Change of address
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
I've moved my blog to a new address: http://tengeruthoughts.blogspot.com
Apparently there was a problem with making comments, which explains why no one has made any at all on this blog so far. It should be fine on the new site.
I've re-posted the last three blog entries on there, in case you wanted to add any comments.
Thanks, and enjoy the new remixed site.
Posted byplayerHAYTER at 3:10 AM 0 comments
First sale
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Our second visit to a safari company to discuss business deals occured on Tuesday of this week, as we trekked out to Massai Wanderings in the outskirts of Arusha. This meant more wholesomely character-building experiences on dala dalas, with only a very vague idea of what to look for in a destination. Fun.
I don't have a driver's license – and I'm talking about a Canadian one. If there's any motivation for wanting to drive myself in the comfort of my own car, then Tanzania's dala dalas (Swahili for “sardine trap of unusual social encounters”) are most certainly it. I've been putting off getting my Canadian drivers license for, well, around six years now. A mixture of laziness and a lack of time and necessity, it's been a mild incoveniance for friends and family who, on the odd occasion, have to cart me around town or province.
Having spent the past month in the some of the most uncomfortable public transit vessels available on Earth, the thought of driving myself in a comparably luxurious hatchback in Canada looks very appealing to me now. Such an experience would be the polar opposite of the crampness of dala dalas, as well as the reckless driving skills often on display here substituting my own (presumably flawless) abilities.
But back to business. Following two dala dala trips and an on-foot trek past a garbage dump and into an obscure patch of Meru countryside, we found our way to the headquarters of Massai Wanderings. After a business pitch not dissimiliar to Monday's trip to Access 2 Tanzania Safaris, we left the office with a succesful trial deal – and 75,000 Tanzanian shillings in our pockets to hand over to Mama Machumba Crafts.
Finally, a month into my trip, we've got results. Sure, 75,000 Tsh is only around $50 CDN, but it's a damn sight higher amount than zero. If that amount grows to the regular 90,000 Tsh weekly (for 30 products at full price), then we'll really have achieved something significant. We've yet to hear back from Access 2 Tanzania, but we'll be able to sell them a trial pack too, if they're interested.
As an added bonus to keep the mamas busy in the future, Massai Wanderings' co-manager Donna also asked us if we could provide banana fibre lunchboxes for her safari business to use. Most safari companies tend to provide packed lunches to their clients when on the road, in order to maximise viewing times in the wildlife parks. On my safari last week, we were given our lunches in disposable, cardboard, non-descript, white lunchboxes. Massai Wanderings' idea, though, is to use a more permanent, aesthetically-pleasing solution. Which we would sell to them. I like how that sounds.
This would be a totally new project, of course, and as a one-off order it wouldn't provide a steady flow of income – as the banana fibre bracelets/coasters do – but it's another great way for the women to make money. For the time being, we'll concentrate on our original deal – selling gifts to the safari companies – but this lunchbox thing has alot of potential too.
I feel like I've got more done in the last two days than I have in the past month. Hopefully it's a sign of things to come, rather than a mirage in the middle of desert.
Posted byplayerHAYTER at 8:49 AM 0 comments
Grey in TA
Monday, March 1, 2010
Rainfall finally accepted my open invitation this weekend, following a scorching Saturn's day spent lounging at home then braving the bustle of Arusha centre. We're approaching the start of the long rain season here in northern Tanzania, which typically affects most heavily the months of April and May, but gets fairly riled up in March too. Basically, as I return to
Canada on April 2, I'll be departing at a good time – just as the country becomes sactimoniously drenched in cool equatorial showers. In February and March, though, the rain acts as a soothing contrast to the parched days ruled by the big hard sun.
Equally satisfying was the work we were able to do on Monday, as our long awaited first meeting with a safari company (re: the banana fibre crafts we are trying to sell) came to fruition.
We met with Access 2 Tanzania, a smaller safari company based in Arusha. After a few daladala trips into, then briefly outside of, the city (and a brief delay following distracting directions from some locals), we found our way to the company's base nestled between farmland and industry.
Having already introduced our business proposal to the company's local owner – Mike, a friend of Lema's – all that was left for us to do was to discuss matters with the manager of operations, Stella. Armed with nicely packaged samples (bracelets/coasters wrapped in banana fibre with a small biographical label attached), paper brochures and a formal business letter, our first attempt at pretending we know how to do business seemed to go over pretty well with Stella.
For now, we'll play a short waiting game with Access 2 Tanzania, and see if they'll bite into at least purchasing a trial package. In the meantime, we'll take our proposal to other companies and see if there's any further interest.
Later in the day, Robin and I met more formally with Mr. Shija and Geoffrey – another person involved with Educare – to clear up some of the issues regarding Educare's funds. We decided that for each 3,000 Tsh craft sold, half (1,500 Tsh) will go as payment to the women making them, a third (1,000 Tsh) will go towards the business and its regular expenses, and then the remaining 500 Tsh will be put into the Educare Foundation. It's a division that gives equal attention to the charitable side of the project as it does to growing and supporting the business – which seems like sound logic. The more the business can grow, the more money it can make for the community – which means more money that Educare, as an umbrella organisation, can use to develop further initiatives in the area.
Putting the maths together, a 90,000 Tsh package (of 30 products) will make 45,000 Tsh for the women themselves, 30,000 Tsh for the Machumba business and then 15,000 Tsh for Educare.
So, it's nice to feel like the planning stages are wrapping up and turning into action, of some form at least. After a productive morning, I treated myself to a delicious burger and fries at Via Via in Arusha – a very hip traveller's haunt nestled in the gardens of an old German colonial fort.
Speaking of plans of action, I've been researching my next expedition outside of Tengeru this week. Here's the plan: bus to Dar Es Salaam on March 22, find my way over to the fabled island of Zanzibar for four nights at a reasonably priced hotel and then return via Dar to Arusha. Apart from its northern safari circuit, Tanzania's most popular tourist destination is this middle-eastern styled vacation spot, where architectural relics of the slave trade mingle with sun-soaked beaches and various sun 'n sand activities.
This plan means I have just three weeks left of volunteering. In honesty, it's nice to have an end in near sight.
Posted byplayerHAYTER at 8:22 PM 0 comments
Gettin' homesick up in this biatch
Friday, February 26, 2010
At the risk of sounding like some kind of schoolboy bitch, something that’s surprised me during my trip is how homesick I’ve been this entire time. It’s silly, really, as my domestic setup in Tanzania is totally reasonable, the people are friendly, and I don’t feel uncomfortable in the slightest.
Still, I’m obviously a total sap, a limp biscuit, a silly twit, a damp pussycat, a wet squib - so I’ve just accepted that my sporadic states of self-imposed, self-indulgent misery are an unavoidable part of my experience here.
As either a coping method or a way to make my “suffering” even worse, I’ve written up this short list of things I miss the most back home. Following this, and in an effort to sound like less of a wimp, I’ve also thought of some things that I don’t particularly miss.
Things I’ve missed:
//Videogaming
I know I can come across as a hipper-than-thou, well-muscled cool cat constantly on the run from ladies, but deep down inside I’m just a nerd who loves videogames too much.
Aside from all of the solo gaming I constantly treat myself to - and the bevy of such games I’m missing right now (Bioshock 2, Mass Effect 2... argggh) - social gaming is a big hobby of mine.
My friend Ben and I like to get together for fairly gargantuan gaming sessions. Modern Warfare, Halo, Resistance… whatever floats our boat for a significantly buoyant period of time. It’s harmless, meaningless, escapist indulgence where we drink beer, order takeaway and spend time chilling - and I
totally miss it.
Of course, to me, games aren’t meaningless - they’re an art form unique to my generation, and something I cherish in the same way that the ‘60s generation embraced pop music. I shit you not. If accepted to my chosen Master’s program - Communication & Culture at York U in Toronto - I plan on studying games academically. So I like to think that my heartache for gaming runs deeper than a nostalgically childish connection to hopping around the Mushroom Kingdom.
I brought a netbook along with me and it’s proven to be a very effective remedy for home-ache. Perhaps it’s doing me more harm than good to indulge in such light-hearted escapism whilst I‘m supposed to be Saving The World, but whatever. My EEE PC can run Monkey Island: Special Edition, Half-Life, Audiosurf, Darwinia, Trials 2, World of Goo, Crayon Physics and Plants Vs. Zombies - so I really should stop my goddamn complaining.
//Music
I know I can come across as… oh yeah, well I am. I’m hip as hell. I love music. The last few years have really opened up my eyes to Canadian music in particular, and how awesome our home-grown Can Con is. In spite of being the Arts & Entertainment Editor of my university newspaper a few years ago (almost several… wow I‘m old), I once was blind but now I see.
An email from Doc Brown, my three-fingered amigo from Kitchener, placed a shining beacon of light in the near distance, in the form of a Tokyo Police Club show at Starlight upon my return in April.
Still, the fact that I’ll be missing a Thrush Hermit reunion tour (including Joel Plaskett, one of my favourite Canadian singers), K-Os, Shad, and Canadian Music Week (for which I have futile press invitations waiting patiently in my Gmail inbox) all within the proximity of home irks me quite a bit.
At the risk of sounding even more pretentious, I also greatly miss my faithful stockpile of electric and acoustic guitars back at home.
Also painful is how I’ve been absent from the weekly pub quiz at Failtes in Waterloo, where, in spite of my deficiencies in sports, geography, politics, news and knowledge in general, I do know a thing or two about non-recent music. How’s that going, guys? I could kill for a bangers ’n mash right about now.
//Family and friends
Well, this is an obvious one - and the only reason I’ve placed it last is because of its predictability, and not its importance. It’s a little redundant to explain how vital my family and friends are to my happiness - as I’m sure the case is the same for you, dear non-existent reader. Still, an extended trip abroad certainly brings to light precisely how simple that equation is: without loved ones, happiness is impossible.
I also miss the Roc like a severed limb. You know who you are. One of you has severed limbs. Guy’s Day.
//The City
At around 10km east of Arusha - which itself is hardly a bustling cultural metropolis - I really am stranded in the middle of nowhere out here in Tengeru. All of the places I frequent in Waterloo - favourite haunts ranging from the generic (Subway, Futureshop, HMV) to the unique (Laurier campus, El Medina’s, Starlight, Ethel’s, hell - even Jim’s Valumart) - truly help to form the fabric of my day-to-day life back home. Add in the fact that I know a lot of people in Waterloo, and a walk down the road can mean an afternoon of amusing social escapades.
To some, this kind of constructed community might seem superficially sad. But in Don Delillo fashion, I still hold some genuine value to it. Arusha and Tengeru are neither the charmingly rural nor ghost-town dives that I was half-expecting. Instead, most of the urban landscape is composed of rusty tin shacks and overtly generic Coca Cola signs with shop names on them.
Things I’ve been happy to live without:
//Social Networking
I’ve been without Facebook, instant messaging or a consistently-used mobile phone for almost a month now, and I haven’t gone crazy. Far from it; it’s been a nice break to be disconnected from what I consider to be the more mundane country roads off of the Information Superhighway. Truthfully, I’ve known I can live without Status Updates for quite some time now. And it’s been a breath of fresh air not to know what pet gift Billy got on Farm Douche, or whatever that app is called.
I’ve missed my website, SocietyEye.com, but that’s more been out of guilt than anything else - it’s slightly frustrating being forced to leave its pages blank after building up a fairly solid readership internationally. Rest assured, I’ve promised myself to dedicate a calculated effort to bringing the site back to full strength upon my return.
//Getting fat
Stop worrying, mum, I haven’t been turning into an emaciated skeleton over here - there’s plenty of food for me to eat, three square meals a day and all quite nutritious. While the food in Canada is certainly to be missed, living in Tanzania has certainly changed my perspective on how I eat back in chubby ol’ North America. It’s quite easy for me to lose and gain weight - I’ve fluctuated between 190 and 150 pounds over the last two years - but I’ve often blamed my non-athletic figure over disagreeable genes instead of the true culprit: luxurious over-eating and lack of exercise. While mowing down a 15 (hell, or a 20) ounce AAA steak back in Canada is a suitable way to please your palate, over here, it’s an extremely rare luxury afforded only to heavy-pocketed tourists and the upper-class.
So, I haven’t missed how easy it is to put on weight in Canada - the expectation to eat until your stomach stretches, the reliance on automobiles instead of legs to move you around. I’m not going to come back all vegan and shit, but I’ve certainly learned a few healthy lessons. Perhaps I’ll adopt a more moderate lifestyle back home - instead of pouring calories into my body and then sweating them out at the gym, I’ll eat less and get exercise outside. Whatever happens, I’ve resolved to never let myself get chubby again.
//The weather
Tanzania has been gorgeous, weather-wise, so far. Sunny skies, cool nights and the occasional graceful rain shower. Last I heard from southern Ontario, it was snowing and damp. I left my country during a good season. Sure, I miss skiing, but I miss skiing when I’m in Canada because I never make the time to do it.
//The City
Being away from the city has made me realise how much I appreciate the various activities and places that I’m granted to access to back home. But living around the country has also been a welcome break from the negatives of city life - too much stuff to spend money on, too many distractions from tasks at hand. Ok, so the negatives hardly outweigh the positives, but two months here provides somewhat of an enticing holiday away from such vices.
Posted byplayerHAYTER at 9:55 PM 0 comments
Working to work
Thursday, February 25, 2010
After getting back into the swing of things - volunteering-wise - after my enjoyable safari, I’ve run into a bit of a dilemma over how to evaluate my time here.
Wednesday proved more productive than I expected, as we were finally able to get a printer sorted out and have all of our marketing materials: labels for the bracelets/coasters explaining who made them; a letter outlining business logistics; a brochure with marketing spiel.
Given that this is now my third week here - and we made the materials during our first week - it was a surprising how complicated it can be to complete a task like printing. In Canada, this would have been as simple as pressing a button on my computer at home and then moving my hand to the left to grab the result. Here, it involved a network of communications between three other people to locate the printer, then get a key to access its location, followed by a trip to the city to find the correct - and rare - ink. The material is printed now though, and its nice to feel like we’ve actually done something almost three weeks into our volunteering.
The hardest part is still ahead of us, though, as we still need to convince a safari company to be in business with the Mama Machumba group.
Thursday then gave us the opportunity to finally show our marketing materials to the women, and they seemed quite pleased with our work. Given that many of them probably have never seen a printed photograph of themselves, I think it was quite a novelty to see themselves framed in a promotional brochure for others to look at.
At the end of the day though - and after what felt like the first time we had actually proved our worth to the women - I was asked by Mr. Shija if I had yet thought of any ways for his organisation, Educare, to make any money. Well, I replied, isn’t that exactly what I’ve been doing this whole time?
No, he replied, as money made by Mama Machumba Crafts goes back to Mama Machumba Crafts. Educare, as an umbrella organisation, wants to support organisations like the Mama Machumba group (or as another example, the Mama Nazareth group who has made a recipe book), but needs money to do so.
I was under the impression, I replied, that some of the money made by the Mama Machuba group would go towards developing their individual business, but some amount would also go towards sustaining Educare. To Mr. Shija, this didn’t make sense, as Educare shouldn’t be getting help from its branch organisations… it should be the other way round!
Though he was perfectly well-intentioned with his request of me, the conversation left me rather confused and feeling somewhat directionless. Who exactly am I supposed to be helping here? What are my goals?
Clearly, “just make money for everyone” isn’t at all feasible. So I’ve resolved to simply stick to my guns and do what I can for the women making crafts. Two months isn’t a lot of time, and, considering I’m nearing the half-way point without actually feeling like I’ve done very much, I’ll really have to focus my productivity if I’m going to feel like I’ve achieved anything at all.
Even if I’ve been feeling somewhat pessimistic in the short-term, day-by-day conduct of my volunteering, I definitely have an optimistic outlook upon the bigger picture. After all, even if I don’t end up being able to make any significant impact in helping people during my time here, I’m sure I will have learned a lot of lessons along the way. Perhaps in a “what not to do” sort of way, but hey, at least that’s something, right?
Posted byplayerHAYTER at 10:20 PM 0 comments
Habari za safari?
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Last week resulted in a last-minute safari booking, from Friday to Tuesday, to see the best wildlife parks that Tanzania - therefore Africa, therefore the world - has to offer.
Though originally priced at close to $950 per person for a five-day excursion - a trip we were planning on embarking upon next weekend - I had asked our safari dealer to keep myself and Robin in mind for any group trips that might be booked in the near future. Joining a group would reduce the cost significantly. Luckily, a second visit to the office of Sunny Safaris brought good news - a third person could tag along. Thankfully, we saved about $150 per person as a result - close to an extra day’s worth of fees.
I’d been itching to get out of our familiar surroundings - which, though picturesque in terms of natural landscape, are diminished by the aesthetic displeasures of Tengeru’s shanty market town and Arusha’s suffocating urban sprawl. A tour of three world-famous national parks proved to be just the ticket.
First, our bad-ass convertible Landrover took us eastward to Lake Manyara, a park somewhat overlooked by typical safari goers because of its small-size. Unsurprisingly, the park is centered around a large lake, which is back-dropped by a significant section of the Great Rift Valley.
Manyara offered an incredible start to our safari. Within minutes of entering the gate, we came across a family of baboons and then a herd of elephants, just 25 metres or so from the road. Countless more elephants were spotted throughout the day - often within touching distance from our open-top Landrover. Seeing giraffes from a distance, their massive height contrasted by the flatness of the vast horizontal lake, was a definite highlight too.
Next, we landroved north to Serengeti National Park, Tanzania’s largest wildlife sanctuary. According to my Rough Guide, we picked the best time of the year to see what the Serengeti is most famous for - its annual wildlife migration, the largest mammalian gathering on earth with over 3 million attendees.
Utterly failing to disappoint, it was pretty humbling to see more wildebeest and zebras than the eye could ever hope to count. An elephant duel in the middle of the journey north was just icing on the cake.
During our two-night stay in the Serengeti, I hoped to see at least one member of the animal kingdom’s royal family - the lion. Awesomely, we saw around 20 of them. Our entrance to the park was rather muted, driving in the middle of patchy rainfall and with virtually no animals in sight. The next morning, feeling cautiously pessimistic, I was rewarded with a pride of female lions within minutes of leaving the campsite. In this fairly mind-blowing first encounter, four or five lions sauntered past our vehicle, almost brushing the doors with their fur. Not long after, our first sight of male lion was diminished somewhat by the pack of 20-ish vehicles already viewing the animal next to a tree. Still, it was terrific.
Finally, we returned southward to Ngorongoro Crater, the most renowned national park of its kind (a natural volcanic caldera) in the world. The mere fact that the crater is the result of a volcano imploding under its own weight was reason enough for me to want to see it. Thanks to this prehistoric snafu, a gigantic, 600-metre-deep hole was left on the surface of east Africa, and the result is a natural, unbroken amphitheatre for viewing around 30,000 large mammals. The descent into Ngorongoro was precluded by a stay at The World’s Greatest Campsite Ever - a patch of grass hanging on the edge of the crater where we slept in the company of buffalos and awoke to the sight of the sun rising over the massive caldera below us.
The Ngorongoro descent was simply stunning. Edging our vehicle down a steep red dirt road, our party was the first to arrive in the flatlands of the caldera. Thanks to this premier position, I managed to spot a female lion before anyone else - leading to a slow creep as we followed her down the road and several other vehicles joined in. Next, the central Lake Magadi hosted thousands of fluorescent pink flamingos, making a serene backdrop to the caldera’s lush, wet grasslands.
Of all the animals I had yet seen, cheetahs and rhinos were the only desirables left on my list. Within an hour of our descent, I could consider this list complete. A distant rhino plodded along the horizon, made quite visible by binoculars borrowed from host Lema’s brother Eric. Minutes after, our car snuck in beside a small gathering of fellow safari-goers to spot a nearby cheetah lounging on a grassy knoll.
The safari was one of the neatest experiences of my life, and I would say it’s easily worth the trip to Tanzania just to experience one for a week or so. I’ll forgive the lack of seeing a predator’s hunt (aside from watching hyenas bully buffalo) in exchange for the sheer bounty of animals on display during my short trip. Easily the best $1000 or so bucks I’ve ever spent.
Lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, hippos, zebra, elephants, wildebeest, buffalo, jackals, rhinos, giraffes, gazelles, bat-eared foxes, dikdiks, impalas, hyraxes, bushbucks, mongooses, monkeys, warthogs, baboons, a dead snake and a feather-load of exotic birds… not bad for five days work.
Photographer’s note: I did bring a camera along - one not very fit for a safari but well-suited for me not to care if it gets stolen - and took around 250 photos. Internet in and around Arusha is not fast enough for me to upload the photos though, so slideshows will have to wait until I return to Canada.
Posted byplayerHAYTER at 5:51 AM 0 comments
Home is where the brand is
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
It’s funny how easy it is to be reminded of home when you’re far away from it.
Walking uphill to our volunteer placement (the house of Ruthie David, one of the six women we are currently working with as part of Mama Machumba Crafts) last week, I spotted a Tanzanian fellow wearing a Trailer Park Boys t-shirt. Montreal Canadiens shirts and toques are very common, as I’ve spotted several examples of such clothing items that wouldn’t look out of place on King St in Waterloo, but certainly are amusingly odd sightings on a dirt road in Tanzania.
With the Trailer Park Boys - my favourite Canadian comedy show - and the Habs, I had familiar memories of television and sports from home thrust into my periphery in spite of unfamiliar surroundings.
Today, I was reminded of more personal favourites from home: beer and music. A Molson Dry-branded t-shirt passed me by on the street in Arusha, after my visit to a safari company to inquire about a 4-day trek to the Serengeti, Ngoro Ngoro crator and Lake Manyara. Being honest, I dislike Molson - but the branding was a quaint reminder of some Canadian products I definitely miss - the microbrews of Brick (Waterloo) and Robert Simpson (Barrie).
Upon my return dala dala trip, I sat (squeezed) beside a gentleman wearing a Rufus Wainwright concert t-shirt (for the uninformed, Rufus is a singer-songwriter from Montreal, and a favourite of my mum’s). I don’t know which Canadian second-hand clothing organisation donates to Tanzania, but I’ve appreciated the diverting sights. I’ve chuckled to myself upon seeing each such example, mostly because they also remind me of the satirical The Onion world atlas - which profiles Zambia as a country full of unwitting people wearing extremely inappropriate t-shirts.
I would have taken photos of such amusing discoveries, but I’ve kept my Canon unarmed for fear of soliciting pan-handling, or worse, wretched screams as my subjects’ souls were wrenched from their bodies into my picture-box of voodoo magic. Not meaning to sound racist - according to my Rough Guide, it’s a common belief at least among the Massai people located in this area.
Tomorrow brings a trip to a nearby orphanage to spend time with children in need - a break from our regular volunteer work. Tanzanian kids have so far been invariably adorable, so I‘m looking forward to it. Hopefully, I’ll spot some more funny memories of home.
Posted byplayerHAYTER at 6:26 AM 0 comments