The end of the road

The rest of my journey around Tanzania way back in September consisted mainly of many long bus journeys; pre-dawn starts and night arrivals. On the western border of Tanzania we caught a lift with some travelling priests and visited Kalambo Falls, the second tallest waterfalls in Africa. The falls lie right on the border with Zambia which we could have crossed into had we slipped the border officials the £1 they wanted. The Zambian side had new concrete walkways and metal railings with a tourist office. The Tanzanian side had a crowd of children in bare feet and torn clothes who were trying their best to extract money from us. Eventually they settled on fighting over my empty plastic bottle, which must have been worth a few shillings to somebody. Appreciating the (lack of) health and safety rules, it was easy to approach the edge of the 215 metre high falls to look into the valley below that had claimed at least three lives; two European tourists and one local man who was climbing up the falls on a rope. Maybe I shouldn't be so flippant about health and safety rules, after all. Not long later, the priests were keen to get back to town, probably to continue their party judging by the number of empty beer bottles in the boot of the car.

Kalambo Falls

Paul - a local tourist attraction

Four days later and we'd crossed the width of the country, 6 hour break-downs in the middle of nowhere and grimy guesthouses a distant memory. I can testify that once the road has been completed the journey will be much more comfortable. Sadly for us, we drove alongside the unfinished road for much of the way, passing groups of Tanzanian labourers working under the fierce glare of the sun and a Chinese foreman who sat in the shade. Arriving back in Dar Es Salaam, the city is never the oasis I hope for; hours sat in traffic jams inhaling fumes and paying the fines that my taxi driver gets after illegally u-turning in front of the police are part and parcel of the ride. Like Primark, I can't wait to leave as soon as I get there. After travelling for 3 weeks and covering 4000 kilometres it was nice to finally reach Nyangao and get home.

A fisherman on Lake Tanganyika

In December, the Annual VSO conference meant a return to Dar and four nights of being put up in a plush hotel with good food, a swimming pool and the chance to meet all the volunteers from around Tanzania. It also meant attending serious sounding sessions like "Challenges in Development Work" and "Monitoring and Evaluation Tools" - the lengths I'll go to in order to stay somewhere with air-conditioning, a TV and a bathroom that has miniature toiletries. There was even a gym although it was empty; I had to climb through the window to get in and the next day the staff commented on how they'd been watching me exercise on the CCTV system. I would have run for a full 5 minutes had I known.

You can take the girl out of Manchester....

On the way to the conference I shared a lift with other volunteers who had a car. The drive to Dar probably took the same length of time as catching a bus but we weren't at the mercy of a crazy bus driver. Instead we were at the mercy of the police, who stopped us several times for speeding. We became experts at reducing the fines or talking ourselves out of them altogether after offering anything from smiles, Dutch biscuits or the phone number of one of our more voluptuous passengers.

This time around, Christmas and New Year were spent in Nyangao. In the village there was no traditional sign of the festive season. The coloured lights, decorated trees, presents and Bing Crosby a luxury unknown to most around here. At best, some families can afford a chicken although they must have had better luck than us at finding one. The irony of there being dozens wandering through your garden is that when you want to buy one they are none in the market. Someone knew someone who could get us a bird but it was more a chick than a chicken, all feathers and no substance. In the end we paid a friend of a friend for chicken pieces that worked out more expensive than Sainsbury's but they were a nice addition to the festive spread of potato salad, bread and rice. Happy carbohydrate Christmas to you all!

Xmas presents

Preparing Xmas dinner