A VILLAGE WALK

WEATHER: Overcast and 24C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Stretching the legs and getting to walk and have a look around

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Not being able to do my blog on the truck – too bumpy and not enough room

BUYS OF THE DAY: BIG shopping day today – some original paintings, wooded statues and some more bangles

WORD OF THE DAY: Hakuna Matata

IRISH WORD OF THE DAY: Sarsta - happy

ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: Goats, dogs and cats

CAMP SITE RANKING:  Flush toilets and hot showers – got in late, so didn’t see anything else 3 out of 5 stars

Another sleep in today! We had to have our tents all packed up and ready by 7am for breakfast and our village walk was at 8am directly from the camp ground.  The money that is paid for the village walk goes back to the village, to help with the local community projects.  So we had 4 people that work for the organization come along with us to explain all about their village.  There are 65,000 people that live here and 120 tribes that live in the surrounding area.   Their main source of food and income is rice, maize and banana crops.  Our first stop was a rice paddy that families work in.  There are 3 ways that families get to work their plots, one is that it is inherited, two is that they can buy and the third is that they can hire a plot to grow on and in this case it can only be used for crops and not for building.  A plot of the size of 20mx40m will generate 5 bags of rice at 100kg each and it takes 6 months to grow a crop of rice.  Each plot is separated by walls made from grass, straw and mud and this is what we walked on to get us from one end of the paddy to the other.  I have to say the middle section got quite slim at one stage and you could only walk with one foot in front of each other, like walking on a balance beam, it was quite scary and I had to put my camera in my bag and use my arms to balance.  I had Dave encouraging me at one stage, so my face must have had some sort of ‘scared shitless of falling in’ look about it.  But I made it without falling into some-ones muddy rice field, but what a way to literally kick start your morning!

We then got to walk off the main road and further into the village.  They have 3 different types of buildings that they live in.  The most basic is the mud and stick houses, as they are the cheapest to make and most simple.  When they get some more money from their crops they generally then have a baked brick house and the third and most expensive is the concrete block house.  So we walked through a section to get to the local kindergarten where we stopped in to meet some of the local kids.  The children learn English for 2 hours each day and are aged between 3-6 years old.  They sang us some songs and we in turn sung a song back.  We had to pick one that everyone knew, I suggested the Brisbane Lions song, but there were no takers so we did Old Macdonald instead.  They seemed to like it.

Our next stop was a ‘local’ bar.  This was pretty much a thatched hut with long benches running down both sides.  Here we tried banana beer, which I was all in for, but they served it out of one small bucket that we all had to drink from, so being in the middle of the group there had been 11 pairs of lips that had already been on the rim. Oh well I guess we are all one big family now – suck it up.  We also tried some banana wine, yes all drinking from one bottle, and it actually tasted okay.  I bought a bottle to go, just a 330ml one, I think it would go great once it is chilled and it only cost 2000 (1.50 AUD) so you really can’t go wrong.

Our last stop before lunch was a local art gallery.  It was outside and all the paintings are painted by locals in the village.  There were awesome pictures and I bought 2 tinga tinga paintings.  I wanted to get something that wasn’t Masai, with everything that I have bought so far, my house, when I get one that is, will look very African, so I bought these two paintings of fishes, it sounds boring but they are so cool and will be a great reminder of my trip.  I love them.  I have actually taken a photo of these, so I can remember what I am sending home.  It will be like Christmas when I do get to open all the boxes that have been sent while I am on my trip.  I have sent 11 boxes home to date, so I am racking up a nice personal worldwide souvenir shop of my own!

Lunch was served at a local home, under a thatched roof in the front garden.  The project pays the local ladies to cook us some of the local fare.  It was delicious with pilaf, beans, rice, eggplant, stew, salad and sweet potatoes it was an amazing lunch with fruit served for dessert.  They had red bananas on the platter which I didn’t try but they tasted just like their yellow brothers apparently.  The truck was too big to fit down the road where we had walked to, so we walked back the way we had come to pop out at some local markets before getting back in the truck we hadn’t been in for 3 days.  The market was pretty cool and I bought some wooden animal heads, beaded bracelets for the girls and a few more bangles for myself.  It was quite a shopping day for me today and hell it felt good to finally spend some money!

So back on the road again.  We had a fair bit of ground to cover this afternoon.  We had to fill up at a gas station on the way and Ben put in 205L which costs total of 406,000TZD.  It looks a lot right! So after 5 hours of driving we finally get to camp at 7pm.  The guys have had a few days off putting up the tents, as they had been done for us the last few times, so it was a bit tricky for them to start with, let alone having to put them up in the dark.  We helped out a few people again, but I think they are all now getting the hang of it!  It was nice to have dinner at tables tonight rather than sitting the food on your lap.  It was a lot cooler here, so a lot of us were wrapped up tight in our Masai rugs.  They have been a blessing and worth every penny of the 8 bucks we spent on them.  I have slept like a baby ever since buying mine, it just gives you that extra bit of warmth at night and I’m now not waking up to re-adjust the sleeping bag. 

We fell asleep to the sound of rain on the tents with the promise of an early start tomorrow as we have 560km to cover – a massive travel day ahead of us.