Intro to Africa - Big City to Boonies

Moses, our driver running  back with gas

Sunday, June 5,2016

After a much needed night of sleep in a real bed at the Southern Sun Hotel in downtown Dar es Salaam, our journey continued Sunday morning with an episode right out of The Amazing Race.  We had arranged for our driver from the previous day to pick us up at the hotel and take us to the domestic airline terminal at the airport.   With no warning, he pulls over to the side of the road because we are “out of petrol”.  Lucky for us, there was a gas station just a few hundred feet up the road, on the other side of the busy four lane highway.   He looked in the “boot” and found a small plastic jug.  Telling us to wait, he proceeded to the run to the gas station and comes back with approximately two liters of gas.  He had to make a funnel out of a sheet of paper to get the gas in the tank.  We’re not sure how much really made it into the tank from the smell of gas on the driver as he got back in the van.  After many apologies we were back on our way to the airport with plenty of time to make our flight.

Beth boarding our first flight from Dar

The domestic terminal is quite small but did have a little café and grocery store.  We were very early for our flight so we hung out in the café and had coffee and a Coke Zero.  Now as most of you know, Beth is a Diet Coke aficionado.  That is as close to a Diet Coke as she has had

in two days. 

Our flight out of Dar was on a Cessna 208, a small turbo-prop that could hold about a dozen people and their luggage.  The pilot was from Scotland and did a great job.  It was a really nice day for flying without much wind or turbulence.  Check off another first.  We landed twice on dirt runways to get to our destination, the Mufinidi Highland Lodge.  The amenities were a little sparse at these remote runways, but both had flushing toilets which was a little bit of a surprise.

Approaching one of the grass field runways for landing

Having been in touch with Barb the previous night, we had tentative hopes that she might join us there.   After departing the plane, and watching the various farm goods being loaded, our hostess, Jeanee, got a call from Barb as she was trying to make all the various travel connections to join us.   In short, she had to hike 5km out of her village, take a bus to Mafinga, catch another bus to the nearest village to the lodge and then had the final 19 km of travel to the lodge unaccounted for.  With the timeliness of Barb’s call, Jeanne was able to get a cab to pick her up in Mafinga and bring her to a village where we were able to wait and meet up with her. 

Monday, June 6, 2016

Mufindi Lodge (with wood fired water heater to the right)

Mufindi Lodge was a wonderful stop, giving us time to adjust to the time change, catch up with Barbara and start our adventure.   The lodge is a working self-sustaining farm with cows, sheep, pigs, turkeys, chickens, a fish hatchery with several lakes and an amazing terraced garden with all manner of fruits and vegetables.  They produce their own cheese, coffee, hams and sausages.  They have a number of cabins and a lodge with a gathering room and dining area.  Needless to say, the food at the lodge was very good and incredibly fresh.  Originally the farm was strictly used for supplying food to the other safari camps run by the Fox family.  Not sure how many guests they put up in a season since this is in a remote valley of the highland region and well off the beaten path of other safari companies.  For our stay it was just the three of us, so we received a very personal touch. 

Beth & Barbara at the Mufindi Lodge fish hatchery

The Fox family has been in Africa since 1959 and is now are a major force in this area.  In addition to the Highland Lodge they have 4 safari camps in other more popular parts of Tanzania.  Near the Highland Lodge, they have established a foundation that has built a Children’s Village that services children whose families have been ravaged by the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic.  We took a horseback ride to the village and toured the facility.  In addition to the orphanage/foster care, they have a medical clinic, preschool and kindergarten on site.  It is set up as a small village with 6 individual houses for the children and “mamas” assigned to each house for cooking and oversight of the children when they are not in school.  The village has a garden area for growing as much of their own food as possible.   All of the children have chores to complete at their house.  Outreach programs service the surrounding villages to support families in getting appropriate medical attention, provide milk for the children, skills training and other needed support, but even the managers of the village admit it’s a bandage on a gaping wound.

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Tea plantation on road out of Mufindi Lodge

Departing Mufindi Lodge, we traveled by car over bumpy, muddy roads to Mafinga.  To everyone’s surprise it had rained most of the night and continued to rain throughout the day.   We stopped in Mafinga to visit the local market.  Mafinga is considerably bigger than any other village we’ve been in and is where Barbara does most of her local grocery shopping.  The shopkeepers were glad to see her and curious about the Americanos with her.  We bought food for lunch and dinner.  After completing this basic chore, we took a cab back to Barb’s village.  Our original plan of taking the bus and walking in was changed by the rain.  Of course once we were outside of Mafinga the rain stopped.  

Barbara's classroom/lab

Once in her village, we walked to the school and toured the classrooms.  And then the necessary stop at Mama Regina’s.   If you’ve been reading Barbara’s blog you heard about Mama Regina in Maureen’s post.  Mama Regina runs a small “shop” where a limited number of necessities are for sale.   She has quite the exuberant personality, who had to greet us with hugs and free cokes.  Beth then gave her one of the bright orange “Albuquerque Bike to Work” bandanas she’d brought along as gifts.  Once Mama Regina figured out it was for her, Beth was hugged so hard, her feet almost came off the floor.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Beth & Barb at her house ready for the trek to Iringa

After breakfast at Barb's house we hiked the 5km (3.1miles) out of her village to catch a bus to Iringa.  There were frequent stops to chat with local villagers, students and other teachers from her school.  When we reached the highway, we waited only a few minutes to catch a local bus to take us to Iringa.  Needless to say, having 3 Americans on one local bus, one of them a  man over 6' tall, got a few looks.  Just to give you an idea of the bus, it was about the size of an airport rental car bus maybe 25' long with probably 10 rows of seats with 5 seats per row, the 5th seat being a fold-down seat in the aisle as the bus filled up.  After the 3rd stop from where we got on, the bus it was completely full.  We were all sitting with our backpacks and bags in our laps and under our feet for the remainder of the ride... very cozy, but worth the experience.

The market square in Iringa

After arriving in Iringa, we checked into our hotel for the night and had lunch in the hotel cafe.  Within 30 minutes, several more Peace Corp volunteers, family and friends had gathered on the cafe balcony.  Lots of greatings and catching up with each other as they are all traveling during their break from their assigned schools.  Then it was off to do some shopping in the local market and shop stands around the hotel.  Iringa is quite the busy place.