My Little Eye

Living in Tanzania often meant long car journeys of up to 9+ hours a day. During these long journeys, Esther and Ben became experts at the game "I Spy". A great way to spot new sights and play a game to entertain themselves as we bumped along those East African roads!

Here in a new town, in a new country, I often feel like I am seeing new sights. I want to record them before they start to seem normal; before the novelty wears off. Here are a few sights which I have noticed recently...

- I see a man with his arm raised high, wielding his axe outside a nearby church, early on a Sunday morning. He swings his arm down with a ferocity that makes the ground shudder. The blade of the axe falls with a thud on the carcass of a freshly slaughtered cow, its body still intact but its head starting to come free. Ladies in colourful outfits chatter and gather firewood nearby. A feast is being prepared. It just feels unusual to my novice eye to see the harsh facts of slaughter so openly on display in the street.

- a few days later, walking along the same route, I see the charred remains of the cow's hooves piled on top of a stinking pile of litter. The litter here still appals me. I try not to look at it as I walk outdoors, but the smell of half-burnt animal parts draws my attention to this pile of rubbish. A little further on, we see the burnt hide of the cow spread out on the muddy, littered ground. I am surprised at the waste- it seems different from Dodoma, where everything that could be useful was carefully preserved and maybe sold on.

- I see the naked man, covered in dust and muttering senselessly to himself as he squats on the ground, picking at scraps at the side of the road. He is young, but clearly disturbed. I could be anywhere in the world and see people on the street who are unwell and not in good mental health, but I find it surprising that here, his nakedness is ignored. Behind him, men in western-style suits sit on plastic chairs and sip at plastic cups (of tea? coffee?), carrying on their normal, everyday lives while the spectacle of nudity continues, unremarked, in front of them.

- the children I see on the streets of this capital city are like children everywhere and curious about us strangers, with our pale skin and strange-coloured hair. Some of them are friendly and wave and call out to us happily. Some are suspicious. Some of them follow us down the street, calling out in Arabic. I wish I could understand and and answer them! Their smiles are full of fun, just as their clothes are full of the dust kicked up from the surface of muddy roads. Some of them have torn, mud-stained, filthy clothes and baggy outfits contrast sharply with skinny bodies. Few wear shoes.

- I notice the ingenuity of children, who run along the local streets pushing old bicycle tyres or charge along chasing old car tyres for fun. It reminds me of the illustrations in my school history books of children playing with hoops and sticks. At one place we visit, the children have rigged an old bottle to a long rope, fixed to a tree. The children take turns to kick the bottle backwards and forward to each other: local swing-ball!

 Outside our compound, other children have suspended a rope from a large tree. As I work in my kitchen, I hear kids having hours of fun swinging from the rope. It is a happy sound to listen to!

-  I love to visit the river bank here, where I can see the rushing waters, bordered by lush mango trees, along the amazing River Nile which graces this city. It is an oasis from the urban centre, the smog and the tension. This is the view we see on Sundays when we attend a church by the river:

Early one Saturday morning, we visited a local restaurant for a cup of tea/coffee. The restaurant is situated right on the banks of the beautiful River Nile: the tables are arranged outside at the water's edge. I have no photo of this place, but here is a record of some of the views which caught my attention...

 On this day, the river waters were lower than usual and much of the river-bed was revealed. Again, seeing the amount of rubbish accumulated round the river bank and on the river bed saddened me, but what are people supposed to do with their waste? I suppose it seems logical to throw in into the river if there is no alternative. If day to day survival is your life, environmental education is going to be very low on the priority list. It is easy to judge, but if I put myself in someone else's shoes, it is understandable.
While we have our morning tea, there is much activity down at the bottom of the river bank...

-in the shallow waters, I see young girls hard at work washing clothes, scrubbing at brightly coloured garments and then laying their laundry out to dry across sun-baked rocks.
Young lads strip everything off, wade a little deeper into the shallows and take the opportunity to wash themselves whilst also washing their clothes. Initially, Esther was a little shocked at all the naked bodies, but since everybody around us seemed to think it was perfectly normal, she soon forgot to be shocked! I asked her what she would do if she had only one outfit and no washing facilities at home? She sees my point and quickly accepts the practicality of the scene below us. (A few days later, we saw a similar sight as we were walking home over a bridge, where a litter-strewn stream flowed beneath us. The naked men washing in this stream hardly drew a glance from our children!)

Our attention was drawn back to the river-side as the roar of engines disturbed the peace. Two youths drove their motorbikes down the bank, bumping over the rocks and straight into the Nile, until their machines were half-covered by river water! They dismounted and began the process of sprucing up their bikes, giving them a thorough wash.
A few minutes later, Ben leapt up with excitement to tell us that some other men had brought their sheep to be washed in the river! Sure enough, some lucky sheep were being scrubbed with great vigour by their owners, as soap bubbles frothed up the river waters. I have never seen such shiny, sparkling sheep as those animals after their river-wash!

-I see how green this city is and enjoy the colour, especially after the rain showers which have recently passed over, bringing the promise of the rainy season, due at the end of this month. If I look down, I feel discouraged by the filth I see in the heaps of crushed plastic bottles, empty wrappers, dried leaves, old engine parts and any other old rubbish. But when I look up, I see the stunning greenery in the many trees and the gorgeous blossom and flowers that break out at this season. Sun-birds and butterflies flash by and are a reminder of a natural beauty that exists despite the encroaching development of a new city.
The cheerful view of blossom from our window:

 Compound flowers:

- Recently, I can even boast that I have seen the dawn here! I have been joining a friend to go jogging and since I need to be back home by 7am for Andrew to leave for work, we have to jog early! I took this picture of the view from our window- the colour of  "Sunrise Sky" is a lovely sight, with this silhoeutte of a local church:

 Sights to enjoy, sights to shock and sights to disappoint, but all of them a learning experience. I am glad I can write them down, since I am not allowed to take photos in most of the places we visit here. Even at cafes, there are huge signs warning me against using my camera, so this will have to suffice as a record of my earlier days when novelty value is still high!