly tour operator to the government contractor all the way to the top of the government is such that it will never, ever, ever develop. There are people who know and recognize this within the country, but despite their best intentions either can not do anything about it, or simply get paid off in end up as corrupt as the next person. Of course, people will continue to flock to Africa and Tanzania because of all the commercials we see and all the potential their is to help. Tanzania is clearly in one of the best positions as a country on the entire continent, and in my opinion, will never develop any further than that.
(According to Jory, Rwanda, which I am sure many of you have heard about, actually has a government that is entirely not corrupt and the country is incredibly safe and open. Of course, they went through a civil war in which 800,000 people were killed in 100 days [for comparison, that would be more than the Holocaust] to get there).
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. Now that I have finished travelling, twice, and seen and experienced some of the most incredible things this world has to offer, presumably I should get a job. Anybody out there hiring...?
a final sincerely,
Sincerely,
Elliot S. Weinstein
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