Jesse’s Journey

I’ve made it back to Cape Town after 4 weeks away. Things went well over-all and I got lotsa data. Tanzania ended up having much more than I expected. This brought up my expectations for Zambia, which were then dashed because there’s almost no mHealth projects CURRENTLY happening; many on the way (it seems) but very few ongoing now.

So, one week back in CT to finish off my work and then off to Canada…

Off to do some shopping for dinner stuff for the boys now. Will give better/fuller update sometime in the future….

I do have to say, before I leave, that I love having my own computer again and internet that (kinda) works at a good pace! I think that this week in CT will be a kind of decompression from the African experiences I’ve had over the past 29 days….

Before I get into the Safari, I saw another t-shirt on the way to the office. This one was worn by a young man and it stated “Angry, Broke and Bored”. Curious

So, that Safari.

Well, I forget how much I wrote about trying to look for one, but it took much of the afternoon on my birthday. I had a meeting in the morning which I went to and was productive, then I went looking for Safari places. I was reading about them in my book and it stated that there are varying qualities of Safari’s with many not licensed and others which operate out of a briefcase. So, I went and asked at the tourist information and they showed me a book with a list of a few hundred Safari companies that were registered, and also showed me the blacklist book which was surprisingly small! I cross referenced the places that were suggested in my travel book and they all seemed licensed, so I went to look for them.

The first one I found was in the International Conference Centre which was kinda neat to see as it is the same place that is holding the Rwandan Tribunals. Through security there, that is for sure. In the office I told them I was looking for a 2-3 day safari that would leave the next morning. The response came that there wasn’t any leaving the following day unless I wanted to go for 4 days and that it would be cheeper to do that. Sadly, they didn’t seem to understand the difference between cheeper and ‘cheeper per day’. Well, maybe they do, but prefer not to explain that to the customer. Since I couldn’t go for 4 days, I was offered the chance to do a 3 day safari on my own for only $900. I laughed at that (on the inside) and left.

After trying every other recommended place in town, I started to become disheartened. I went back to my room and realised I could try calling the other places that weren’t within walking distance. I did so, and every one of them said they didn’t have anything leaving the next day. This got me depressed and I wondered what I was going to do. The idea came to me to go back to Dar and go to the beach for the weekend and work on my tan (which is currently only on my arms and face and looks really funny when I have no shirt on). Then I remembered that I don’t really like the beach, and definitely wouldn’t wanna spend all day on one alone, let alone a whole weekend!

So I went shopping. I’m not sure why, but I wanted to get out. Found the shop, didn’t really buy anything, and while walking home I went by a backpackers place and wondered if I could go ask if anyone there was putting together their own safari and wanted an extra person. As I went in I saw a sign saying they have safari organisation as well, so realising there was nothing to loose, I went in and asked. The response was yes, they had a group leaving the following day. Yes, it was to Ngorogoro, which is where I wanted to go. Yes, it wasn’t too expensive per day. Yes, they were young people who I would be joining. Yes, it would be camping. Yes they would supply water and food and there would be a cook with us. And, without asking, yes, they were thinking of maybe only doing a 2 day trip, but they have the option to do a third if they want! This made me happy happy happy! I signed up, went and got some money and paid for it.

The following morning I was met at the end of the street, and the driver and 3 other tourists (no cook) we went driving out towards the parks. On the way there me and the other 3 guys started talking and they all turned out to be nuclear physicists who were at a course for African Nuclear Energy professional, one of them presenting at it, and the other two working in African government and learning. Kinda cool. During the drive we did fine out that that they didn’t supply any water with the trip after all, so we complained because we had all been told that there would be water supplied and the driver stopped and bought 3 l for the 4 of us, for two days… despite being told they would supply 1.5 l per day.

We got to our destination, Tarangire National park. This was odd, as I was told, and it said on my contract, that we were going to Lake Manyara on the first day. Ohhh well, I thought, Tarangire is supposed to be better anyways. And it was. There was tonnes of game all over the place; elephants, giraffes, ostriches, lions, dikdik’s, impala’s, and more elephants and giraffes. At one point our driver took us right into the path of a heard of elephants who were just coming out of a riverbank. Very, very cool to see them so close.

Essentially, the day was just driving all over the park, looking for animals, seeing how close we could get to them (vehicles must stay on the tracks in Tanzania) and sit there for 1-10 mins watching them. This happened over and over again, and after a while we just got bored of all the elephants that we stopped stopping when we found them.

At one point we found a hollow Boabob tree that had been used by poachers before the 90’s. Our guide said he used to work at the park in the 80’s and there was SO many rhino’s back then and they were as common as the elephants are now. There are none in the park since the year 199-something.

Around 14:00 we went to the hotel in the park and had something to drink, as you could see in the picture yesterday.  There was a beautiful viewing deck form which we could see all sorts of game walking around the park. I haven’t seen the pictures, but I don’t think they will do it justice.

It was then time to head to our location for the night. We drove about 75 km, to just outside Lake Manyara and the Ngorogoro Conservation Area. We got to a little hotel and I wondered what was going on. We all got out and were shown our rooms. This was both confusing and understandable at once. Confusing because I had been told we were camping and even made a big deal about how much I enjoy camping because the person who sold me the safari enjoys it as well. But, it was understandable since I hadn’t seen any camping stuff in the car and had been wondering how we were going to camp without it. At this point we also met the cook, who was already at the hotel. Strange.

We found our rooms, but it was still quite early. Our driver took us on a tour of the small town (in which it seemed like he knew everyone!) and we walked around the market. Two of the guys got bored, so went back just at the time I asked about getting some sugar cane. They left, and the three of us left went to find me some sugar cane. The driver kept on asking various people where it might be and they would always say further up the road. At one point someone pointed back where we had came from, so we turned around and  finally someone knew exactly where it was; on a farm, down a path. We took the path, came to a farm-house, and saw the sugar cane growing just outside the house. The farmer came out, told me it was 33 euro-cents for a piece, I accepted, and he cut me a piece. It was awesome and I was so happy with my purchase I didn’t care when the driver told me that if he had asked for it it would have been 6 cents. I knew that the last time I bought a stick of sugar cane, in Canada, it was about $5.
We walked back, I had a shower, we ate some dinner, and in the middle of it a nice big thunderstorm came by. It got quite windy, there was much rain, thunder and lightning. I loved it!
Soon after it was time for bed.

The next morning, at 6:45, we were eating breakfast and a car pulled up and a white guy got out and was told to sit in the dining area, near us, but not that close. Our driver then came and said it was time to go, so we packed the Land Rover and got in, and so did the white guy who had just arrived. It turned out that he had just got in the from the US the day before and was able to sign up for a one day tour by joining ours and leaving Arusha at 05:00 that morning. And he didn’t even get breakfast! Poor guy.

It turned out he was a retired worker for an American development organisation and was in town to do some consulting for a few days. He had stories about being in Somalia in the 70’s and how thing were there then. Apparently there was less than 5 miles of roads, and he didn’t think things had changed all that much since…

We drove to Ngorogoro Conservation Area and as we entered the park we were greeted by a large number of red-assed monkeys, playing around on the road. We stopped and watched them for a while… it was quite interesting, and even more so when one male jumped on a female and started having sex with her right in front of the car. The driver thought it was great and all is tourists started taking pictures like mad. At one point a 3rd monkey tried to join in…. that didn’t work out so well. Again, I haven’t seen the pictures really, so I can only wonder how they turned out.

We then drove up the road to the craters edge which was quite a sight. Just like pictures I had seen, but even better! I took a few panoramic shots and can’t wait to stitch them together. Driving a bit more I had previously noticed that the gas indicator seemed kinda low… apparently the driver thought the same thing, so we stopped in a small town and he asked for gas… and the people he asked went away and came back with some plastic cooking-oil containers and dumped their contents into the gas tank. Ahhh, Africa…

It was finally time to drive down into the crater. Just before we did, there was a gate where we stopped. While the driver was working something out with the guard there, we were able to look at the view. While we were doing so, a group of Massai (a famous Tanzania Tribe) were standing beside the vehicle trying to get us to take their picture and pay them for it, and also trying to get us to buy their spears. We didn’t.

Inside the crater was beautiful. Tonnes of sun, lotsa space (it’s ~5 km in diameter) and quite stunning. Just before we got the the bottom however, we got stuck in a cow-traffic-jam. Apparently the Massai, a nomadic people, are allowed to utilise the crater’s water to hydrate their cows. I hadn’t expected that.

In the crater there were MANY zebra’s and flamingo’s at first. Then many antilope, a few ostriches, hyena’s, and warthogs all over. We went to the hippo pool where there were quite a number of hippo’s bathing and a very large number of buffalo on their way to the water. Later we found some lazy lions, a rhino and even a cheetah which walked right in front of us!

At lunch we went to a picnic site. We were given lunch boxes of a banana, a juice box, a chicken leg, a muffin, an egg, and some buttered bread. I made a sandwich out of my bread and chicken and was walking around when all of a sudden I was attacked. Literally. From the air. By a really big bird which took 1/2 my sandwich out of my hand. It a was crazy experience as I was totally not expecting anything like that at all, and I knew I was in a park surrounded by many wild animals. The next 1/2 hour was spent watching the birds attack other people who were also eating and had even been explicitly told to watch out for the birds. I got a few pictures of them, and even some pictures of a small, colourful bird that went into the Land Rover in search of more food. Hungry animals… and I was left hungry too after my food was stolen!

From there we slowly drove towards the exit. Just at the bottom of the hill up we stopped near another picnic area. There were a few monkeys around and an elephant not far away. As we were able to get out in this place (again, no one is allowed out of the vehicle while in parks, except at picnic locations) we all did so and I walked over to the elephant. Not wanting to be charged, I kept a good distance from him, but he walked away. Back at the car, a monkey had jumped in, opened a lunch-box, and took the drivers sandwich while I was occupied with the elephant. I went over to the monkeys and took a whole bunch of pictures while trying to get closer and closer. In the end I gave one of the other guys my camera and got a nice picture of me sitting with the monkeys. I gotta post it sometime.

And with that, the safari was over. We drove up the other side of the crater, down the outside, then over to the great rift valley, and on to Arusha. I was happy I only did the two day trip as that was quite enuff animals. After a while they aren’t so special to see anymore and as I’ve been in game parks in the West, this just seemed like the same thing, but with more animals and MANY more Land Rovers all over the place. This was the low season, and there were SO many other safari-go’ers that it just didn’t feel special or unique to be there.

But, I am happy I did it once.. a very good experiance and a nice birthday present to myself.

While walking about Lusaka I have noticed people wearing some shirts that strike me as a little strange. Yesterday there were two which struck me. The first was worn by a 20-something female with large mamorys and a very tight shirt. On the shirt it stated: “No money, no honey”. That disturbed me.

Yesterday’s second shirt was worn by an older gentleman, probably about 50 or so. It looked like he was in-between a labourer and an office worker so when I saw that his shirt said “Over worked and under fucked”, I laughed.

Then, today I saw a local wearing a shirt that stated “CuJo is back!” and a picture of something hockey related. It took me a moment to realise that the CuJo that was being referenced is Curtis Joseph, a quite good hockey player from the NHL. This made me wonder if the shirts owner had even seen a hockey game, let alone know who CuJo is.

Another thing I’ve noticed while here is how garbage is dealt with: it’s not. In general, garbage is thrown on to the ground if the person is outside. I remember on the bus to and from Arusha everyone would throw everything out the window as there was no garbage bags in the bus. The same was true in the train.
The result of this is garbage everywhere. Sometimes there is a layer of garbage (mostly water bottles it seems) around which reminds me of the morning after a party! The only problem is that there is almost nobody to pick them up!
Because of this garbage thing, and my background, I don’t like leaving trash all over the place. I checked the pockets of a shirt of mine this afternoon before I put it in the laundry and found plastic wrap that I didn’t want to throw away that was from a water bottle. And this isn’t the first time I’ve found garbage in my pocket at the end of the day, it seems to happen all the time!

Strange feelings if conflict within… reminds me of September…

But, on a happier note, it’s raining.

haha.

At the office again today, after a meeting this morning with a couple open-source geeks not far from my hostel. I wanna go to the teaching hospital and the blood-bank later today, but this rain keeps getting harder and harder (it was just sprinkling earlier, but now it’s coming down pretty good). I have my rain-coat (which I wore yesterday for the first time in almost 2 months!) but it’s still not fun walking around in the rain and I am too cheep to get taxi’s, despite their low cost.

James got off to Kasanka last night. I went with him to find out how to get a ticket and we did lunch together, which was nice. He got on the bus, which was supposed to leave at 16:00, at 15:30 and sent me a message at 17:00 saying that they still hadn’t left yet. And this is after they had told him go to there for 09:00 the day before and he tried to argue that he didn’t NEED to be there until 14:00. Crazy. I’m off to get my ticket on my way to the hospital and blood bank… I wonder what time they will tell me to be there on Friday!

Last night was curry night at Cha Cha Cha. They said that it would be a busy night with lotsa people and a bit of a party. It was busier than usual, but it ended up still being pretty dead. A good number of the people there were ex-pats living in Zambia who came just for the curry which I was surprised about as it was expensive and yummy, but nothing to write home about. Plus, they almost all stayed with themselves and those that did penetrate their group(s) said they were clique-y and racist. 
Me and the yank instead hung out with a couple Americans at first, and then a couple Canadians came and joined us. That was quite nice and made me realise that I haven’t hung out with a group of North Americans for quite a while. Every now and then a drunk Brit would stumble over to our table and lighted up the conversation which all too often turned to US power.Later on the Zambian that the Yank and I met on the train came by and hung out too… then everyone went their separate ways and I hit the hay as I had to get some stuff done today.

I’ve been thinking more about the past few weeks I’ve had while travelling, both the cultural aspects and the other experiences. One that I really enjoyed and felt was a truly African experience happened while on the Tazara train to Zambia. The second night I was in the lounge car hanging out with the yank and the Zambian, and near the boarder a bunch of armed men came on. Not so strange… but what was strange was that as one of them was walking by the train swayed a bit and I got a barrel of a gun shoved into my ribs. I’ve never had that happen before, and I would think that armed people in the West would ensure that their guns don’t interact with random people.

Another, less interesting observation, was noticed on the bus to and from Arusha. They played movies on the bus which were Tanzanian productions. Both of them were done by the same organisation and this was very apparent. During various moments in the movie, usually when something interesting was going on (but sometime randomly) a series of music notes would be played as if to increase the tension of the viewer. Now, this is sometimes done in Hollywood movies, but usually only a couple times a film. Not in Tanzania… they seemed to have a quota of these ‘tension moments’ at least once every 5 mins.
Not only that, the audio quality was SO bad. Often film makers have trouble with recording vocal audio so re-dub (re-record) later on, in a sound-proof studio. Well, it seems that the same thing happens in Tanzania, but they don’t seem to use sound-proof studios to re-record the audio, because during a number of outdoor scenes people would be talking to each other and there would be a horrible echo when they spoke, despite being in the middle of nowhere!

Sitting here in the office, I just got called ‘Taccy’ (pronounced ‘tassie’) because someone couldn’t remember my name. hah.

And then I got asked if I had a wife! I said no, but then the conversation moved to inter-racial relationships. I said they were accepted and that my sister is in one now, and that my cousins are half white/black. They asked about my sister and I explained that they were co-habitating and having a baby as often happens in the West. From this I got a question asking “So, if two people are co-habitating, have a kid and one of the couple loses interest, what happens to the relationship?”. I had to explain that the same thing happens in marriages as well, and just like in marriages, sometimes things get worked out, and sometimes the couple splits up. I’m not sure that was understood. Then again, I’ve talked to many people in the West (especially Canada) who seem to thing that if a couple is married, things automatically will be great for them the rest of their lives, as if a marriage certificate removes all potential for conflict between two people. *sigh*. If only it was that easy…

As I think about and was writing about Tanzania and I realised I haven’t really written anything about the Safari I did there 1.5 weeks ago. Well, I will try to do that soon, but I just got an e-mail from one of the people who was on the Safari with me and he attached a couple photo’s, so I will post them.

The first is of me and a Mozambiqu-ian named Ridwann, and there is supposed to be some animals in the background (lions I think), but my big, fat head is blocking them…
The second is me and a Czech nuclear physics profession called Jozef, as we were chilling out at a lounge/bar in the middle of a Tangriri National Park on the first day, showing the cocktail menu.

Enjoy:

I have an office.

This is crazy.

I am Lusaksa, after never being here before and only having been here for a couple days, and I have an office. Somewhere to call ‘base’. It’s quite strange.

It just hit me this morning when I came in. I had been told about yesterday, but my mind was on other things, so it didn’t really click in my mind until this morning.

And it’s great to have. The main person here has moved to the boardroom with his laptop so I can use the desktop. I’ve been working hard for 1.5 hours, making phone calls to setup meetings, reading e-mails that have been back-logged and I haven’t dealt with because they have been advertisements or mailing-list messages. I checked my bank accounts, been looking up people to contact here. It’s such a luxury to not feel that time is of the essence and that for every minute that goes by, the cost goes up more.
Maybe it’s just me.

But, today is good. Sun is shining (after the sky was threatening to downpour on my while I walked to the office) and I’m feeling pretty good. Things went a little wonky in my brain last night and I’m still trying to figure out what was up with that. I slept well last night (if not enough), so that helped calm my thoughts down, but still more thinking to do.  

The cultural differences between Lusaka and Dar are quite significant to me. People keel on randomly saying ‘hi’ to me while I walk down the street. Not that people didn’t do that in Dar, but here no one tries to follow you and sell you something or beg for money, it’s just an innocent ‘hello’ and sometimes they ask how I am doing. It’s a bit strange after the in-your-faceness that I dealt with for the past two weeks. I keep waiting to be asked for help in some way or another, but it never comes! Not that I am complaining, not at all!

Thinking about Dar I also recall the amount of clothing that had references to Canada that the locals would wear. A big canada flag, or a Zellers employee shirt, a canadian pin, a shirt from Calgary… there was lots of them. I even say a backpack with VIA Rain logo’s all over it which was quite strange to see. Not only that, but when I would tell people I was from Canada they would list of various Canadian cities, asking which one I was from; their knowledge of Canada was quite amazing.
That hasn’t happened here at all, but many less people approach me for random conversations. Again, I’m not complaining!

I have the feeling that Zambia has been visited by tourists much less than Tanzania, which accounts for much of the difference in attitude. Then again, when I went to see the new Jame Bond movie with James, the yank, and two people from the backpackers, there were MANY white people at the mall… but maybe they are all relatively new. From what I have read, tourism wasn’t a big thing (outside of Livingstone and Victoria Falls) even 4 years ago…
Heck, waiting for James and his Cha Cha Cha friends to get there (the yank and I went early to get some food) we were in the Bowling Alley having a beer and noticed that it was only white people playing, and only black people working there. It’s strange (and I find it a bit disconcerting to see), but it seems to be the case all over Africa.

James is off to Kasanka National Park this afternoon to meet up with a fellow UvA RMSS student there. I think I’ll join him Friday evening and for the rest of the weekend, then try to head to the Copperbelt Sunday evening or Monday, depending on how easy travel is. Kasanka is supposed to be kinda neat and the annual bat migration is going on now and supposed to be quite amazing. The other option is Vic Falls, but they aren’t going anywhere soon, and it’s just the very beginning of the small rains, so the falls will be pretty empty now. Plus a park will be cheeper… although there is probably less chance of finding myself some Zim Dollars at the park. Ohh, sacrifices.

Time is going by quick. I can’t believe it’s Wednesday all ready. The number of targets is quite smaller here than Tanzania… and I’m still waiting for people to get back to me. Isn’t the waiting game fun! Luckily there’s other work that needs to be done…

Lusaka is NOT Dar.

Kind of obvious, but from what I have seen so far, Lusaka is much more organised, European (well, really South African), less hectic and the people are friendlier (and they try to sell you less crap!).  Wide roads. People obey traffic lights. More orderly. I like it!

Got in last night on the train. Left Friday at 14:20 (1/2 hour late) and got in at 19:00 last night. With the -1 hour time change, that makes it about 52 hour train trip. And it felt it.

Luckily I met a few people on the way. In the 1st class lounge (which was hilariously not 1st classy) I met two Dutch guys who were medical students from the University of Utrecht who are taking 3 months off to volunteer in the middle of no-where, Tanzania. Then a Zambian introduced herself while we were chatting. We all chatted for a while there and on the train, but the guys got off after 8-9 hours… then the next day I met a few others including an ex-US military guy who now teaches African armys. Interesting job and interesting guy… Much of Saturday and Sunday was spent chatting with the Zambia and the Yank… helped the time go by quite well.

The first night I slept horribly. The train driver apparently decided not to use all the breaks on the train, but only the breaks on the engine. This meant that all the other cars would slam into each other whenever the driver touched the breaks and everyone would get lurched forward. It was kinda anoying during the day, but at night it was amazingly annoying. Not only that, it was at least 30 degrees, the fan in the cabin was broken, and everyone was warned to close the windows as night due to theft.
The second night I had had some beers, it was much cooler, and I moved to the Americans cabin as there was more room there… slept like a baby.

The scenery was quite beautiful. The food was ok, but they kept on running out of what I wanted. The beer was only sometimes cold. I expected it to be much more busy, but it wasn’t, which was nice. I got some reading done. Took a few photo’s, but didn’t get any of the giraffes, impala’s, or monkeys I saw from the train.
I was warned before I jumped on the train, by my guidebook, that it wasn’t going to be a classic, relaxing train journey. They were right, but it was a great experience. It felt like real Africa with the delays, the thunderstorm, the scenery, the people (well, not the American, but you know what I mean) and all.

Got to the end station, 200 km from Lusaka, at 19:00 last night and jumped on a bus. Took about 4 hours to get to Lusaka and got passports checked by the cops on the way. Mine and the other foreigners’ passports were fine, except for the American. He got brought into the police office (hut?) and asked why his visa expired on the 20th of Nov. He replied that they were looking at the Kenyan visa…

Got to Cha Cha Cha Backpackers just after 11. Slept like a baby. Had some breakfast and got a phone card in the morning. Sent off some e-mails and met up with James after that. Very cool seeing James and having someone I know around. We are about to go have dinner in a few mins, but he’s off showering and I am setting up plans for tomorrow. Two appointments already, one tomorrow even! WHoo hoo!

Today I had 4-5 meetings (semi-)planned.

The first was delayed by over an hour, so I had to rush it and we will meet for drinks tomorrow night.

The second, well, the person didn’t show up.

The Third worked out, altho the person was a few mins late.

The Fourth person ended up being busy and sent someone else, who was higher up in the organisation (and Dutch).

And the 5th person never sms’d me, so we didn’t meet up.

Not only that, but the A/C didn’t work in my room last night, and the hotel manager wouldn’t do anything about it or to make me happy, so I found a 5th hotel to stay at. This one has A/C, a fridge, hot and cold water, and a TV. Not only that, but everything (seems to) work(s) and it’s the cheepest place I’ve been in in Dar!

It seems like all of the above has been my life for the past almost 2 weeks.
And I was thinking in the Daladala earlier “Gee, this is kinda nice here… I like it very much. I wonder if I could live here… and for how long…”
I don’t really see that happening, but I just think it’s interesting that after all this SH*T I’ve been putting up with, plus the heat and getting ripped off everywhere because I am a muzungu, I am still having a great time!

Cheers to that!

I made it back to Dar, and it’s hot here… quite hot. I had problems sleeping last night due to the heat. Found a new hotel for tonight, that has A/C. Sadly it doesn’t work very well, so we’ll see if i survive the night. If not, new hotel tomorrow!

This is just a short post…. more soon, when I have time.

But, I ended up getting 2 b-day sms’s which made me happy… although, I receive both after the 14th was over (for me at least).

Did a 2 day safari with 3 nuclear physicists. Saw many elephants and zebras, dikdiks and flamingo’s impalas, some ostriches, giraffes, hippo’s, a few rhino’s, warthogs and hyena’s and a mongoose!… other animals too, but i forget what. the cutest by far was the baby warthog! I loved it cuz it was so small and too cute for words!

Bus back to Dar yesterday, running around today and a mobile phones for development workshop with the world bank later , meetings tomorrow and thursday, then outa here on friday on the train for another adventure! whoo hoo!

More about the safari later…