Trip to Kilimanjaro

"S1" desktop Solar Light

Hello again, this time from Moshi on the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. Solar Aid have sent me up to here to work with the Sales Team and see how everything operates when they’re away from Dar.

As a bit of background, Solar Aid has targeted getting 360,000 solar-lights into the hands of Tanzanians, the majority being school-children throughout the country. The most common of these is the S1 Solar Light, and is sold for a subsidised price of 10,000 Shillings (around £4).

What I can assure you is that demand for the product is phenomenal. One of the biggest problems facing Solar Aid is ensuring they can simply get enough stock out to the team in the field. Keeping in mind that Tanzanian Infrastructure is still developing, the logistics of sending thousands of lights up from Dar es Salaam can be challenging. Oh the perils of such a popular product!

With the Sales Team in Moshi. About to go for a
well-earned meal after a week selling 6,000 solar lights

I’ve had a brilliant week with the team here and I managed to get involved in the sales processes themselves, giving me ample opportunity to practise my Kiswahilli with the locals. I’m still finding the language much easier to read or write, than speak or listen beyond very simple vocabulary, but I guess that’s just the way it is for a beginner! My aim is to become intermediate / conversational by the end of the year.

Liisa, never one to be put off by a ten hour bus journeys, has joined me in Moshi – one of the benefits of translating only requiring email, making her flexible for such trips!

Trading off English lessons
for Kiswahili ones

The whole area has been beautifully green (thanks to the recent Rainy Season), and it’s been brilliant to just take walks around everywhere.


We’ve stayed in a couple of towns in the region, and in some, where Westeners are certainly more of a rarity, we do get “Mzungu-ed” a lot (© Liisa Peltonen) i.e. when you walk by you can hear people talking about the “Mzungu”, or simply shouting out “Mzungu!”. Other times it’s children saying “Good Morning” (or my personal favourite “Good Morning Class”) Also, the fact it’s four in the afternoon doesn’t seem to matter!

Not a bad old view of Kili from our hotel room

Where we’ve been staying in Moshi, we’ve been lucky enough to wake up and be greeted to a breath-taking view of Mount Kilimanjaro. I start to consider climbing it again, although I’ve still not forgotten last time when at the top I swore  “Too tiring - never again!”

Now, however, we must get back to Dar. 99% of things in Tanzania are 'pole pole' ('slowly slowly'). Bus-driving, however, is not one of them. Wish me luck!

When it rains, it pours

Home sweet home!

Three weeks in and I've seen why they call it the rainy season. At one point last night I thought there was an air raid, such was the impact of the howling rain on our little tin roof! Still, it's warm with plenty of sunshine, so I guess it's not entirely like an Irish Summer.

We've now moved into our second, more permament African home. We've got a living room, a kitchenette, a bathroom, two bedrooms and a ground floor balcony. Fully loaded with couches, fridge, cooker, beds (...trust me, I'm making it sound far fancier than it actually is!)

My daily walk to work

 

As for the commute, I'm a 3km walk from work, which is nice for the exercise. Bye bye beer belly, welcome six-pack! Maybe.

VSO are providing us with an allowance of £5/day, which is apparently enough for one person to live on. As a challenge, Liisa and I are seeing if it's enough for two people to live off, and so far we're on track! The financial analyst in me has converted our entire lives into a fully functional Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet ...I'm trying to convince myself this is to help with the budgeting, but I think we all know it's because I'm a massive nerd.

Buying fruit & veg. I thought I'd haggled a good price. But, that said,
the next time we saw the assistant he was wearing A LOT of bling

 

Somewhat appropriately, we've got solar lights installed at home (thanks to Solar Aid), thus saving on the electricity bills. We've also found some good local markets nearby, and have learnt how to ask for what we need, with "Viazi kumi, tafadhali" serving me well so far.

By a stroke of good fortune, we're also saving on Alarm Clock costs, courtesy of: (1) The daily Mosque Call at 4:20am (2) the rooster next to our bedroom window, & (3) our neighbour's unhealthy obsession with Whitney Houston.

Bongoyo Island

We spent this weekend at Bongoyo Island (it's like a very very mini Zanzibar), and are planning a trip to Moshi shortly (up north), so hopefully I'll have some nice snaps of Kilimanjaro to follow!