A Christmas Vacation

 

Let me just say, that for those of you enjoy the pics in the blog, my computer has crashed and I no longer have access to the files (here’s hoping to some file recovery when I get to an IT expert).  I will also ask my friends to share their pictures.  Meanwhile....
Edit:  Feb 9, 2013...I got the pics of this holiday from my friends Lois and Derrick, plus Christmas on Zanzibar from Evelyn.  Thanks all. 

My Christmas holidays started with a celebration on the Island of Zanibar.  Together with the other VSO volunteers, we had a wonderful party with an ungift game plus other games and of course wonderful food as usual.  It was a veritable United Nations gatherings with representatives from:  Canada (8), USA (a Canuk who works in Alaska), UK, Canadian-Pakistani, Canadian-Chineese, Chineese from China, Philopino, Belgium, and Canadian-Columbian.  The last picture here is of Lois, Derrick and Evelyn who kindly offered me a place to stay while I looked for a new placement.  I felt safe and cared about, it was great.  The sad part is that Derrick got ill (not African related) on our holiday and he and Lois have had to return to Canada.  With luck they`ll be back in no time.

 

So it seems that there are holidays during Dec 25, 26, and Jan 1 even in Tanzania (62% Christian pop...35%Arab pop...3% other pop.).  My VSO friends Michelle (from TO), Lois and Derrick (from Comox, BC) took advantage of the national holidays and went on a well deserved vacation.  Reversing our snow-birds instincts, we looked for cooler climes.  Instead of heading north, however, we headed to higher elevation, which took up south.

The journey began with a train ride from Dar es Salaam to Mpika, Zambia.  We were warned ahead of time that the train often ran late, as much as 6 hours at times.  We didn’t think we’d mind that as we were slated to arrive in Mpika at midnight.  Little did we know what running late could mean?    The train finally left the station in Dar after a 5 hour delay , a number of different garbled reasons given over the loudspeaker, including going to get gas (for that final delay, someone deserves a promotion!). 

The train and line are over 60 years old, built by the Chinese to transport Copper (which has yet to happen).  What we soon realized is that it had never been updated so you can imagine 60 years of grime, filthy washroom with no water, dirty smelly bedding etc..  However, we made the best of it telling ourselves ‘it’s an adventure’ and spending the 48 hours:  watching the hills and vales of the scenery glide by when on welded rails or jerk by, more often, when not ; interacting with the vendors at the too-man-to-count stops; trying to figure out why we in fact did stop again in the middle of no-where or what the plumes of thick rubber-smelling smoke coming from under our carriage were all about (and just what the belt was for when it was eventually removed because it  wouldn’t stop catching fire);  trying to decided who was entertaining whom as the 4 y.o.  Zambian-German boy from next door visited (or was dropped off to provide respite to his parents and 4 mos brother); and debating what to eat at lunch and dinner (always the same offering of tough thin chicken and rice, dried out fish and rice, or jaw-breaking meat and rice...breakfast offering us a break from choosing as there was only one offering, a one egg omelette, dried bread, tea or coffee).   At least there was food, because as it turned out we arrived 15 hours late and our stash of snacks and fruit were long gone.  It did give us plenty of time to play cards and scrabble, to my delight.

After a night in Mpika (right out of the ghost towns of the US Midwest), we got a ride to paradise.  Kapishya Hot Springs Lodge is an off-shoot of Africa House (a stately manor house with horses, animal husbandry, and a working farm).  I was very happy that the House was closed for Xmas (booked up with visiting family) therefore we had to stay at the Lodge which was built beside the mineral hot springs some 10 Km away.  We had 5 days of luxurious R & R, being treated to gourmet meals, hikes (where we saw the likes of Zebra, antelope, petroglpyhs and a newly built hydro-electric dam and power station).  Otherwise we could be found rafting on the river with its resident crocodiles, reading by or swimming in the river-side pool, having a massage (again waterside) if we weren’t soaking in the hot springs multiple times a day.  The main lodge, a rustic 2 story wooden structure offered couches to read and play games, a dining room and huge windows to watch the lightening shows; while our A frame abodes sported wood-fired hot water and a feel of home for those of us from the West Coast.  Honestly, we thought we’d died and gone to heaven.  My body let go of tension I’d been carrying since July.  Ahhh! 

Pooling our bus and meal money, we then headed off via private car up to the border of Zambia and Tanzania, jumped on a daladala for a few hours and arrived in Mbeya.  We were graciously given sleeping quarters and meals in all their African meagreness, by Deborah (originally from Toronto).  She is the youthful founder and driving force behind ‘The Olive Branch Foundation’ which services 22 villages in the neighbouring area.  The place we stayed in is an orphanage for what she calls “the worst of the worst”,  housing 30 children (many with HIV or disabilities), Deborah and her Maasai husband, and their young daughter.  The Foundation also had a small but enterprising gaggle of volunteers who come through on varying lengths of short-term stays.  These younger women stay out in the villages during the week and come to the orphanage on w/e for a shower and nights rest in a bed.  Amazing how comparison works...it can always be worse.

 

The primary work of the Olive Branch is done in the villages helping to improve HIV awareness, prevention and treatment, plus most importantly providing and running Montessori schools (every school has one M- trained teacher with a goal is to train >44 teachers in all).  An M trainer from Toronto, has come for a couple of summers and taught the teachers.   The current volunteers are doing studies and capacity building with the teachers.  Michelle and Lois (who was a Montessori teacher at one time) went to the villages and were reportedly very impressed.

Meanwhile Derrick and I headed to the town of Iringa, our next destination, as he required some medical attention.  Both Mbeya and Iringa are at about 1500 M (and Mpika was similar) and so the temperatures were lovely...20-25 during the day and requiring blankets at night. Ahh!!  Although we had rain off and on during our trip, overall it was very pleasant.  In Iringa we stayed at Neema Crafts Guesthouse, a workshop for people with disabilities.  The guesthouse is run by the deaf and dumb, while the other crafts such as weaving, pottery, paper-making (from elephant dung), jewellery making and quilting, are done by people without legs.  I did not discover the reason for so many limbless people but know it’s not landmines as there has not been a civil war here.  I do notice a lot of people with club foot and backward feet which may lead to amputation.  After a good year of apprenticeship, the crafters are assisted to set up their own business in their own communities.  As they are paid during training, their status at home is often elevated to the highest earner in the household (from a position of no status at all except to be seen as a burden).

The town of Iringa was remarkably cleaner than anywhere else we’d been in Tanzania.  We soon learned that a woman in government was brought in to local office and instituted garbage pickup and street cleaning.  Although she’d since moved on to another region, 4 years later it was still working.  One of the few local attractions (besides a very big and quiet game park called Ruaha), is a pre-historic site with hoodoos.  The archaeological finds were many and dated to stone age man and animals.  It was one of those experiences, like seeing the animals in the game park, where I felt very insignificant and minuscule in the grand scheme of things.  Ahh!!

 

While my other companions headed back to Dar (a ten hour bus ride), I broke the trip up with a few nights back in Morogoro at the convent.  After 6 hours on the hot crowded bus (back down to lower elevation and into the oven), and after checking in to the convent, I headed to a local hotel.  Extending my vacation a bit longer, I treated myself to a swim and pool-side snack.  Back at the convent I was then provided with a free concert.  The chapel was being used by a choir making a recording, and the sounds of their beautiful a capella four part African harmonies filled the entire building for several hours.  Ahh again!! (or is it awe, this time)?