We were up at the crack of dawn to be ready for a 7 a.m. rendezvous with Rafael. Given his recent track record, none of us were really surprised when he arrived at 8:15 a.m. I think we were all half expecting more reasons why we would not be able to leave. Amazingly, we were able to pack up the truck and head out.


Getting our gear stowed for the journey to Handeni.

The truck's fuel gauge had been on empty the previous day and had not gotten any closer to full during the intervening 15 hours. We managed to make it some distance out of town before stopping to fuel up. I misread the price on the pump and ended up giving the attendant $10 too much. We spent the next 15 minutes trying to resolve the difference of opinion of us thinking we had paid too much and the attendant thinking we had not. Much of that time was spent getting the totals off all the pumps and adding up the amount of sales versus the cash the attendant had. She came up $8 short. This further convinced us that we were correct, but the attendant was still insistent. We finally offered to split the difference in order not to spend all day arguing over who was right or wrong.


Strangely, cell phone use near the pump is taboo.

The drive out to Chalinze was familiar territory for Chantal and I. This was our fourth trip out of Dar es Salaam on the road. Instead of continuing west after Chalinze, we headed north. The trip was through lightly forested low hills. Some larger mountains were visible in the distance, including the Uluguru mountains near Mikumi.


Tanzanian fast food.

We finally got into Handeni around 1:30 p.m. Made a quick stop at the house that Rafael and his group are using as an office. It was very bare and sparsely furnished. We grabbed a tent and generator and headed over to get a bite to eat and meet our driver and guide. The restaurant we went to doubled as a stationary store. Here we met with Kuleit (Adam), who would be our guide) and our driver Jerome. Rafael had to go back to Dar and would catch a $3 bus in the morning. We bid goodbye to him and headed out into the bush.

  
The vista over Handeni town. An interesting flower near Rafael's office.


"Stop 'n Shop" stationers

We drove for another three hours on a bumpy dirt road through desolate brush scattered with a handful of tiny villages and solitary settlements. We stopped briefly in one larger village that a number of Maasai youth were idling in.

  
Some houses going up.

  
Seemingly endless open countryside.

Around 5:30 p.m. we arrived at our destination, a Maasai boma just off the main road. The boma belonged to one of Adam's relatives. It was currently home to seven people. The aging matriarch, Bookhi, the wife of one the eldest sons, Maiko, Mateo and Monika, the three school aged kids we would film for Sandrine's project and two younger children. The family had been living in this spot for about a year and would continue on at the location until such time as the natural resources in the surrounding area became to scarce to subsist on. The main problem in the area being water.



After a quick tour of the boma, we picked a place to pitch our tent. Maiko took a hoe to the area and smoothed out the rougher bits. The erection of the tent was a big event, with all of the family and a number of other folks all gathered around to watch the process. We finished up just before it got dark and started in on some of our fresh produce for dinner. Adam and Jerome shied away from our offer of avocado. They preferred to have the milk and ugali that issued from the boma kitchen. A spot of tea was brought out later. We all stayed up talking for a bit around a fire that had been built for us.

- Maasai proverb (It is better to be the one waited for, rather than the one waiting.)
Rafael showed up at 9:30 a.m. as promised, but he was not ready to depart. He insisted that the truck needed to be washed and he was short a spare tire. I went with him to complete these tasks. The tire repair place tried to sell him on a completely shot tire. He refused and they brought out a new tire that he complained cost way too much. Negotiations went nowhere, so eventually he just got his rim back. I asked him if the price was inflated because he had a mzungu with him. He thought that this was probably the case and dropped me back in Micocheni, promising that his errands would take another twenty minutes.
Four hours later, Rafael returned after a call from us. The errands had been run, but we still weren't able to leave because a driver had not shown up. It turned out that the driver had not gotten the message that his serveces were needed and was still out in Handeni, the town near the Maasai Steppe.
We sat down and enjoyed a two-hour conversation with Rafael. We chatted about our situation, ethnobotany, AIDS, female genital mutilation, the food and wine culture in France, the culture of the US, and the state of decency in the world. Rafael eventually excused himself to go in search of food.
After Rafael had gone, we headed over to the handicraft market in Mwenge. Chantal and I picked up a couple of things and Sandrine went hog wild while managing to swing some incredible bargains. An old Rastafari named Joseph herded us over toward the taxis in the local market part of Mwenge. It looked very interesting there and we all agreed that we should come back when we weren't burdened with handicrafts.

  
The woodcarvers in the center of the Mwege handicraft market with the fruits of their labors.


Do you Yahoo?

Was up at 6 a.m. and worked on the computer until it was time to head to the office around 9:30 a.m. We found Maina at the office and the Internet connection up and creeping along. Got some emailing taken care of and headed out for lunch. The Royal Chef, our favorite out of the restaurants in the immediate vicinity is still closed. Supposedly they will reopen on Monday. The management used the month of Ramadan to renovate the premises.


Shooting up in Dar es Salaam. With most people making $1 or less a day, I wonder how the average person could afford to maintain a drug habit.

Right after lunch we headed downtown so Chantal could drop a letter off with DHL. I took the opportunity to visit the music store right next door to the DHL office. Picked up a couple of Bongo Flava CD's. They seemed a little pricey at $10 a pop for CDRs. Sandrine got a VCD of some music videos. The videos were interesting but the disc itself was poorly put together. It would be interesting to see if Maina would get better prices for not being a mzungu (European.)
We spent the rest of the afternoon at the office listening to and watching our new purchases. I posted some more photos of the Foxes train for Bruce. He has been hot for some high-res pictures since the World Travel Market show ended. When we went out on the train, the focus for us was on getting footage for the DVD, not taking still images.
We split up in the early evening. Sandrine and I headed for Shoppers Plaza to get stocked up for our impending trip to the Maasai Steppe. Chantal went to help Mwanga shoot an awards dinner for a Vodacom (a local cell phone provider) sponsored Football (Soccer) league.


The checkout lady had beautiful mehndi ( a temporary henna tattoo) all over both hands and forearms.

What Mwanga had told us would be a 45-minute event turned out to be over three hours in duration. I was a little worried that the two hours it took for Sandrine and I to get the groceries and head back downtown would leave Chantal sitting idle for quite a while. I needn't have worried as the event was still going strong when we finally showed up. We enjoyed the really nice buffet they had set up. Right after the food, they launched into the awards. The teams were given different amounts of money depending on how they placed.

  
The #1 Simba Sports Club team, walked away with a a check for $25,000 and a couple of trophies. We enjoyed the live band while things wrapped up.

Mwanga reneged on his promise to let us use his functional PD150. He told us that he needed it to shoot an interview with the president of Vodacom in the morning and that he could only lend us his other PD150 for our trip to the Maasai Steppe. We explored a number of possible solutions to this dilemma when we returned home. Sandrine eventually called someone she knew at France 3 to see if they could convert NTSC footage. The verdict was positive, so we could use Chantal's camera. This came as a great relief, as none of the other possible solutions were particularly appealing.

Today was the second day of national holiday to mark the end of Ramadan. We awoke to a morning of downpour. It finally started to let up a little as we were leaving the house to get Arnaud and Lilia over to the port to take the ferry to Zanzibar. The touts at the ferry terminal could see us coming a mile a way and chased the taxi along the entry road to where we finally stopped, all the while yelling out the rates and departure times for the boats they were hustling for.
Chantal, Sandrine and I headed over to the office to find Maina there, but no Internet connectivity. We headed out in search of lunch and an Internet cafe. Quite a bit more was open and we were able to get a delicious lunch at Retreat, the "exclusively veg" restaurant. As we were finishing up, a rush of folks appeared who all ordered the lunch Thali. Must try it next time.

  
The flame trees were in bloom.

The Internet cafe around the corner was nice, but the .Mac webmail wasn't working, so my hour wasn't as productive as it could have been. Headed back to the office to find the connection there was up and running. We spent the rest of the afternoon working on our various projects, finally wrapping up a little after 8 p.m.
We headed out in search of some dinner and decided to try out the Ethiopian restaurant, Addis in Dar. It took us a little while to find a taxi driver who had any idea of where we wanted to go. The restaurant was amazing, more of a cultural appreciation center than anything else. There were two rooms filled with artifacts, textiles, musical instruments, jewelry and books. The outdoor dining area was very well decorated with red umbrellas shielding all of the lights. We had a delicious meal of five different lentil stews served on a giant "crepe."
It was starting to rain as we finished, so the parking attendant scurried off in search of a cab for us. He came back with a very taciturn driver who wasn't impressed with our trying to bargain with him. Eventually we got everything sorted and were on our way. Thus far his car wins for being the most musical. Every time the clutch was depressed, an odd plucked strings noise was produced. It was very hard to keep from laughing.

The end of Ramadan is upon us at last. There are two days of national holiday to celebrate the end of the observance of the month long Muslim fasting.
There were tremendous downpours in the early morning. At times, the corrugated metal roof sounded as if were being beaten in. In my semi-slumber I expected to find the roof caved in just halfway across the room. The others were amazed to find almost no evidence of the rainfall on the ground a couple of hours later.
The power went out almost right after I got up at 6 a.m. and would remain off until just before we left the house at 11:30 a.m. I spent the morning getting seven days of blog prepped and ready to upload at the office. We headed off to rendezvous with Maina at the office. We found the space open, so phoned Maina to tell him he didn't need to come and that he should enjoy the national holiday instead of worrying about us.
I began the long process of uploading my blog entries. The others checked their email and Arnaud and Lilia headed off to change some currency just as Rafael arrived. We had a nice chat with him. Still couldn't get everything nailed down, but it looks like we will be leaving on Saturday to spend four or five days out in his village, northwest of Handeni. We will either have Rafael or some of his colleagues as our guides and liaisons with the community.
Arnaud and Lilia eventually returned after trying to find us on the wrong floor of the building and we headed out to find an exchange office that was still open. It was a national holiday and Dar was practically a ghost town. Close to 99% of the business establishments were closed. We headed for a big hotel downtown to be turned away because their exchange was only for guests. Ended up at the Pita Kepap on Samora Ave for a late lunch. It was nice to sit in the shade and spend a while conversing.


SMS has caught on in a big way here.

Headed over to the port to check on ferry schedules for Arnaud and Lilia. They are planning to head for Zanzibar in the morning. We wandered by one last exchange place to find it closed for the day as well. The others headed back to Micocheni to get out of the heat. I headed for the office to finish my uploading and get some other work done. The uploading was painfully slow and further hampered by connection timeouts. I finally finished up a bit after 11 p.m. Got to the ground floor of the building to find myself locked in. It took a good 20 minutes to raise the night watchman through yelling and banging on the door. Made it back to Micocheni to find my French colleagues engrossed in a game of Tarot. Chantal was on her usual roll and wiped the floor with the others.
Had a screening of the DVD for Arnaud and Lilia who were very impressed and were ready to head out on safari right then and there. Finally made it to bed around 2 a.m.

Everyone was up for the sunrise boat race, but most of the boats had dropped out and we were left on the shore to watch the waves and clouds. Arnaud, Lilia and Sandrine went back to sleep. I worked on photos until breakfast. Everything was in short supply this morning. There were no eggs for breakfast, leaving everyone with a plate of beans and half a cooked tomato. We all found the presentation quite interesting. The area where the eggs would normally be on the plate was left suspiciously blank, as if they might magically arrive at some point while we were eating. We were also without water in all of the faucets. For some unknow reason, someone appeared to have gone around to all the toilets and flushed them, leaving no water for their use.

  

Following breakfast I went snorkelling. I didn't come across anything new or startling, but had a good time exploring none the less. Arnaud, Lilia and Sandrine went for a hike around the island. The trip turned unpleasant when the sun emerged and started beating down on the explorers. A couple and a large group of travel agents arrived to interrupt our solitude. The only good thing about large groups being on the island is that meals are served buffet style with lots more dishes to choose from.

  
Fishermen bringing in their net and some merpeople, Arnaud, Chantal and Lilia
After luncheon, I put on a presentation of the DVD for the travel agents who were all for various parts of the USA. They were all very impressed. Chantal and I questioned them afterwards and they just gushed over the DVD. One of the ladies was going to have a booth at a big travel show in New York early in January that she was trying to get us singed up to rent part of. An NTSC coversion of the DVD is going to involve a fair amount of work that I am not anxious to undertake just yet.


A group of travel agents from the US enjoying the DVD.
We enjoyed a quiet afternoon after the travel agents left. Towards 4 p.m. we started to gather our belongings in anticipation of heading back to the mainland. The arrangement of a car seemed to take forever. When everything was finally organized I started to get my camera stowed and realized I had come up short of a lens cap. I raced back to my banda to find it locked. Enquiries of the staff lead to more staff being located and by the time they found someone with the key I was already on the boat and headed back to the mainland. Fortunately, the boat we were towing came loose and we had to swing back around. The staff we on the shore shouting and we all thought they had been able to locate the lens cap. As we got back to shore, it turned out that they didn't have the cap, so we took off after the other boat. After the boat was secured and we were underway again, Julius came paddling out of the twilight in the kayak with the lens cap in hand. Absolutely amazing. The boat ride was slowed by the water boat we were towing, but the night was beautiful with a new moon, a huge fire on the mainland and flashes of lightning from a big storm out to sea.
We bid goodbye to Vlad and hopped into a cab for the trip back to Dar es Salaam. Vlad's parting words to John, our driver, were "pole, pole" meaning slowly or cautiously. John took this to heart in a big way and it tooks us over half an hour to get to the main road. On the main road, our forward progress was a little better but still quite slow. Close to Dar there was a little fender bender that caused a huge backup. A pickup truck and a dala dala (minibus) had scraped and were parked on a bridge. Not content to wait their place in line, a great many drivers will jump into the oncoming lane or the shoulder in an attempt to get ahead. This causes further slowing in both directions as traffic is blocked. Some two hours after our departure we got into Dar proper. Unfortunately, John didn't know where Old Bagamoyo road was and we detoured all the way down toward the US Embassy before we could reliably get back on track. We finally got in just before 10 p.m. to find a blackout in the neighborhood.
By the time we had gotten settled and thought about going out to get some food, all the produce stands nearby had closed. Pasta was suggested as an alternative. Unfortunately, I was not on the ball enough to recall that the stove would not be working without power. We had a delicious supper of bread, chocolate and avocados. The power finally came on again after midnight.

Had the best snorkeling yet after breakfast. I was out early enough to find the water clear before the tide started to come back in. The highlight of my poking around was seeing a cuttlefish. When I first spotted it, it was a mottled color with a electric blue band down it's length. It darted away to grab something and then caught sight of me. Immediately it changed color to blend in with the surroundings. As it moved over different areas, it's coloration subtly changed to match. I spent a good ten minutes watching before it finally moved away. I also caught sigh of two eels, one was particularly good sized.


Late for the races.

After lunch we were off to the mainland to visit the town of Bagamoyo. Seven of us crammed into a little four-door Toyota. Josa, our driver, was blasting a Sean Paul tape as we bounced over the dirt back road into town. After it finished, we switched over to some Tanzanian grown "Bongo Flava" in the for of the soundtrack to a movie called Girlfriend. Despite the cramped quarters and heat, we all enjoyed the ride immensely. Our first stop was at the Bagamoyo Scuplture School. We poked around for a bit enjoying the jam sessions from the associated music school. I ended up with a nice carving that the others joked looked like a portrait. Stopped for some refreshment at a local cafe while we waited for our driver to return with an additional car. The other car never materialized, so we crammed back into the Toyota.

  
A hand operated bow-drill. Sandrine playing checkers with some of the locals.

  
Palm juice is collected to make into wine. This seaweed is collected and rendered down for colorants and fiber for cloth.


These three music students provided an interesting counter-point to the electrified ensemble that was jamming in the building behind them.

We headed over to the Slavery Museum that was established by Christian Missionaries. The museum was closed but the attendant recognized Vlad and opened it up again, even going so far as to give us a detailed explanation of a freed slave named Siwema who had gone on to nurse back to health the Arab slave trader that had killed her mother. Josa rolled up as we were waiting outside and a group of kids that had gathered joined Chantal in an impromptu disco, dancing to the Bongo Flava.


The story of Siwema, the slave girl.

  
Feeling the Bongo Flava. Saying goodbye to the young who had gathered around us.

It was getting pretty late in the afternoon, so we headed into town proper to look for some kangas (a yardage of fabric that is used to fashion an almost infinite variety of coverings from.) The first shop we went to was just closing up. Unfortunately, it was the last night of Ramadan, so things were still closing early. The second shop was still open and had a more interesting variety. Sandrine was the only one that found something she couldn't live without. She had misunderstood the pricing and was trying to bargain the price higher than the asking price. We poked around the town a bit more before it became dark. We headed back to Lazy Lagoon on the main road, which was a little better on all of us.


Remember not to go too fast.

Had a late dinner that we happily interrupted a couple of times to watch a bush baby that was in the dining area. Headed to bed around 11 p.m.


The bush babies make a blood-curdling shrieking noise throughout the night.

Up at 6 a.m. to watch the fishermen sail by in their dhows. Not a lot of action on this particular morning will have to try our luck again tomorrow. Maina, Chantal and I headed over to the lodge to have tea on the balcony. While we were there it started to rain for a couple of minutes. It was just enough to spatter the ground with raindrops and to cause a full rainbow to appear at the end of the island.


Maina inspecting the shoreline.


A full rainbow followed a short burst of rain.

The tide was out the furthest I had seen it immediately following breakfast. so I headed out to see what I could find. Today's excitement was an even huger bounty of starfish.

  
  
  
Starfish everywhere.


A giant anemone.

  
Some lovely soft coral that looked as if someone had squirted expanding foam all over the rocks.

The Kenyans finally emerged for lunch. They had been up until 2:30 a.m. drinking and talking. We hung out for a bit talking on the balcony.


The Kenyan ladies; Josephine, Catherine and Tessa.

Sandrine and Chantal had been plotting how to go and get Sandrine’s friends, who were due in the evening, from the airport and back to Lazy Lagoon. They decided to ride back with Maina and the Kenyan ladies to greet the friends at the airport. The group departed at 7:30 p.m. to arrive at the airport as close to the scheduled 9:20 p.m. flight arrival as possible. They had a story ready about the airport being to the south of town and the house being an hour away to the north. It wasn't until they got to the boat at the Fish Camp that Arnaud and Lilia realized something was amiss. The diesel had run out about 15 minutes before the boat landed so the camp was completely dark save for a bonfire on the beach. We had a light supper at 11 p.m. by candlelight. We finally tucked in around 12:30 a.m.

Had a bit of a sleep in passed my normal 6 a.m. wakeup. Enjoyed a hike around the tide pools at the end of the island. Saw loads more marine life than either of the previous visits to the area. There was a bounty of starfish in all shapes and colors as well as some sea slugs. The biggest excitement of the morning was finding a stonefish. Not something to tangle with, as contact with one is almost always fatal within a matter of hours. Glad I have a healthy respect for nature and didn't feel a need to poke at it.

  

The stonefish that became the topic of a number of conversations.

  
  
Starfish in a amazing variety of colors.

After a bite of breakfast, all of us went back out in search of crabs and starfish. Sandrine slipped and fell early on in our search and went away nursing a scuffed elbow. She re-emerged as we were setting up a photo shoot with some starfish on the sand.


Star Shoes.

Our morning's work done, I went back to my banda to work on the computer, read and get some relaxing in. Went a little overboard with the relaxing and ended up a little late for dinner. While I was dead to the world, a family with six kids had arrived. One of the children was particularly trying and unpleasant. Did some more work after lunch and emerged in the late afternoon to take some more photos. There was a trickle of messages from Maina the whole afternoon. Each of the messages pushed the arrival time for he and his friends back further and further. Eventually we got what appeared to be one that meant something, mentioning an arrival time of 6:30 p.m. The time came and went and a bit later we got a frantic call that they seemed to have taken a wrong turn somewhere. Chantal's directions had been a little sketchy but the situation was corrected and they found the Fish Camp all right. A quick boat ride in the dark brought Maina, Tessa, Catherine and Josephine to the island.

  
Vlad with a piece of palm driftwood that looked like some sort of musical instrument. The sun sets on another beautiful day in paradise.

After the new guests were settled and had imbibed a round of drinks, dinner was served on the beach. The conversation was interrupted by incessant calls from Maina's girlfriend Anne Marie who had to work and could not make it. Dinner was an interesting affair, starting off with a delicious peanut soup that Vlad's girlfriend Prudence made. There was not enough soup to go around so a couple of other starters were circulated. The main course also caused some confusion with not enough steak being available for the carnivores. The veggie entrée was a bed of cauliflower smothered in cheese. I enjoyed the rice and carrots that were served with it. Maina went off with the Kenyan ladies and the rest of us headed for bed.

  
Chantal relaxing with Tiger, her new feline friend. Maina by lamplight.

Spent another beautiful day in paradise. Had a very slow morning in spite of having gotten up at 6 a.m. I wandered along the beach in front of the banda for a bit before running into Vlad. He had a newspaper article and book about the Maasai that he thought we should read. The article was about the arng'ehe ceremony, the event to mark the passing of young men into elders that happens every fifteen years and had taken place in the last couple of days. Had a good Foxes breakfast of beans and cooked tomatoes with toast, but with an ample serving of beans for once.


Bruno, the crab killer, with his latest victim dismembered and left for dead.

Following breakfast Chantal, Sandrine and I went snorkeling along the landside of the island. Not a whole lot to see unfortunately. The current in the channel is fairly strong, so the water was pretty murky with debris. We called it quits after an hour or so. The ladies sunbathed for a bit afterwards while I poked about the tide pools. It was getting on toward mid-day by this point and it was a little hot to be out in the sun. Got cleaned up in time for a lovely luncheon of potato pancakes and pokharas.


Vlad, Rashid and Julius enjoying the DVD.

After lunch I started to read the book that Vlad had given me earlier, Beating About the Bush by David Read. Got a good ways into the book, but didn't come across any real Maasai references. A spot of tea was served around 4 p.m. following which we went for a hike down the length of the island. We crossed over at the isthmus and hiked back on the landside. I had done this excursion the last time we were here but Chantal had missed it. I enjoyed being amongst the mangroves again. While we did see some monkeys from a distance, the presence of the camp's two Dobermans cut down on some of the possibilities for viewing animals.

  
Sandrine tested the depth of every crab hole on the island (Mean depth was half a stick length.) A sea turtle skull.

  
Back amongst the mangrove shoots and knees.

In the evening we were joined by Prudence, a student at the sculpture school in Bagamoyo. In the course of the conversation we came to find out that her brother was Godfrey #2 that we had run into in Dar es Salaam on Nov 18th. Prudence was in her second year at the school and upon finishing next year planned to open up a shop for a year before going to school again. We had a delicious supper of ratatouille. The rest of the folks tucked in after dinner and I spent another hour or so watching the night sky.

We wee all up at 6 a.m. in order to be at the French Embassy for a 7 a.m. appointment with the First Secretary, Head of Development Co-operation a.i, a man named Arnaud. Upon our arrival an animated hour-long conversation in French ensued. I caught about every fortieth word this time, a couple hundred more of these meetings and I might become fluent yet. I think a better bet would be the courses offered at the Alliance Française, with 50 lessons costing a mere $37. Arnaud has been in Africa for the past 17 years, stationed all over the south and east. He was a wealth of information and stories. He encouraged us to go and visit the ruins of the Arabic trading port on Kilwa Island and to visit another Frenchman building markets and roads in the Morogoro region. The preparations for the Beaujolais Nouveau were well underway. It looked like it was going to be a gigantic event, both inside and out on the Embassy grounds. The $15 tickets would be on sale later in the morning up until 5 p.m. We promised to come by later.
Our next appointment for the morning was with Mwanga to go and get the permit for Journalistic Activities from the Ministry of Transit and Communication. We got to Mwanga's office right on schedule and were off downtown. Again, Mwanga talked his way right passed the entry personnel and we marched up to the Assistant Directors office. Chantal, Sandrine and I sat outside while Mwanga went to liberate the paperwork. Sandrine then went to pay the $200 fee. Had a quick trip back to Mwanga's office and headed over to DTP. The cab driver had a different understanding of what the rate for the trip was, and in spite of Mwanga telling us that it should be 1500 shillings, insisted that we pay double that amount.

  
Hanging out at the Ministry of Transport and Communication.

While the taxi driver stewed outside, we waited for Rafael to come again. We had unfortunately left the phone at the house and consequently missed the message he left about being a bit late for his appointment with us. He showed up in due time and we had another long, frank conversation, most of it around AIDS issues. Maasai are a very sharing based society, especially the young men. They share everything, meals, belongings, and even wives. As young Maasai men have started coming into the cities in greater numbers since 1997, the risk of AIDS in their communities has greatly increased. In Maasai culture, fulfilling of sexual needs is as important as fulfiling food needs. The Maasai men who come into town leaving their families behind will still find a way to satisfy their sexual needs. This typically involves going to a brothel where, as Rafael explained, the sex workers make 500 shillings ($0.50) per client. Unprotected intercourse is the norm throughout most of Africa. The Maasai men would then return to their villages and have unprotected sex with their wives or their friends’ wives, their culture also supporting polygamy. Rafael stated that a number of Maasai women had told him that they did not reach climax with men who used condoms. At first we thought this odd, but upon further contemplation and factoring in the effects of female genital mutilation, there might be something to it. All in all, the current sexual practices of the Maasai seem like a recipe for disaster.


Rafael showing us the location of his village and the area the nomadic Maasai migrate in.

We didn't get very far with our plans to go to a Maasai school. Rafael had some more business to take care of in Dar before he could give us firm dates of his availability. After our meeting, we headed back over to the French Embassy to get tickets to the Bougoulias Nouveau, only to find that the event was sold out. This came as a great disappointment, as we were all looking forward to what seemed like the social event of the season. Back at Hanif's house we decided to try and head up to Lazy Lagoon a bit early for a birthday getaway for Maina. Fortunately, there was room and we were able to arrange a taxi for $30. Maina and Anne Marie would join us the following morning. The hour’s drive north of Dar es Salaam was pleasant and our taxi driver got us there in good order. As usual, some confusion ensued at the embarkation point for the boat ride. It was resolved that we would take the big water boat that was sitting nearby, after wading out to it. The short ride was uneventful for the most part with the motor sputtering a little about two-thirds of the way across. We did find out afterwards that we were lucky to make it because the starter pull cord on the outboard motor snapped on the last tug before it sprang to life.

  
The fabled matoke, a savory banana mash, along the lines of mashed potatoes. Sandrine taking her recommended daily nap.

  
We had some tense moments as our precious gear was toted out to the boat. Caught a bit of spray on the way out to the island.

Vlad was happy to see us again and after we got settled in our rooms we joined him for drinks on the balcony of the main lodge. We moved down by the poolside for a delicious dinner. The others decided it was time to tuck in not long after the meal was finished. I stayed up for a while longer watching shooting stars streak across the moonless sky,

Had a full schedule of meetings during the day in search of subjects for Sandrine. Started at 10 a.m. with Gerald of FEWS NET (Famine Early Warning System Network).The FEWS NET organization had posted information about an impending food shortage throughout much of Tanzania. Rainfall throughout the country has been spotty at best. In September there was a shortfall of corn production that precipitated the government buying 32,000 metric tons of maize. Although the maize was to come from a governmental agency it still had to be paid in cash to liberate the supply. The government was unable to come up with the cash all at once, so the required supply was purchased in smaller amounts over a period of time. This delayed the delivery of the maize to the districts that needed it. To compound the problem further, the government did not have enough money to provide transport to distribute the food once it got to the districts. To get the food out to the towns and villages that needed it, the districts, which have less funds than the government, were called upon to provide transport.


Gerald, the Tanzanian representative for FEWS NET.

Another situation that is of concern is local farmers selling off most of their harvest at an exaggerated market value right now, mindless of the possibility of the rains failing and no crops being available after the next growing season. The short rains, which should be falling right now have failed to materialize, which will mean no harvest in January / February. Gerald though he might be going out on a tour of some of the areas that would be most affected in the next couple of weeks and promised to get in touch with details.

We had just sat down for lunch at the Epi d'Or restaurant when Maina messaged us that Mwanga and his Maasai friend, Rafael were at the office. After the fifth cab we approached, we got a price that was not too overly exaggerated and were on our way to the DTP office. It turned out that we had bumped into Rafael the other night when we went to see Matrix Revolutions. We had all commented to ourselves how different it was to see a Maasai in a movie theater. Rafael explained that he had just come back from his village and was looking for something to do with his wife that evening and had ended up there.
We had a nice conversation with him and Sandrine explained that she was looking to go to a Maasai school and get some footage for a French TV program for children. Rafael thought this sounded possible but didn't know what his schedule was like. He agreed to meet with us the following morning at 10 a.m. when he hoped to know better.


Rafael, our Maasai contact.

After Rafael excused himself to head to another meeting, we went with Maina and Mwanga down to the Ministry of Transport and Communication to secure a permit to conduct journalistic activities in Tanzania. Mwanga knew everyone at the Ministry and we whisked passed the clerks at the front desk and another desk upstairs, ending up in the Assistant Directors office. He was on the phone but looked at the application and told us to come back the next morning at 9 a.m. without missing a beat.


The Assistant Director at the Ministry of Transportation and Communication.

Hunting around for something to eat downtown we ended up back at the Epi d'Or for a round of falafels that were presented more like burritos than anything else. After lunch we headed back to the office to get ready for the evenings Pixel Corps session. Tonight we would discuss scripts and storyboards. A short beak was had at the Kiriakoo market, a huge affair of stalls selling everything from fresh produce to household goods to agricultural supplies to clothing. We ended up getting a large woven matt for Maina as a birthday/housewarming gift. The evening class went pretty well and we helped the members with their projects until 8 p.m.


Some of the household goods in the Kiriakoo market.


If Chantal's experience is any judge, Sandrine will have many suitors. We thought she had better pick out a dress just in case any of them had enough cows to make a worthwhile offer for her hand in marriage.

Headed to the Q Bar once again. This time there was a huge contingent of Kenyans organized to help celebrate Maina's birthday. Most of them were friends of Anne Marie. Interspersed with his usual Tusker beer, Maina was plied with something called a Springbuck, a ghastly green drink that supposedly tasted like minty hot chocolate. We stayed on until 11 p.m.

  
Maina imbibing a few Springbucks (a drink rumored to taste like mint flavored hot coco) for his birthday.


Sandrine enjoying a Kilimanjaro . . . or two.

Got over to the office a little before 10 a.m. to meet Mwanga, who finally sauntered in around 11 a.m. Mwanga had offered to take us around to some organizations that might help Sandrine with subjects for spots to show on French TV or write-ups for newspapers or magazines. We were off to visit TAMWA, Tanzania Media Women's Association, a NGO working to raise awareness of womens issues in print, on the radio and TV. They also do grassroots organizing as well as working closely with a number of other NGO's to promote larger projects.
We met with Irene, who despite having just returned from a months leave for "major surgery," seemed quite together. Several of the campaigns they have been working on over the last couple of years are of interest to Sandrine. They continue to do extensive work against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), the removal of some or all of the clitoris (in extreme cases the labia as well) as a puberty rite. Although illegal in Tanzania, FGM is still practiced in the north, around Arusha. Practicing FGM is punishable by a $300 fine and/or 15 years imprisonment. Many of the practitioners get off by bribing the police, who might turn the charge into the theft of a cow. A diagram in a piece of TAMWA literature showed a horizontal swath going straight across from East Africa to West Africa where FGM is still prevalent.
Irene also had some horror stories about misconceptions of AIDS in the rural areas. There have been cases recently where HIV+ males have been raping young girls and elderly women under the misguided idea that having sex with a virgin will cure them. The elderly women were somehow supposed to have become virginal again due to their age. Another practice putting women at risk comes when one of their offspring dies. In order to lift the curse that killed the child and to prevent it from affecting others in the family, the mother must go out and have sex with the first man they meet.

  
The TAMWA offices were very clearly marked. Irene, Programme Officer for TAMWA.

After a quick lunch at the Falcon (The close of Ramadan is less than a week away, yippee!), we were off to the Alliance Française. We had seen their offices when we were here in July, but never stopped by. After a long discussion with the guard about what time the offices opened and some comparing of watches, we were admitted. They had an impressive library and media room with French TV blaring away. The lady we were supposed to meet with was still at lunch, so we waited for her return. She finally showed up and a long conversation in French ensued. I caught every 50th word or so. It turned out that she had only been in Tanzania since September, and although she didn't know a whole lot about the area, she was much more friendly and helpful than the folks over at the French Embassy. She turned us onto an archaeological project sponsored in part by the French government, on an island just off the coast south of Dar es Salaam. She also clued us in that the Beaujolais Nouveau would be happening on Thursday at the French Embassy.



Getting a little French culture at the Alliance Française.

Headed back to the office to prepare for the coming nights of Pixel Corps sessions. Tonight's subjects were aspect ratio and proper use of the type tools. There is a huge problem, from our perspective, with people randomly resizing photos and type to fit into whatever design they are making. There is no regard for keeping proportions correct or for maintaining legibility of type.
A group of three ladies from the Konstfack University College of Arts Crafts and Design in Sweden came by to check out what we were doing. They are in town for two months to do research on graphic design in Tanzania. Maina had to go and sort out some more paperwork for the house, so Chantal and I were on our own. The Swedes stayed through the lecture but left soon after to go in search of food. We agreed to hook up with them after the evening session ended at 8 p.m. An SMS informed us that they were at a place called Steers, not far away. We joined them and a pair of Tanzanians, both named Godfrey. Godfrey #1 had seen our Pixel Corps launch presentation in July and had seen the one at IPP as well. He had spent a year in Sweden at an arts college in a small town. He has been working on an Arts based NGO called Rafiki. Godfrey #2 is a painter who has done some teaching at schools in Zanzibar and Bagamoyo. We had a nice Indian dinner while discussing the art and design "scene" in Tanzania.

  
Godfrey #1 and Ulina. Godfrey #2 with Sophia and Lena

After dinner, we headed over to the Storm bar for some drinks. It was the most western designed space we had yet seen in Dar.


Hanging out at Storm.

The low background noises of the morning are pierced each day around 7 a.m. by the shrill cry of a woman who seems to be complaining bitterly about her eye. Her call of "Hey, my eye, my eye e." [my_eye.mp3] was a mystery until I caught sight of her a couple of days ago. Her eyes seemed to be quite fine, but she had a huge stack of egg flats on her head that she was selling. According to Maina, hardboiled eggs are a breakfast staple here.
At some point during the night we ran out of water at Hanif's. Fortunately we were aware that the tanks were almost empty. Maina arranged for a truck to come by and give us a refill. A canary yellow tanker rumbled up to the gate and after some fiddling with the fittings on the pump, we were in business. Three 2000-liter tanks were filled for $25. The reason for all the tanks is that the municipal water supply is highly unreliable. Coupled with a neighbor closer to the water supply continually cutting the kilometer long pipe that runs to the house, it is easier to fill up tanks.

  
Some quick repairs on the pump fittings and we were in business. Filling up 6000 liters of water tank.

Maina came by the house at 9:00 a.m. and we headed for the office. Chantal and Sandrine would catch up with us later. My hope was to get some more files uploaded onto the Internet. Once again however, my efforts were thwarted by a dead connection. I was finally able to get underway around 11 a.m.
Chantal and Sandrine's arrival at the office was quickly followed by Mwanga's. Vlad popped by for an unexpected visit. He was in town to bring someone to the hospital. We made tentative lunch plans with Vlad and had a long Q and A session with Mwanga to see what sort of projects Sandrine might be able to work on during her stay.
We went over to Mwanga's office after a quick lunch of matoke, sans Vlad, over at the Falcon. I think we had all imagined the worst about Mwanga's office and were pleasantly surprised with the sparse, utilitarian feel of the space. The office was in a very well kept compound in the middle of absolutely nowhere. We spent the best part of the afternoon watch some of the projects he had worked on and going through some footage of his family and village far to the north on the Kenyan border. Mwanga has a brother and nine sisters. His father was the chief of security for President Nyerere, but died of complications from ulcer surgery in 1969. Some felt his unexpected death was a politically motivated murder. The highlight of the family footage was Mwanga's grandmother who is well over 100 years of age. She is still going strong and lives in a traditional hut surrounded by family.

  
Chantal and Sandrine waiting in the gutter for Mwanga's driver. Lots of people made comments to us and about us because we were right on the edge of an area where lots of seemingly homeless people camp out. We didn't understand a word of what they were saying, so it was all lost on us. The offices of Kwanza Productions are spacious and well lit.

The rest of the day was spent computing and communicating. I was able to get my blog caught up at long last. We finally called it quits at 9 p.m. and headed home to make some dinner. We seem to be getting better with our ratatouille. We had some good avocados to start off with and a lovely pineapple to end the meal with.


Ratatouille, its what’s for dinner.

The main focus this day was to secure the house we have been working to get near Hanif's in Micocheni. Headed over to the office at 9 :30 a.m. to meet with Yusuf and get all documentation in order. At this juncture, DTP will be on the lease, eliminating the need for Maina to have his work permit in hand before renting. The Internet connection was a bit better but still not up completely. We all checked in with our various information services.
Two hours went by with no sighting of Yusuf. Maina eventually got hold of him and arranged to pick him up from a nearby bus depot. The two of them worked on all of the paperwork required. Official documents related to DTP were Xeroxed; a three page lease was generated, along with receipt forms. We were finally on our way around 2 p.m.
Back in Micocheni we had the unexpected honor of being invited into the home of the neighbor, Mr. Mtana, to join in the tail end of his youngest sons baptismal feast. We were brought in among friends and family and offered the finest in hospitality. The meal consisted of chicken, vegetables in a sweet and sour sauce, a tomato and cucumber salad, white rice, brown rice, and ugali. We joined the men on one side of the room with the women being on the other side. The seemingly big excitement was the bottles of Pepsi that were gingerly brought out and lovingly toweled off before being served at the end of the meal. The TV was blaring the entire time we were seated.

  
The baptismal feast at Mr. Mtana's. Chantal doesn't seem quite sure of what we have gotten ourselves into.


Enjoying the scene in the Mtana living room.

After the meal it was down to business. Maina produced his paperwork and a long discussion in Swahili ensued. It seemed to go well and we were soon overrin the house making notes about the clean up required before we moved in. Although it needs a great deal of attention at the moment, the house should be very good once it is spiffed up.

  

  
Pumping two fences will bring you to Hanif's place.

Back over at Mr. Mtana's we were invited to climb up onto his unfinished second and third story to look out over the Dar es Salaam skyline. There is also an excellent view of the new house as well as the side of Hanif's. We get the $3600 in rent organized before coming back down. Another long conversation culminated in Maina handing over the two envelopes with the rent money. Mr. Mtana dutifully counted through 2,600,000 in 5,000 and 10,000 Tanzanian shilling notes as well as writing down the serial numbers for the $1000 in 100 dollar bills. The lease documents were signed with a witness from each side as well. a receipt for payment was signed and we were on our way.

  
$3600 for a year’s rent in the form of $1000 and 2,600,000 shillings. Transcribing the serial numbers from US dollars seems to be a national pastime.

The Golden Tulip Hotel was our destination for a celebratory Tusker beer and a swim. Chantal, Sandrine and I swam while Maina nursed his beer and SMSed. We contemplated how we would get Maina to put down his phone and join us for a swim. The sun was pretty much gone after we got into the pool and it started to cool off a bit too much. Maina eventually finished his beer and we tossed him in. After about an hour we were done in the water and had moved over to a dining area on a bluff overlooking the Indian Ocean. The next two hours were spent conversing and imbibing various alcoholic substances. Anne Marie joined us in spite of being on duty as an employee of the hotel.

  
Had a quick dip in the pool before enjoying the cool evening air.

Finally got underway toward dinner around 9:00 p.m. Ended up at the Indian place we had gotten take away from when we came back from our safari. It was all quite delicious but the others all complained about having ordered too much food.

Went with Maina over to the office at 9:30 a.m. The last of his Saturday classes met this morning. He had forgotten that he had told the students to be there at 9 a.m. They all gave him a hard time when we finally arrived at 10:00 a.m. I was at the office hoping to get a bunch of Internet activities completed. Luck would have it that today would be one of the worst days yet for the Internet connection. The connection was just dead most of the time. It would come on and start to pick up only to flat line a few minutes later. I imagined that everyone in Dar es Salaam was waiting patiently for the connection to come alive and as soon as it did, pouncing on it all at once. Needless to say, I was just as glad to leave the office to head over to the Q Bar to catch the tail end of the Rugby match between New Zealand and Australia.
Chantal and Sandrine had arrived at Q Bar at noon according to plan and were a little peeved at Maina when we showed up an hour late. I worked on my laptop amidst the howls and hoots of a sizeable chunk of the expatriate community in Dar es Salaam. To Maina's disappointment, Australia won. A round of the usual Vegetable Fajitas (pronounced here with a hard "g" sound rather than the soft "j") and a Hamburger for Maina took over an hour to be served.


Chantal trying her hand at SMS. We all thought she was typing out a huge novel.

Shafiq was kind enough to lend Maina a car for the weekend in order to locate a house. We headed over to Shafiq's house near the office. He wasn't there, but we got to spend a couple of hours catching up with his wife Arifa and their children. Arifa enjoyed most of the DVD.
We got underway again at 5 p.m. We met up with the agent by the roadside stall we have been getting produce from. The agent has several houses in the Micocheni area to show. The first on was more of a bunker than anything else, the ceilings were quite low and there was a decided absence of windows. En route to the next place, Maina got a call from the neighbor of the house right around the corner from Hanif's that we all really liked. It turned out that the folks who were supposed to be taking it had showed up hours late to pay and were scheduled to come by at 7 p.m. If we came by at 6 p.m. with a receipt for Maina's work permit, he would give the house to us. Maina had no such receipt, but we though it would be good to meet with the neighbor anyway. He was a really nice guy, educated in the former Soviet Union as a mechanical engineer, he is currently working as a trainer for a NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) developing the textile industry in Tanzania.
We spend a while trying to come up with a solution to us getting the house instead of the folks who were to come at 7 p.m. to pay. DTP would be the one signing the lease, thus avoiding the issue of Maina not quite yet having his work permit. Everything was going well until he made mention that the other folks were going to pay for a whole year. Maina was devastated and we had a quick huddle before assuring the neighbor that we would be back the next morning with everything in order to take the house. A quick trip back to confer with Shafiq found us at their house as they were breaking their fast. A huge feast was laid out on the floor with everyone gathered around. Arifa insisted that we join them. While we nourished ourselves, the situation with the house was presented to Shafiq who was amenable to having DTP be on the lease. He raised some questions about the integrity of the neighbor and concerns about the situation. We modified our plan slightly and decided we would proceed. Maina was still quite apprehensive about coming up with a years rent all at once.


Breaking the ramadan fast with the Abdulrasul family.

After all of the days excitement, we decided to head over to the only public cinema in Dar to watch Matrix Revolutions. Maina had miscalculated the times and we arrived half an hour late to a screening. We waited for the next screening at a local pub called the Rose Garden. Lema from IPP was there with a large group and another couple of people that Maina knew came by. Eventually we headed back to the theater, a swank new South African owned three screen complex. The pre-feature entertainment was a bunch of very suggestive condom and off-color soda ads along with a cell phone ad that played three times. The best of the bunch was an ad for a cable TV company about their extensive range of choices. It featured a man on a plane fiddling with a remote control as the in-flight meal service is brought around. As he presses the buttons on the remote, the steward announces different menu choices that along with changing outfits and gender become more absurd each time. None of us were overly impressed with the Matrix. The visual effects were much improved over the second film, but the majority of the dialog was wooded and too many serious scenes were completely laughable. We finally made it back around 1a.m.


Come on, everyone is going!

Maina arrived at 9 a.m. to take us over to a house in the area that he had looked at previously. It turned out to be right around the corner from Hanif's. Although the house would need a great deal of clean up, it was much better than the one we had looked at in Msasani. The only thing preventing Maina from getting the house is the owner insisting that he have his work permit. To date the permit has been held up in the Ministry of Labor. Every time we had enquired about it, the response had been that it would be out in a day or two. Eventually we gave up on asking.
Back at the office, we ran into Jack, who seemingly knows everyone. He did indeed think he knew the owner of the house and agreed to see what he could do to smooth things over. He also agreed to see what he could do to speed along Maina's work permit.
We worked for a bit before heading over to the airport to pick up Chantal's friend Sandrine. We were delayed a bit by the motorcade for the former president. Fortunately Sandrine had only just emerged from the terminal when we arrived. The white-knuckle ride back to the DTP office didn't make a very good impression on any of us.


Have seen this little guy on many gas tank covers. Not sure how well the cars would run on his loving offerings of urine.

  
You can get everything you need from the street vendors at all the major intersections. A small sampling might include soap, mugs, towels, plush toys, coffee makers, hair trimmers, plastic toys, TV antennas, rolling tables, hand tools, car jacks, bags of water, and countless other things. A wide variety of TV antennas are available on the roadside.

Sandrine wasn't in the best of spirits after a roundabout trip from Paris via Bahrain and an overnight stay in Oman. After a bit more work at the office we headed back to Micocheni. We decided that leaving during rush hour wasn't such a good idea. The taxi driver, although agreeing two 3000 shillings at our embarkation point decided at our destination that 3500 would be better for the really long distance. We left him grumbling with 3000. A two-hour power outage began immediately after our arrival. The house wasn't all that pleasant without the fans running. We started dinner in the dark and were happy to have the lights and fan back on for the end of it. I spent the rest of the evening reading and working on the computer.

We were still working at the house when the housemaid arrived. She desperately wanted to tell us something about the television and us. Our only experience with the television at Hanif's thus far was that it didn't get any signal. As the housemaid tried a second time to explain in broken English, all we could think about was the dysfunctional set. At this point, we decided it would be better to have her write down her message and have Maina give a shot at figuring out what it was. She only picked up on us saying Swahili, missing the pantomime of writing, causing her to launch into an animated explanation that was completely lost on us. Eventually we got the message down on paper. Later at the office Maina translated and much to our surprise, we had been on television the previous evening. A gentleman from TVT, the government television station had been filming at the Mac Expo we attended on Nov 11th. We hadn't thought much of it at the time, but I guess it had been a fairly big deal.
We grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed over to Msasani to meet with the owner of a potential house. Chantal and Maina had been over here before. The house was decent, but certainly not worth the $350 per month rent due up front for one year. We have continued to be amazed by the amount of money due at one time to secure a place to live. The shortest period of time that rent can be paid for seems to be six months. I imagine it is very difficult for the average person to afford a decent place to live.
Anne Marie joined us after the owner had left. She was not at all impressed with neither the house nor the neighborhood it was located in. We all headed over to a South African owned rib joint with a American South West decor. The food, though quite good took an interminably long time to materialize. Chantal and I headed back to office, leaving Maina to spend the rest of the afternoon with Anne Marie.
Tonight’s order of business for the Pixel Corps was picking a project to work on. We had come up with a number of suggestions for graphic design and video and a set of milestones for each. I ended up spending the session resuscitating Mwanga's fish handling movie. The Pixel Corps members picked an interesting variety of projects to work on. Two of the folks doing graphic design decided to do posters, one for a soon to be released dairy product and another for a video rental store. Chantal's suggestions that they make one for a movie, music or cultural event were met with blank stares. One gentleman asked if a car accident was considered an event that a poster could be made for.
The video projects ranged from a piece about Tanzanian soccer to a humorous short and a documentary on the underprivileged fighting for their rights. The gentleman who wanted to do the documentary was so soft spoken that for all intents and purposes he was just mouthing the words. We are all very curious as to how his project is going to get done if no one can hear him speak.

Our morning activities around Hanif's house were disturbed by the arrival of Joclin from the DTP office. She had come looking for the lighting kit. Maina had sent a message, but Chantal had left the phone on silent mode in her bag, so we were caught unaware. We quickly gathered everything together and were ready to head out the door when the Foxes magic yellow mini-bus arrived. It was an unexpected surprise to see Vlad and Miriam. Plans were made to visit Lazy Lagoon in two weeks time for Maina's birthday. Miriam was convinced that the keys to Peter Fox's truck were somewhere in the house. We spent the next 15 minutes or so looking in every conceivable spot they might be, but to no avail. Eventually everyone was shooed out of the house and we were on our way. A short detour over to the Valhalla Complex to visit the Nordic Clinic got both Chantal and I enough anti-malaria medication to last the rest of the trip. Both of our insurance providers only allow month long prescriptions to be filled. Not entirely useful for long trips. My Dioxycycline was $12 for a two month supply and Chantal's Larium was $40.
Mwanga came by the office just after we arrived. Chantal somehow convinced him to come to lunch with us even though he was fasting. We talked about the state of the film and video industry in Tanzania over plates of Matoke (savory banana mash) and mixed vegetables. Back at the office, I continued to do battle with the Internet. Everything times out due to the slow connection. Every picture I post for the blog takes five or more tries before is finally gets uploaded. I have begun to consider the necessity of looking for a different connection option. A good chunk of the afternoon was spent rebuilding Mwanga's computer. He has been having trouble launching several applications and his external drive is formatted incorrectly.
Chantal ran the Pixel Corps group through a presentation exercise. The members were paired up and interviewed each other. Each of the members then gave a short report of the other persons background, goals, hobbies, and favorite design or video. The group interest was primarily in video with two folks interested in graphic design. They all did a decent job with their presentations.
After the evening Pixel Corps session had finished we headed over to the Retreat restaurant. Had another delicious all veg Indian meal. Got some space snacks for a starter.


Snacks for your Outer Space journeys.

All of the taxi drivers in the downtown area wanted too much money for the trip back to Micocheni so we hiked back over to the office and got one for the right price.
On the way, we talked about how much the Pixel Corps members were getting out of the classes being taught in English. Although all secondary education is taught in English, most of the students do not feel comfortable with their English skills. Maina told us that one of his students had asked him if he could recap the lessons in Swahili. Mwanga had also told me earlier that one of the gentlemen who had heard my lecture had failed to understand a great deal of it because he had trouble grasping my American accent and pronunciation. Unfortunately, most of the people here are also deathly afraid of looking stupid in front of their peers. Even though they do not understand, they will not raise questions or ask for clarification. Instead, they will sit quietly not understanding a word and discreetly ask one of their friend’s questions later. Basic communication and confidence building exercises desperately need to be added to the curriculum.

A stop at the Mayfair Plaza to meet with the architect, Smit was the first order of business for the day.The Mayfair is scheduled to be open in January with about 75% occupancy. The power was out when we arrived, so Smit gave us a tour of the premises to show us what was possible for the new DTP space. From the high polish floor tiles to the guady wall treatments, the Mayfair had a typical mini-mall sensibility to it. Everything was glossy and cold. It will take some work to convince them that the office needs a different approach.

  

  

The beautiful Mayfair Plaza, scheduled to open in January.

The power eventually came back on and we left with printouts in hand. Back at the office, Chantal and I set about coming up with layouts for the new space. There was a fair amount of vageuness to the actual numbers of staff and types of equipment. We proceeded to do our best with the little bit we had to on.
Our afternoon break was a trip over to the Royal Palm Hotel with Mwanga to see a demo of the new G5 Macintosh and Mac OS 10.3. The local Apple Reseller had thrown the event. A gentleman from France did the bulk of the presentation on the new hardware and operating system. Afterwards, a Swedish gentleman who has been in Tanzania since the mid-1980's working in communities throughout the region, gave a talk about the set up he uses to put together video projects with teenagers. He has been working most recently in the north of Tanzania in the Lushoto region at a training center called Maneno.
After the expo, Mwanga clues us in that the gentleman is bad news. He has had numerous clashes with the groups he is supposed to have been training. He has taken footage that the local people have put shot and put together and tried to osell it as his own. According to Mwanga, he has been chased out of at least four different communities to date.
We returned to the office just before a Pixel Corps meeting. I had volunteered to give a talk about getting files into After Effects. There were half a dozen folks present in varying states of attentiveness. One of the folks sitting closest to me was asleep about mid way through the talk. The rest of the group looked on blankly while I went through the material. My repeated queries as to wether or not any of it didn't make sense, were greeted with cold silence. I began to wonder if Maina has been fairing any better in his lectures.

Pottered around the house and office for the first half of the day. Made progress on a revised quote for the IPP classes and helped Jack figure out how to play VCD's on his Windows laptop. Shafiq requested our presence for a trip over to a potential new site for the office over toward the airport.
The site turned out to belong to Arifa's uncle and was in much less shape than Chantal and I were lead to believe. Shafiq mentioned that DTP needed to be moved by the beginning of January. They have a great deal of work ahead of them. The area proposed production area is nothing more than a pad at this point in time. The rest of the structure was incredibly raw, with parts looking as if they had been through a war. We are joined on site by Smit, the architect for this site and the Mayfair Plaza over toward Hanif's house. We made arrangements with her to meet the following morning and get layouts for the structures that DTP would occupy.

  

  

  

The rest of the afternoon and early evening were spent back at the office. The internet connection had degenerated so much that I was getting disconnect from my FTP server almost as soon as I was able to connect and start uploading pictures for the blog. It had been so bad that Shafiq had supposedly not been able to check his email for the previous three days.
We eventually called in quits and headed out for dinner. We decided to try a new place called the Garden Bistro. It was nice but a little expensive. Maina was supposed to meet an old college friend and eventually figured that he should just go get him and bring him along for dinner. Eventually Maina and Kamal returned and we had a nice meal together. Kamal, it turns out had moved to London and had been running a disco for a number of years before giving it up in favor of a community center. He was in Kenya and Tanzania for a few days to try and make contacts to set up summer camps in both countries. After dinner, we headed over to the Golden Tulips Hotel where Kamal was staying to have some drinks. By this point it was getting on towards 1 a.m. and we were all running out of steam.

  

In the Arabica Cafe: Kamal and Maina, Chantal crashed out.

Getting a little culture was on today's agenda. We headed over to Mwenge to look for handicrafts. I had been over there previously with Gabriel and knew what to expect. The handicraft area consists of a large plaza with an open courtyard in the middle where a number of woodcarving artisans ply their trade. The finished pieces are then taken around to the selling stalls at the perimeter to see if they can find a buyer.
We made it around to almost every stall. It is interesting to see, with minor exceptions, almost the same thing in every one. Chantal bought a few things, including a painting that she got talked into purchasing. I was mainly interested in getting a better feel for what sort of things were there. It is so close to where we are staying that it will be easy to go back in the future.


A Swahili rendition of "Have you been to Jesus?" is in heavy rotation.

Our next stop is the Msasani Slipway, a tourist trap if I have ever seen one. We grab a bite to eat while being serenaded by an electronic toy that played Frara Jaqua, the Alphabet Song and Happy Birthday. At our suggestion, the waiter approached the mother of the boy who was manipulating the toy to see if it could be silenced. Maina reported that her reply indicated that she was totally unaware of the sound her child was making. Eventually they wandered off and we were left to Chantal taking up the serenade.

  
Take my picture.

After lunch we moved 50 yards over to be next to the water and nursed some fruit juice and mineral water for a bit before looking around at more handicrafts. A stall of handcrafted books caught my eye. The proprietor was talkative and explained that he was living in Micocheni, somewhere close to where we are, and that all of the books are made from natural or recycled materials. I was particularly curious about the pictures he had of himself extracting dyes from plants. When I told him what I was doing in Tanzania, he seemed very interested in the possibility of learning how to put together a website. Hopefully he will join the Pixel Corps.


One of a multitude of kitchen supply stands in a field opposite the US Embassy.

Chantal and I headed back to Hanif's house to relax and work before going out to meet Mwanga. He fails to get in touch with us, so we just head out to get some produce for supper and set about making ourselves a meal.

We worked at Hanif's house throughout the morning and headed over to the DTP office to meet with Shafiq. We grabbed a bite to eat before he returned from the mosque at 2 p.m. On our way over to the restaurant it started to rain and continued to pour down throughout our meal, stopping just prior to our departure back to the office.
The meeting with Shafiq was to discuss the logistics and legalities of our proposed classes at IPP Media. First up was a viewing of the DVD project. Everyone present seemed impressed. The discussion then progressed to our proposed fee. Shafiq thought our bid was too low and a long discussion ensued about the permit required to legally proceed with the work. It was determined that we would best be served by a "Special Pass" that would allow us to work for six months for a $400 fee each. A gentleman named Jack, who we had seen at the office on a number of other occasions casually placed a call to the Commissioner of Immigration and discussed our situation with him. We were all a little taken aback. Out of the conversation it was revealed that IPP had recently come into a considerable amount of funds for the express purpose of training their personnel. We agreed to revise our bid and that we would re-convene on Monday.
The next hour was spent running the numbers to come up with a few pricing schemes. Almost every financial transaction here seems to involve some bargaining so we will aim high and maneuver down from there. The power went out just after we finished, so we decided to pack it in and go find some food. We ended up at the Indian restaurant that we missed a couple of nights previously. I was happy to learn that it was a strictly vegetarian establishment. I ordered a five Dal dish and some garlic parathas. Absolutely scrumptious.

With breakfast at 8 a.m. and an 11 a.m. departure, none of us were in any hurry to get up. I had taken off my watch and even though I probably woke up at the usual 6 a.m., I managed to stay relaxed in bed until just after 8 a.m. Had a bit of a scramble to get over to breakfast but I don't think anyone really missed us.
The camp had a pool which Else and I made use of. The chilly water was most welcome. We swam for about 40 minutes before drying off in the sun. I am in desperate need of some more sun. I figure the tanner I get, the less I will get overcharged for goods and services. I will no longer be the pasty white European that the locals can spot a mile away. It is a pipe dream I know, but worth at least a little effort to try.
We departed the camp at 11 a.m. to be at the train station for a rumored 11:56 a.m. departure. We arrived early and the Dutch folks have a bunch of Bic pens to hand out to the kids. It is a bit of a mob scene and Fadhil is volunteered for the next time. The trip is smooth and most pleasant. We were forced to the siding to let another train pass at the village of Kifuru. We all opted to go out and explore the area. The Dutch folks were quite indiscriminate with their picture taking. One lady took offense and there was a bit of a heated discussion with Fadhil that he diffused quite well. We returned to the train just before the oncoming train passed. The next Bic pen distribution went much better. Fadhil's solution was to have all the kids close their eyes and hold out their hands. This worked much better and made for some fun pictures at the same time.

  
Bedlam vs. Order, Fadhil's “close your eyes” solution was most elegant.

  
The beauty salon in Kifuru. Everyone got to watch the DVD. The Dutch group was so impressed they wanted to buy one on the spot.

We arrived at the Dar es Salaam train station about 5:30 p.m. Miriam was on hand with our forward transport. The Dutch group was whisked off in a mini van to their hotel. We crammed into a cab with Else and drop her at her Uncle's place before heading over to the DTP office. We caught up with Maina and checked in with our email. Eventually we headed over to Q Bar to get some dinner. The place was packed with expats and lascivious looking local girls. I was particularly nervous on this occasion. I imagined that this would be a good target for religious extremists. Down with the bringers of evil from the west and the corrupted local people chasing after them. Maina would tell me later that he sometimes thinks about this too and that there is an even busier bar that would probably be a more likely target.

If Tanzania were the Disneyland of yore, today's adventure would have required an "E Ticket." We were summonsed by the Foxes to be at the Tazara Railway workshop at 8 a.m. in order to get on their train out to the Selous Game Reserve.
After a harrowing rush-hour taxi ride in a vehicle with no shocks (Being shock less necessitates negotiating the multitude of speed bumps at 5 Km/Hr, coming at them from a 45 degree angle.) we arrived at 8:10 a.m. to find no one at the workshop. Fearful of having been left behind, I attempted to call Nick, who had "arranged" everything. The guards at the gate failed to understand my request for a telephone, but were most amused by the page in Chantal's notebook that Nick's number was on. About this time Miriam showed up and whisked us over to the Tazara station for a 9 a.m. departure. Else from Vuma Hills arrived a few minutes after we did.

  
The Tazara station in Dar es Salaam, empty at 8:30 a.m., but they do have a cage (...er, crib) big enough to hold me.

Our questioning slowly brought to light several heretofore unrevealed items. It turned out that the Foxes coach was already in the Selous and we would be riding out on a locomotive. Fair enough, but we started to wonder about water and food. Nourishment had not been �arranged.� Miriam and a helper set off to get some produce. At our urging, she bought some bananas, citrus, mangoes and a papaya. After Miriam left, we learned from Else that we would be sleeping on the floor of the coach without any sort of bedding. This threw Chantal into a fit. Several text messages and a voice call later, arrangements were finally made for us to stay at the Sable Mountain Lodge.
At some point during this fracas, a plain clothed lady claiming to be an immigration official approached us demanding to know our travel plans and to see our passports. Else whipped her passport out right away, but I wanted to make sure the lady was who she said she was and demanded to see her identification. Everyone�s documents were in order and we were left to stew in our purgatory.
Around these events, the morning had all but slipped away by the time a rail official came to apologize to us for the delay. It turned out that the Technicians to whom Miriam talked had not informed the Marketing group of our departure. The upshot of the long apology was that special arrangements had been made and a driver brought in, but no definite time of departure could be set. We were move to the �First Class� lounge until our eventual departure at 12:30 p.m.
The Sh�ma diesel locomotive was a wonder on wheels. All of the seats were perched atop a spring base of some sort. We thought this weird at first, but after we got moving, the necessity became apparent. Even at relatively low speeds, the locomotive rocked back and forth and front to back in an endless random pattern of shakes and jolts. The next five hours were spent being thrown this way and that in the increasing heat while we crept down the track to our destination far in the distance.

  
Chantal puts on a happy face with our chariot in the background. Hailing from Holland, 17 year old Else is an intern at the Foxes' Vuma Hills camp.

  
Chantal is not impressed with our conveyance. At speed, I attempt to clean the windows for better viewing.

We whiled away the hours talking amongst ourselves and with the driver, while eating our way through a fair amount of the snacks we had purchased on the chance that we were not able to stay at the Sable Mountain Lodge. When we got to the Selous, our forward speed decreased and we felt like we were on a game drive, with the driver slowing to a halt for giraffes.

  
At the helm, our captain has worked for Tazara for the past 25 years and been a train operator for the last 4. The seemingly endless ribbon of track extends into the distance and beyond.

  
This giraffe paced us for a bit before veering off. Else enjoying the view from the coach.

We finally rendezvoused with the Foxes coach in a little wide spot on the tracks called Fugu. There was another car attached to the coach so some time was spent moving both cars from the siding and then moving the extra one back. After everything was in order, we moved back to the coach for the rest of the journey. The suspension in the coach was much better and the cushy armchairs were most welcoming. After another hour of traveling, we arrived at Kisaki and the end of our rail journey. A truck from Sable Mountain appeared half an hour later to ferry us the 9 Km to their camp. We insisted that Else come with us rather than spending the night on the train. She seemed worried that she would get in trouble, but we assured her than we would take the blame for everything.
  
We have to shuffle the strange mobile office around before going forward with the coach. Chantal is lost somewhere in the huddle.

We arrived after dark, so would have to wait until morning for a proper assessment of the camp, but we were mightily impressed with the bit we could see. The rooms were constructed from rock with thatched roofs and reed mats covering the floor. The bathrooms were very nice with natural rock around the perimeter. The hot showers were a delight and it was great to wash away the dust and grime accumulated over the course of our journey.
For dinner, we met the Dutch group that we would be escorting back on the train. They seemed very nice and had had a great time on their sixteen days in Tanzania. We had some local dishes for starters that were quite delicious. I wish the Foxes would break up their staid English meals with a bit of local flavor, but with Geoff at the helm, I think it will be a long time coming.

We spent the morning at Hanif's house and headed into Kiriakoo for lunch. The main item on the agenda for today was a meeting with IPP Media to see if we could provide them with some classes. We arrived at 2 pm. to find that Lema not at the office. We met up with Ernesto, who turned out to be a good friend of Maina's girfriend's roommate. He does motion graphics for ITV, one of the stations under the IPP umbrella. Lema finally showed up with apologies for being detained elsewhere.
The meeting finally got underway with Lema, Ernesto, Maria, from Channel 5, three of the video guys from Channel 5, two of which I recognized from the Pixel Corps meeting the previous night, as well as Maina, Chantal and I. The IPP folks outlined their needs and concerns and we talked back and forth about what we could provide and how to proceed. We wraped up an hour of so later feeling good about what we had agreed upon.
The rest of the afternoon is spent working on the course outline for a two week program. We soon began to realize what a large project the training would become. The staff needs so much training in so many areas that two weeks seems like barely enough time to scratch the surface. Had a short break for dinner before a second session of course outlining.
The saga of Chantal's email account continued. Between her requests to Pac Bell, Yahoo and her roommates, the password was reset one to many times and she was locked out once again.

Got into the office by 10 a.m. Maina was tied up with DPI classes and we felt a little out of place hanging around. Attempted to get some telecommunication done. Chantal's roommates had set up a wireless network in their house and during the course of the installation had talked the technician into changing the master password for the account. That password also happened to be the password for Chantal's email account. She spent an increasingly frustrating day trying to access her account without success. The Internet connection was even more glacial than I recalled from July.
The early evening found Chantal and I paraded in front of half a dozen Pixel Corps members. They stared woodenly as we introduced ourselves and talked a bit about our backgrounds. I had the disconcerting feeling I was addressing a room full of propped up corpses.
Chantal's attempts to get into her email account kept us at the office until after midnight. She was finally able to get access to find nearly 300 unread emails that would have to wait until morning.

I had made arrangements the previous day for our driver from the port to conduct a tour of the spice plantations for us. While getting the DTP logo off the Internet in the hotel lobby, I ran into the driver, who had a story about being unable to lead a tour for us today because he needed to get some medicine for his son. He was at the hotel to introduce his brother who he hoped would suffice as a stand-in. We negotiated a price and a time for him to come back.
With the DTP logo in hand, I quickly produced another build of the DVD and burned a copy. This one would go back with Julie and Gabriel to be shipped from San Francisco to Bruce in London. We gathered all of our stuff and at the last minute decided it would be a good idea to leave it at the hotel. Some repacking ensued and we were finally underway at 11 a.m. Stopped at the port to get ferry tickets back to Dar es Salaam. The only ferry out was leaving at 3:30 p.m. that would leave us with hardly any time to see the island. We opt to see about flights back. Precision Air was $60 for the 15-minute flight back to Dar. It was leaving at 9:30 p.m. so we decided to take it. Our next stop was at a local produce market. Lots of colorful fruits and vegetables, but none of the mounds of spice that were rumored to be there.

  

After a final detour for a permit to leave town we were underway at 12:30 p.m. Our first stop was at an overlook with a view back over Stone Town. It was not much of an overlook and I started to have misgivings about our driver.

  
Leaving Stone Town. A lumber yard.

Things started to get a bit more interesting once we got out of the urban area. Our driver, Muhsin, was keen to point out all of the notable plants in the area and was good about stopping for us to take pictures. We eventually arrived at a government run farm. Some negotiating went on between Muhsin and the local guides, after which, we were set for a spice tour.
The tour began very slowly with dry presentation of the plants in strangely broken English. Some other youths joined our procession and I began to wonder when they would begin asking for a hand out. As we moved along, the youths began to craft various accessories for us out of the vegetation. We received bags, purses, bracelets, rings, glasses, hats, ties, and necklaces with frog pendants.
The tour picked up as we got into some of the less pedestrian vegetation and our guide began to have us guess what things were from a sniff or taste. We were shown mandarin, coffee, banana, plantain, pineapple, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, turmeric, breadfruit, jackfruit, coconut, clove, cocoa, and ginger.

  
Some out of control coffee and pineapples.

  
Nutmeg

  
Cloves

  
Cocoa.

  
Jackfruit.

  
Breadfruit and cardamom.

  
The fabled "passion" baths that turned out to be Persian baths. One of Chantal's many suitors, flowers in hand.

  
  
  
Styled by nature.

  
This youngster scampered up the palm tree to get us some coconuts and Gabriel thought he would give it a try as well. Needless to say, he didn't quite make it to the coconuts.

  
Pepper and a giant snail.

Just as we were coming to the end of the tour it started raining, a little at first and then a torrential downpour. We were soaked running 10 yards to some shelter. The shelter turned out to be a stall of spices for sale. We each bought a little something and tipped our guide and outfitters before heading on our way.
On the way back to town we stopped at a little hotel to get something to eat and relax. Muhsin had to go and get some medicine for his children, three of which are afflicted with malaria and typhoid. He agreed to come back and pick us up later in the afternoon. He returned and we headed back to the Tembo Hotel to get our gear and slip into the pool. We had a nice swim and I went to get some samosas for a light dinner. Muhsin came back to deliver us to the airport. There was some worry about whether a plane would arrive to carry us back to Dar. Some earlier flights were cancelled. We made it back in good order and sat with Julie and Gabriel a bit before they had to go and check in for the 12:30 a.m. flight to Amsterdam. We were sad to see them go.

  
We got lots of stares from the other passengers in the airport terminal. A sad farewell to our traveling companions.

With our stuff all gathered together, we headed off to the pier to catch the boat to Zanzibar. Got our tickets on the "fast boat" all sorted out. We felt a bit taken advantage of by the guy that arranged for the tickets but by the time we realized that other options might be better, it was too late. Our search for breakfast was hindered by Muslim holy month of Ramadan being in full swing. We had missed the first few days while we were out on safari. With all the Muslim faithful fasting during sunlight hours, eating during the day for the next month or so would prove to be a difficult experience at best.


You can have a Coke and a smile anywhere in the world.

We boarded the boat and took our reserved seats for what turned out to be a two and a quarter hour trip. Compared to the three hours on the slow boat, it was hardly worth almost double the price for the ticket. The Stone Town port on Zanzibar was hardly set up for tourist traffic. We laboriously climbed over rickety piers and ramps and negotiated around the clearinghouses. Our meandering path eventually took us to the Immigration Office where we were admitted into Zanzibar.
Just outside the office we were set upon by the touts looking to give us a lift into town. During her visit in July, Chantal had paid 3000 shillings for a ride that lasted less than 5 minutes. We were a little reluctant to repeat that experience but one of the drivers was willing to take us for 1000. His game turned out to be getting us signed up for other services on the island, mainly spice tours. We told him we would think about his offer and checked into the Tembo Hotel.


Poolside at the Tembo Hotel.

After getting settled, we headed out in search of some food. It took us a bit of hunting, but we eventually found an Indian place that was open. Our onward ramblings took us through the narrow streets of Stone Town, winding up on the rooftop bar at the Emerson and Green Hotel.

    
Stone Town is noted for its carved wooden doors.

  
Seen around town.

    
Garbage is omnipresent in the small streets and alleyways.

  
An example of the ornate facades found in Stone Town. Weathered limestone.

  
The local video arcade has everything you need.

  
Sugar cane presses waiting for the sun to set before being put into action. Some of the biggest spiders I have ever seen. These were easily 5 inches long.

  
The view from the Emerson and Green bar was spectacular.

Returned to the Tembo Hotel from our wanderings to work on the DVD some more and for the others to swim for a bit. Headed out again to try and find an Internet cafe. The first one we stopped at was closing in 30 minutes but we thought we would give it a try anyway. The settings that the attendant gave us to hook our laptops into their network didn't work so we ended up leaving, frustrated, a little bit later. We searched for another place we could hook into but none of them were interested in our business. Ended up back at the hotel hooked into their connection, which is the fasted we have experienced in Tanzania. Out again a bit later for a delicious meal at a pure vegetarian Indian place around the corner.

Up for a 7:30 a.m. departure. We had to be in Mafinga at 8:30 a.m. to ensure we didn't miss the Scandinavian bus back to Dar es Salaam. We were all intently looking at the license plates for the right bus. A different Scandinavian bus came through and Geoff's enquiries about the Dar bus were met with a reply of it is coming just now. Our experience with "just now" has been spotty at best. There are varying shades of just now from "just now" to "just now, now". The bus arrived in the "just now" timeframe, about an hour later. We loaded our gear and bid goodbye to Geoff. We were all quite sad to be parting.

  
A last view of misty Mufindi. The bus depot in Mafinga.

  
Gabe thought the guy in the back sound asleep with no shirt was a riot. A roadside market.

Our eight hour bus journey set off at 11 a.m. Gabriel, Julie and I tried to get some work done in the cramped quarters of our seats. There was some fantastic en route entertainment in the form of a TV at the front of the bus. In the couse of our trip we were subjected to a Thai action film, Delta Force with Chuck Norris and The Tuxedo with Jackie Chan. We had a pit stop just after the Iringa pass and another in Morogoro. The bus finally arrived in Dar around 7 p.m. Got a cab back to Micocheni where we met up with Maina. I was still furiously at work getting the DVD layed out. Gabe and Maina got some take-out Indian for dinner.