Survival Stuff We Brought to Mtwara

Now that we have been here for a year here are some thoughts about a few items that I'm glad we brought with us. Some are difficult to come by, others were good to have at hand for immediate use.

Katadyn Water Filter. This is a Swiss-made filter that works so well it purifies the water with no need to boil first. You just pour water into its upper container. After some time the water percolates via gravity down into the lower container. I clean and check the filter once a month, which takes about fifteen minutes. The three ceramic elements -- some people call them "candles" -- are recommended to be replaced after six months, but they are supposedly good for 50,000 liters. At an average of eight liters per day, which is roughly what Diane and I use, that means the elements could last for more than fifteen years! I would be very pleased if they actually hold up just for the three years we expect to stay.

Mosquito bednet. As things turned out there was already a mosquito net provided for our bed, but it's been good to have an extra for guests and one that is treated with permethrin.



DEET insect repellant. In a tropical area like this there are mosquitoes year round. Malaria is endemic. I don't use repellant all the time but I find DEET works well in keeping the bugs off me when I need it. It's part of a multi-layered defense against getting bitten, together with mosquito wire on the windows, taping up the gaps in outside walls, wearing long pants, using a bednet, and rarely going out at night. Even so, I've probably been bit at least a thousand times. You cannot eliminate the risk but you can manage it and reduce it quite a bit.

Flashlights, solar- or hand-powered. With frequent power outages in our neighborhood and non-existent power in some places, having good flashlights is a must. Diane has a HybridLight, which is solar-charged and has a battery backup. I have something with no name that is hand-cranked. Both are used regularly and work well. They avoid having to purchase and dispose of batteries.

Power adapters, voltage converters. In Tanzania there are two kinds of power outlets: the round two prongs used in Germany, Spain, and other countries; and the square three prongs from the U.K. Likewise, appliances and equipment come in both flavors. For that reason alone, adapters are needed. Add into the mix our two flat prongs from the U.S. and you really do have to have adapters. They are available locally but it's good to have several when you arrive. Also, the local ones are sometimes of questionable quality.

If you bring anything electrical that only runs on the U.S. 110 volts, such as Diane's SonicCare toothbrush, then a voltage converter is also needed because the electricity here is 220. Luckily, our laptop charges on either voltage. I understand that's the case with most portable computers.

Rechargeable batteries with charger. These are for our digital camera, which takes two AA batteries and consumes a lot of power. Again, having rechargeables means avoiding buying and disposing of regular batteries. They don't last forever, though. After one year the ones we brought with us pretty much stopped holding a charge. We had to get new ones.

Swiss Army knife. I like the Tinker model, which has two blades, a bottle opener, three screwdrivers, an awl, etc, all of which I have used. This model is a nice balance between size and function.



Small water bottle. There is lots of good bottled water sold, so you can always reuse the bottles. I prefer something that is more durable, like the Nalgene one-pint made of Lexan, pictured here.

Ear plugs. They don't block noise but they do reduce the intensity quite a bit, enough to make a difference when you are trying to sleep on long airplane rides, at noisy airports, and through late-night music, speeches, and gatherings in the public field near our home.

U.S. currency in large denominations. $100 and $50 bills get a much better rate than the smaller ones. We changed some dollars for Tanzanian shillings as soon as we cleared immigration. The rest is stashed away in case the ATMs stop working for withdrawing cash from our U.S. bank account.

Dark Chocolate. For chocolaholics like me, this is a basic food group, if not a survival item. Just kidding. 8-D Actually, I've had very little good chocolate like this since arriving. But thanks to Patti in L.A. we received this particular bar a few days ago. If you ask anyone to mail chocolates to you, have them put it into a closed plastic bag. There's a good chance it will melt on the way.

There are other extremely useful items that come to mind -- such as sturdy zip-lock plastic bags, duct tape, materials for learning Swahili and about Tanzania, etc -- but they are not as immediately needed. I may comment on a few of those in another posting.

- Earl

African Stations of the Cross, Five - Eight

African Stations of the Cross

Stations One - Four

Kanisa la Yesu Kristu Mkombozi [Jesus Christ the Redeemer church], Magomeni neighborhood of Mtwara. -Earl

Two Worlds, Revolving Independently

"... it was like living in one world while another co-existed, but the two scarcely ever meshed. Sometimes, when Tilly made a cake, she let me use the beater, which had a red handle that you turned. The two arms of the beater whirled round independently and never touched, so that perhaps one arm never knew the other was there; yet they were together, turned by the same handle, and the cake was mixed by both. I did not think of it at the time, but afterwards it struck me that this was rather how our two worlds revolved side by side." The Flame Trees of Thika, Elspeth Huxley

Elspeth Huxley grew up in the countryside of Kenya in the early twentieth century on a farm settled by her English parents. They employed Africans, went to a local chief to intervene in problems and disputes, and otherwise lived amongst the native peoples. I love the metaphor of two arms of a mixer that are closely intertwined yet not touching.

There is a little market area just down the road from our home. Along a row of simple wooden kiosks and tiny "shops" I am able to buy items such as eggs, rice, beans, sugar, salt, matches, cookies, and cellphone vouchers(!). Across the way in the open dirt women set up tables with fruit and fried fish. Some sit on the ground behind boxes displaying cassava french fries. They seem to be there all day. I make my rounds, picking up whatever is on the list this time. I speak enough Swahili to make purchases, but not enough to have a free-form conversation. I walk home, receiving, as usual, stares from some Tanzanians, for whom a non-black person is such a novelty.

Returning home I boot up our laptop computer and enter expenses into a spreadsheet. Since the computer is on, I connect to the Internet. An email from a relative in California informs me that the book I ordered on amazon.com arrived and will be sent on to me. I read an article on the New York Times website about the psychological effects of long-term joblessness on many Americans. Dinner that evening consists of pasta salad with avocado and cucumber. The pasta was boiled in water purified by our Swiss-made water filter. We start a game of Scrabble, playing obscure unheard-of English words that are only found in the Scrabble dictionary.

Nearby, in another of the buildings on the grounds of the church where we live, the choir is practicing. We can hear very clearly their beautiful Swahili voices. Some of the songs are familiar from liturgies back home. Others sound distinctly African in rhythm and melody.

Do the arms of the mixer brush against each other from time to time? Is real contact possible?

-Earl

Pudding Spoons and Forks

"It was remarkable to think how different were Kikuyu lives from our own, and surprising that they found our ways wholly arbitrary, and forgot that salt, mustards, and pepper pots should all be grouped together in two clusters on the table, and that pudding spoons should point in one direction and forks in another. Europeans rarely questioned their own customs; what they did was right and civilized, what others did was savage and stupid. No doubt all people think like this about their own habits. The Kikuyu probably accounted for most of ours as a form of magic." From The Mottled Lizard, by Elspeth Huxley

One could apply Elspeth Huxley's observation to many facets of life but those do include table manners and eating customs.

Growing up in a Chinese immigrant family I was not exposed to a formal Western meal until I was a senior in high school attending a dinner for scholarship applicants at the upscale Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. I still recall vividly the confusion, awkwardness, and embarrassment I felt at facing an array of forks, knives, and spoons that I had no idea what to do with. On that occasion, from a certain perspective, I could have been regarded as rather uncivilized and stupid.

In Tanzania it's very common to eat with your hands, no cutlery required. That being the case, it's also expected to wash your hands before eating. In homes and in some restaurants someone will bring water, soap, and a washbasin to each guest, both before and after the meal. Then there is the custom of using your right hand only, avoiding the left hand as much as possible. This is due to the left hand being seen as unclean, which is very literally true if it is used for certain, ahem, bodily functions.

I don't really like to eat with my hands. Doing so is fine for some foods such as sandwiches, cookies, and many kinds of dim sum. But if the food is at all wet, gooey, or oily, I immediately feel like my hands are messy and dirty. Really, the only sensible way to eat is with chopsticks. However, they require a magical dexterity that people beyond the pale acquire with difficulty.

[The photo is of our colleague Geofrey having lunch in the teachers' room. He is eating beans, greens, and ugali, a doughy staple made from corn meal.]

-Earl

Three Children in Church

One day at the weekday morning Mass three children showed up who had not been attending before. Moving along the pews, they gradually made their way towards Diane. Before long they were sitting right up next to her, looking at her books of prayer and reflection, especially any pictures. They have been regulars ever since, cheerful, respectful, and well-behaved during the service, and always sitting with Diane. A bit later on their mother also started to attend regularly.

There are about twenty adults who go during the week, rarely are there children. So it is especially delightful that we have the presence of these watoto.

[I took the outside picture with their mother first because I wanted to get her permission to photograph. At that time I told her I also wanted to take a picture on another day of her children with Diane during Mass.]

-Earl

Bargaining

The World Cup soccer tournament is going on right now in South Africa. Tanzanians, the men in particular, are following the games keenly, even those whom I never thought of being interested in sports. It's a good game for playing in a country like this with lots of space and little money for equipment.

However, I think the real national sport is bargaining for the price of goods. This may be carried out in many situations, and Tanzanians are master players at it. I suspect they find it both a pleasurable activity as well as a survival technique in a largely subsistence economy that has so little cash flow. I have seen Tanzanians spend time haggling over the equivalent of less than ten cents.

Not only do wazungu (Europeans / foreigners) like me find bargaining awkward and uncomfortable, we are perceived as having big pocketfuls of money. That perception increases the stakes and the level of interest considerably. At the end of the day it's not uncommon for wazungu who have been, for instance, to the market to have a vague feeling of having been cheated.

After almost a year of living in Tanzania I am still adjusting to this practice. As far as whether to get upset about it I try to keep in mind several things.

First is that in the U.S. even though we expect retail prices to be the same for all customers, that is not necessarily the case between businesses. I learned this as a neophyte freelancer who constantly had to grapple with the question of how much to charge clients and in what way. I had, for example, one client who was willing to pay significantly more than the "market price" for my computer services.

Back here in Mtwara we have found that for many goods that are widely available, at any point in time there actually does exist a price that is commonly known and paid. The trick is to find out from locals what that price is. White rice, for instance, uniformly sells for 1000 shillings per kilogram. This removes much of the uncertainty around recurring purchases such as foodstuffs and other household items.

And the reality is that Diane and I do have possessions and income that is far beyond the reach of most Tanzanians. The possessions include not only expensive items such as a laptop computer and a printer but even very ordinary things such as pocketknives, watches, and durable water bottles. The other day I lent a simple magnetic compass to a colleague who teaches geography. She knew about the concept but had never handled such an instrument before.

Our income consisting of teaching allowances from the school and monthly stipends from our organization would put us way below poverty level in the U.S. But here we eat really well, hire a friend to do some of our weekly shopping, have electricity, and pretty much every evening at home check email, log on Facebook, and read an article or two on the New York Times website.

It's good to keep things in perspective. -Earl