Happy weekends

Its always like this . People ordering stuffs at the very last moment, on times that the reagents are almost finished. They always think that if they order today, it would just miraculously drop from the sky tomorrow. I keep on telling them that it doesn’t work that way. I’m no magician who can pull out rabbits from my magical hat, I can pull out a hair though, if its necessary. Added pressure is the suppliers not supplying (they should be called unsuppliers). Need to order and follow up on them a couple of times. One even have one month break, for inventory they said but haven’t delivered any of our orders yet I’m just a volunteer, I keep telling myself but sometimes it doesn’t help me at all. Sometimes I just want to give up, burst into tiny molecules or I might hurt somebody and regret it after. I love Fridays. Time to think about all the frustrations on the working days and time to relax a bit, for the coming two days are free. I hate Sunday Nights, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays,Thursdays. Sorry for this, I’m just really happy today

Ms. Piggy Takes the Bus

There are already 10 confirmed cases of swine flu in the Philippines . Congressmen are not even concerned because they are immune to this, so its safe for them to horde all the pork barrels. They can use it again for the next Pacquio fight. As of now, here in Tanzania we don’t have any idea if the flu infected someone. I’m not even sure if they are testing it . If somebody already died of the Mexican flu, he probably was misdiagnosed with malaria or something. If it truly comes here, then it would be a great timing for us to exercise the evacuation plan of the office. Yippee! The flu will surely plague the whole country in a matter of hours, especially if the infected person rides one of those dalas going around. With all the people inside at a given time. Even more space can be forced if all the passengers inside have still room to breath. All it would take is one sneeze and everything would fall down, even the walls of these mini buses, being rusty and dilapidated. Good thing that there is no Goat flu and chicken flu, because these comfortable dalas are the best place to get them. Yep! Goats and chickens are also passengers who needs to pay for the space they are occupying under the seats. The fun part starts on getting a ride. Unless you are in a bus station where you can get in immediately , but if you are standing by the road and trying to wave for a ride, the very efficient dala will stop a 100meters away from where you are .Then you need to push and shove everybody just to get in. Finding a seat is not really an issue. I don’t know if its better to stand up on your toes all the way to your destination (usually 4 hours travel or more) or sit with all the asses in your face while the chickens are pecking your feet, plus some moms putting their crying children to your lap hoping that you won’t protest and throw them away the window. Then the sacrifice of going down. There will be a stampede especially if it stops in a place where there are many passengers waiting. With all the people standing in the aisle and people rushing to get in and out at the same time .Its always faster to get out of the window going down which I did twice already, having my big ice boxes and sitting at the back of the bus. Its always exciting because the driver is always seems in a rush leaving your bus stop. Contrary to that, they always take their time drinking their tea in Mnazi moja,(an hour or more depending on their mood)while all the passengers are waiting inside the bus which is parked under the sun. The dalas are such a convenient public transport, good thing they don’t allow pigs in there and congressmen too.

Origami

Irena and other JICA volunteers held a presentation here in Ndanda about the destruction brought about by the Atomic Bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. It was a great opportunity for me to take a look on their side of the history, so I didn’t let it passed. It was really interesting with the posters, pictures and film showing about the two places before and after the bombing. The Japanese girls clad in Kimono and the toys they bought are also a good way of introducing part of their culture to the Tanzanian secondary school students. The students however are keener on taking their pictures beside the women than actually looking around the auditorium where the information are pasted. There was a commotion outside while the film was being shown making it impossible to hear what is being shown in the small television. Plus other students milling around just for the hell of it while other were really interested and are asking proper questions. We learned how to do a giraffe out of two pieces of papers. The Japanese are really good on these. There is one picture there that really stuck to my mind. Its about Sadako, she was a survivor of the bombing but developed Leukemia as an after effect of the exposure to radiation. She folded 1000 paper cranes hoping that this would cure her illness. But it never did. Sadako is also the ghost in The Ring Movies. She never did Origami there but she brought chill to my spines until now, everytime I remember the movie. She is this girl with matted, greasy hair, dirty fingers and can’t even walk straight. I know another person which has the same attributes but she never as scary as Sadako

Birds again

Last time I came from Dar I happened to get myself one of the bird books on sale. I always wanted to purchase one because every time I wanted to identify a bird I had just seen, I had to borrow the book of Jo or Piet. After perusing my new book, I had the idea of making my own book. There are some mistakes in the book i bought, like the place where these birds can be seen. I’ve seen so many but they are not supposed to be there like the ground hornbills and the white shouldered raven here in Ndanda, maybe they are just illusions or ghost of birds hehe. Plus the names of the same birds are easy to make. Just look at their distinguishing features like the spoonbill(spoon bill, no they don’t eat spoons) bee eaters(they eat bees) Pin tailed whydah (pintails)Golden weavers (golden and they weaves) and the common bulbul (they are common hehe). Though some are hard to comprehend like the mousebirds (are they mouse or are they birds?, they should have called them supermousebirds), the buffalo weavers ( I’ve never seen any buffaloes being weaved)widow birds (do they eat the male after mating like the blackwidows)secretary birds (they don’t look like any secretaries I knew, maybe they can be taught how to do shorthand, they eat snakes anyways). I already started to name birds which I think are not properly described by the book. I got the common garden bird (always in my garden), common tweety bird (tweets every morning but I never seen it wherever I looked. Maybe its one of those nasty crows trying hard to be cute) and the common flap a lot who looks like an eagle or hawk but flaps the wings all the time during flight. Anyways I might name my book, The Common Bird Book

Felines

I came to Africa to see some of its big cats like the lions, cheetahs and leopards. We went to Mikumi park on our first week here. We never saw any but I’ve seen so many domestic cats anyways. They are different from the Philippine domestic cats because they maybe the direct descendants of the wildcats here, plus they have Dutch names. Kleine smeerpoets(Klayn smeer poots, aka Ginger) it means little dirt bag because he is always dirty when he eats, with all the food on his face. He became a literal dirt bag when he reached adolescence. He started to hump his mom and his sister so Francijn decided to say goodbye to his balls (ouch!). Kleine meid (klayna mayt, meaning small girl, I think) she is so small and malnourished. She used to be vegetarian, eating only beans when she was young. Two male cats Baraka and Mzee (old) were sent to America to their former owner Sheena. They might be the most travelled Tanzanian cats as of now. We shared a very hot and stinky ride with them to Dar last December. I wonder how they handled the winter. The 2 females the mom and sis of the previously mentioned cats, Koroma (meows a lot) and Tiger (I never thought I will see tiger here in Africa) are already in Holland hopefully still making lots of noises and climbing roofs without knowing how to come down. Jo’s cats are named Krijger (Krayger, meaning hunter) he can meow without a sound and loves to kill small defenceless animals, and Kneus (kanows,clumsy) who always get himself into accidents. Once he put his tail between a closing door and got bitten by something so that his paw became thrice as big. Their balls needs to come off too, soon! ( 4 ouch! for that) Lisenka has another cat, a vicious cat who always attacks unsuspecting guests. I heard he attacked John one time (good for him, he doesn’t like cats and Manny Pacquio who had beaten their boxer to a bloody pulp last time, and he’s old). And finally Ute’s cat (German) who is so fluffy and white who I would call Fluffy because I don’t know the German word for fluffy.

Cordon bleu

I’ve been an avid fan of the avian species since childhood. I can still remember how they flew around, made lots of beautiful noises every afternoon, and then the clearing started, the cutting of trees for the ever increasing population of our village. As fast as they came the birds suddenly seized they’re performance because the stage was being dismantled. I needed to go to the deeper part of the woods just to observe them again but many of them are not there anymore. Here in Africa they are facing the same problems. The burning of bushes every year. I think for the korosho (cashew) which would be easier to pick up when everything is cleared up. Also the development which wouldn’t co exist with the wild life. People would start to notice the disappearance of big creatures first, like the elephants and rhinoceros and then the small ones like the birds and insects. Another cause is the introduction of crows from India which supposedly eradicate the population of rats in the city that might bring the plague to the people. But because of mismanagement the already big number of crows and ravens are continuously growing, preventing the indigenous birds to exist. Mousebirds are continually declining in Mwanza as I have read somewhere. Even the big and powerful birds of Africa like the hawks and eagles are in danger. Last Saturday I saw a big hawk being attacked by a bunch of lousy ravens. According to Piet this is because the ravens are threatened by the presence of the hawks near their nesting places. While they are still here I will cherish their beautiful songs and assorted colours. Unforgettable birds are the sunbirds with their metallic feathers, the lilac breasted rollers with their breast (colour, breast colour I mean), kingfishers whom are not all kings and eat fish, some preys on insects and little frogs, the whydahs and paradise flycatchers with the tails longer than their bodies, firebirds who are like flying plums and the all time favourite of Doc Rene (one of the things that made him stay and finish his contract), the Cordon bleu, the blue birds. They look like small Mayas with sky blue feathers. They come in gardens and are rather tame. They eat seeds and insects and are so common but I’m still amazed by their cheery attitude. I’m planning to invest on one of those high end binoculars. It would be good not just for observing birds.. hehe.

Mr. Baobab

Like the elephants and rhinos of Africa, the baobab is such a sight that its difficult to ignore. My friend shared a story about its legendary existence. According to folklore the Baobab was created by God as the most beautiful tree in the whole Afrikingdom. The thing is, he became so very proud of this status. He started to become too boastful,that it started to annoy all the other creatures around. All they can do is look and listen to his littany. They cannot even touch and get close to him. Birds aside for being inferior animals, according to him are not allowed on its branches because they might just poo on him. Butterflies, which according to him is not colorful enough and very small in size, aint allowed to his flowers coz their ugly catterpillars will just eat his precious leaves. He is totally on to himself. One day while he was annoying all the creatures with all his continous complaints about them living too close to him God got fed up, uprooted him and planted him again headfirst. Thats how the baobab got its looks today. A towering figure but still awkward in appearance. The moral of the story is....Don't annoy the birds and butterflies, they are such cry babies and they kiss ass just to have it their way. Just like some of your co workers, they might look beatiful and cute outside but they will always take the opportunity to peck or put powder in your eyes. They also have ugly children.