Minor annoyances and major pluses

Life is not all bliss here.  I thought I'd put in a few of my (very) minor annoyances and then a few of the things I really like about living here:
On Saturday we bought a small fridge.  This will transform our lives because we can buy more food, store leftovers, keep drinks cold, maybe get some milk etc.  Unfortunately our power supply seems unable to cope with the fridge and the power board for charging computers and having a couple of lights on.  On Friday night nothing we could do would stop the power from tripping off.  More frustrating was that the neighbours all had power for their sound systems, TVs etc.  The problem persisted through much of Sunday and we called our landlord who arrived with an electrician.  They decided to replace the tripping unit but when they came to do it today (Monday) all systems were working properly.  They decided it was probably a blown globe in one of the bedrooms that was causing the problem.  Since they have left this morning the system has tripped several times and all I have on is one hotplate for boiling beans.

I've already mentioned the bureaucracy for getting a post office box.  Hopefully this week the key will arrive from Dar es Salaam or wherever they keep them. The whole process has been truly bizarre.

Consumer goods here are mostly very poor in quality and not cheap.  We have tried several sources for AA batteries but they never seem to last long.  The cost works out to be similar to that we would pay at home but they are basically rubbish.  Other things like dish cloths, sponges, brooms, mops, notepads, toilet paper etc are similarly poor in quality.  Some things seem to be unobtainable here.  I haven't seen dental floss or vegetable peelers, for instance.  We are putting together a list of items Jenny's sister Lyn might post to us if we ask nicely (and if we ever get our PO Box key).

Road rules basically don't exist or are ignored.  Pedestrians (like us) are the lowest rung and are expected to get out of the way of bicycles, motorbikes, cars and trucks in that order.  Many of the roads are red dirt and no-one slows down when they pass you so you come home from a walk covered in dust.  There is an interesting gender divide with only a very few women riding bicycles and hardly any riding motorbikes or driving cars.  Women do much of the food and water fetching but normally have to walk.  I must ask someone about this issue.  It doesn't seem at all fair.

Now the things I like:

The food is fresh, simple and tastes great.  Vegies are all full of flavour, cheap and plentiful.  Eggs likewise although small.  Meat is available but the quality is not brilliant.  We've found a shop that sells little packs of mince beef and have enjoyed that with pasta sauce a couple of times.  My first foray into cooking the local beans was not a success but we've mastered them now and they are also becoming a regular part of our dinners.  We have several edible things in our yard with a couple of different types of tomatoes and a tomato/eggplant hybrid thing I've never seen in Australia.  We also have potatoes and sweet potatoes apparently but I don't know when we should harvest them.

Our water supply seems fine and our filter does a great job.  No more tummy bugs touch wood.  Sodas (fanta in several flavours, coke etc) and beer are cheap.  The doughnuts are delicious even when a day or two old.  Bread is limited to white, sugary thin sliced loaves but is fine toasted.  Samosas filled with spicy mince meat are readily available and cheap for lunch.

We've found a local FM radio station that has BBC or Voice of America news fairly regularly so we've been able to keep up with the major stories from around the world (nothing from Australia of course).  Apart from this the radio is best left off unless you like a solid diet of !

We've found a great internet cafe in town where we can take our laptops and they seem relaxed about how long we spend there.  We are still looking into getting a USB modem.  They cost 70,000 shillings and then you have to pay for the download gigabytes which are quite expensive.

The little market up our road is proving to be everything we'd hoped and many of the staples can be bought there.  Fresh food is seasonal here so the choice from the local stalls is a bit limited but with the fridge we can get things like pineapples and melons in town once or twice a week.  It's a lovely walk to the market and we chat to our neighbours as we go.  I think the local kids are used to us now because they no longer hang around the house calling 'Mzungu! Mzungu!"

Yesterday we spent the morning sweeping every room and then mopping them.  This has greatly cut down on the existing dust and the kanga curtains are keeping out new dust.  We've also covered our loungeroom bookshelf with a kanga to give more protection to our meagre collection of DVDs and our electronic gadgets.  I still need to clean the window slats but pole pole.  Still no sign of rain but our landlord has been predicting it for two weeks now.  It will be interesting to see what effect the wet season has on our lifestyle.

Jenny has been visiting her district primary schools and getting to know the teachers she will be training and the issues they deal with.  There are many many issues and it's a bit overwhelming.  Where should you put most effort?  Jenny saw one class where the kids were being taught to read an analogue clock.  The teacher had one small clock to demonstrate to 50 kids and didn't seem too sure how it worked in any case.  She has made a couple of cardboard clocks for a few shillings each to show how it might be done more successfully.

We had a lovely lunch down on the lake on Saturday.  Grilled fish and chips and a couple of Kilimanjaro beers under a shady spot watching Lake Victoria waves on a sandy beach.  Jenny's birthday in a couple of days so I'll get her a cheesy card, some chocolates and take her for a nice meal.  No cake this year - I just don't see how I can make one with our current kitchen setup.

I hope you are all finding these blogs of interest.  Please take the time to comment or, better still, send us an email with news from home.  We have no real feeling for how the election is going back home.  I doubt if we will hear anything on the news here about the results.

Monday 16 August, Bukoba