Wheels, guests of honour and birding with 30 young girls

Jenny and I have bought Mark and Michelle's car.  We are now the third VSO couple here to own this little Suzuki and hopefully it will be as reliable for us as it has been for the others.

So far it has taken us into town a couple of times, Jenny to work on a couple of wet days and last Friday a long drive to a town about 60 km to the south-west for a school graduation ceremony.

Registering the car under my name was an interesting exercise.  We only managed this because Jenny's colleague, Mr. Josiah, came with us and handled most of the negotiations.  We had to visit the police, the Tanzanian Revenue Authority, a bank and a lawyer.  We got a road worthy certificate at the police but no-one looked at the car.  At no stage did anyone ask for my ID - and they normally ask for your ID (passport photo etc) every time you do anything here.  The lawyer only asked me to state my full name and compared it with that I had written on the form he was being asked to stamp.  We handed over sums of money at each stage but at no stage did we get a receipt.  I now have a Tanzanian tax file number but no-one asked for my ID!

Driving is also interesting here.  Central Bukoba is insane chaos and to be avoided as far as possible.  The number and variety of vehicles doing totally erratic and unpredictable things is beyond anything I've seen before except maybe in China and I was not driving there.  It is impossible to assume any driver, rider or pedestrian is going to do something because they regularly do something quite different. Road rules are completely ignored.

Once out of town things calm down considerably and on the main bitumen road heading south it is possible to relax.  The bitumen only takes you so far however and then you have to venture onto the more rural dirt roads.  At the moment these are dry and rocky but as the wet season progresses they will become muddy and rutted.  The hazards are the endless stream of people, walking and riding mostly, along the roads and their livestock.  Cars and trucks are fairly rare and generally not able to get up much speed in the conditions.

As I said, on Friday, we headed out with Jenny's colleague, Mr Josiah, to a primary school in his home district.  The trip down took three hours with a few stops.  Coming back was only two hours.  We were among the guests of honour for the graduation ceremony for 11 year 7 students who had just sat their Standard 7 exam to see if they could go to secondary school.  It was a pleasant occasion with songs, speeches and lots of greetings. Unfortunately Jenny and I had to leave early in order to get back to Bukoba as I had an appointment with 30 young girls.

Kiroyera Tours here are the local one-stop shop for tourism.  They look after accommodation bookings, tours, safaris, ferry beds and run a couple of local training and development programs.  They have had input from VSO in the past and have expressed an interest in guided birding tours.  I volunteered to assist in this and my first opportunity to help came last Friday.  William Rutta from Kiroyera and his trainee bird guide picked me up and we drove south along the lake shore to a training centre for young folk who want to get into the tourism and hospitality industry.  These were the 30 girls (and one young man).  They were probably all in their late teens and were all gorgeous.

We walked down through local shambas (farms) and the nearby village, down the cliffs to a nice beach on the lake - then back.  We stopped to look at any birds that showed and my binoculars and field guide were much shared around.  We saw some nice birds, they seemed genuinely interested and remembered what they'd learned when quizzed at the end.  It was a fun (if strenuous) afternoon and I hope I get the chance to do more of this.  William seemed to think it went well.  Some of the birds seen were Open-billed Stork, Little Egret, Hamerkop, Fish Eagle, Augur Buzzard, Ross's Turaco, Plantain-eater, Double-toothed Barbet, Tropical Boubou, Sand Martin, Angola Swallow, Sooty Chat, Dusky Flycatcher, Red-chested Sunbird and Vieillot's Black Weaver.  I wonder if the kids understood what some US and British mzungus would pay to see these birds in a couple of hours.

Wednesday 21 September, Bukoba