Observations

6th March 2008

Hia all – not so much a diary entry this time (you will probably be happy to hear) but more a note of some observations about life here.

I feel quite at home here now, as I have said. Been here a month and getting into the pace of life here – the house is great for us. It is big and airy and cool. Things don’t always seem to work as they should but it doesn’t seem to matter. We just say, well that’s Africa! But then I was wondering why is it just Africa?

Walking through town, which I do quite comfortably now and even finding my way around – (well it is quite a small city and all roads do seem to lead either to the New Mwanza Hotel or the Clock junction), you really have to keep your eyes down. Not because of any cultural thing, but because there are just loads of holes in the road and hazards around. Suddenly there is a hole, with a 2ft drop below it, no man hole cover lid! No warnings, notices or anything (CAB hat on here!). Everywhere you walk there are hazards just waiting for someone to fall over or down. Ladders just put against the side of a building, taking up the whole of the pavement. Why the ladder – no repair work seems to being carried out. Everything seems to be in a state of dilapidation – why? Is it because there is no money to repair, or no incentive. Yet you would think that there was incentive as stuff has to last longer here, or just does. Cars here are all (I believe) brought over from Dubai – ie once they have been well used over there they are shipped to Dar for sale in E. Africa, and so by the time they get here they have already been hammered. Saw someone painting a building the other day. Huge building, was white and paint is now peeling off. The guy was standing on a flat roof half way up the building, big building, with a tin of paint and a paint brush. One man, one paint brush – and you honestly couldn’t see where he had painted and where he hadn’t. But it was interesting to see that he was painting – maybe it was a punishment?


Most of the main roads in town are tarmac but the rest, the mud roads, are like a fairground ride. Town is on the flat but the ones on hills have so many gully’s and rocks in them, you are often on the other side of the road being driven because that is the smoothest. The rains cause so much damage to these roads that repairing them with mud just isn’t worth it – so they just get worse and worse.

There is a conference here at the moment in Mwanza – some East African Community thing. Popped into town yesterday (after my placement time and my hour at the internet café) and walked past the New Mwanza Hotel. Sounds good doesn’t it – well it probably was 20 – 30 years ago, and nothing has changed since then. Like everything else here, I should think little has been done to improve or repair it since it was built. So over the entrance is this wonderful banner (sheet!) with “The New Mwanza Hotel welcomes delegates to the East African Community Conference” and there was a red carpet leading into the hotel. For red, read muddy and old and faded crimson. The carpet itself was a cut off from some piece somewhere, and it was just laid down – over steps! Nothing to hold it in place, nor to ensure that it lay safely down over the steps – can you imagine that happening in the UK. Health & Safety would have had a ball. But that is just how it is.

So maybe we are getting used to it, and don’t mind when things break or don’t work at Milestones. For instance we can’t have the kettle on the same time as either the fridge or the toaster, but hey that’s Africa.

So the state of Mwanza is dilapidated and is in need of repair, but then the people here are lovely. There is no hassle walking the streets, you do get asked for money but once you have said no or Seo leo (not today) you are left alone. There appears to be little begging here as such, though you are often asked to buy stuff on the streets, bananas, DVD’s,(pirated of course), baskets, cooked corn, etc. but you certainly don’t feel threatened.

We have a “local” just up the road from us, Triple P, which we would like to go to in an evening, but we have been advised (told by Joey) not to walk home alone from there in the dark. He says we should call Doadi (our askari) to come and escort us home, but we are so uncomfortable still with him sitting outside whilst we are in the house in an evening, that we feel we really couldn’t do that. We really still find the askari thing awkward. He comes as it gets dark, and we would still like to be sitting in our courtyard reading etc and would quite happily eat out there (except maybe the mosquito’s would have a field day with us) but we have to get into the house and lock ourselves in before he comes, as we are too embarrassed to say hi and goodnight to him.

Anyway, I have rambled. All is good here – really enjoying it and feel well settled. Think I have a filming session with Joey at my placement, so had better go and sort myself out. (Though even that doesn’t take long, as it is no good wearing make up here, it just sweats off – sorry about that but thought you would be interested!)

So bye for now and be in touch soon. Love J