Hike and Stuff

October 22, 2013

This last week a fellow teacher came to town with me to help me buy a bike. I think my Swahili skills have reached a level that I could buy one on my own, but I am still wary of the big purchases. We have been well warned about the “Mzungu” (white person) prices that some sellers will try to get us to pay. I haven’t had any bad encounters yet, and generally they are just happy to see a white person who can speak some Swahili. It also helps that my area does not draw a lot of tourists. Nonetheless, I asked if he would come with me for this purpose and he agreed (maybe it was me offering to buy lunch…).

We went around town, bought some food, posted some blogs at an internet café, checked the PO Box, and got some more envelopes. Then we went and checked out the bikes. As far as I can tell, there is no such thing as a new bike in Tanzania, but we managed to find a lightly used one that works! It has six gears and a little light that can be activated that uses friction on the wheel to light up. I paid about the equivalent of $60 for it. It could have been a lot more without my teacher friend with me. It didn’t hurt that the seller was a graduate from our school. Here’s a picture of the bike outside the door to my courtyard!

It cuts my trip to school from a 25 minute walk to an 8 minute ride. Niiiiiice. My students laugh at me the whole way. Tall white guy, funny clothes, weird helmet, bike a little too small…But I am used to it by now. I do lots of weird (normal in the US) things here.

During our trip to town my fellow teacher and I talked about the village and the surrounding area. He showed me some pictures of some cool places nearby and this last Friday we went on a hike! After school, he hopped on my bike’s rack and we rode to my house. We walked from there through the village and down into a valley. Here are a couple pictures

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It is relatively barren where my house is other than corn fields (Reed…) and a few intermittent trees. But as we went down, we started to go into more vegetation. Certainly no jungle, but more and more green.

And then…

There it was. Pride Rock.

Well not exactly… But not far off, right? Maybe I’ve been looking for Lion King scenes for too long and I’ll take whatever I can get now. But either way, I know at least my mom’s mouth is watering at the site of these beauties. And right in my backyard!

We got passed by a herd of cows and goats at one point. I felt like Simba(means “lion” in Swahili. How clever…) stranded on a rock in the middle of a stampede (RIP Mufasa). Ok…Done with the Lion King analogies now.

We continued along for a bit and walked through a tomato farm to get another view (tomato in Swahili is “nyanya,” one of my favorite words to say). Here’s the view.

Climbing all the rock reminded me of my hikes in the Olympics over the years. It was fun jumping and climbing around a little after being contained by the classroom all week. And whenever I get a chance to spend some time with the teachers I get a free Swahili lesson out of it. And they get some English practice too.

We got tired of climbing after a while and we walked back to my house. Made some traditional Tanzania style potatoes. I hadn’t had those since homestay! And talked about cooking, cats, and the bachelor life. They get married pretty young here so they’re often surprised to hear that I don’t have a wife, or even a fiancé! I think they want to help find me one.

Ehh…. I think that’s mostly what I wanted to say about that. Here are some pictures of the weird stuff I do.

This is a “jiko” (the thing I use to cook). You put sticks on top, add a little kerosene and toss a match on. Put it in the wind for ten minutes and then you can cook!

This is my iron. I get hot coals from my jiko after I cook and put them inside it. Wait a few minutes and then make my clothes all flat and nice.. But I think there’s some art to it that I’m still trying to figure out…

Fresh Papaya. I like eating this.

I’ve been experimenting with roasting my own peanuts. It’s fun. And tasty. And it isn’t always easy to find protein out where I am. No butchers in my village and beans can be a pain sometimes.

Here’s my dinner setup. Beans cooking on the left jiko, veggies in the middle, and rice just finishing up on the right with a few hot coals on top.

This is my current solar setup. More on this later hopefully. Basically a car battery, a voltmeter (to read how much charge it has), a power inverter (DC to AC), and then to my computer or phone or whatever…