30th June 2005
I arrived safely in Sydney on the 20th, and am staying with my minister and his family while I look for a new place to live. All tales have an end and this one must end too, but there is a little left in the telling of this one before we reach the end so lets get started.
Life continues in Dodoma however as we approach the end of our time here there are many things to do
There was an official farewell by the Diocese for Bill & Ulla Arthur and the Horrocks at the Furaha hostel. Surprisingly it starts dead on time – this I am told is because it is being organised by the bishop and even more surprisingly it actually finishes earlier than the scheduled finish, which is a major ask here in Tanzania – thank you bishop!
One of the most prevalent diseases in Tanzania is Malaria and for those with a medical bent the type of Malaria you get here is plasmodium falciparium which the books say is the worst type and can often be fatal because of the sudden very high fevers it can produce and also the possibility of getting cerebral Malaria which causes the brain to swell.
Saturday morning 4th June early I need to visit the loo several times, later I have stomach discomfort and a headache as well and generally feel like death warmed up. Today is also the day when most of the furniture is being moved out so the place is a hive of activity. I try to stay out of the way. After organising all the movers Jeremy decides I look terrible as well and after consulting Ulla sends me off for a Malaria test – 500tzs – 60c at 11:30 am. On calling the health centre at 12:30 – the phone is answered by a telecom technician who tells me he is fixing the phone line and will be ready soon. At 2:00 we call back and get confirmation that I have Malaria – my count is +4 ie 4 parasites per 200 white cells.
Jeremy goes off for some Coartem to kill the parasites, and by 3:30 I am feeling much better, I really only felt horrible for 8 hours.
This is obviously because you have been praying for me – Asante, asante Sana. Thank you very much!
I even feel well enough to go down to the bottom compound for dinner with one of the new teachers and her husband – however I play it safe and just have a sandwich and come home early.
9th June is our teaching and office staff dinner at the Nam hotel, I have Grilled (Tanzanian style) Kingfish and chips. Also surprisingly the meals arrive within a short time except for Jeremy’s, which arrives in normal Tanzanian time. He only ordered grilled steak
With drinks my bill came to 4700 tzs ( 830tzs =$A1) I will miss cheap meals when I return to Aus. A very pleasant evening was had by all.
10th June is the last day of the school year. At 8:30 we take the secondary school over to Jubilee High – Jubilee is the new diocesan High school that took over the CAMS secondary site.
Despite the vocal support from the rest of our secondary school and the on field support of some the girls we go down 6 – 0, we was robbed!!.
Then back to school for the final assembly – a very good effort by all involved. All the leaving teachers and yours truly are called up and thanked publicly and given the opportunity for a few parting words
After thanking them for making me feel welcome ,I chose Proverbs 3: 5-6 as my final words.
Some of the students that I had assisted in the computer lab came up to me later and thanked me, which I greatly appreciated.
School finished at 12:00 - after they had gone we had an all staff lunch – egg chops, samosas beef patties and sodas.
You may remember that in Tanzania the most common margarine is Blue band, which doesn’t need to be refrigerated except in the hottest part of summer. I discovered today that Blue band comes in a size to fit all budgets. One of our house workers bought a 100g container - 150tzs, very convenient as we are eating out tomorrow night and leaving Sunday.
Saturday night we arrive late for what we think will be a small dinner with a couple of close friends, only to discover that Jane has cooked up a feast and invited all the CMS and school folk. Thanks Jane J
Sunday after being farewelled at church we go down to the bus terminal. 2 of our students turn up to say good-bye as well which was very nice of them.
The bus trip to Dar was uneventful. That night we ate at a restaurant called Chef’s pride just around the corner from where we were staying at the Econolodge. I ordered grilled Kingfish again, this time it came out western style, well presented and delicious.
Next morning we go our separate ways I head off to the airport.
Street sellers are very common in Tanzania, they carry their stuff on attached to large boards mostly and offering a wide selection of things for sale from ladies underwear to 10mtr power extension cords.
The sellers in Dar mainly walk down the lanes between the cars so only have a small collection.
The fellow I saw this morning had; an iron, a 10mtr power lead, TV/VCR remote control & a heavy padlock.
After leaving Dar enroute to Joburg the pilot announced that the weather in Joburg was overcast and with rain was 14deg quite a change from the 20 degrees in Dodoma.
Flying over Mozambique the cloud cover looked like the cracked mud you see on a dry riverbed then after about 10mins travel it finished a straight line like waves breaking on the shore.
My final destination was Capetown, I was going to visit George Whitefield Theological College, as our church has an association with them. When I arrived, the principal kindly took me out to dinner at Spurs – a local steak house chain. I enjoyed immensely the opportunity to have my steak medium rare, something I had missed greatly in Dodoma because of the health risks involved in eating meat not fully cooked there.
I discovered that in South Africa a passionfruit is called a grenadillo, Why is this I wonder?
Next morning it is still cold and overcast with showers. Mandie the asst registrar takes me on a tour of the college, the college is very short of space and is in the middle of constructing a new building that will house over 40,000 books, a computer lab (a requirement from the University they are associated with) and a new auditorium. They have also been able to purchase very cheaply a 3 storey building opposite because it will need a great deal of renovation. When finished, this building will be a new residential wing and a student common room. Check out their website at http://www.gwc.ac.za
In the afternoon the rain stops so I take the train from Muisenberg (where the college is) to Simonstown, which is the end of the trainline- the track follows the shoreline of the bay, on a nice sunny day the views from the train would be magnificent. I enjoyed the long walk from the station into the actual town. The South African Navy has its base in Simonstown and there were many smartly uniformed sailors on their way home. The flat coastal area is very narrow in this area and the mountain range rises steeply immediately behind the houses with some expansion going on up the slopes.
Next day I went to Robben Island – where Nelson Mandela amongst many others was held for 18 years.
It is a 30min trip across the bay by ferry and there was quite a swell in the bay so that was quite fun.
The island is quite a pretty place and there are some springbok and other animals the island .
There are many families of staff resident on the island now as the island is now a historic monument & museum there is even a public school for the kids. We were told that the kids like winter the best because as the teachers all live on the mainland, when the winter squalls make the bay too rough for the ferry to cross they get the day off. The tour of the island has 2 parts a 45min bus tour then the prison tour 1.5hrs however our tour guide on the bus spends so much time telling us about his ANC heroes and the struggle that we arrive very late at the prison and so our prison tour is cut short as we have to catch the last ferry back to the mainland.
Thursday, is bright and sunny and Pat Munro from the college staff and her husband Dave very kindly take me on a tour of the area including a visit to Seaforth and the penguin beach near by, and yes there were lots of penguins there. We had lunch at the very nice Seaforth restaurant that looks over False bay back toward Muisenberg. Then we went over the hill to the Atlantic side of the cape. It is at Cape point that the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet and the water is significantly colder on the Atlantic side.
The beachfront at Muisenberg is very popular in summer as it is a long wide sandy beach and even in winter lots of people go walking on the beach it is also very picturesque as there are a row of brightly painted wooden beach hut changing rooms
While I was at the college I had the great privilege of meeting some Tanzania pastors, Joseph from Musoma & Absalom from Murgwanza amongst others. Joseph has a crippled leg from polio as a child has a long pole that he uses to get around with. He was offered a prosthetic limb but when they told him he would have much less mobility he turned it down because when he visits villages he mostly walks and said that with his pole he could walk a kilometre before getting tired.
Next morning we leave very early (4:30am) to drive to the airport flying to Joburg for connecting flights – I am off to Livingstone in Zambia to see Victoria Falls. I am booked in to a lodge on the Zambezi river about 4km upstream from the falls. From the bar / pool area we can see the mist rising from the “Smoke that thunders” the lodge is very pleasant and has a tented camp option as well as chalets. My chalet is very pleasant and cool, The verandah looks over a creek – wonderful for mozzies so I keep the curtains and windows closed after dusk.
I am booked on a sunset cruise – nibbles and drinks cruising the Zambezi upstream away from the falls
But because the bookings are low at this time of year they only send one boat out which is the dinner cruise so I get dinner as well – but the snacks and hot nibbles they served before dinner were more than enough. The river is beautiful, dark and glassy as we sail the birds and other wildlife and we are fortunate to see a family of hippos up close and they played up a little as though they were putting on a little show for us. The view of the sunset from the river was just sensational.
As we were on the way back to the lodge the crew put on a little show of local song and dance and the passengers got involved it was a great experience.
Saturday, I get a lift to the falls with a fellow just starting his own safari company. After paying the entry fee – an all day pass I see my first (dry) view of the falls. It is truly amazing. On the Zambian side you are actually much closer to the falls than the Zimbabwean side.
They say that a visit to the falls comes in two types, if the wind is blowing the right direction you get a beautiful view of the majestic thundering of the Zambezi as it plummets into the gorge 100 metres below at the rate of over 500 million cubic metres per minute, If it isn’t, you get very wet as well J from the mist as it falls back to earth like heavy rain.
A little way down the path There are a couple of fellows who have a rain poncho rental business, I look at the state of the people coming up the path from the cliff edge and see that the wind is decidedly not blowing in the right direction and rent a poncho to go over my spray jacket. I later pass 2 girls wearing
t-shirts who decided not to rent ponchos and now look like they have entered one of those competitions.
I do indeed get very wet as the wind is blowing towards us and the mist falls like torrential rain.
The view is amazing but after a while, several photos and a movie later I retreat from the cliff path a little to regroup and try and find a drier path.
Later as I splodge my way out of the falls park I stop by the huge arts and crafts market in the carpark area aka tourist trap. They have lots of things on offer from huge ugly statues and masks to small ugly statues and masks as well as small carved ebony and rosewood hippos, rhinos and a few other animals as well as beaded necklaces and drums etc but nothing really took my interest as I already had some very beautiful intricately carved sets of African animals that I bought in Dodoma.
One interesting thing was that many people wanted to swap their goods for my pen or some other item of clothing. I later find out that even though pens are available and quite cheap the traders take them back to the villages where they get their wares and swap them with the people who make the articles in the first place.
Sunday morning 19th: I am flying out this afternoon to Joburg and then home 3hrs later. This morning however I throw caution to the wind – literally! and have booked a microlight flight over the falls and upper Zambezi. I had wanted to book a flight in a Tiger moth but they are all booked out.
For those of you who have never seen a microlight, think of a go-cart with 2 seats squashed into it and a large wing attached over the top of it with large wheels on the bottom.
I am given a padded flight suit and helmet with full-face visor and strapped in to my seat. We take off and it is really cold up here. Before long are approaching the falls, as we are approaching the falls the full realisation that I am a long way up in the air and the only thing between me an the ground is the flying seat I am strapped in to hits me. You will be happy to know that I didn’t panic but when we were over the falls and he dipped the wing and said look over there I found that somewhat difficult. However it was very interesting and later when we where back up stream we flew lower over some white rhino in the reserve. The pilot said when we were on the ground that he sensed that I was a bit nervous up there – that was an understatement but still it was an interesting trip.
Later at Livingstone airport the check-in desk is immediately after the baggage X-ray, the area is small they have no fans or aircon and it is hot & a bit stuffy– pity help people in summer. They have a computer for check-in but no printer so they have to write out a boarding pass for each passenger hence a huge queue.
Once checked in I proceed to the gate lounge – I choose the overflow lounge – some rows of seats underneath the trees on the nice green grass outside. More people join me and soon all the seats are full
until suddenly the water comes on and the large water sprinkler spurts in to life. This has been cleverly placed so that all the people on the left third of the seats relive their falls experience one more time before they leave Zambia. But as they say this is Africa or in my case; This was Africa.
Dear Friends, all tales must have an end and we have come to the end of this one. I do hope you have enjoyed the ride, I have.
In God’s perfect timing there may yet be another tale in the future.
Thank you for praying
I thank God for the wonderful experience /s that I have had in Tanzania,
For the things that I have been able to do in his service over there.
For the new friends I have made and the godly people who have encouraged me.
For my continued good health during my time there.
For the miracle of Anna’s recovery so far from such a life threatening accident.
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