Tanzania

On Thursday I jumped on a plane to Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. It’s just 45 minutes flight from Nairobi so I thought it would be good to make the trip to see some friends that I stayed with whilst doing research for my dissertation two years ago. Tanzania somehow feels calmer, less rushed than Kenya. I like being able to return to relative anonymity as my white skin attracts much less attention than in Naivasha. Usually a 5 minute walk down the street will attract at least 3 “how are yous” from kids or even adults…but this isn’t really the case in Tz…it happens from time to time but not nearly as much - which is a relief! I’ve never understood why any European would possibly like being greeted a zillion times by strangers in the street…as these people are only saying hi because you’re white - not because they actually want to greet you as a human being. It’s very fake, pretty irritating and occasionally embarrassing. But anyways, the few days I spent in Kilimanjaro were nice and slow. There was lots of sleeping involved…lots of eating quite simply stupendous food (with plenty of bananas as they are the staple in the region) and watching Micheal Jackson videos on TV as he passed away on Thursday. I’ve noticed Tanzanian TV has a ridiculous number of religious TV channels with televangelists breathing hell, fire and water. There must have been channels in at least 5 different languages but it all looked strangely similar. The type of TV that makes your skin crrrrraaaaaawwwwwl! Theres also lots of Mexican soaps with synthesiser soundtracks, long broody stares and funny English voiceovers! The family I stayed with are beautiful people - Invo is a head teacher of a local secondary school and his wife Joyce works as Head of Education at a local street kids rehabilation centre. Tudi their son is a small explosion of energy. Purity their daughter is a lot quieter but mainly because she’s been very sick of late. We spent a lot of time in the house as Purity is still recovering surgery a few weeks ago. She’s very weak and was vomiting a lot so I thought it best to stick close by the house and just spend time with the family. Their house was right at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro so in the evenings as the clouds lifted I could see the mountain rearing up in front of me with it’s snowy peaks emerging in the dusk. I don’t think I’ve ever used the word glorious apart from when talking about God but I think that would be a fairly accurate description of what I was seeing from the garden gate.