March 14th, 2010 (Retroactive post)
Today I finally arrived in southern Tanzania to begin my second volunteer experience with the organization GFR. I had met up with David, my contact from Chicago, and Nestor, the country director for GFR Tanzania, yesterday in Dar, and we spent the entirety of today driving down to the town of Njombe - 11 hours in all.
A little bit of background on GFR: The philosophy of the organization is to find families in poverty who want to start businesses, but are unable to do so because of a lack of capital. They then give these families money, which they can use not only to start their business, but also to meet their basic needs of food, housing, medical care, and education for their children.
GFR has previously worked in two other East African countries – Rwanda and Uganda – both in which they experienced a great amount of success (over 700 families taken through the program in total). They recently started working in Tanzania, where they are now sponsoring 31 families in two small villages, Igwachana and Mhanghale, each located a few hours outside of Njombe.
As they did in Rwanda and Uganda, GFR has teamed up with other organizations within the country to help accomplish this goal, and in Tanzania that organization is the Catholic church. The reason they are even in Tanzania in the first place is because one of the board members became friends with a nun from Mhanghale who is currently studying in Chicago, and the partnership has grown from there (Nestor, in addition to being the country director, is also a priest working out of Igwachana).
Unfortunately GFR has not experienced the same level of success in Tanzania as in their previous two countries, and therefore the purpose of David’s trip this week is to determine why their model isn’t working as well here, evaluate other community projects they might get involved with to support the local village, and visit some of their current donor recipients, which include not only the families, but also some sponsored school children and two associations of women who have each started businesses.
My role in all of this has never really been set in stone, and in fact has been adapted several times since my original conversation with David back in October. Nonetheless, I always had faith in him that he would make the time I spent here would be worthwhile, and it turned out I was right to do so. David has asked that I come along to all the site visits with him this upcoming week and evaluate how things are going and identify where any problems are occurring. He has also asked that I help him evaluate the feasibility of some potential projects in and around the local communities which we will be visiting in the upcoming week. Once he leaves at the end of the week, he has asked that I then stay on and continue visiting families to help them continue developing businesses and moving forward on the path to self-sufficiency. At this point I’m not entirely sure what all of this quite means, as I have yet to see the actual program in action, but I am excited for this week and excited for the work.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Zanzibar
Some quick background information relevant to this post:
- Zanzibar is a group of two islands that lie about 50 kilometers - about 90 minutes by ferry - off the mainland coast of Tanzania. However, when most people refer to Zanzibar they are actually referring only to the island of Unguja, which is where most tourists head to. For ease, I will be doing the same. I couldn't find official size estimates for the island, but its something between 500-750 square miles. A better way to describe it would be to say that it takes about 3 hours to travel on semi-decent country roads from north to south, and 1 hour east to west.
- Dar es Salaam (“Dar”) is the de facto capital of Tanzania (the actual capital is Dodoma but all government buildings are still in Dar) and the country’s largest city. It lies on the coast of the mainland, and it’s ferry port is where more than 90% of all tourists pass through to get to and from the island of Zanzibar.
- Stone Town is the main city on Zanzibar Island, and contains the sole port where ferries can dock.
- As of the time I arrived, Zanzibar had been without power since the middle of December. However, as luck would have it, power officially returned the day I arrived on the island. Not that they don't still have frequent power outages for 15-30 minutes at a time, but still, it's something.
On Sunday, March 7th I finally left Arusha. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I was headed to Zanzibar for almost a week before meeting up with a few contacts in Dar and heading down to volunteer in Southern Tanzania. As of right now, I have already spent a week in southern Tanzania and have much to tell, but I wanted to dedicate one post specifically to my time in Zanzibar before getting into that. My plan for Zanzibar was simple: Arrive in Stone Town on Sunday night, spend the entire day there, and then head up to the northeast side of the island early Tuesday morning for four days of rest and relaxation on the beaches outside the small village of Kendwa. However, as happens frequently here, my plans quickly went off course. The bus from Arusha to Dar arrived at our destination at 4:15pm, over an hour late. As the last ferry leaves the port of Dar at 4:00pm, I was forced to stay the night in the city. Fortunately, this didn’t throw off my plan too much. I actually met two Americans on the bus ride who were in the same predictament, so we agreed to find a cheap triple room in Dar for the night, then catch an early ferry out the following morning and be on the island by noon. We’d then spend the next day in Stone Town together before parting ways on Tuesday morning, as they were headed south to a different part of the island.
Thankfully, this plan fared better than my previous one, and we arrived in Stone Town on schedule. What I, and I’m assuming every other tourist, noticed immediately after stepping off the air conditioned ferry, was the heat, which combined with the humidity from being surrounded by the Indian Ocean, was almost stifling. You literally feel as if you’ll never stop sweating and, honestly, unless you’re lucky enough to find air conditioning, you don’t. Some of you also might know that I haven’t cut my hair since arriving in Africa, which I can assure you did nothing to help the matter.
After catching a cab to our hotel, we dropped off our bags and set out exploring the town. The city center of Stone Town is a virtual labyrinth of winding alleys squeezing their way through closely packed buildings, each of which has fallen into a various state of disrepair and helps serve as a reminder to the city’s rich history spanning several centuries. Overall, it greatly reminded me of Venice, albeit without all the canals.
To be honest, I didn’t really do a whole lot with my day in Stone Town. My ambitions of taking a spice tour and touring some of the historical sites were quickly overtaken by the heat and the fact that we showed up in the city with only about six hours of daylight left. So instead, the other Americans and I spent the day casually exploring the city, stopping every few hours at a small restaurant for some shade and a cold beer. We made it to the beach at dusk to watch the sunset, and then had the rather unique experience of watching a group of local kids and teenagers who were using a large old tire they had fashioned into a springboard to perform different aerial stunts (which I will post a video clip of when I make it back to the U.S.). For dinner we headed to an open fish market at the waterfront, where local fishermen were selling grilled portions of the day’s catch (which I recommend doing if you ever make it to Stone Town), and then we headed to a hotel to finish off the night with a few more beers.
As planned, I went my separate way from the other two Americans the next morning, and took a two hour dala dala ride up to the north shores of the island to Kendwa. Here are my thoughts on Kendwa: The beauty of the place is unreal. Pictures of Zanzibar’s beaches are quite famous because of their beauty and, I assure you, the pictures don’t amount to seeing it in person. The beach itself compares to the best I’ve ever visited, and the water color of the ocean is something I’ve never seen – sort of glowing clear green that turns to a rich deep blue as you head further from the coast. This, combined with the bungalow-type hotels and the small wooden ships used by the local fisherman, gives the whole area a very secluded and undeveloped feel.
But beyond the beauty, there isn’t really a whole lot to say because, well, there really isn’t a whole lot there. The bungalow-type hotels are a far cry from the posh beachside resorts of Florida, Cancun, or many other popular American destinations, and while the small crowds and slow pace of Zanzibar are nice, at a certain point you find yourself wondering what to do with yourself. During the day there are no beach football or soccer games going on, and while I did see a volleyball court, there didn’t ever seem to be enough people around to play. There’s no TVs, no pools, and only two restaurants to eat at. These restaurants also double at night as bars, but the night life is hardly any livelier than the daytime.
Of course, I fully realize that this exact thing is most likely viewed by others as the reason why Zanzibar so charming. In a world full of developed beaches with high rise condominiums and large crowds, the secluded bungalows and undeveloped stretches of beach are as close as most people can get to having their own secluded paradise. I can imagine Zanzibar would be perfect for older couples looking to ‘get away from it all’ for a while, or even new young couples who will be spending most of their time, to put it delicately, ‘creating their own entertainment’. However, for a 25 year old solo traveler looking for some semblance of a nightlife and more excitement than laying in the sun and re-reading his collection of Earnest Hemingway short stories for the fourth time over can provide, Kendwa (and the rest of the beaches in Zanzibar, at least from what I’ve heard) may not be the ideal hot spot.
In short, I would say this about Zanzibar: If you’re in the area, it’s worth going. You’ll see some beautiful beaches, a unique town with a rich history, and especially if you’ve been doing a lot of traveling, it will be nice to simply lie around in one place for a couple of days and get a decent tan in the process. Personally, despite getting bored over the course of my time, I'm glad I went, and for the most part enjoyed the slow place and the chance to relax. That being said, I’ll most likely chalk it up as one of those places that I’m glad I got to see, but which I won’t be in a hurry to return to.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Water Projects
One of the things my dad and I spent a few days doing while he was here was visiting different water projects. For those of you weren’t aware, my dad has spent the better part of the last decade working in the water industry as a regional manager for a national water utility company. He is also involved in at an NFP that tackles water issues and works to distribute water to those without access in developing countries. I guess you could say water is near and dear to his heart. Therefore, his one special request was for me to arrange to tour the Arusha water facilities / projects over the duration of his stay.
As it turned out, two such opportunities presented themselves. The first was a tour of an ongoing water project that involved building a water main from Arusha to several villages located 10 to 25km outside of Arusha. The first phase of the project had recently been completed, which brought water to three of the five villages, and they were currently in the process of obtaining funding for the second phase, which will bring water to the remaining two villages.
The second opportunity was to head out to a village at the base of Mt. Longido, an area about 80km northwest of Arusha, to attend the kick off meeting for a project aiming to build a water main from the village’s current water source up on the mountain back down to the village. This specific meeting was to inform the villagers of the project, lay out the responsibilities and expectations of each party, and begin the process of electing a ‘water committee’, which would represent the 1,000+ villagers in any major decisions concerning the project.
While both of these experiences proved to be interesting on a number of levels, one aspect that particularly stuck with me was being awoken to the reality that for a number of people in this world, water is still a rare and precious commodity. Before even embarking on either of these trips, I already fully realized that, like most other things, access to water is not nearly at the level of that in the U.S. For instance, when walking on the path back toward the hostel, I often see farmers working in their small fields. However, rather than using sprinklers and other modern technology that we employ to water our yards and fields, they use irrigation ditches to carry the water around the fields, and then bucket the water out of the ditches and throw it onto the different areas of the field. On a smaller but more personal level, it’s not uncommon to lose water pressure several times a day here at the hostel, which prevents anyone from taking showers for a few hours until adequate pressure returns. As a third example, I'll use a story Caroline told me about an Umoja Centre student which had to do with water. Apparently, he was falling asleep in class one afternoon, so the teacher asked him to leave and go report to Caroline. When Caroline asked why he was having so much trouble staying awake, he told her that water in his village only comes through the water pipes at off-peak times in the early hours of the morning. It was his turn to get the water the previous night, and therefore he had to get up at 3am and then wait for an hour at the community access point before he was able to get a bucket of water for his family (How’s that for a reason to be sleeping in class? Needless to say, he didn’t get in trouble).
In my opinion, however, all of these experiences pale in comparison to what those living in the remote villages outside of Arusha and in Longido (along with virtually every other remote village in Tanzania, and I’m assuming much of the rest of the developing world as well) must do to obtain water in the absence of a water main. The villagers in Longido, who as I mentioned are only in the process of beginning to build a water main, have to walk an hour and a half up the mountain just to reach their water source. They are then limited to taking back only what they can carry on the 1.5 hour return journey. I can’t remember exactly what those living in the villagers around Arusha had to do before their water main was built, but I know that it was little better, and probably even worse. In addition to the shear difficulty of walking these long distance, half of which carrying heavy buckets of water, this also puts a tremendous dent in the productivity of the villagers themselves, as they have to dedicate so much time to obtaining water when they could otherwise spend it doing much more productive work if a water main carried it to them instead
These villagers are mostly poor rural dwellers who depend on agriculture and animal domestication for their livelihood, and they therefore have a higher than normal demand for water on a per person basis in comparison to most city dwellers. This, along with the distance of the villages from major cities with developed water distribution infrastructure, makes for a huge challenge in providing these remote villages with water. First, an adequate water supply within close proximity must actually exist around these villages, which isn’t a given. If such a source has been found, the challenge is then in building an adequate distribution system. In addition to the normal geographic challenges that exist in building such a distribution system,engineers must also take into account the practical challenges of building a pipe that carries such a precious resource. For instance, when the NGO first started building the water main from Arusha to the surrounding villages, it didn't think about creating access points for cattle. However, the surrounding villagers who depend on cattle for their livelihood couldn't afford to refrain from having their cattle drink from the water being distributed by the main when no other source was available. Therefore, on several occasions they broke the main to allow their cattle access to the water, spilling tens of thousands of gallons in the process. The NGO did learn from the process, and has since installed cattle access points at reasonable intervals along the water main, but this serves as a perfect example of how the challenge is made more complex by the fact that a severe water shortage already exists.
How to go about eventually resolving the problems associated with providing poor, remote areas with access to water, I don't know, especially given that many developed areas are experiencing water rationing themselves (e.g., Australia, parts of the Western U.S.). However, I imagine that it, along with finding alternative energy sources and reducing pollution, will be at the forefront of the challenges facing our world in the century to come.
Last Day in Arusha
Today is officially my last day in Arusha. As I explained in a previous post, tomorrow morning I will wake up and head out on a bus – the Dar Express - to the biggest city in Tanzania, Dar Es Salaam. From there I will catch a ferry to the island of Zanzibar, where I will spend four and a half days on the beaches before heading back to Dar to meet up with my friend David from Global Family Rescue and head down to southern Tanzania.
Leaving Arusha will definitely be bittersweet. On the one-hand, I'm definitely looking forward to a change of scenery, relaxing on the beach, seeing more of Tanzania, and the work I will be doing in Njombe with GFR. On the other hand, it will be hard to leave behind Arusha, Ujamaa hostel, and all the friends I have made here over the course of the last six months. I have already had the experience of saying one hard good-bye, which was to Caroline (head of the Umoja Centre), who left this past Sunday to head back home to Australia for six weeks. Unfortunately, she arrives back in Arusha four days after I depart from Africa for good, and therefore I will not see her again during te rest of my time here. As for everyone else, I have the benefit of seeing them again during my last four days in Africa when I return to Arusha for one last lap before flying out of Kilimanjaro airport, which is just outside of town.
The last week here has been great. I've spent most of my time finishing up work from The Umoja Centre, but I've also managed to squeeze in some leisure time as well. Last sunday a group from the hostel went to go see Invictus, which has subsequently led to the Aussies of the hostel starting some rugby matches ('ruggers', as they call it) in our backyard in the evenings before dinner. Good times, although I still vastly prefer football. I've also managed to make a tour of my favorite restuarants in town, and tonight we are headed back for round two of the movies and dinner for my final goodbye.
I'm not sure how much blogging I'll be able to get done in the upcoming weeks, especially as I'm not certain of the power situation in Zanzibar (there hasn't been any since December. It was supposed to be fixed last week, but I would find it to be close to a miracle if they actually completed it on schedule), but I promise I will continue to blog and update whenever I find the means. At the very least, I will do another round of retroactive posts when I arrive back in Arusha in 3.5 weeks. Hopefully though, I can continue to give updates in real time.
Leaving Arusha will definitely be bittersweet. On the one-hand, I'm definitely looking forward to a change of scenery, relaxing on the beach, seeing more of Tanzania, and the work I will be doing in Njombe with GFR. On the other hand, it will be hard to leave behind Arusha, Ujamaa hostel, and all the friends I have made here over the course of the last six months. I have already had the experience of saying one hard good-bye, which was to Caroline (head of the Umoja Centre), who left this past Sunday to head back home to Australia for six weeks. Unfortunately, she arrives back in Arusha four days after I depart from Africa for good, and therefore I will not see her again during te rest of my time here. As for everyone else, I have the benefit of seeing them again during my last four days in Africa when I return to Arusha for one last lap before flying out of Kilimanjaro airport, which is just outside of town.
The last week here has been great. I've spent most of my time finishing up work from The Umoja Centre, but I've also managed to squeeze in some leisure time as well. Last sunday a group from the hostel went to go see Invictus, which has subsequently led to the Aussies of the hostel starting some rugby matches ('ruggers', as they call it) in our backyard in the evenings before dinner. Good times, although I still vastly prefer football. I've also managed to make a tour of my favorite restuarants in town, and tonight we are headed back for round two of the movies and dinner for my final goodbye.
I'm not sure how much blogging I'll be able to get done in the upcoming weeks, especially as I'm not certain of the power situation in Zanzibar (there hasn't been any since December. It was supposed to be fixed last week, but I would find it to be close to a miracle if they actually completed it on schedule), but I promise I will continue to blog and update whenever I find the means. At the very least, I will do another round of retroactive posts when I arrive back in Arusha in 3.5 weeks. Hopefully though, I can continue to give updates in real time.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Corruption
As I mentioned in a post quite a while ago, Arusha and Tanzania are not without their problems, and this blog is dedicated to discussing one of those problems which was encountered a few times over the course of my dad’s visit: the problem of corruption.
Unfortunately, corruption is almost a way of life for most government officials here in Tanzania. Thankfully I’m not talking about the kind of corruption on the level of the massive government conspiracies that Jack Bauer single-handedly uncovers and rescues America from on an annual basis (unless, of course, there’s a writer’s strike), but nonetheless, having to bribe officials on a periodic basis for no apparent reason other than them wanting to extort money from you is still annoying.
The three specific government bodies prone to corruption that volunteers and travelers are most likely to come into contact with are the police, customs, and immigration. The police have not been a problem for me personally in my time here 0 - knock on wood; however, I’ve heard numerous stories of police harassing both Tanzanians and visitors alike for no other reason than to induce a bribe. The most common form of this comes from traffic officers.
I think the best indication that there is a serious problem with corrupt police attempting to pull over innocent citizens (Tanzanians, travelers, and ex-patriates alike) to induce a bribe is the fact that the government actually prints off windshield stickers that list the rights of citizens so they can use it as a reference if a police officer attempts to scare them through illegal means. In fact, just a week and a half ago Caroline was pulled over twice in the same afternoon for no apparent reason. During the first incident, tax officials, who were apparently riding with the police officer (which, by itself seems a little sketchy and obvious) tried to actually enter in her passenger door to check that her registrations were up to date. For the record, these registrations are clearly visible through the windshield, and there is no reason for anyone to ever need to actually get in the car to check them. After arguing back and forth with the officer and the tax officials, she was finally let go since, well, she didn’t do anything wrong in the first place. The second stop was actually much smoother than the first, and she received a simple reminder to wear her seatbelt without any further argument or harassment. Why she was pulled over though, especially since she was already wearing a seatbelt, I’m not sure. It could have just been a coincidence, but I tend to think that in both scenarios they were both just looking for something simple she was doing illegal (such as having an out of date registration or not wearing a seatbelt) so they could induce a bribe.
An even more common problem than the police pulling someone over is for them to wait for a bribe before letting you pass at road checkpoints on major highways. Again, while I’ve never had any personal experience with this, I’m told the process goes something like this: when you stop at the check point, the police officer will ask you a few questions, dilly-dally around a little bit, and then pretend to be unsure as to whether they can let you pass for some stupid reason. They will then at some point turn the conversation to how hungry or thirsty they are, which is your cue to tell them you might be able to ‘buy them something to eat or drink’. Most of the time this bribe is no more than Tsh 1,000 – about 80 cents – but its still annoying and, you know, illegal. Also, just a heads up: if you ever find yourself in this situation, don’t ever try and speed up the process by offering right away to give them money to let you pass. Even though this is what they ultimately want, and it might work the majority of the time, it also exposes you because you just attempted to explicitly bribe them. If they then decide like being a real a-hole, they could threaten to take you to jail - with the law actually on their side this time - which means you will wind up paying a much more sizeable bribe to get yourself out of the situation (unless you really piss them off or have absolutely no money, don’t think you will ever actually be going to go to jail).
Not nearly as common, but still possible, is for the police to stop you on the streets to try and harass you in an attempt to secure a bribe. While I’ve heard of this happening before, it’s always been a friend-who-knows-someone-who-heard-about-a-guy type of a thing; it hasn’t happened to anyone I know personally. Nonetheless, it can happen, especially toward the end of the week when the police are looking for ‘weekend money’, as the phrase goes here. Therefore, it’s best to just keep a low profile and avoid cops, especially on Fridays.
While the bribe-seeking police are a major annoyance, what’s of far greater frustration to me and other volunteers alike are customs and immigration officials. To illustrate, I’ll share two stories from when my dad was visiting. The first occurred immediately upon my dad’s arrival, when he was trying to enter in the country. For those of you who are not aware, electronics are significantly cheaper in the US than almost anywhere in the world, including Europe and Australia. As it turns out, the printer at The Umoja Centre crapped out about two weeks before my dad was coming to visit, so I volunteered to have my dad bring over one from the States at a fourth of the price for which we could have gotten one in Tanzania. This was all good in theory, but there is also an import tax on a number of items that are coming into the country, even through passenger luggage, which gives customs officials the leverage they need to detain passengers carrying such items and induce a bribe. This is exactly what happened to my dad. Why do I say induce a bribe, rather than the other possibility that it is actually to pay the import tax? Well, for one thing, when my dad asked how much the import tax would be, the officer responded, “How much can you afford?” Second, my dad was able to bargain him down from his initial price by a sizeable margin, which shouldn’t really happen when there is supposed to be a set import tax. Also, there was a noticeable absence of any official paperwork, and while my dad didn’t ask for a receipt, I have heard from others that when you do ask for one, the price you must pay mysteriously jumps about 400%. In spite of all this, my dad had a much easier time with customs than a group of volunteers who arrived on the same flight as him who were trying to bring medical supplies into the country. As of the time we left, they still hadn’t progressed beyond the inspection table, and it looked as if they were going to be there for quite a while longer. And just to illustrate that these aren’t isolated incidents, Carley, the owner of the hostel, also experienced something similar when she arrived back in Tanzania from a trip home to Australia. As she told it, the customs officials went through all her luggage specifically looking for things for which they could charge her customs tax. When they couldn’t find any, they specifically asked her, “Where are all the presents you’re bringing into the country?” I think these, and other stories I’ve heard, are more than ample evidence that customs officials specifically seek out travelers and tourists bringing presents for friends / family and supplies for NGOs into the country to try and induce bribes from them.
Perhaps even worse than the customs experience, though, is immigration. In my four months in Tanzania, the only time I’ve ever had to deal with immigration official was during my dads visit. It happened three days before he was supposed to leave when officials from immigration decided to show up to the hostel. The immigration office has a couple of guys on staff who’s job it is to go around to local NGOs and other organizations dealing with volunteers to check over their visas and ensure they are on the proper volunteer visa, as opposed to a travel visa. They don’t come around often apparently; but when they do, they again really only have one purpose in mind: to induce a bribe. This is exactly what happened when they came to the hostel. Fortunately, the hostel is extremely good about doing everything necessary to obtain volunteer visas for its residents. This can be an extremely tedious process, but their thought is that if immigration officials show up and find a bunch of volunteers without proper visas, they will start showing up every week for bribe money. So everyone was good to go from a visa perspective, but that didn’t stop them from at least trying to find a reason for a bribe.
It turns out that one of our residents from Australia obtained her volunteer visa from the Tanzanian embassy in Australia, rather than emailing their information to the hostel and having everything arranged here. This was reason enough, apparently, for the immigration officials to try and tell her she didn’t obtain the proper visa, and that she was volunteering illegally. If I didn’t know any better I might have thought they had a legitimate point, but having talked with numerous volunteers about this process, I’ve learned that this is what they do: go around to organizations not to simply ensure everyone is legal, but with the specific goal of finding people who aren’t so they can extort money from them. And just like what happened at the hostel, if they can’t find anyone who is illegal, they will do their best to try and find a way to make someone think they are illegal. As a general policy, if you know your rights and argue with immigration for long enough (and you can do this only when you know your rights) they eventually start to back down, which is exactly what happened in this instance. The Australian woman still had to go down to the immigration office, but after talking with the head of the department and shedding a few tears, they eventually let her off the hook (again, you know, because she didn’t do anything wrong).
The two experiences with customs and immigration were especially bad because they involved Tanzanian officials specifically seeking out people who have given their time, effort, and money to help the people of this Tanzania. Being a volunteer, it not only makes you angry, but also causes you question why you’re even bothering to help at all. Thankfully though, you only have to show up to work the next day and see the people you’re helping to remember why you’re here and regain motivation. Nonetheless, corruption remains a major problem in Tanzania, and is particularly trying for volunteers who are attempting to help make the same country better that is deliberating attempting to take advantage of them.
Unfortunately, corruption is almost a way of life for most government officials here in Tanzania. Thankfully I’m not talking about the kind of corruption on the level of the massive government conspiracies that Jack Bauer single-handedly uncovers and rescues America from on an annual basis (unless, of course, there’s a writer’s strike), but nonetheless, having to bribe officials on a periodic basis for no apparent reason other than them wanting to extort money from you is still annoying.
The three specific government bodies prone to corruption that volunteers and travelers are most likely to come into contact with are the police, customs, and immigration. The police have not been a problem for me personally in my time here 0 - knock on wood; however, I’ve heard numerous stories of police harassing both Tanzanians and visitors alike for no other reason than to induce a bribe. The most common form of this comes from traffic officers.
I think the best indication that there is a serious problem with corrupt police attempting to pull over innocent citizens (Tanzanians, travelers, and ex-patriates alike) to induce a bribe is the fact that the government actually prints off windshield stickers that list the rights of citizens so they can use it as a reference if a police officer attempts to scare them through illegal means. In fact, just a week and a half ago Caroline was pulled over twice in the same afternoon for no apparent reason. During the first incident, tax officials, who were apparently riding with the police officer (which, by itself seems a little sketchy and obvious) tried to actually enter in her passenger door to check that her registrations were up to date. For the record, these registrations are clearly visible through the windshield, and there is no reason for anyone to ever need to actually get in the car to check them. After arguing back and forth with the officer and the tax officials, she was finally let go since, well, she didn’t do anything wrong in the first place. The second stop was actually much smoother than the first, and she received a simple reminder to wear her seatbelt without any further argument or harassment. Why she was pulled over though, especially since she was already wearing a seatbelt, I’m not sure. It could have just been a coincidence, but I tend to think that in both scenarios they were both just looking for something simple she was doing illegal (such as having an out of date registration or not wearing a seatbelt) so they could induce a bribe.
An even more common problem than the police pulling someone over is for them to wait for a bribe before letting you pass at road checkpoints on major highways. Again, while I’ve never had any personal experience with this, I’m told the process goes something like this: when you stop at the check point, the police officer will ask you a few questions, dilly-dally around a little bit, and then pretend to be unsure as to whether they can let you pass for some stupid reason. They will then at some point turn the conversation to how hungry or thirsty they are, which is your cue to tell them you might be able to ‘buy them something to eat or drink’. Most of the time this bribe is no more than Tsh 1,000 – about 80 cents – but its still annoying and, you know, illegal. Also, just a heads up: if you ever find yourself in this situation, don’t ever try and speed up the process by offering right away to give them money to let you pass. Even though this is what they ultimately want, and it might work the majority of the time, it also exposes you because you just attempted to explicitly bribe them. If they then decide like being a real a-hole, they could threaten to take you to jail - with the law actually on their side this time - which means you will wind up paying a much more sizeable bribe to get yourself out of the situation (unless you really piss them off or have absolutely no money, don’t think you will ever actually be going to go to jail).
Not nearly as common, but still possible, is for the police to stop you on the streets to try and harass you in an attempt to secure a bribe. While I’ve heard of this happening before, it’s always been a friend-who-knows-someone-who-heard-about-a-guy type of a thing; it hasn’t happened to anyone I know personally. Nonetheless, it can happen, especially toward the end of the week when the police are looking for ‘weekend money’, as the phrase goes here. Therefore, it’s best to just keep a low profile and avoid cops, especially on Fridays.
While the bribe-seeking police are a major annoyance, what’s of far greater frustration to me and other volunteers alike are customs and immigration officials. To illustrate, I’ll share two stories from when my dad was visiting. The first occurred immediately upon my dad’s arrival, when he was trying to enter in the country. For those of you who are not aware, electronics are significantly cheaper in the US than almost anywhere in the world, including Europe and Australia. As it turns out, the printer at The Umoja Centre crapped out about two weeks before my dad was coming to visit, so I volunteered to have my dad bring over one from the States at a fourth of the price for which we could have gotten one in Tanzania. This was all good in theory, but there is also an import tax on a number of items that are coming into the country, even through passenger luggage, which gives customs officials the leverage they need to detain passengers carrying such items and induce a bribe. This is exactly what happened to my dad. Why do I say induce a bribe, rather than the other possibility that it is actually to pay the import tax? Well, for one thing, when my dad asked how much the import tax would be, the officer responded, “How much can you afford?” Second, my dad was able to bargain him down from his initial price by a sizeable margin, which shouldn’t really happen when there is supposed to be a set import tax. Also, there was a noticeable absence of any official paperwork, and while my dad didn’t ask for a receipt, I have heard from others that when you do ask for one, the price you must pay mysteriously jumps about 400%. In spite of all this, my dad had a much easier time with customs than a group of volunteers who arrived on the same flight as him who were trying to bring medical supplies into the country. As of the time we left, they still hadn’t progressed beyond the inspection table, and it looked as if they were going to be there for quite a while longer. And just to illustrate that these aren’t isolated incidents, Carley, the owner of the hostel, also experienced something similar when she arrived back in Tanzania from a trip home to Australia. As she told it, the customs officials went through all her luggage specifically looking for things for which they could charge her customs tax. When they couldn’t find any, they specifically asked her, “Where are all the presents you’re bringing into the country?” I think these, and other stories I’ve heard, are more than ample evidence that customs officials specifically seek out travelers and tourists bringing presents for friends / family and supplies for NGOs into the country to try and induce bribes from them.
Perhaps even worse than the customs experience, though, is immigration. In my four months in Tanzania, the only time I’ve ever had to deal with immigration official was during my dads visit. It happened three days before he was supposed to leave when officials from immigration decided to show up to the hostel. The immigration office has a couple of guys on staff who’s job it is to go around to local NGOs and other organizations dealing with volunteers to check over their visas and ensure they are on the proper volunteer visa, as opposed to a travel visa. They don’t come around often apparently; but when they do, they again really only have one purpose in mind: to induce a bribe. This is exactly what happened when they came to the hostel. Fortunately, the hostel is extremely good about doing everything necessary to obtain volunteer visas for its residents. This can be an extremely tedious process, but their thought is that if immigration officials show up and find a bunch of volunteers without proper visas, they will start showing up every week for bribe money. So everyone was good to go from a visa perspective, but that didn’t stop them from at least trying to find a reason for a bribe.
It turns out that one of our residents from Australia obtained her volunteer visa from the Tanzanian embassy in Australia, rather than emailing their information to the hostel and having everything arranged here. This was reason enough, apparently, for the immigration officials to try and tell her she didn’t obtain the proper visa, and that she was volunteering illegally. If I didn’t know any better I might have thought they had a legitimate point, but having talked with numerous volunteers about this process, I’ve learned that this is what they do: go around to organizations not to simply ensure everyone is legal, but with the specific goal of finding people who aren’t so they can extort money from them. And just like what happened at the hostel, if they can’t find anyone who is illegal, they will do their best to try and find a way to make someone think they are illegal. As a general policy, if you know your rights and argue with immigration for long enough (and you can do this only when you know your rights) they eventually start to back down, which is exactly what happened in this instance. The Australian woman still had to go down to the immigration office, but after talking with the head of the department and shedding a few tears, they eventually let her off the hook (again, you know, because she didn’t do anything wrong).
The two experiences with customs and immigration were especially bad because they involved Tanzanian officials specifically seeking out people who have given their time, effort, and money to help the people of this Tanzania. Being a volunteer, it not only makes you angry, but also causes you question why you’re even bothering to help at all. Thankfully though, you only have to show up to work the next day and see the people you’re helping to remember why you’re here and regain motivation. Nonetheless, corruption remains a major problem in Tanzania, and is particularly trying for volunteers who are attempting to help make the same country better that is deliberating attempting to take advantage of them.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Tanzanian Safari
One of the highlights of my dad’s visit was the opportunity to go on safari (which, in Swahili, literally means ‘journey’). By the time my dad arrived in Tanzania I had been at the hostel, which serves as a popular point for travelers to leave from and return to for safaris, for nearly three months, and had probably listened to somewhere close to 20 different individuals / groups return from their safaris and talk about their experiences over dinner. Therefore, despite never having been on an actual safari myself, I considered myself pretty knowledgeable on the subject when it came to choosing the best option.
Ironically enough, after hearing everyone’s different experiences – which included everything from basic three day safaris to extended seven day packages that took you to some of the less popular destinations - I decided the best value for our money was actually the most popular safari package. This package lasted four days and three nights, and included visits to some of the most famous national parks in Tanzania: Lake Manyara, the Serengeti Plains, and Ngorongoro Crater. While Lake Manyara is lesser known to those outside Tanzania, Ngorongoro Crater and especially the Serengeti Plains are world renown.
(Quick sidenote worth mentioning: The Pridelands from the movie ‘The Lion King’ were actually based on the Serengeti Plains. In addition to the geography itself, most, if not all, the animals you see in the movie are also native to the Serengeti. And in addition to using the Serengeti as inspiration for the setting, the movie also borrows a couple of Swahili words for the name of its characters: ‘Simba’ translates to ‘lion’ and ‘Rafiki’ is the Swahili word for ‘friend’. And yes, while we’re on the subject, ‘Hakuna Matata’ does actually mean “No worries’, lit. “There are no worries”)
The coveted goal of all safari-goers in Tanzania is to see the so-called “Big Five”: elephants, lions, leopards, buffalo, and black rhinos. With all the hype around it, you would think this was actually hard to do, but the reality is that about 80% of all the people I talked to were able to accomplish it (as long as you visit the Crater – which is the only place to see the 13 black rhinos remaining in the world). You might also think there was little else worth seeing, but in my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth. While the Big Five were amazing to see (and, happily, we did see all five), almost equally as impressive were the giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, warthogs, antelope, hyenas, jackels, vultures, ostriches, hippos, and crocodiles. And that’s to say nothing of the numerous smaller animals and exotic varieties of birds, which admittedly are not on the same level as the aforementioned animals, but are still nonetheless beautiful to see. The only animal we didn’t get a chance to see was a cheetah, but with so much else to take in, this was hardly a cause for disappointment.
I wish I could describe in more detail all the sights we got to see; what it feels like to see a tower of 100 giraffe (yes, that’s right, according to wikianswers you can call a group of giraffes a tower) grazing all around you in the trees, to be literally surrounded by a herd of 500 buffalo, or to watch an elephant feeding from less than 10 feet away, but I don’t really think these experiences can be aptly translated into words. Therefore, instead I will end this post with a few general tips and observations about safaris that aren’t in any guidebooks, but which I have either learned from talking with travelers or experienced for myself. The first two have to do with arranging safaris, and the last four concern the actual safari itself. Please remember that some of the things I mention, especially those concerning pricing, are specific to Tanzania and the national parks I visited.
1. If at all possible, don’t organize your safari until you arrive
There are numerous ways to arrange a safari, and those inexperienced with Africa may be tempted to pre-arrange one before departing through a travel agency, the hotel they are staying with, or online. My suggestion would be, that if you have any spare time that you could use to arrange a safari after arriving, do it. Sometimes the price difference could literally be 100%. The reason for this is two fold. First, the more people you go through to arrange a safari, the more people are going to want a cut of the profit for helping arrange it. This is especially true when going through a travel agency or hotel. Second, many of the larger safari companies take advantage of travelers’ ignorance when they are going through travel agencies, and use the opportunity to dramatically increase the price. This is not, in fact, isolated to safari companies, but is a practice employed by many different tourism related businesses, and not just in Africa. On the positive side, you are usually getting a quality experience for your money, but again, you may be paying up to double that of the person sitting next to you in the same vehicle. Using the Internet is an option that gives you a better basis for price comparison, but at the cost of being less certain about the quality of the experience.
Your best option is to ask friends or other contacts for recommendations (like the one I make at the end of this point) and then personally contact that company and arrange the safari yourself. However, if you’re unable to do find anyone who can give a recommendation, your next best option is to arrive a day early in a town that serves as a staging point for a lot of safaris, such as Arusha, and shop around for a trip. Asking for recommendations from other travelers is always the best place to start, although you might also ask the hotel concierge or other local business owners (as long as you are reasonable sure they won’t profit from the recommendation they give you).
Again, all this is not to say you will, without a doubt, pay a more expensive price if you purchase a pre-arranged safari. I’m just saying you have a better chance of getting a good price if you don’t go through multiple layers of administration and can physically go to a safari office to compare prices.
Lastly, I will take this opportunity to recommend the company my dad and I used, which is African Scenic Safaris (www.africanscenicsafaris.com). Not only did they provide a great safari, but they are also very fairly priced. Additionally, I am friends with the owners and can personally vouch for them being honest and ethical in their business practices (and they also donate a portion of their proceeds to local NFPs, although I’m not sure they advertise that themselves). Contrary to everything I just said, you shouldn’t hesitate to book a safari with them through the Internet before arriving in Africa.
2. Don’t pay less than $150 / day per person
Again, this is specific to the northern safari circuit of Tanzania, but if a company is charging much less than this price, I would question the quality of the experience you will be receiving, if you aren’t getting downright ripped off (i.e., they will insist on you paying extra for things you thought were included). Park fees alone are $50 / day per person, and then when you add employee wages (a guide and a cook), food, gas, and then depreciation on the vehicle and camping / cooking equipment, you can understand why it would be difficult to charge less than this and still make a fair profit for your efforts.
Its also worth noting that this is the minimum you should pay for a full vehicle. Prices should be even more expensive if you want less people (Note: Safari companies will usually do their best to match you and your group with other individuals / groups to ensure a full vehicle unless you explicitly ask them not to)
And just to give a good price point, $200 / day per person is probably a good average cost for a camping safari (lodges will usually be quite a bit more expensive). Anything under would be considered a pretty good deal.
3. Bring something else to do
No one seems to mention how much time is spent driving from one park to another when they mention their safari. The truth is, it’s quite a bit. If you don’t bring something else to do, you will get bored, unless you are the world’s greatest conversationalist. I suggest a few books and an ipod. That kept me sufficiently entertained.
4. It’s not just about the animals
Remember to take in the nature and the geography as well. This is especially true if you travel the route we took. Each of the three parks had some spectacular. The forest of Lake Manyara lead straight into a huge tree covered wall – not 90 degrees, but certainly too steep for animals to climb - measuring several hundred feet in height that is unlike almost anything I have every seen before. Similarly unique, the Serengeti plains are so vast it is almost too difficult to comprehend how far they actually stretch. The crater is also a sight to behold, measuring about 9 miles across and several hundred feet high. Finally, I would remind anyone heading out of safari to remember to take a look up to the sky at night, as the number of visible stars is unparalleled by anything I have ever experienced.
5. Remember to “see”, and not just “look”
This point seems pretty obvious, but I’ve heard a number of people come back and talk about how they wished they would have taken more time just taking in what they were actually seeing, rather than trying to capture the perfect picture. I’m not saying don’t take pictures, or even that you can’t fully appreciate the sites while taking pictures, but just remember not to get ahead of yourself: enjoy the experience itself before attempting to capture it as a lasting memory.
6. Order matters
The only point I’ll stress is this: If you can, make sure you save Ngorongoro Crater for last. The sheer population density of animals makes it an unrivaled destination to view wildlife; so much so that you might actually find yourself bored with the other stops if you visited the Crater first.
I’ll use one example just to illustrate: On the first day in Lake Manyara when we saw a small group of zebras we stop to watch and take pictures for probably ten minutes. It was brand new, it was exciting, and it was interesting. In contrast, on our last day in the Crater, there were times where we literally drove past packs of zebras numbering in the hundreds without stopping. Why? Because we saw those same packs of 100+ zebras all over the Crater. We had already stopped numerous times to observe them, and there are only so many times you can stop to look at zebras.
At a certain point, we as humans become accustomed to all the sights we once found unique and interesting, and they begin to lose their novelty. That may be a sad truth, but it’s human nature. Everyone I’ve talked to about this has had a similar experience. So the best way to fight against this is to try and order your experiences from the least exciting to the most. I didn’t realize this going in, but luckily our tour operators did. We started off in Lake Manyara, where the sight of a few zebras or one elephant was enough to keep us enthralled. We then moved to the Serengeti, where wildlife sightings weren’t necessarily more common, but they tended to be of more exciting animals (e.g., lions, leopards) or of larger groups of animals (hundreds of zebras, as opposed to a handful). Odds are, your tour operator already knows this and will structure your safari accordingly, but it never hurts to check.
On a related note, I also found four days to be the perfect length of time for the safari. I fell like I would have been left wanting if I had tried to squeeze everything into three days, and while I could have done a fifth day, the novelty of the experience would have been begun to wear off.
Ironically enough, after hearing everyone’s different experiences – which included everything from basic three day safaris to extended seven day packages that took you to some of the less popular destinations - I decided the best value for our money was actually the most popular safari package. This package lasted four days and three nights, and included visits to some of the most famous national parks in Tanzania: Lake Manyara, the Serengeti Plains, and Ngorongoro Crater. While Lake Manyara is lesser known to those outside Tanzania, Ngorongoro Crater and especially the Serengeti Plains are world renown.
(Quick sidenote worth mentioning: The Pridelands from the movie ‘The Lion King’ were actually based on the Serengeti Plains. In addition to the geography itself, most, if not all, the animals you see in the movie are also native to the Serengeti. And in addition to using the Serengeti as inspiration for the setting, the movie also borrows a couple of Swahili words for the name of its characters: ‘Simba’ translates to ‘lion’ and ‘Rafiki’ is the Swahili word for ‘friend’. And yes, while we’re on the subject, ‘Hakuna Matata’ does actually mean “No worries’, lit. “There are no worries”)
The coveted goal of all safari-goers in Tanzania is to see the so-called “Big Five”: elephants, lions, leopards, buffalo, and black rhinos. With all the hype around it, you would think this was actually hard to do, but the reality is that about 80% of all the people I talked to were able to accomplish it (as long as you visit the Crater – which is the only place to see the 13 black rhinos remaining in the world). You might also think there was little else worth seeing, but in my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth. While the Big Five were amazing to see (and, happily, we did see all five), almost equally as impressive were the giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, warthogs, antelope, hyenas, jackels, vultures, ostriches, hippos, and crocodiles. And that’s to say nothing of the numerous smaller animals and exotic varieties of birds, which admittedly are not on the same level as the aforementioned animals, but are still nonetheless beautiful to see. The only animal we didn’t get a chance to see was a cheetah, but with so much else to take in, this was hardly a cause for disappointment.
I wish I could describe in more detail all the sights we got to see; what it feels like to see a tower of 100 giraffe (yes, that’s right, according to wikianswers you can call a group of giraffes a tower) grazing all around you in the trees, to be literally surrounded by a herd of 500 buffalo, or to watch an elephant feeding from less than 10 feet away, but I don’t really think these experiences can be aptly translated into words. Therefore, instead I will end this post with a few general tips and observations about safaris that aren’t in any guidebooks, but which I have either learned from talking with travelers or experienced for myself. The first two have to do with arranging safaris, and the last four concern the actual safari itself. Please remember that some of the things I mention, especially those concerning pricing, are specific to Tanzania and the national parks I visited.
1. If at all possible, don’t organize your safari until you arrive
There are numerous ways to arrange a safari, and those inexperienced with Africa may be tempted to pre-arrange one before departing through a travel agency, the hotel they are staying with, or online. My suggestion would be, that if you have any spare time that you could use to arrange a safari after arriving, do it. Sometimes the price difference could literally be 100%. The reason for this is two fold. First, the more people you go through to arrange a safari, the more people are going to want a cut of the profit for helping arrange it. This is especially true when going through a travel agency or hotel. Second, many of the larger safari companies take advantage of travelers’ ignorance when they are going through travel agencies, and use the opportunity to dramatically increase the price. This is not, in fact, isolated to safari companies, but is a practice employed by many different tourism related businesses, and not just in Africa. On the positive side, you are usually getting a quality experience for your money, but again, you may be paying up to double that of the person sitting next to you in the same vehicle. Using the Internet is an option that gives you a better basis for price comparison, but at the cost of being less certain about the quality of the experience.
Your best option is to ask friends or other contacts for recommendations (like the one I make at the end of this point) and then personally contact that company and arrange the safari yourself. However, if you’re unable to do find anyone who can give a recommendation, your next best option is to arrive a day early in a town that serves as a staging point for a lot of safaris, such as Arusha, and shop around for a trip. Asking for recommendations from other travelers is always the best place to start, although you might also ask the hotel concierge or other local business owners (as long as you are reasonable sure they won’t profit from the recommendation they give you).
Again, all this is not to say you will, without a doubt, pay a more expensive price if you purchase a pre-arranged safari. I’m just saying you have a better chance of getting a good price if you don’t go through multiple layers of administration and can physically go to a safari office to compare prices.
Lastly, I will take this opportunity to recommend the company my dad and I used, which is African Scenic Safaris (www.africanscenicsafaris.com). Not only did they provide a great safari, but they are also very fairly priced. Additionally, I am friends with the owners and can personally vouch for them being honest and ethical in their business practices (and they also donate a portion of their proceeds to local NFPs, although I’m not sure they advertise that themselves). Contrary to everything I just said, you shouldn’t hesitate to book a safari with them through the Internet before arriving in Africa.
2. Don’t pay less than $150 / day per person
Again, this is specific to the northern safari circuit of Tanzania, but if a company is charging much less than this price, I would question the quality of the experience you will be receiving, if you aren’t getting downright ripped off (i.e., they will insist on you paying extra for things you thought were included). Park fees alone are $50 / day per person, and then when you add employee wages (a guide and a cook), food, gas, and then depreciation on the vehicle and camping / cooking equipment, you can understand why it would be difficult to charge less than this and still make a fair profit for your efforts.
Its also worth noting that this is the minimum you should pay for a full vehicle. Prices should be even more expensive if you want less people (Note: Safari companies will usually do their best to match you and your group with other individuals / groups to ensure a full vehicle unless you explicitly ask them not to)
And just to give a good price point, $200 / day per person is probably a good average cost for a camping safari (lodges will usually be quite a bit more expensive). Anything under would be considered a pretty good deal.
3. Bring something else to do
No one seems to mention how much time is spent driving from one park to another when they mention their safari. The truth is, it’s quite a bit. If you don’t bring something else to do, you will get bored, unless you are the world’s greatest conversationalist. I suggest a few books and an ipod. That kept me sufficiently entertained.
4. It’s not just about the animals
Remember to take in the nature and the geography as well. This is especially true if you travel the route we took. Each of the three parks had some spectacular. The forest of Lake Manyara lead straight into a huge tree covered wall – not 90 degrees, but certainly too steep for animals to climb - measuring several hundred feet in height that is unlike almost anything I have every seen before. Similarly unique, the Serengeti plains are so vast it is almost too difficult to comprehend how far they actually stretch. The crater is also a sight to behold, measuring about 9 miles across and several hundred feet high. Finally, I would remind anyone heading out of safari to remember to take a look up to the sky at night, as the number of visible stars is unparalleled by anything I have ever experienced.
5. Remember to “see”, and not just “look”
This point seems pretty obvious, but I’ve heard a number of people come back and talk about how they wished they would have taken more time just taking in what they were actually seeing, rather than trying to capture the perfect picture. I’m not saying don’t take pictures, or even that you can’t fully appreciate the sites while taking pictures, but just remember not to get ahead of yourself: enjoy the experience itself before attempting to capture it as a lasting memory.
6. Order matters
The only point I’ll stress is this: If you can, make sure you save Ngorongoro Crater for last. The sheer population density of animals makes it an unrivaled destination to view wildlife; so much so that you might actually find yourself bored with the other stops if you visited the Crater first.
I’ll use one example just to illustrate: On the first day in Lake Manyara when we saw a small group of zebras we stop to watch and take pictures for probably ten minutes. It was brand new, it was exciting, and it was interesting. In contrast, on our last day in the Crater, there were times where we literally drove past packs of zebras numbering in the hundreds without stopping. Why? Because we saw those same packs of 100+ zebras all over the Crater. We had already stopped numerous times to observe them, and there are only so many times you can stop to look at zebras.
At a certain point, we as humans become accustomed to all the sights we once found unique and interesting, and they begin to lose their novelty. That may be a sad truth, but it’s human nature. Everyone I’ve talked to about this has had a similar experience. So the best way to fight against this is to try and order your experiences from the least exciting to the most. I didn’t realize this going in, but luckily our tour operators did. We started off in Lake Manyara, where the sight of a few zebras or one elephant was enough to keep us enthralled. We then moved to the Serengeti, where wildlife sightings weren’t necessarily more common, but they tended to be of more exciting animals (e.g., lions, leopards) or of larger groups of animals (hundreds of zebras, as opposed to a handful). Odds are, your tour operator already knows this and will structure your safari accordingly, but it never hurts to check.
On a related note, I also found four days to be the perfect length of time for the safari. I fell like I would have been left wanting if I had tried to squeeze everything into three days, and while I could have done a fifth day, the novelty of the experience would have been begun to wear off.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Tanzanian Weather
Just a short post for today to answer a question I’ve gotten a lot lately, which is about the weather in
So while I can’t answer this question in detail for the whole of
One aspect in which
Of course, all of this is assuming the weather behaves normally. However, much like back in the States, the weather has been far from normal lately. The temperature has acted as expected but it doesn’t vary all that much to begin with, so that’s not saying much. The rainy seasons, however, have been a little screwy. Most of November was actually dry, and the rains didn’t actually arrive until almost early December. However, they made up for their tardiness by sticking around until halfway through January. Additionally, the main rainy season seems to have arrived early, as we have had rain most days over the past week.
Despite the abundance of rain lately though, I can’t really complain. The weather is still warm, and even on the days that it does rain, the sun still manages to make it out for a fair portion of the day - much like
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