I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up - they have no holidays.

I have, more or less, finished the grant rounds for my small businesses now and I plan to clear up the outstanding administrative tasks whilst sitting in a beach-side bar in Zanzibar over the next few days. I will try and post a picture of the Indian ocean and a nice white beach just so all those who read this from their office can appreciate their is something else you can be doing...

In the meantime here is a picture of some rhinos that I saw:

...and a hippo

We surrender!

I have been force-fed a large slice of humble pie by my German friend. Well done Germany you deserved the victory even though the referee was clearly on your side.

Ich bin ein Berliner

Here's a picture of a happy German. Take a good look because it may be the last happy one you see for some time.....

Just one more thing

......you've got to love Colombo and I have to admit to being party to painting a live rat as well as the remand centre yesterday.

Now, before you call the African equivalent of the *RSPCA you may recall that the body count was already standing at two humans and a lizard (I forgot to mention the lizard in yesterdays post) that the children took great delight in dismembering when it had the misfortune to venture into their small concrete enclosed exercise yard.

The rat in question was living in one of the beds and whilst myself and some friends were working on sprucing the place up a little we disturbed it from its cosy home. My personal view on rats is that they are disease bearing vermin and I wouldn't want it living in my bed so I think it got away very lightly with just being painted blue instead of being brutally exterminated which is exactly what would have happened if we had let the children have their way with it.

I feel my conscience is mildly salved in admitting my complicit guilt in this animal cruelty but I would also like it noted that the body count at the remand centre remained at two humans and a lizard and the rat will live to fight another day even if he is feeling a little blue!

*Royal Society of Protection of Cruelty to Animals

Crime and Punishment

Today I finished renovating the children's prison that I promised to dedicate some money to. The conditions are, as you would expect in most countries outside Europe, dreadful. I had the place fumigated before I started the painting work and replaced the roof tiles that harbour rats and other unpleasant creatures and I plan to get mosquito nets for all the 'guests' languishing at the Tanzanian governments pleasure.

The children got very excited yesterday because two robbers were shot directly outside the facility and they had a birds eye view of the action when they stood on their bunk-beds and looked out of the windows. Hundreds of curious Tanzanian people gathered to witness the aftermath of the blood bath. There were a lot of shots fired and I am sure both robbers were killed. Hopefully it will be a lesson to all the budding criminals in the prison that crime does not always pay but, somehow I doubt it...... Also I got some great video footage of the action which is a bonus!

Apart from a couple of shootings and my continued visitations to try and make the child prisoners lives a little brighter there is not too much to report. I have my final meeting with all of my budding entrepreneurs on Monday and the end of my work on the ground here is now in sight and I am getting excited by the prospect of a little break in Dar Es Salaam and Zanzibar late next week which will involve a little sightseeing, some swimming and a lot of cold beverages. I have also met a great English couple who are going to be working in Zanzibar as dive instructors so hopefully I will get some free diving instruction too!

Have a good weekend.

The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'. Larry Hardiman

Today's post is dedicated to a military man who's career was ended all too abruptly this week and to Rolling Stone magazine who have won at least one more subscriber for this cracking article....


http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236

...and this has to be the best comment regarding the world cup result I have seen so far:

"This World Cup is working out like WW2 - France have forfeited, the USA turned up late, and England are left to fight the Germans!"

My favourite animal is a steak.

Yesterday I changed out of my Volunteers hat, donned my Tourist hat, and took the first week-day off since I arrived in Africa. I don't feel too guilty about my lack off commitment to the African people because I have probably worked harder out here (and I have had to pay for the privilege!) than I ever did when I was actually getting paid to work in any of my previous professional incarnations ....also I got many of the obligatory tourist photos under my belt whilst in Ngorangoro on Safari.

 Ngorangoro is the largest intact volcanic crater in the world and is described by many as the 8th Wonder. It is about 100sq miles in area and about 12 miles in diameter and is located just West of the Rift Valley. Ngorangoro boasts a plethora of flora and fauna and I was extremely lucky to see a broad selection of what is on offer for the typical tourist on Safari. Below is a selection of some of the wildlife I was fortunate enough to get close to.

 I haven't uploaded the rhino or the cheetah yet but, I did see them, honestly...

There's nobody here but us chickens...

We have chickens!

Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity.

A big thank you to Ben, Drew, Jon, Brian B. and most of all Mat O.  for your charity and generosity in getting another laptop and helping to *deliver it to African communities who really need this kind of help.

The title of today post is a quote from Albert Camus who, for one reason or another, has been featuring rather heavily in my life in the last few years. I have a friend who owns multiple copies of L'etranger all in different languages and, to his credit, I believe he has read it in at least three. There was some discussion between us about whether this is simply to impress girls and whether it actually would have this effect? So, if there are any single ladies who are impressed by this please let me know so I can settle this debate once and for all (and pass on your details to my good, Albert Camus-loving, pal.....).

I am still waiting for my chickens to arrive but, come hell or high water, I will have them nesting in their respective coops by the end of this week! I have also completed a stock take on all-but-one of my grant recipients and am very pleased to report that all my businesses, apart from the chickens which are yet to materialise, and a lady that has been ill for the last ten days, have shown signs of growth since their conception and one or two of them are looking very encouraging indeed.

Camus was once asked by a friend which he preferred, football or the theatre? Camus is said to have replied, "Football, without hesitation." ...and this from a Nobel prize-winning author! I think he would turn in his grave he could see the type of people that play professional football today.
 


*It has not arrived yet but I have my fingers crossed.

The day is for honest men, the night for thieves.

Euripides never spoke a truer word I don't think..?

I went out on Friday evening with a couple of friends and when we got back to the hotel it was discovered that money and a laptop were missing from one of our rooms. The keys had been left at reception when we went out so it had to be one of the hotel staff, or if it was one of the guests they were conscientious enough to lock the door once the theft was complete and very kindly return the key to the receptionist, which I find highly unlikely.

The computer was due to be delivered to a very remote area in Tanzania where it would have been put to good use in a pretty desperate community. Obviously this is not going to happen now.... I confronted the manager of the hotel about the missing computer and his only response was one of complete apathy and to pretend that suddenly he had lost the ability to speak English. My response to this was to wave wads of cash around the police station and have the entire hotel staff arrested. When all the staff were languishing in the cells, on the advice of the Tanzanian detective, I took the opportunity to check myself out of the hotel.

Whilst neither of these actions led to the computer being returned it did make me feel a whole lot better and slightly more wealthy as I am refusing to pay the outstanding bill at the hotel until I get my computer back.

I learnt three valuable lessons from this incident;

1. Don't leave your room key at hotel reception.
2. Throwing money at your problems out here really gets results.
3. Never stay at Monjes C and always have a backup hotel!

I am currently staying in a more upmarket establishment, not because I can afford it because I can't but, because it is going to be extremely difficult to find a hotel that was as cheap and as the one I was in (maybe that's because they make all their money from stealing their guests possessions!!).

Other than this and the fact that the US managed a draw against the UK in the World Cup not too much else for me to report.

Below is a picture of some mountains and a cow I took this morning.

Football..........

My Tanzanian helpers have had to attend the funeral of their neighbour today so I am taking some down time and will be watching the first game of the world cup this afternoon after a leisurely day mooching around Arusha. Sadly this does mean I have to work tomorrow but, I should be finished in time for the *football match.

There is an enormous amount of excitement in Tanzania surrounding the World Cup and I am looking forward to England's first match against our American friends. Looking at the US record of "friendly fire" mishaps I am hoping they will score an own goal in the opening minutes! Looking at England's historic propensity to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in this event I am keeping my fingers crossed that England can come out of tomorrows game with at least a draw but, I am not putting any money on it.

It will be very embarrassing to lose. There are an awful lot of American citizens in Tanzania, who are here preparing for their Ivy League schools it would seem, and I know they will be only too pleased to, quite literally, beat the Limeys at their own game.

I leave you with a quote which, although it is from an American sportsman (who I will refrain from naming and shaming), is universally appropriate in my view;

"Nobody in the game of football should be called a genius. A Genius is somebody like Norman Einstein"


Have a good weekend.

*For US readers; I am not talking about the form of rugby you play in which the players seem too delicate to compete without armour and have stop playing every 10 seconds or so for a rest.... 

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

There has been some interesting political discussion going on around me as the elections, here and in some of the neighbouring countries, draw closer. Gandhi certainly sums things up better than I ever could, and it is asking for trouble to express strong domestic political views in a land that is not your own, so I will not venture an opinion on African politics right now.... However, there are historic and current issues here that lend credence to the idea that, Africa's problems are far from over and I hope the next few months building up to the elections do not bring any extra problems with them.

I saw something extremely encouraging today that shows Non-Government Organisations (NGO) can make life better in the countries they try to help even if the actual government don't. I have come to realise a lot of time and money is wasted by very well-meaning NGOs all over the world and it is not at all easy to carry out effective work. I went to the Food Water Shelter project this morning and saw how an Australian organisation have decided to help orphans and local people alike who are in dire need of assistance.

The project has bought some land, built sustainable housing and developed farming techniques to feed the people living there. They have some livestock, breed fish in ponds they have constructed, use solar energy and their own supply of methane gas, made from the animal dung, to do the cooking as well as having composting lavatory's. A tree huggers paradise I hear you cry, and yes it is, but, many orphans, adults and the local community have benefited from the work of this NGO and it has restored a little of my faith in these types of organisations (even, in spite of the fact they welcome and encourage those pyjama-wearing, unwashed, tie-died, Western hippie-types we all love to hate so much).

I leave you with a couple of pictures including a tree, a few orphans and an aquifer under construction.

Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.

It has been a busy few days and my chicken coops are finally complete. All that remains is to buy the birds and my three chicken businesses are up and running.... I just hope there isn't a bout of bird flu any time soon or some such chicken eradicating epidemic tearing through East Africa. Barring this type of uncontrollable variable I am very hopeful that the ladies who will be looking after the chickens will be successful and at least for now they seem eager to embark on their journeys into chicken husbandry.

Below is a picture of one of my chicken coops.....

Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water.

Fortunately there is an abundant supply of good beer in Arusha and I have not been forced to live on food and water alone but, if you want a nice glass of wine the struggle begins....

This week has been relatively uneventful, so far, although my first chicken coop is now very nearly complete and work on the second coop was started this morning which is the most momentous occurrence since my last update on here.

I embarked on a hike up into the hills outside of Ngaramtoni to see one of my grant recipients, earlier in the week, and was rewarded with an amazing look at some of the truly spectacular scenery on offer in Tanzania. Because it is rainy season here it is very green and the banana trees that seem to grow everywhere are advertising their sweet fruit all over the hillsides and fields, the grass is long and lush and the cows and goats are making the most of this short-lived natural bounty. The deep and barren gorges that scar this otherwise uninterrupted carpeting of greenery, are a reminder that in a couple of months the whole area will be stained a muddy brown as the grass dries in the summer-sun and the livestock will have to rely more and more on human assistance to find good grazing.

I will not be here to witness this transformation and I have been in Tanzania in a period of harvest when food is plentiful and the heat is not nearly as stifling as I suspect it will be by the start of August. Conditions here are basic for most of the local inhabitants but, I think, this time of year provides more relief from the basic discomforts than any other period of a twelve month cycle. To really take in the full feeling of Tanzania I will have to come back in the middle of *summer and experience the most challenging climatic conditions, imposed on the flora and fauna of this country, by its geographical positioning. I know I won't be doing it this year but, the place must be growing on me because I really would like to come back *again in the summer months.

Below is a picture taken from hole 3 at the Arusha Gymkhana Golf Club. Like I said.... it's tough out here.

Have to go now as I don't want to keep the tennis coach waiting.


*The grass isn't so high and there is a better chance of seeing the animals on Safari too!
*(see above) If only to see more animals than during the rainy season.