Taking the Scenic Route
Yes, we are out in the sticks here in Kigoma! Our town is right on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. Any further and you’d have wet feet. We are the end of the line for the Tanzania Railway, one enduring relic of our colonial past, which makes us the main jumping off point for less affluent travellers heading to and from Congo and Burundi. One doesn’t see many (no, make that any) Caucasian faces. Stick out like a sore thumb? You bet I do.
At the weekend I walked into town to do a spot of exploring. There you’ll find the usual assortment of stalls and micro businesses lining the road sides. Turn down a dusty side street and you may access the central market. I say central, because it is quite simply crammed into a space between all the other streets and alley ways. This is a bewildering maze of narrow walkways between rows of stalls selling everything from suitcases, to clothing, to hardware, to fruit and vegetables. Overhead there are bits of corrugated tin or rough cloth, while underfoot is uneven paving with random steps to trip the unwary. No time to stop and browse – you’re in the way, so move!! (sorry, no photo possible!)
The office is well out of town in a development zone. Building site would be a better description, except that all the buildings are well spread out and never more than half finished. Some are merely a brick shell, some have the beginnings of a tin roof, others just foundations. Meanwhile people continue to live in very simple thatched wooden shelters. You really can’t call them houses. Our building benefits from a bore hole for water, and twice a day local residents are permitted to come and fill their buckets. It’s a colourful occasion, and noisy with the chatter of women and children.
There is water for all
Throughout the day I can see from my office a never-ending procession of people pushing bicycles loaded with charcoal, firewood and straw or balancing a huge pile of sticks on their head. For their houses perhaps? Occasionally a small herd of goats will go by. The backdrop is dusty red earth, a few bushes and some stunted trees with a range of hills away in the distance.
Can you carry more than this?
We do have the internet here, but it’s not that reliable and frequently relies on a piggy-back with the mobile phone network. It’s certainly not enough for streaming of music or movies. On Sunday the power went off just before dusk, and stayed off until the following day. By bedtime my torch was fading. Think Marion swinging at the snakes in Indiana Jones :”Indy, the torch is going out!”. Then on Monday night we had a terrific storm: rain was hammering on the metal roof, lightning cracking and flashing, and all accompanied by deafening thunder. No chance of sleep, but at least I now know for certain that my roof doesn’t leak. One can feel strangely safe cocooned in a mozzie net, safe from all the nasties....