APRIL

Back in Mtwara and it feels good to get “home” relax and not living out of a rucksack for a while at least, although it was good to get away for a while. At certain times the need for daily products becomes too great and we need to flee to DAR. We met Bright in Dar before coming to Mtwara so it was nice to get acquainted to Mtwara life again. We also met Laura in Dar as we all returned back together. As it was the Easter holidays a special Pilau meal was prepared at “home” for everyone. Jennifer (our host mum) makes the best pilau in Mtwara and this is definitely food I will miss when I leave here. Pilau is rice, potatoes, meat, some vegetables together in a pot mixed with quite many spices. It’s great also the simple salad they have with this meal – tomatoes and onions with some spices it’s really simple but great.

The following Monday we had football training with the girls organised again at Ziwani as there are sleeping places for the girls available. As it was the school holidays we had a training session set for just over a week. This time there were some football matches organised for the girls so we could compare how the girls are doing against other teams. The training went well although due to some injuries and sicknesses some of the girls where not able to play which was a pity as the team travelling to Finland would be selected after this training camp. The games against other teams went ok. The girls won some and lost others. It good for the girls to lost a game or two that way they are not overly confident but on the other hand not good to lose heavily. The girls played well in all the girls.

We celebrated a Mzungu birthday party at the Peninsula Hotel for Laura. We ordered food, had some drinks, played some pool and went on to Boga Boma, the local night club for some live music. The night went really well and some interesting touching of themselves from local people dancing right in front of us was perhaps the highlight of the night.

A snorkelling trip during low tide was organised behind the Southern Cross hotel. This is the most luxurious hotel in Mtwara. The food is getting better now as before it used to take 3 hours average but now it’s about 45 minutes, depending. The snorkelling was amazing. Unfortunately I had faulty goggles so some water was leaking in at times. It was very strange to breathe underwater and took me some time to relax and get used to it. Once looking down into the water it was amazing at all the different colours and the amount of fish just swimming around. Such a different view, of course, from above the water. The fishes didn’t seem scared perhaps used to people snorkelling. Afterwards we took a drink at mama tupai’s container shop and play some tennis (doubles) at the housing project.

To finish off the month we took a trip to Mikindani, by bicycle Annukka, Laura, Maaike and I. It was the first time we went there like this. It seems longer by daladala mainly because I am hunched over backwards and cannot see anything. By bike it was great. The weather was lovely. We left early in the morning so that the sun was not at its hottest. We took our time and stopped several times to take pictures. We had to be careful of the traffic that was whizzing past us a record speeds beeping their car horns.

The scenery is so nice cycling to Mikindani with all the palms trees lining the road the whole way there. In Mikindani we went to the Yacht club to relax and sit in the sun and go for a swim in the warm water. When hunger set in we took a trip to 10 degrees. While waiting for the food, which normally takes some time, Maaike and me went to one of the schools that Annukka and I teach in. The view from the school over the bay of Mikindani with the palm trees in front is just perfect. There were some children playing up to us, wanting us to take some pictures of them, which we accepted. The children play really nice games with each other and one group of them where playing pool out of materials they had made or found themselves. After our meal we went back to the Yacht club as the tide was now quite high. We rested for a while before making our way back on bike to Mtwara.

27.03 - 4.04 - South Africa - part 4

We stayed in Cape Town longer than expected due to flights being very expensive due to Easter. During our time here we took a trip to the Cape of Good Hope and cape point where it was very windy. It was an organized daytrip were we also visited the penguin sanctuary. It was a bit strange to see penguins in South Africa; normally penguins are associated with cold places. But these types of penguins were called Jackass penguins but are not called African penguins due to similar penguins been found in South America. It was amazing to go to Cape Point, the famous lighthouse at the high peak, a famous place where Vasco De Gama sailed around years ago and also the place where the two oceans meet. The wind was so strong I was a little worried it could blow me away! After walking up to the top and back we then got on the bikes and cycled from cape point towards the gate for the national part which is around 15km most of it down hill. At some points we didn’t have to cycle at all due to the strong wind coming from behind us. The weather was great the whole day and a really good trip. We even saw a few wild animals not to far away from us e.g. springbok.

Went to the annual Jazz festival and was lucky enough to get tickets for the concert as we probably got the last two available. It was a massive convention centre and coming from Mtwara it felt as we where in a completely different world. So many people so modernized felt a bit strange and in some ways I missed the simplicity of Mtwara. The festival itself was good we managed to visit at least 5 – 6 different performances throughout the night before leaving.

We tried to get tickets for the boat out to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned but the tickets where booked up for a week in advance instead we took a boat trip which went out of the harbour some miles and gave us a great view of Table Mountain as the clouds where coming over it.

When the clouds weren’t on Table Mountain we took a cable cart up to the top to see the sunset which was just as amazing as in Livingstone. It was really nice to walk around the top and get a great 360 degrees view of the city. The mountain is just amazing that it is situated right in the middle of the city. The cable cart up was interesting, as it was a revolving cart. I am not great with heights but I seemed to manage ok with this one : )

To get out of the city and see another part of South Africa we took a wine tour to Stellenbosch. The day involved 5 different wineries tasting at least 5 wines in each place and a tour of one winery showing the whole production process that goes into making wine. It was really informative as there were things I never thought about that goes into wine which is really important e.g. how important it is to have the right barrel in order to store the wine. The whole day was great, not least because we got to taste some really nice wine and also eat some fantastic cheese along the way! The cheese was amazing. It was a fantastic feeling to drink wine and be surrounded with fantastic scenery. At one place we where in the middle with mountains surrounding us in every direction. Not bad!

Back in Cape Town we took also a township tour going to some of the shanty towns near the airport and hear and see about their history. The tour focuses more on the positives rather than the negative aspect, although despite this it’s still obvious they are not well off. We were able to go inside some of the houses and walk around some of the places. It’s amazing that even with very little possessions people can be happier than those who have everything. It was great to see the children playing cricket outside one of these township villages

Finally we took a site seeing tour bus around the major sites of Cape Town. Then it was time to say goodbye to our good friends Dani and Chris who would continue on there around the world tour to England. Hopefully we will see them in Finland soon. We got a flight back to Dar and shortly afterwards to Mtwara.