Never haven taken a trip like this I expected adventure, but wrapped around elements of a "traditional" vacation or business trip. The reality was far from the expectation. It was adventure as a starting point and an eye opening immersion into third world life.
Being so disconnected from normal life back home I was not sure if this would lead to long periods of retrospective thinking. While there were certainly aspects of that, it was more of a cleansing from the stress of everyday life - job stress and family stress.
Much like when I run, only 1,000 times in duration and power, my mind felt disconnected.
The safari and climb were fantastic beyond my meager ability to describe them and the people and the conditions in which they live was so deplorable that it added to the intensity of the experience.
Life in the numerous villages which compromise most of this country is beyond imagination. I litterly could not believe what I saw. The average adult earns $1 a day! In the cities, they call them that but even their cities are in no way similar to what we define as a city in the rest of the modern world, a good wage is $3 a day. Many of the villages do not have regular power, none have modern plumbing and none have paved roads. They consist of ramshackle huts and buildings on dirt paths/roads. The villages all appear to be self-supportive with butchers, seamstresses, carpenters and markets where people trade product they grow or make - ie, someone who grows bananas will trade for rice from a different farmer.
But even while you can identify the basic trades, they exist at an almost pre-colonial level of skill and refinement. I saw a house being built of wood, this itself is rare due to the cost vs. locally made brick, but the workers used machetes to make all the cuts! No saws or other tools.
Another sight that was very common were dozens of houses scattered along the road in various stages of construction. You could tell many were left incomplete for some time. when we asked about this, we were told that due to the hight cost of materials people bought what they could - 20 bricks, etc, and then worked years more until they saved up for more material. A typical house, complete to the local standard, could take a family 10 years to save for and complete bit by bit.
There are many primary and secondary schools and some universities that we saw, althogh the universities are beyond the economic reach of most, so people do receive a basic education.
The predominant religion is Christian, but Muslim influence is growing, especially we were told in the "modern" city of Dar es Sallam - the capital of the country.
With income levels so low, it is rare to see private vehicles. The only vehicles that you see are land rovers packed with tourists (like us), local buses (really just mini-vans), and trucks of every shape, size and age. There are a moderate number of bicycles, not as many as I would have expected, but for the most part everyone just walks everywhere.
The buses are a sight to see. they cost about $0.10 to ride as far as you need to go. every time I saw one, they were beyond packed, about 15 people inside, some leaning most of their bodies out of the window because there was not room, and even brave younger males who held onto the roof rack and stood on the running boards.
To move materials you saw many carts being pulled and pushed by young males. Some as young as 13 or 14 judging by their size and looks. The carts, like everything else looked like something you would have seen 150 years ago in America.
Beyond tourism, the only industry that you could see was coffee farming.
Radio is the main form of information distribution. There are papers but it would be rare to see them in the villages. Television only exists in some bars or clubs in the villages and internet cafe's are found sporadically.
I will always enjoy the outdoors, but I also now know that mountain climbing is not my future. Adventure should always be part of your life, but you need to do lots of different types of adventure to find what fulfills you. Maybe it is never one thing, but the act of new and exciting experiences.
My two weeks with Ken were great, we talked, joked, laughed and had an easy time together. There were times that Ken was Ken - loosing things 5 times in our tent, or taking way to long to get going, but that is what great friendship is all about, letting him be him and flowing with it. Just as I am sure that he flowed with my quirks.
The trip was rewarding, challenging, expanding and just enough outside my normal comfort range to not push the trip into any negative area.
I thought of my young daughters often as I looked into the eyes of the many children I saw. I thought how large their world was and the endless opportunity that lay before them, like looking at he sea as it stretches beyond sight and into the unknown.
I thought of my wife and her strength and power to stay behind as I set forth on this experience. I saw how her love for me and the girls strengthened and supports us. Finding the birthday and valentine cards was just a typically wonderful touch of her far-sighted vision of things in the future.
And I thought of myself. Am I the person that I want to be, can be? Like all of us, I am not. I am a work in progress and this trip has helped me in that progress unlike anything I think I could have accomplished at home.
Nina Furaha
