On the go!

Been a while, hope you’re all well folks.

Right then, so what have I been up to since the last instalment? Well, other than largely laughing at the attempts of our brief kidnappers - we’ve come up with at least a dozen improvements to their technique(!) - we’ve really been having a bit of a lovely time.

(And with some staggering efficiency, it only took five trips to the police station to get my report!)

DUBAI (September)

As mentioned last time, Liisa and I took a week in Dubai, which was well-timed and thoroughly enjoyable. Much as we do enjoy our life in Dar, it’s nice to step back into the luxuries sometimes. Alas you’ll be relieved to hear I’ve re-stocked up on my supplies of H&M t-shirts & plimsoles  (hand washing really wears clothes down, and shoes get battered by the tough terrain) I’d somewhat miscalculated when I thought I’d packed 12 months worth of kit last April!

We caught up with friends out there (hi Liz!) and made the most everything we could. And needless to say, it included the must-do in any city - visit the Irish Bar!

Unsurprisingly, one of the most self-evident things about Dubai compared to Dar was the vast differences in wealth. You really couldn’t get two similarly sized cities in much more contrast to each other.

ZAMBIA (October) 

With a very brief stop in Dar after Dubai, and an even briefer stop in DR Congo (don’t worry family, I didn’t even get off the plane!), Liisa and I spent two weeks in Lusaka.

Solar Aid offices in Lusaka, Zambia

Behind this trip was me spending time with the Solar Aid Zambia, who fundamentally are doing what we’re doing in Tanzania, albeit scaled down a little. There I was able to help bring their finances up to date, pass on some really cool and exciting methods to their accounts team (perhaps a slight exaggeration), and help them with their planning - as they (like Tanzania) are hoping to expand, and such is only possible with ample planning.

The team there were extremely welcoming, and Lusaka as a city was a beautiful blend of colours -  clear blue sky, orange from the soil, and purple from the blooming Blue Jacarandas.

Lusaska’s got a lot going for it, and the development just  in the last 4 years since I last visited is quickly apparent. On top of this, the people are very friendly, things are largely organised (Dar meanwhile can be, ahem, ‘chaotic‘). A friendly city moving in the right direction!

The site of one of longer delays when the train de-railed

TAKING THE TRAIN HOME

One thing that wasn’t always moving in the right direction was TAZARA (Tanzania Zambia Railways) we took back from Lusaka to Dar. Part thanks to a derailment (27 hours), our scheduled 35-40 hour trip turned into a 90 hour slog (not sure where the other 23 hours of delays came from!)… We were glad we’d packed our Solar Lights, and by God we were glad we had our insect spray. The nightly game of spot-the-cockroaches wore thin very quickly. All in all, very glad we did it and the scenery was breath-taking, but wouldn’t be in a rush to do it again!

 

SOLAR AID TANZANIA

In the midst of all the above breaks, I’ve even managed to get a lot done in my own job! October was a particularly busy month, with close on 20,000 lights distributed (to put this in context, that’s not far off the total number in the whole of last year).

We’re currently planning & budgeting for our next financial year and there really is potential for massive growth. One of the major obstacles remains the financing, and as Solar Aid transitions from an N.G.O. (receiving handouts) to Social Enterprise (self-sustainable, not-for-profit), many significant challenges lay ahead.

It’s something I relish though, and it’s fun to tell people I’m modelling again. (Financial Modelling is modelling, all right?!)

A FOLLOW-UP ON LIGHT 50,000

A few months ago I mentioned our 50,000^th SunnyMoney light in Tanzania this year. Here’s a little piece about the kid who benefited:

Lucky number light 50,000

Name: Shabani Ramadhani Ndewa

Age: 12

School: Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

Lives With: Grandmother because father is away and mother is dead

Why did you buy the light? "My teacher explained the benefits of using solar lights.  It’s better because it doesn’t hurt my eyes and it’s easier because I can study at night."

Was it hard to convince your grandmother to buy a light? “It wasn’t hard because my grandmother understands about solar because there were some other Wazungus who came and explained about solar and gave my grandmother a light. So we have already been using solar.”

How do you find the light? “It is very nice, it has good lights and we don’t have to buy kerosene any more. I am very, very happy to receive the gift of a free S250 from SunnyMoney.”

….And it’s stories like that one that that make me love the job I do.

Tutaonana baadaye,

Tom

The one where we got kidnapped

There are two blogs coming up. One is on our holiday to Dubai and our work trip to Zambia.

The other is about the time we got kidnapped.

Given Bad News is so much more interesting than Good News, I’m going to start with the kidnapping. More on the lovely holidays and good work done in Zambia another time.

The Scene

7am our train from Lusaka rolls in to the dawning sun over Cha-n’gombe in Central Dar. It’s a run-down part of town famed for being dangerous, and Liisa and I are eager as beavers to get out of there as quick as we can. We’re somewhat relieved we arrived when it’s bright rather than 2am or 3am.

We get the first taxi we can (we insist on getting a licensed one). We negotiate a price of 20,000 Shillings (£8) with the driver. He agrees. We get in and he says “Yes, 40,000 shillings”. Already a little  pissed off that our train took 50 hours longer than the timetable said, we weren’t having any of that. The taxi driver gave in.

Then leaving the Railway station, he swaps with another driver. Odd. But not too odd, it’s pretty normal at the railway station. This driver is a man it seems, how shall I say, of limited mental capacity.

We re-iterate the price. He agrees. Then as he’s driving, he changes his mind and considers Mikocheni B (our home) to be a LONG LONG way away, far more than 20,000 shillings. We’re adamant we stick to the (agreed) price, but he’s getting quite upset. With his driving more erratic than a Tanzanian golfer, and we notice how much he stinks of booze and ask him to pull over.

We agree to pay him 10,000 for half the trip and want to get out of the taxi. He doesn’t let us out for the longest time, and we find the doors bloody well don’t open from the inside! *little bit of a panic* Being a little worried, we call (in our limited Kiswahili, but just enough to get by) for people to help us get out of the car. The taxi driver gives in, gets out and jams a screwdriver in the door and wields it open.

HUZZAH, DISASTER AVERTERTED! (….or so we think) We pat ourselves on the back for being so clever getting out of the very drunk taxi.

The reward for our wisdom of avoiding the Drunken Taxi

At the petrol station, we have a look around to see if we can see any Properly Licensed Taxis. After our incident immediately prior, we’re keen to just get home.

A lovely gentleman swans over like, well, a sleazy swan. A sleazy swan with a gold tooth and fake Rolex. What’s not to trust about a sleaze with a gold tooth and fake rolex? Nothing apparently when you haven’t slept in 5 days and are just glad that he’s not pissed.

“Want a taxi?” he says, pointing at a nice, normal registered & licensed taxi. In fact, he even gives us a choice of a second taxi also.

“Yes please!” Liisa and I cry in perfect unison

I get the ball rolling on negotiations “10,000 shillings to Mikocheni B?”

“Yes.” (NOTE: This is the where the first alarm bell should have gone off. We should have known the taxi driver would look for at least 15k and never accept my opening offer)

We get in. Turns out he’s not the driver, but he’s getting in the front passenger seat anyway. Odd, but we didn’t question it too much. Again, 5 days on a TAZARA train takes your edge off of some things.

The two men talk for a bit, mention something about needing to get a spare tyre for the car, and pull in to a petrol station.

Right.

Now a third man bundles in the car.

The car starts towards Mikocheni B, we have a bit of a chat about living here, and speak a little Kiswahili. But then the driver does U-turn and goes down a side road in completely the wrong direction

“Er, Mikocheni B is that way” I say pointing in completely the other direction, starting to get quite a bit worried

“Oh don’t worry we’re just getting a spare tyre”

Liisa and I are silent for the next minute or two, it’s abundantly clear something’s not right, and there’s nothing we can do at this point.

So the men pull into a quiet road, and our ringleader (the man with a gold tooth), casually as you like turns around and says “We are not taxi drivers, we are Somali pirates and we are going to take all your money”.

I VERY NEARLY PISS MYSELF, despite the fact that the Somali Pirate bit is clearly bullsh!t.

What I wish I had said

“Oh” I say.

“We don’t want anything else, just your cash. Give me your wallet”

As quick as I can I hand it over. They are not happy. Another result of taking a 5 day train which was scheduled for 2, is that you spend most of your money. And as it happens I hadn’t put much in it to begin with. The net result is he’s got 20,000 shillings (£8) and 5,000 kwacha (50p). The kwacha is so pathetic, he even hands it back!

They’re shaking my wallet around, saying “There must be more!”.

They instruct us to show if we have a money-belt. We do have one, but it’s got our passports only in it. They lose interest in that.

“Now we don’t want to have trouble, but you must tell us if there is more cash, because if you don’t tell us, and we find it - then there will be trouble. Lady, where is your wallet”

“I don’t have one, it was stolen recently”. They don’t like the answer, but it’s very true and is one of the few wins we have that morning!

Meanwhile, resisting the urge to crap myself is taking away from my logical thought. I can’t remember if we do have cash anywhere else. If we do, I want to give them it. I don’t want them to think we hid anything.

My confused state sends them to thinking there is definitely cash. It takes a while, and rooting through our bags for them to settle that there isn’t. They stop checking our bags when they start to go through Liisa’s underwear. What utter gentlemen. (in hindsight, this worked out pretty well, my credit card was hidden deeper in the bag.

Oddly they state they have no interest in our laptops (difficult to sell on here, I guess, there just isn’t as much demand). They ask to look at our phones. Liisa doesn’t have one as it also got stolen before, and mine’s a piece of crap. They lose interest.

Now they’ve identified my Debit Card. There’s not a beat missed when they ask me the pin, “3494”

One of the men goes to the bank, and the ringleader (with the gold tooth) starts telling us what a proper criminal he is

“I steal big things, what I am taking from you is small, I rob banks and ships.”

Absolute bollox.

“I’m a mafia man. Do not ask me what happens next. I am in charge. I know what I am doing. Do not ask me”

Now, here’s where my brain starts going crazy. Are they telling us they’re only taking cash so we keep calm, and then build on to bigger things? Are we going to be those people who are kidnapped for ransom and end up having their heads cut off and videos sent to their family. Yeah, without any clarity of when we’re getting out, my mind is running wild.

What is happening is strange though - the thought of a worst case scenario is actually too difficult to absorb, and the two of us are (outwardly at least) remarkably calm.

Back comes the man with my bank card. He’s pissed off because they only got 700,000 shillings (£278). HSBC maximum daily withdrawals - thank you.

There’s commotion as some other men come over to the car and there are half a dozen of them talking about the amount of money and they‘re not happy. My guess here is that they’ve possibly had people placed around the area in case we made a run-for-it? I’ll never know, but the fact the whole thing happened in broad daylight is one of the more disturbing parts.

They seem to now have as much as they think they’re going to get. They look to drop us off, but they can’t find anywhere where there aren’t people.

After what felt like an age, and nothing being said (I’m really not clear if we will be let out), thankfully the car stops and they say we can get out. Absolute relief, and a very sweaty Tom and Liisa breathe in fresh air, freedom!

The ringleader then gives us 20,000 shillings so we can get a taxi back. As I (knee jerk) say thank-you, the irony of the whole thing is not lost on me - especially when he suggests to help find us a taxi!!

We tell him we will call our friend who will collect us. That we will walk away from his car and not look back (we don’t - but not before Liisa manages to catch the number plate, which is something).

Not entirely sure where we are, we look for a safe haven - and do we find it - an Ultimate Security central office. We find out where we are, call a driver who we know, and take refuge, finally feeling safe.

The Aftermath

This is a lesson for us. Don’t trust anyone you don’t know in a city like Dar. From now on, I can assure you , we will only ever use taxis where we know the driver well.

But Liisa and I are remarkably upbeat after everything. Bizarre, and I can’t place my finger on it. Maybe it’s because we’re learning all the tricks for staying safe, which in turn makes us feel safer this evening than we did before. Maybe it just hasn’t all sunk in yet.

Meanwhile, when I went to the police, at first they were utterly uninterested in me, just another stupid muzungu losing his money. But as I got into it, I was building a bigger and bigger audience, they couldn’t get enough of it. They even think they’re going to try solve it given the descriptions we gave, the licence plate, the specific bank machine used!

I’d love it if they caught the criminals. They were not 1% as slick as they purported to be, and in their sloppiness I wouldn’t even be surprised if they didn’t use false registration plate.

We’ll see, we’ll see.

Half Term Report!

I was asked recently to write a piece of commentary on how my placement has been going. More than happy to oblige, I may as well take the chance to copy & paste it into a blog update.

In the meantime I'm off on my holidays, but more about that later!

Tom

----

The bustling streets of Kariakoo in central Dar

I’m writing from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. “Dar es Salaam” literally means Haven of Peace, although with the hustle and bustle of this city it’s hard to imagine a time when such a name was appropriate!

Finance Advisor to an NGO

I’ve been with Solar Aid as a Finance Advisor for five months now, approaching the half way mark in my placement.

It’s with pleasure that I’ve been able to translate my commercial & financial experience from Europe, into helping establish the solid finance procedures necessary to underline the successful growth of this aspirational NGO in Tanzania.

The need for full and proper accountability is not only important to donors, especially at a time when resources are scarce, but also particularly when an organisation, such as Solar Aid, expands its operations.

And the real benefit of being on a long-term placement is that it affords me the opportunity to make sufficient grounding in the processes I implement, so that the benefit of what I do will hopefully continue long after my placement finishes.

How Solar Aid is progressing

Solar Aid’s “big hairy audacious goal” is to eradicate the Kerosene Lantern from Africa by 2020.

In a country where 90% of people don’t have access to the Grid, Kerosene (dangerous, unclean, non-sustainable, and prohibitively expensive) pales in comparison to Solar (safe, renewable, and affordable). All that was missing was for someone to facilitate the change - step forward Solar Aid.

The context of the growth Solar Aid Tanzania is facing should not be underestimated - last year it lit up just under 30,000 lights in Tanzania, this year the target is 180,000 and over eighteen months it’s a third of a million. And that’s before even considering operations in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia!

The current campaign is focused around getting these lights into the hands of school-children throughout the country, believing that every child should have the opportunity to own one. These lights allow children to read and study after dark – something so simple yet hugely beneficial, something so many of us take for granted.

Such goals do not come easy without proper accountability. Planning, forecasting and managing cash flows must all be monitored carefully.

Naturally we also like to ensure that these little lights don't develop little legs along their journey, and that each of their trips from a factory in China into the hands of a Tanzanian child is a successful one!

The next 6 months

Lighting up Africa

‘Keep up the good work!’ seems to be the call of the day.

The staff here really have been fantastic – everyone is keen to show what they can do, and all take pride in the success of the campaigns. It will be testing as the campaign continues to grow, but I really am very optimistic at the outlook.

It's very enjoyable to work in such a positive atmosphere, and I’m very happy to continue playing my part.

Kwa heri,

Tom

My placement has been made possible by the wonderful AFID and VSO. You can also read more about Solar Aid here

50,000 lights & counting

I’ve been a bit slow getting around to this blog – we’ve been pretty busy recently, house moves & trips away! Some ups, some downs, but all in all we couldn’t be more relaxed and happier!

50,000 lights by Sunny Money* Tanzania in 2012! *Brand name of Solar Aid

Celebrating 50,000 lights with
the supa-safi Solar Aid Tanzania team

Liisa and I have solar-lights at home, and we’ve got to say they’re brilliant. Especially with recent electricity price hikes the importance of solar power in Africa has really been emphasised.

Add to that 90% of the population don’t have access to the grid, thus relying on dangerous, expensive kerosene. You quickly realise that, without solar, the options are (a) something you can’t afford, or (b) darkness.

 

So big congratulations are in order for Solar Aid Tanzania who have in 2012 hit a milestone of providing 50,000 lights!

We’ve targeted 100,000 more before the end of the year – it’s going to be a busy few months ahead, and plenty to keep me busy. We’re on top of a huge amount of logistics, whilst also ensuring our little lights don’t develop little legs, and we like to keep it that way!

Ramadan

Takes about a month, and has just ended.

Be careful!

For those unaware, during Ramadan Muslims shouldn't eat or drink anything until the sun's gone down. During this time, as a non-Muslim, do expect to feel guilty if you eat ice-cream in public (... and at 25p, Azam Ice Creams are every bit as tasty as their £2.50 Galaxy counterparts)

This year there was much confusion as to when it actually ends (and thus we get a bank holiday) as the decision isn’t made until the day before when the moon is in a certain position. Or something.

For a while it looked like it’d fall over the weekend, but lo and behold we found out yesterday that today (Monday) we have an unexpected bank holiday!

Cashback.

Securing a nice home!

There was quite a lot wrong with our old flat, and as the lease was coming to an end, we jumped at the chance to move somewhere with hot water, an oven, a freezer, and windows! (most places have that mosquito grating – which is fine except dust comes in quicker than you can sweep it!)

Overlooking the fact one of the rooms in our old place was literally about to crumble, what probably pushed us over the edge was one night when our Security Guard was robbed. Robbed? No wait, I mean stolen. They stole him!

They also took some things from the compound office, and the security guard made it back OK, and even though we were not targeted it was enough to decide to live somewhere a little bit more ‘comfortable’!

Crime in certain parts of Dar in particular continues, and will probably do so until the police take a significant change in approach.

Whatever they’ve done in Nairobi over the last few years seems to have cleaned it up, and Dar could do with facing up to some of the issues it has.

I'd heard rumours about this
thing appearing in the sky,
but it's something else to see it in person

Weather

Just.

Ridiculously.

Good.

Like, all the time.

Love it!

Chizi (crazy) People

There is a distinct lack of mental healthcare in Tanzania, and this is something I hadn’t really ever considered before. If you’re in a very poor country, there is really little to no help for anyone with mental issues, and when these people aren't helped out at an early age, it really becomes a big problem. This is something we definitely take for granted at home.

Liisa & I have learned to take a little bit more care than usual when walking in some poorer areas, as the weirdo/normal person ratio does tend to increase.

The odd time when you do get a crazy person shouting obscenities at you, we’ve found the trick is to ignore it, walk the other way, and usually some friendly passers by usher them away and apologise!

Malaria

Prevalence of ‘malaria’ is somewhat higher than I had expected, everyone seems to have it! 

Feeling sneezy? Malaria.

A tickle in your throat? Malaria.

Cold-sore you say? Malaria!

The doctors aren’t much better with misdiagnoses – if they’re ever unsure, it's Malaria.

Yes, malaria is Tanzania’s equivalent of man-flu.

Pretty bad if you have it, but you probably don’t.

Property Title Deeds…

…don’t really exist in Tanzania. Sometimes people have them, most of the time not. There doesn’t seem to be any proper system governing this.

A colleague phoned in late for work last week as somebody was building a small house in her garden – well it's a better excuse than ‘Malaria’ anyway!

I also wondered why countless houses have big red X’s painted on them. Presumably something to do with census counting? Not so! The government paints these on to let the inhabitants know they may knock it down (whenever they get around to it).

And there we have it for now! 

Hopefully I’ll get another update a bit sooner next time around. Take care & kwa heri!

Tom & Liisa

Decisions!

Everything's Supa Safi! (super cool)

The happy couple, together with some guy

Getting Married Tanzania Style
So we got married!

As you all knew, Liisa and I had been engaged when coming to Tz. However we decided to bring the wedding forward, partly because it ahem helped with a couple of tricky visa issues(!)

Organising the wedding was remarkably simple. On the Friday morning we started looking into it, and so went to the Registry Office. After filling in a couple of forms (which referred to Liisa as a Spinster), and handing over a cool 38,000 T-shillings (£15), we were almost ready to go! Although the official didn't fancy much working on Friday afternoon (as is the way), so he checked if we could wait until Monday, so we said fine.

Monday morning 09:30 we return to the Registry Office. The Registrar (Bernard) happily told us he was going to 'skip the legal mumbo jumbo' as we were in a hurry. When we'd said we were in a hurry, we had meant within the next week or so, not that morning specifically!

But first there were a range of marriages for us to choose from:
(1) Monogamous
(2) Polygamous
(3) Monogamous with the option of polygamy at a later date.

After much humming and hawing, we finally agreed on the third option.
(Heheh, not really!)

And hey presto, we're married! We're still planning on having a reception with the families next year when we're back in Europe, and I'll probably have some sort of stag (/30th thing) as well, our timing is just a little all over the place!

Kiswahili and Morogoro

Learning Swahili with our absolutely superb
teacher Benji (who works with KIU)

Last week we took a week-long Kiswahili training course in Morogoro, about 3 hours west of Dar.

Morogoro is a wonderfully scenic town with a great vibe and a beautiful mountainous backdrop, I became instantly jealous of any volunteers placed there!


There were 10 or so of us on the course, half were new arrivals to Tanzania and the other half have been here a few months, so were a step ahead with Swahili. Accordingly we were split into three classes, and for once I was in the Top Class! Liisa predictably was still the best in the class, but I'm not doing bad!

That's not to say there haven't been a few issues with the language:

* If somebody greets you with 'Shikamoo' it's a sign of great respect (usually said to elders, I get it the odd occasion) and one should always respond 'Marahaba'. Don't mistakenly use 'Marahage' for your first three months - it means Beans. 

* When purchasing mosquito repellent: Do not confuse 'Dawa ya Mbu' (Mosquito repellant) with 'Dawa ya Mboo' (medication for the penis).

Animals, innit

Safari
Mikumi National Park wasn't too far from Morogoro, so the lot of us went on a Safari last Friday.

We had a brilliant trip taking a DallaDalla around the park (small bus, usually used for local transport where the regular game seems to be 'how many dozen Tanzanians you can squeeze in').

Yours truly thoroughly enjoying the DallaDalla

We had an ace day and got to see loads and loads of animals! Lions having lunch, hippos, zebra, giraffes, and warthogs (my favourite) to name a few. Some nice pics too!


Until next time, kwaheri!

Mr & Mrs Peilow