Visit to the Lake Region

I have had the opportunity to see more of Tanzania in the past week because of a field visit to an MCC partner organizations in Musoma. Musoma is a town in the lake region (Western TZ), bordering Lake Victoria on its Southeast side. It has a bit more of the feeling of Bujumbura than Arusha does, as it is more hilly and has more Lake-affected weather than the savanna we live in.

I travelled with Sharon, the Country Rep. in order to be introduced to our Mennonite church partner, KMT (Kanisa la Mennonite Tanzania). We have an albinism-related health project that they are administering, which aims to provide health care professionals with training in identifying cancerous skin lesions in their albino patients and referring them for treatment. Besides facing stigma, albino people in TZ have a very high incidence of skin cancer which is rarely identified and treated in time. Consequently, one of the main causes of death among this population is skin cancer--usually before the age of 40. 

Getting from Arusha to Musoma is what I would describe as a case of 'you can't there from here'. That is to say, you cannot easily travel directly between the two cities without going through several game parks (and paying fees) on an 11 hour bus trip. The alternative is to take a flight to the town of Mwanza, also on Lake Victoria, then take a bus 4 hour bus or cab trip up around the lake to Musoma. This was the route Sharon and I took and we were to be met by a driver with a vehicle from the Mennonite church to take us on the Mwanza--Musoma leg.

I could tell the day was going to be another 'Africa Wins Again' experience almost from the get go (that is -- hold your western plans loosely because anything can happen). When we arrived in town on Monday morning to take the shuttle bus to the airport, we were told it had left one half hour early. We asked why and they said because of the holiday schedule. (There was no scheduled holiday that day.) We took a cab to the airport and caught the flight without incident. When we arrived in Musoma our driver was not waiting for us and after waiting for about half an hour we took a cab over to a nice hotel to get a soda.

The Malaika hotel in Mwanza was frankly spectacular. We had a soda and snacks and enjoyed the view of Lake Victoria from the restaurant window. One of the features I loved was a pool that jutted out over the lake with a cool scuplture next to it. The placid blue of the pool water was a stark contrast to the turgid swell of Lake Victoria which was big enough to surf on.

Our driver was delayed by nearly 2 hours despite continuous assurances that he was 5 minutes away. Finally we were told he was at the police station because he had parked illegally at the airport and needed money to get his vehicle out of the impound. I had to take a boda-boda (motorcycle) over to the station to help him get the car out.

We went back and picked up Sharon and headed up to Musoma, several hours late. As we neared the gate of Serengeti Park we had our second delay: a punctured tire. Sharon and I took the opportunity to walk over to the park entrance and take photos while we waited for the driver to change the tire. We continued on another 50 kilometers than stopped in the town of Bunda to get the flat tire repaired (in case we got a second flat.) We got to Musoma about 8 pm and checked into a hotel Sharon had heard good things about.

The Acacia hotel, despite the charming name was not great. I did not mind it too much but was quite surprised to find in the morning that every surface exposed to light at night had blankets of dead fruit flies. And I mean like a carpet. As they cleaned the hallway outside my room they poured out a bucket of water that sent a massive wave of dead fruit flies into my room that soaked and coated everything that was touching the floor. I was glad to hear that Sharon's room was also not good and we decided to try a new place for the second night.

John W. and me

We had a good visit with our partner and met the KMT General Secretary (John W.) and his staff. They had recently reoccupied an old mission compound that had been abandoned for years and it was cool to see some old printing presses and other facilities constructed by some of the first Mennonite missionaries who came in the 1930s.

We met for most of the morning and had lunch together with John before checking into our new hotel (Le Grand Victoria Hotel). I think the 'Le' makes it sound classier. It was a definite improvement and even had a pool! We also took a brief tour of Musoma visited another place called Matvilla Beach Hotel which is out on a point overlooking the Lake. I got some great photos there of rocks, and several animals including hyraxes, an egret, and a very large monitor lizard on the beach.

We left Musoma early the next morning and made the trip back to Mwanza much more expeditiously and without incident. The flight back was short but a bit bumpy as we flew over the Serengeti among the large rain clouds that were starting to cross the savanna. I think rainy season will arrive in Arusha soon as well.

Rebecca with Zoe and partners

It was good to be home after 3 days away. The kids have been on fall break all week which means Rebecca had extra parental duty. Fortunately she was able to put the kids in a day camp at the Alliance Francaise, where they seemed to manage fairly well giving Rebecca about 4 hours to work at the office.

I took on parental duties on Thursday so Rebecca could go out of town to Longido to visit MCC's SALT volunteer Zoe. She was able to drive there alone and back without incident and had a chance to meet some of the partner staff as well. I spent Thursday afternoon at our club Gymkhana playing Marco Polo in the pool for several hours.

The weekend we were excited to welcome our third out-of-town visitor from the US. Rebecca Heidkamp, a good friend from our church, NBMC, was near Arusha for work and dropped in on us from Friday to Sunday. She also brought one of our suitcases (Christmas decorations) from the US, so we were grateful to see her for that as well.

She was very busy during her visit preparing for a presentation she had to do, but we did enjoy several meals together to talk and visit.

I am going out of town again on Monday morning, this time for 4 days to Dodoma. Rebecca will be here with the kids--fortunately they will be in school during the day. We will fill you in on the details next week.

Bonus Photo: Beach at Matvilla Beach Hotel