A Personal Safari

In Tan­za­nia, a “safari” is not only a trip to see big game ani­mals. Its lit­eral mean­ing is a “far jour­ney”. So I returned yes­ter­day from my “safari” to Tanga, a very old port city on the Indian Ocean.

As the drive is 6 hours to Tanga, I had a lot of time to reflect on the peo­ple liv­ing in this harsh, semi arid region. Hun­dreds of miles of near desert are framed by first the Usam­bara moun­tains and then the Pares moun­tains. I con­stantly won­der at the harsh con­di­tions of heat and inac­ces­si­bil­ity to water and at the strength and will of peo­ple to sur­vive in these surroundings.

I saw huge acreages devoted to the grow­ing of sisal, a crop suit­able to hot sun and no water. Appar­ently Tan­za­nia was the sisal cap­i­tal of the world at one time, before the world mar­ket for it col­lapsed in the 1970s. More ancient and sober­ing his­tory recounts this same road as part of the orig­i­nal ivory and slave car­a­van routes.

Because the land­scapes and even every­day life have changed so lit­tle since these times, it is not dif­fi­cult to imag­ine these car­a­vans and the mis­ery they exported. Just like the end­less stretches of red sand and plant scruff, see­ing into the stretch of his­tory and the sto­ries of greed built on human mis­ery is not only pos­si­ble, it is pal­pa­ble. Its legacy is present still in the bod­ies and land of its descen­dants, call­ing for a spirit of renewal and free­dom from the bondage that still lives in people’s minds.

An overnight stay in Tanga’s port area allowed Flo­rentina and I to inves­ti­gate reg­u­la­tions at the ship­ping author­i­ties. After many con­ver­sa­tions with var­i­ous offices, we found our way to a clear­ing agent. This office will be our cen­tral con­tact for all paper work needed to have our equip­ment con­tainer clear cus­toms, achieve tax exemp­tion sta­tus and to be trans­ported by truck to Moshi. We left Tanga with good infor­ma­tion and feel­ing pos­i­tive about our abil­ity to achieve safe receipt and trans­port of the long awaited bore hole equip­ment, for Uru.

In our way, maybe, this water relief project will pro­vide a small heal­ing of old sins, by offer­ing some free­dom for the women here, who carry this soci­ety and its bur­dens lit­er­ally on their backs.

May the dreams of women, their thoughts and tal­ents be real­ized… through the gift of water… soon!

Bar­bara Joye