Author: bskovsted

In between eating, reading and swimming I have actually managed to do something less lazy… not much, though – just a few walks around town.

Had to do a bit of shopping…had lost my hair brush in Mbeya, was running out of shampoo and lost my contact lens liquid in Mzuzu. Of course the latter is not possible to find here… so just bought some salt so I could make my own liquid until I get back to London… but had expected to be successful in finding the other two items – but no! No shampoo – I could get ‘hair food’ instead – what? And had to settle for a comb for my hair… hair which is in desperate need of a hair cut, by the way!

So as you can understand, the town of Nkhata Bay is quite basic in terms of shopping, although of course you can buy other useful things like Pringles and Coke Zero! Also plenty shops selling every possible type of wig, saw a coffin maker and many craft stalls as well… more earrings were bought! I’d say I have now passed the 20 pairs on my travels (some have been lost though!)

Enjoyed exploring the market as well – so many tomatoes for sale… must be the tomato harvesting season… otherwise also lots of avocados, oranges and peanuts. And of course lots of fish, in particular in the afternoon when most of the fishermen come in from the lake… ranging from tiny fish which are eaten whole after smoking to delicious medium sized fresh butterfish ready for the grill and huge fish being cut into big chunks?

And there is a cinema here!! How crazy is that? They have four showings every day, two different films – saw today was Toy Story and The Rise of Hitler, quite the contrast!  And there are of course a few bars as well… not being sure of the custom re going to bars on your own as a woman, I asked the girl on reception at the hotel… her very honest answer was… “well, you Mzungus (white people) can do whatever you want, but I would have to go with my boyfriend or husband” – I have decided not to go there on my own… 😊

Instead I went to a bonfire and live music fundraiser on the beach last night. I went there with two polish guys who are cycling around Malawi in one month! Sounds exciting and horrendous at the same time! Anyway, it was a lovely evening although flip flops did not seem like the appropriate footwear with little scorpions running around everywhere 😬 I managed to keep my feet safe, though!

Sadly a lot of the conversation on the beach was around the news from London. I must admit it has made me even more tempted to miss my flight next week. The world is such a hateful place at times – makes me extremely sad and frustrated. When has killing innocent people ever lead to anything good??!?

 

…and not only in my pants, but in my entire room and more annoyingly in my bed.

So after two nights at Butterfly Space I’d had enough of ants. It is a really lovely place, swimming in the lake from the private beach was amazing, the chefs make excellent food, and doing my laundry in Lake Malawi made me feel totally African 😂 …but ants!!!

So today I am moving to a lodge down the road… to a room with ensuite bathroom and even aircon – decided I deserve a few nights of luxury before heading home – and the views over the lake are equally wonderful!

I am very aware that I am not really experiencing the real Malawi just being here in one place, but lazing by a lake is just what I need! I can both escape the thoughts of going back, but also have peace to reflect on how the transition back to London, to work and to real life will go.

Sunday, 19th March 2017

“This is by far the most unsafe and out of my comfort zone I have felt on my entire journey around Africa. I am writing this sitting in a small minibus with another 30 people when there’s actually just seats for 24 people… I got on a different small bus at the Malawian border which was supposed to go all the way to my destination, Mzuzu. But after an hour’s drive we stopped, someone just grabbed my bag and put it on this bus!?! I was very displeased (to put it mildly), had quite the argument with the driver of the first bus since I had paid for the whole journey and then quite the discussion with the new driver because I didn’t want to pay again…I was assured that everything would be OK…

But I can honestly say that I am not even sure if this bus is going to Mzuzu, asked a few of the local ladies on the bus and seems they believe that we are heading there, so fingers crossed!

And am now sitting (very uncomfortably) with my bag so that nobody will be able to take it again… and a little boy sleeping, resting his head on my arm – and asking myself: why didn’t I just fly? Because I wanted the bus experience and prove to myself that I could do this on my own, but it seems that even though I think I have adapted quite well to African culture, I do not have enough patience and experience for this! But it’ll make a good story one day, I guess…”

 
Monday, 20th March 2017

My Malawi experience had started out just fine though. The immigration process and getting a visa was easy although rather expensive ($75) and I got on a mini bus where I sat in the front with the driver – very comfortable indeed. We picked up more people on the way…including a pregnant woman with contractions! And somebody was also buying dinner on the way… (pic below) – It was all part of African life

And of course so was my change of bus event, but I just didn’t like it! I couldn’t leave the bus or my bags at any point… couldn’t eat or pee. My bladder has never been that challenged!

After too many hours on buses, I finally arrived in Mzuzu at 8pm ish. A 350km journey had taken around 7 hours… and that was on top of a four hour ride on the Tanzania side – ouch, my body was sore!

Got a taxi to a cool hostel just outside Mzuzu where I was randomly sleeping in a round bed!! I had better than average chicken and chips and a cold Carlsberg for dinner (it’s the most popular and actually the only beer I have seen being sold here – they call it ‘a green’) and that’s when I decided that I was totally ‘bussed out’ so booked a taxi for the final 47km to get to Nkhata Bay the following day.

If the first day made me doubt the integrity of all Malawians, my second day in this country confirmed that of course people here are also kind and friendly.

It was a day of forgetfulness for me… first I forgot my Visa card in the ATM 🙄 a kindhearted woman came to find me and the taxi driver at the petrol station to tell me… and the bank manager was so lovely! Then when I got to my hostel in Nkhata Bay I realised that I’d left my iPad charging at the hotel in Mzuzu – so stupid!!! Tried to phone the hostel but no answer… so had to put my faith in the taxi driver, Saini, who had just taken me to the lake. He drove back to check, phoned me from there to confirm that it was still there and drove all the way out here again to hand the iPad to me. I was more than happy to pay him another fare including a big tip! 😊

Finally I could rest and settle in at the Butterfly Space hostel here by Lake Malawi. I took in the lovely view, read a bit and enjoyed ‘a green’.

In the last 24 hours three different people have independently asked me the same question… ‘What will you miss most about Tanzania?’ And I haven’t really been able to answer, because I’ll miss so much!

But now that I am spending my last evening for a while in this marvellous country (have arrived in Mbeya after a six hour bus ride this morning – off to Malawi tomorrow), I will try to choose between:

• The diversity and beauty of the nature
• A comfortable pace of life – not too stressed and not too slow
• Regular marriage proposals 😁
• The friendly and respectful culture

But actually I must choose the people… they are what I will miss the most. There are so many amazing human beings here – positive & smiley and so honest, ambitious and vulnerable as well. There are no ‘games’, the people I have met are just so genuine and I know I will stay in touch with many people from Moshi and Iringa over the coming months… so long!

 

 

Happy Saturday!!

I have been doing some serious ‘research’ for this blog post since I arrived in Tanzania first time over five months ago. I always enjoy investigating the beer selection wherever I travel. So here’s a little recap of my East African beer experience…

Some of the beers are the same across Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda – and many others taste very similar…at times the only difference would be if it was cold or ‘room’ temperature!

Tanzania

• Enjoyable: Kilimanjaro (which we obviously had after the climb), Safari, Tusker, Ndovo (green or the brand new red version)
• Drinkable: Serengeti, Castle
• No thanks: Eagle

The Eagle beer is made with sorghum and is super sweet. This is a favourite for the locals however… not sure if because it’s the cheapest, or because it’s got the highest alcohol percentage or if they just like it better… or all of the above! In any case, I did not like it!

The Ndovo beer is a lot more malty than the others, so it’s a nice change … plus a smaller bottle, they call that size a ‘high speed’ –  but most others are half a litre.

Uganda

• Enjoyable: Club, Nile Special, Bell
• Drinkable: Tusker Light
• No thanks: Eagle, Eagle Dark

Apparently the Club beer was introduced for women. It has just 4% alcohol and I was told the advertising slogan was Can Ladies Understand Bills? Really? 😳 Is still my favourite, though…

My friend, Oscar, always drinks Nile Special… because he is special (his words!) therefore not possible to drink anything else apparently!

Eagle Dark is even less tasty and higher in alcohol than the lighter variety, so stayed well clear of that one!

Rwanda

• Enjoyable: Primus, Mützig
• Drinkable: Castle

Didn’t have enough time in Rwanda for extensive research…next time! 😊

It’s everywhere… no, not actual compassion, but people saying that we need to have more… I read an article the other day which announced that ‘compassion’ will be the word of 2017 because the world is in real need of people showing more compassion…

Why is that? Have we forgotten to do it? Or have we just never done it enough and now it’s become a big problem?

And what does it actually mean to have compassion??

It seems to incorporate so many things… empathy, understanding, caring, learning from each other, having meaningful relationships, working together. And to do all of that well, you need to be strong… and maybe even strong-minded.

A friend of mine described compassion as showing strength through having an understanding for others’ situations and reactions without judging and having the courage to take actions for others without considering the effects or consequences it might have on yourself.

I have met so many people on my travels who fit that description… people with heaps and heaps of compassion, people who care about all humans, about our natural world, about our planet… and taking clever action. They are more curious, flexible and have such optimism – and I have learnt so much from them.

But it seems that there are not enough people like this in the world… otherwise we wouldn’t be crying out of everyone to have more compassion, right?

I never really thought of myself as a particularly compassionate person, but I have found that patience and understanding comes much easier to me when I am not stressed at work and when I have headspace and time to think… I guess that is not surprising to anyone… So maybe we should ‘just’ take that time, allow ourselves the space and make deliberate efforts to care more, to understand better…?

I don’t have answers to any of the questions I have posed… it just makes me wonder and reflect… but I do know I would like people to describe me as compassionate in the future, so I will make an effort!

After a week in Iringa, I can say that this is a lovely town! It’s kind of similar to Moshi – friendly, familiar, fun… it’s lying at a higher altitude though, which makes the climate cooler and it’s rainy season as well, so quite wet at times!

I have in particular enjoyed cooking again. Heading off to the market buying fruit, vegetables and another goods is a fun experience… am sure I am paying more than I should, but my Swahili language skills are still so limited that bargaining is sort of impossible…

I am actually a little disappointed in myself that I have not taken more time and made more effort to learn better Swahili… I will have to learn from that and do better next time I travel!

There’s also lovely nature around Iringa. Some great viewpoints to enjoy the sunset with wine… (the wine is Tanzanian and not bad!)

… and some interesting walks around the outskirts of town – although one of those walks ended with me walking barefoot as my flip flops broke…auch, but I felt super African!

My shoe situation has in fact become a little pathetic. Left London with walking boots – they found a new home in Uganda, three pairs of flip flops – two of which have now broken, a pair of Toms – have gifted those to Carelynn as they were not comfortable and a pair of sneakers – yay, still have those! But nice to be travelling lighter anyway!

The purpose with these couple of weeks in Iringa was to help my friend with establishing her NGO and sprucing up the hostel she is managing. The NGO stuff is however on hold for a little while so we’ve had time to really focus on the hostel. We’ve done financial planning, decorating, cleaning… I even made some curtains!!! Has been a lot of fun actually… hope she can make it work, occupancy rates need to be improved a lot, so it’ll be a challenge…

On the weekend we also had time for a (slightly crazy) party night and a trip out of town to see some rocks which have been eroding since the Stone Age, creating some cool rock towers.

It was a really nice Sunday afternoon in the countryside. Because of the rains it was really wet, though… the path was flooded so off came the shoes (doesn’t matter that I only have two pairs left after all 😉) – it was a fun walk. The rocks were really beautiful and super interesting…. and the colours!?! The official museum area is called Isimila but is quite expensive to go there and we had this smaller area all to ourselves and it was free… and so peaceful!

What a fun weekend. Plenty of friends and visits to the Railway Bar for beers & views of Kilimanjaro at sunset, Local Bar for Konyagi, Haria bar for live music and a club for some late night dancing. Has been a while since I stayed up until the early hours, so yesterday I was feeling a little delicate – nothing that a Coke Zero and some chips couldn’t sort, though!

It was my third time in Moshi during my travels. Even the first time I was there, it felt familiar and that feeling has only increased during my following visits. The town has everything you need, but it’s still Africa… there’s plenty of nature a short drive out of town… and the people are ace! I love the mixture of cultures all in one place. You can wake up to the sounds from the nearby mosque, have a chat with a few Maasai in traditional dress and see the confident swagger of young, modern Africans walking down the street.

So I was a little sad to wave goodbye this morning but excited at the same time to see some more of Tanzania. It was an early start… Carelynn and I got on a 6am bus heading south to Iringa, starting our 14 hour journey.

Needless to say it was not a state of the art bus, but I’d rate it ‘average’ in terms of comfort. And there were no goats or chickens onboard so that was a bonus! It even had a TV which showed random films; first one was a Nigerian production with terrible acting and narration in Swahili followed by The A Team.

At every stop there were scores of people selling things, holding baskets and boxes of snacks, drinks and useful stuff like whistles and towels up to the windows.

Our driver was pretty solid although he didn’t have a lot of respect for speed bumps… auch! And that, together with having a mother and child in the seat next to me, made sleeping impossible. The little girl liked my iPad, but when she all of a sudden were deleting my emails, I had to reclaim it!

We drove through a few bigger towns on the way… Arusha, Kondoa – which was home to the fantastically named Climax Hotel – and we reached the sister capital city of Dodoma at 4pm. Ten hours down… Sore bum! With just an hour before reaching Iringa, the little girl’s brother vomited all over his mother and me! 🤢 Lowlight of the day!!

But otherwise it was quite an uneventful journey – I spent most of the time listening to music whilst looking at the country whizzing by…thinking.

And with the days seemingly flying by, I guess it’s inevitable that my thoughts have more often been turning to London. I wonder how I’ll feel about being back in the city and back at work… so many of the things that mattered before, don’t any more and there are a few things that matter a hell of a lot more now than they ever did. It has been important to have the time and space to really reflect on what makes me happy.

I have learnt so much about myself – about what I am capable of (and what I am not!), about my willingness to take risks, to be spontaneous & vulnerable and generally about my priorities in life. And I hope, I have also become a better person…

As soon as I walked out of the plane at Kilimanjaro airport on Wednesday evening, I smiled… was wonderful to feel the warm air and see the familiar surroundings. And the lovely greeting from my favourite taxi driver, Ngereza, made it perfect. Yes, it is good to be back in Tanzania!

Got back to the hotel quite late and my Masaai friend Zakajo was waiting for me… he used to be security guard at the Secret Garden hotel but I found that he had been promoted to waiter since I was here in December…and his English language has improved immensely – so pleased for him!

The following morning I enjoyed breakfast with a fab view of the mountain… Kilimanjaro was as beautiful as ever and all the memories from the climb came flooding back. It’s funny how after some time you forget most of the painful moments and remember all the great stuff! Still wouldn’t do it again, though!

Went for a walk in Moshi town… just enjoying the sunny weather and visiting the usual shops, places and cafés. Bumped into my friend, Steve – he works for the tour company that arranged my climb (Nyange Adventures – highly recommended!) – and he took me for a local lunch (rice, beans and chicken – was yummy!) and asked if I wanted to ride along to the mountain as he was picking up a couple of people who had done the day hike on Kili. It was a really nice drive, the landscapes were great… I had not been to that side of the mountain before and I felt so much more relaxed…

We had plenty of time it seemed, so we popped into to meet Steve’s mum – a lovely lady, who sadly had suffered a stroke fifteen years ago which had affected the movement of her right arm and leg. She never had the opportunity for any rehabilitation etc. and of course she has no healthcare or support either… so she just sits in a chair all day… another reminder of how lucky we are.

Then we went to the Chagga tribe museum – the guy who was telling me about the traditions and history of this tribe was super crazy – haha! He was explaining about the average life expectancy…apparently it used to be 130 back in the day… 🤔 but now with deceases like AIDS it has decreased to 40-50 years … he described this with a slashing sound and movement as if he was using a machete and then he laughed!! Not funny!!! 😳

Anyhow we got the Marangu gate of Kilimanjaro and waited for these two day hikers. Whilst waiting we saw so many people returning from the summit… the difficult walking and big smiles gave them away! And then I got such a lovely surprise… the guide, who did the day hike with these two Canadians, was Joey….my guide from the climb! So, so wonderful to see him and his smile again – we relived some of the memories and laughed a lot – he could of course mainly remember all my swearing!

The afternoon was completed with another taste of banana beer (the Canadians wanted to try) and I can confirm that I still don’t like it!

And a relaxing evening with a couple of Beers and a chat with Gill & Daudi (the hotel owners) was the perfect end to a lovely first day back… just what I needed!

And now my friend Carelynn has arrived for the weekend, bring on the Konyagi and the Black Diamond dance floor! We’ll head south to where she lives (Iringa) on Monday.

Wishing you all a GREAT weekend. 🤗

Tuesday 28th February

As February draws to a close, I leave Uganda again – it’s been a tough month. After the wonderful road trip experiencing other parts of the country, there were some real lows during my volunteering stint.

And of course that is life – not everything can be fantastic all the time even when on sabbatical – but am still disappointed I wasn’t able to turn more of the time there into great experiences… Instead I have a lot of learnings, I guess. Haven’t worked out what they all are yet, but hoping everything will become clearer after a bit of time and space.

So it was with mixed emotions that I left the community, said goodbye to a lot of people that I care about and of course saw the last of the beautiful nature. I was looking forward to the next chapter in Tanzania and was sad that I felt relieved to leave but at the same time I thought of all the people who still need help and support there…especially around education and health…and it felt like I’d given up by thinking that this is now a closed chapter… so have decided not to close the door entirely!

And education really is the key in my opinion. I have been finding myself getting more passionate about helping people by giving them knowledge (not surprisingly I guess, as it is my job!)…there will always be cultural differences and that is important, but some fundamentals of how many Ugandans live their lives must change for them to provide better chances in life for their children and grandchildren.

For example, population growth… families are too big – most fathers have five children or over, many have more than ten, made possible through multiple wives… and the consequences are plentiful:

• The area is running out of land, where they should be farming they are building houses, and where there was a playground previously there’s now a potato field. In a few decades I predict that the population in that area will outgrow the land and there will not be enough food to feed everyone. This could in turn lead to the forests being felled to make space for more agriculture…

• The government schools have up to 80 students in a class, there are simply not enough teachers or space in the schools to make smaller classes, which means that the children are learning through repetition and not through understanding.

• Not all children will go to secondary school as parents cannot afford to pay for all of them… often the girls stay at home looking after younger brothers or sisters or helping around the house or in the fields. Therefore they do not get the knowledge to make positive changes…

So I have been trying to find out why they ‘produce’ so many children. And one of the reasons is in that word ‘produce’ – that is how the describe having children… because they can! And it’s a status thing, it seems… and if you have a lot of boys even better, although girls do bring dowries to the family, so they are not all bad!

It’s also just part of tradition in a way… previously child mortality was much higher so it was necessary to maybe have 10 children to make sure you had 5 or 6 to help you and to look after you when you get old… but nowadays the vast majority of children are getting vaccinations and the healthcare is getting better, so more children survive!

Have plenty of ideas about how this problem could be explained to children and adults for them to realise that they are not thinking of the future of their families, of their communities or indeed of their planet… would be great if I could manage to realise some of these one day… so yes, door definitely not quite shut!