Adventures in Arusha

Luke is getting some mind-blowing photographs. In fact, they're too bloody good to waste on our website! I'm stinking we will not only auction some off at the upcoming Melbourne fundraiser (you know, the one with the fancy-dancing queen Kate Ceberano performing, have we mentioned it?)but that we should host an art exhibition in Sydney with them. They are truly magic - dramatic and evocative. Thankfully - since he risked his life again yesterday to get some of them. He was walking around the villages - up in the dangerous backstreets of Unga Limited (a suburb named after the flour mill organisation that exists there) when a crowd of young kids starting gaining numbers...and telling him how they could sell his camera for a few hundred dollars in town (they have no idea of its actual worth - about $25,000AUD). As they closed in around him, Luke somehow kept his cool, staring the main offender down. He took the shot, smiled at everyone and then, with Mudi at his side, casually walked away. He said the main guy looked at him as if to say "your time will come" but Luke doesnt think he'll be up that way again any time soon.



Daz has started making weird contraptions to measure how compact the soil is (and therefore how well it will hold foundations etc). He had Weenies and I up at the crack of dawn to help him balance a bucket on one end of a rod. The other end? Some 9kg stone with a metal link rope wound around it. Apparently this magnificent module would help him greatly in his work. We've stopped asking questions - and just stand where he says, hold what he says, draw on things when he says. He seems delighted with our progress. Who needs African labour when you've got female apprentices?





Into the lawyer's office this morning to tie up the last of the contract for the land. I say that because I KNOW it is not the last but i'm trying to jinx myself.

I also started the big, heavy ball rolling with regard to FWS becoming a registered NGO in Tz. The document (a Tanzanian version of our Australian GI - yeh the one you can download from our website if you want to know how we operate) was meant to be ready upon my arrival. Ed paid the lawyer $US200 to have it ready about 4 months ago. I called him 8 weeks before flying here to ensure it would be ready. Of course, on my way to his office, i didnt expect it to be ready. that would be dumb. So I wasn't then disappointed when i was told there was a problem and it wasnt ready. I WAS however disappointed (not surprised, just disappointed) to find that the problem was funding. Apparently another $US300 would be needed to print off and bind the TZ version of our GI. Upon hearing this I threw my arms in the air and then brought them down to my face (very theatrical). I told him it was gali sana (extremely expensive) and that I think it would cost me just $10USD in Australia. We worked out that we'd be better off to simply get the soft copy document off the computer and I'd take it home and print & bind it there. Computer wasn't at his office. Computer didnt have email. Computer didnt take CD rom. Computer didnt take floppy disk. Computer didn't take memory stick. Computer needed to be thrown against wall. But it wasn't - thanks only to Luke and Ed. Luke came up with idea of transferring the soft-copy document to the memory card of his computer and Ed knew how to do that... so we've got the document, we've got the document, and to be honest I'm not even sure how the techology that enabled us to get the document works. So i'm going with black magic as the explanation.

Now I have to find 5 tanzanians - respected tanzanians that is - to sign in the next four days. Lucky I've stopped with the panicking because that would be enought to make my heart palpitate if I was that way inclined. (I only decided to stop with the night-time panic attacks last night. I just told myself that really, things are fine and I / we can only do what I/we can do. the end.

We got cow's milk this morning. Omilord, that's enough to keep you happy for life. Sooo creamy and sweet. You'd never drink anything else if you had the choice. We also had Mama Ray (a local african mama) come and cook a traditional meat, tomatoe and potato stew for us. we ate with our fingers (traditon. honest!)and ate ugali (like polenta). we are not supposed to be eating meat or drinking milk - because of the rift valley fever, but we're not that scared of it yet. maybe we should be. Mudi says a few people in Arusha have died. but when I questioned him further, it turned out to be only one person,a nd maybe they died of old age anyway...

I saw the balcony of a building collapse this morning in town... bricks came spewing out across the road and three people barely escaped with their lives. The protective scaffolding crumbled in seconds and has made me commit to avoid walking under these dubious structures ever again. THe dusty storm of building materials stopped everyone in the street for all of three seconds, after which everyone just began talking as if nothing major had happened. And in Arusha, perhaps nothing major had happened. I can barely imagine the furore this would cause if it happened in an Australian city!


We're going out to see the 5 or 9 (not sure) acre block this arvo. Apparently it has dodge soil (black cotton soil - bad as it sinks easily so isnt great to build on - moves and cracks walls) but we want land that is a good size (tick), good area (tick - just down road from Tom's block) and is available for a good price (tick - 3000US per acre. about right!) and that has just one owner (so that we dont get a long lost brother popping up in three years time claiming he owns the land and nobody had any right to sell it to us). Will let you know how we go soon. I'm pretty excited about it. there's ways we can get around the cotton soil problem with construciton, daz assures me. I'm just hoping they dont involve the stone & metal link contraption!