Morogoro language training course

Bus trip to Morogoro

Saturday afternoon we caught the bus to Morogoro.  We were all, I think, keen to get out of chaotic Dar.  Most of us ventured further afield from the hotel for breakfast looking for something more interesting than the fruit, toast and coffee we'd been served every day.  Jenny and I found a place that did juice and eggs.  Yum!

The road to the bus station was a continuous array of small businesses

Internet and a bit of last minute shopping killed the time until 1pm when a minibus arrived to take us to the main Dar bus station.  I think we must have just missed a bus because we had to wait in the sun for an hour or so until ours came along.  The bus station was busy and bustling but seemed well organised.  Our tickets were for particular seats and all the volunteers were up the front - all the better to see the oncoming traffic.  The highway out to the edge of Dar was very busy and slow but we enjoyed the often unusual sights out the window as we passed through continuous markets.  Eventually we reached open country and for the next couple of hours made good speed to Morogoro.  There were lots of very slow (probably greatly overloaded) trucks and slow old cars that needed to be passed.  Our driver was quite good and took no risks that I wouldn't have taken but we saw some amazing driving from other vehicles.

The main Dar bus station was chaos to our eyes but everything seemed to work

We reached Morogoro about 7:30 pm.  A three hour bus trip (as we were told) took about twice that.  It was well dark when we arrived and it was impossible to see exactly what our environment was.  The accommodation is in a convent mostly converted into a conference centre.  The staff are nuns and others.  A bit odd but we will get used to it quickly I suspect.  We had the first of many excellent meals and headed for bed as soon as we could. 

I was up at dawn Sunday to explore and look for birds.  As the sun came up I became aware we were on the edge of town surrounded by small communities of houses, shops and vegetable gardens.  Looming over the back garden of the convent are the Uluguru Mountains with cleared patches and bananas way up on the slopes.

The view of the Uluguru Mountains behind the convent

The birding was initially frustrating because they all seemed to be outside the high wall around the convent grounds.  Inside is a bit spartan but outside is wild and there are a couple of good vantage points for birding.  So far I've not seen many species but have seen some interesting ones:  African Pied Wagtail, Blue Waxbill, Red-winged Starling, Yellow-fronted Canary, Hamerkop, Speckled Mousebird, Spotted Morning-thrush, Bronze Mannikin, White-necked Raven, Black Cuckooshrike, Collared Palm-thrush, Black-and-white Mannikin and Black-winged Red Bishop.

Interestingly the Bishops are coloured up, the Wagtails and Mousebirds have dependent young and the B-W Mannikins are nest building.  It's the dry season here now and the wet season is still a couple of months away.

We spent our first day today with our language trainers - Benjamin and Pepe.  Pepe is a close match for the actor who played Mma Ramotswe's secretary in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency TV show.  As is usual with language learning we started off gently and rapidly got into the harder stuff.  Jenny is doing very well but most of us are struggling with the grammar.  Worse is that we found that some of the words we have learned are Kenyan Swahili and not used in Tanzania.  We've been saying 'tafadhali' to everyone.  Our training software told us this was the word for 'please'.  Only used in Kenya apparently.  There is no real equivalent in Tanzania because they ask for things so politely it is not considered necessary to say please.  Another is 'jambo' a general greeting similar to 'hello'.  'Jambo' is only use by and for tourists.  We must use 'hujambo' to get respect.

Benjamin took us for a walk into town yesterday to show us the way and where things are.  We will go back later in the week to buy food at the market to cook on Saturday.  The nuns are going to teach us traditional methods and we get to kill chickens.  How good will that be?

A few of the volunteers headed to a local bar last night to watch the world cup final.  I think Jenny and I were asleep before kick-off.  We are usually in bed by 9pm and awake at 5:30 am when we hear the call to prayer from the local mosque.

Hope folks are enjoying this.  Leave a comment and let me know how I'm doing.  Ask about stuff I haven't mentioned.  Don't forget to read Jenny's blog as well.  We aren't comparing notes so it will be interesting to see how much we agree on and what we think to mention.