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!
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! |
