Settling In

First, let me apologize for the delay in postings. This is my first time into the city in over 2 weeks, so opportunities for an internet connection are few and far between.

It's really difficult to begin to describe Longido and my reactions to everything I've encountered in the past few weeks. Everything is big and has a surreal edge to it, and I'm having a hard time taking it all in.

I'll begin with the amazing beauty of this place. The village sits at the base of Mount Longido, which I've yet to climb but certainly will. On a clear day you can stand in the soccer field which adjoins this complex, and be surrounded by a panorama which includes Mount Longido, Mount Meru, Mount Kilimanjaro and in between, the biggest sky I've ever seen and stands of acacia trees (which have always been part of my imagination's view of Africa).

At night, the stars are phenomenal, being so close to the equator as we are. I love to sit outside in the dark of evening and stare at the sky. More often than not there's the sound of singing coming in from somewhere not far away, or at least the sounds of the neighborhood cows, goats and dogs.

Let me describe a recent eventful 24 hour period to try and draw you a picture of my current life.

Saturday (Nov 18th?? I tend to lose track) was my first solo day in Longido, having seen Jo & Arlene off at the airport the night before. That evening I went down to the village (about a 1 kilometer walk) for the evening meal with Joyce, a young Maasai woman who's doing an internship here as part of her Journalism degree. We had our typical meal...rice, beans, greens (and I splurged on a Kilimanjaro beer) and were about to make our way home when it began to rain a little. Since I was armed with an umbrella and flashlight, we thought nothing of beginning the usual trek home in the dark. Not far from the restaurant, Joyce turned to me and said, very seriously, "Jotu, we have to find shelter NOW". I still can't figure out how she heard it coming so much sooner than I did, but moments later we were in a monsoon-style downpour, doing our best to run toward a small shop with space to shelter ourselves under the eaves. The shopkeeper was kind enough to invite us inside to wait it out. We were both soaked and shivering at that point and so, out came the cellphones, trying to connect us with one of the 3 possible vehicles in the village that could come and take us safely home in the storm. Eventually we did connect with a young man and, for the price of some much needed petrol, got ourselves back home. That was my first experience of actually feeling cold here, and I was grateful that I had an otherwise too warm nightshirt along, as well as some blankets.

Next morning I set off on a day long adventure with Dr. Steven Kiruswa (the Executive Director of LOCIP) and Joyce, to visit their villages in the interior. I was hoping to see some animals along the way, as so far my sightings had been limited to baboons, one hyena, and unidentified rodent-like critters in the hostel! The drive out didn't provide a lot in the way of wildlife, beyond seeing a pair of ostriches which we raced along the road! Our return voyage was a different story though. At one point we spotted a herd of zebras, who actually raced out to the roadside and crossed right in front of us. Then a bit later we saw a group of 8 giraffes drinking water from the pools on the road. They were amazing...just moved far enough away to let us marvel while they waited for us to move on so they could get back to the matter (water) at hand. Add to that a few groupings of Thomson gazelles and some assorted birds, and it was an amazing mini safari!

We visited with Steven's family for a while. I got to experience the traditional Maasai 'milkshake' (his word, NOT mine!!) which is fermented milk in a sterilized hollowed gourd..shaken hard (by Steven's brother, in the photo) to produce little curds. It was something of a cross between buttermilk and runny yogurt, with a smoke flavour due to the smoke-sterilization process. Proud to say I managed to get down the full glass I was offered, with no ill-effects. Lots of gorgeous little children to play with there, and my bag of mini-Mars bars was well received!

Then I went off with Joyce to walk to her family boma, located about 10 minutes away and not accessible by car because of some wild ravines. Luckily we were joined by Joyce's brother and another young man, who got quite a chuckle about helping me up and down the banks of the ravine on the way! Once there, I was invited into Joyce's sister-in-law's traditional twig & dung hut, where she was resting with their 5 day old baby. I was asked to hold the baby, and was delighted to do so once my eyes had adjusted to the darkness of the hut...til then I'd just been led along to where the bed was, so I could sit by the mom and baby (all the while hoping I wouldn't accidently sit ON either mom or the baby in the dark!). We visited a while, took some pictures and drank some chai, before having a quick visit with Joyce's father in another hut and her 2 mothers in yet another.

On the way back, I was privileged to be invited to not only attend, but participate a little, in a village meeting. Most of the matters under discussion were unrelated to my visit to Tanzania, but since these particular villagers have some existing Biosand water filters (though different from the systems I learned to build in Carlgary), Steven wanted to plant the seed that I have knowledge about the filters and might be in a position to consider setting up a training program for building home filters at some point. The people were really very excited by that prospect, so I'll be motivated to try and get that going within the coming months.

By the time we got back to Longido (after all those wildlife stops) we were all really tired and hungry, and stopped in the village for rice, beans, green beans (a relatively new food here!), cabbage, and a meat stew..(.a real feast) before returning to the LOCIP complex and my guesthouse room, just before the onset of another round of heavy rain.

All told...an amazing day. But, not really any more amazing than each one I've experienced since arriving in Africa on November 3rd. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?? Each day I wake up wondering what the next adventure will be!