Alice Returns From Wonderland...

So, I know this post is kinda coming out of the blue, given it's been nearly a year since the last, but I wanted to fill you all in on our last and most momentous piece of news...

WE ARE BACK IN NZ!

"What the heck?" I hear and "Where did that come from?" you say? Well let me fill you in on the drama and turmoil of our African saga...

In our last post, it seemed things were finally starting to look up in Tanzania. Or rather, they were starting to look a little less in a downward direction! We had a hard time after that posting anything concrete, which is why it all went unsaid. It has been a year of such enormous ups and downs, such inconsistencies and questions, that we hardly knew what to write, given that we hardly knew ourselves...

Suffice to say, we were still finding life pretty rough when we last signed off. In an attempt to cut a long story short, we had to leave Lengijave (the stunning house on the hill - there are photos in previous posts) due to lack of finances. Essentially, all the savings we took over in order to start working on our Bed and Breakfast were eaten up in having to buy the new car... And what we were getting paid was barely enough to cover our travel costs to and from Lengijave, let alone anything else! So with great regret and heaviness in our hearts, we had to let that dream go... This was really difficult, especially for me, as I had dreamed for years of living in that house on the hill and turning into something even more spectacular.

So we moved into town, closer to work, and stayed with my saintly and long-suffering brother and sister-in-law, Jeremy and Kendra, in their shoebox-house for nearly three months, before the place next door came up for rent and we had a spot of our own :-)

By this point, financial stresses had eased up somewhat, but bigger monsters were coming to the surface. Dan and I were both drifting, feeling as if the whole purpose and reason for coming to Africa had been snatched away from us, and to make matters worse, I was beginning to feel unhappy in my work situation... At around New Years 2009, we seriously considered buying tickets back to New Zealand. However, we came to the conclusion that if we left then, we would spend the rest of our lives wondering what could have happened if we had just stuck it out a little longer. Admittedly, I was desperate for my African fantasy to somehow come into being, and would have regretted giving up so early. I couldn't bear living with such a huge "what if". So we decided to stay on, determined that we had come for a reason and God had it all worked out somehow :-)

Then, in March 2010, Dan had the opportunity to come back to New Zealand for a job! His old boss flew him back for six weeks and I know some of you touched base with him when he came. I stayed behind, and made the most of precious time with my family and going out socialising with Kendra - what a blast. Unfortunately, the situation at work continued to decline, without going into details, let's just say my boss and I didn't always see eye to eye, and it sure as heck wasn't Servilles! I had been so spoiled in my previous job, I never appreciated it fully till then! Whilst Dan was in NZ, he got our personal belongings on a ship finally, bound for Tanzania. We had been waiting on permits to legally allow us to import our stuff, which we were assured were nearly there.

When Dan returned, he found he no longer had a job at the cheese and wine shop, Michel's, and was once more at a loose end. By this stage, the terrible roads, corrupt government and police force, bribes, lack of internet and electricity, and general unhelpfulness of people had really worn Dan down. He got the occasional job training staff in lodges how to make coffee, using his barista skills, which meant that we got to stay in some nice flash places for free, but these were really brief interludes of unreality.

We were coming to realise that without a passion and a purpose in Africa, life was enormously frustrating and it seemed more and more pointless to keep bashing our heads against a brick wall. Finally in May/June, things came to a head, and I decided to quit my job. In one last hurrah, we looked into starting up our own salon, but quickly realised that it is nearly impossible to run a business honestly in Tanzania! What with taxation, import duties, and prohibitive hidden costs, in order to make a living we would have to be as crooked as the day is long, bribing and greasing bureaucratic wheels left, right and centre. Apparently, that is just how it is done! At the time, I was crushed to see my last hope flushed down the proverbial toilet, but am happy to say it was definitely a blessing in disguise... If we had been able to make it work financially, I believe we would have poured our blood, sweat and tears into an endeavour which could only ever be a salve, a glossing over of the real issues that make Tanzania what it is and which would have eventually raised their heads and made us resent the years that we had "wasted", and wish we had left sooner. Of course, nothing with God is ever wasted, as we have discovered... I am glad we decided to leave before we became bitter about the country which I love, but not before we learned so many lessons. I truly believe that by this time we had tried every last resort to stay in Arusha, and can honestly say we couldn't have tried any harder. No more "what ifs". Ironically, our crates of personal belongings and permits arrived one month before we left. Ah, reality bites! Just in time for us to try and sell most of it off and make a clean break. And then we said our final (tearful, on my part) farewells to Arusha, Tanzania on the 30th of August 2010 and a joyful hello to New Zealand on the 2nd of September.

"So what was the reason behind it all?" I hear you ask. Well, life is nothing if not unpredictable. The reasons aren't what we originally thought, it's true. We have had to alter our perspectives somewhat. So, if nothing else, the experience has cured me of my obsession with Tanzania, my belief that life would never be so good in NZ as there. It has taken off the rose-coloured glasses and allowed me to leave my childhood in it's rightful place, fabulous as it was, and not try and stretch it out. I am free to get on with life without always looking over my shoulder. It has allowed me to love Africa but not want to live there... As Dan says,"Africa is a sometimes place." Nice to visit but not to live, for us. But you don't know till you try! You have to be a very special kind of person to be there - I take my hat off to my parents who have been there 23 years now, their sacrifice over those years has been immense. To have dealt with the realities which make it both so frustrating and so rewarding with such grace is inspiring.

But there is so much more purpose than just that: what we have learned about ourselves and others, our faith, our hopes and dreams, what we really want out of life, and to give back, these are things we could not have come by without a good deal of stretching, discomfort and soul-searching. All of which could only have happened in the unique and intense environment of Tanzania. We made some enduring and beautiful friendships and, not least of all, how blessed were we to be so close to my family, to get to know them better, and to find friends in them that I never knew before... My one regret is leaving them behind, I will miss them immensely.

So, where to from here? Well, after a two month break for me (Dan was working again within a week! Popular man.), I am back doing two days, Friday and Saturday at Servilles Albany. Other than that, I am still discovering! For those of my old clients who asked me to let them know if I ever came back, please feel free to drop on in, I would love to see you again, even if just for a chat :-) I know many of you will have moved on and found new hairdressers and that is totally cool, I know some of you have been in with other stylists at Albany and love them, there are no hard feelings on my part or theirs if you want to come back or stay :-) I have already chatted with the girls at work and we all agree, as long as you are happy, so are we... I just wanted to let you all know the latest and let you know I would love to see you.

So in parting, here's to a life of experience and discovery, possibility and hope. May you all be blessed with one! I leave you with a parting shot of my niece, Nia, who I miss enormously...

Automatic For The People...

So, the new car. It's an automatic. Not so good for some of the rough spots around here, but pretty easy when dealing with the town traffic. It's a Suzuki Escudo, 2.5l petrol, fairly economical, & pretty peppy, which is good for passing large trucks doing 5 kilometres per millenium. We've had to do a bit of work on the transmission since we got it, but she's running pretty sweet now.

Of course, we need to upgrade a few things to deal with the roads here, like better tyres & stronger suspension (and a bullbar, some spots, a winch, recovery kit, & perhaps a roof-mounted RPG for dealing with the traffic here). I've included a picture of what it could look like...

Which I think is much better, on the whole. I still miss the old Battle Truck, though. That thing would've had a ball here. Anyway, it's good to be mobile again, I can get to work every day without worrying how, the same for Aimee, & we get to get away occasionally.

As for work, Aimee's still rocking at the salon, & I'm now managing a French wine & cheese shop for some friends of ours who are away over Christmas. So, lots of wine & cheese for me, but also lots of responsibilities, like paying the rent & utilities, keeping the shop stocked, dealing with pain-in-the-ass customers, & trying not to melt as the wee little air conditioner struggles to keep the temperature at around 32 degrees. Celsius. Seriously, 3 freezers, 3 fridges, & the sun shining straight in the shop-front are a bit much to handle on a sunny day. I wish I was back in the height of NZ summer, because it's cooler than my "air-conditioned" shop. :)

Anyway, off now, I'll try to keep up with regular updates now I have a laptop & can get sketchy internet through my phone.

Perhaps we can have nice things after all...

Just a short post, the first update in a long while.

The News In Brief:

1. We now have a car. A Suzuki Escudo (Vitara for the Kiwis). Needs upgraded suspension & tyres to deal with Africa properly, but it's fine for the moment. Finally a decent reliable vehicle to get us around in.

2. I have a new laptop, courtesy of Dell, my parents & Phil, & finally brought over by a very generous chap who's coming to work with Aimee's parents. For those interested, it's an Alienware M17x, with Core2Duo 2.66ghz processors, 4gb RAM, 1TB of storage in a RAID-0 2x500gb config, & dual SLI 1gb video cards. Screamin.

3. I finally got to fly my paraglider over here, just a few short soaring flights, but it was brilliant after 5 months of not getting out.

So, thing are finally looking up, although not at all in the ways we expected when we came over here. God seems to have pulled a few strings, so that in the long view, we've managed to upgrade a few things we'll need, which should help us in the long term over here. I'll write more in detail about the car & other things in subsequent posts, but for now, rest assured that we're still alive, & now back in contact with the outside world.

Musical Cars (a game for two or more players...)

So, the Land Rover has died. Again, & Finally. Apparently, it's one of the diffs that's gone, & would be pretty costly to fix. So we're without a vehicle now, & with about 75km of travelling to do each day, things are looking rather Interesting. Instead of pouring even more money into the black hole that is a Land Rover, we've ordered a vehicle from Japan, but it'll be at least 6 weeks before it gets here, so in the meantime, we're borrowing other people's vehicles when they can spare them, & praying like mad that we find one to use until the new vehicle arrives. At the moment, we're pretty much living day-to-day in terms of transport, so any prayer you guys can spare is appreciated... :)

Aimee is still loving work, getting busier all the time as news of her mad skillz(chicks dig skillz) spreads around town. My time at Cafe Mambo has come to an end, and after much training & sourcing of local ingredients, their coffee has improved a fair bit. Definitely the best coffee in town now. I'm considering starting a business training baristas at some of the local cafes, as there's a fair need of it around here, but that'll have to wait on my permit coming through. I've also spent a bit of time at the Arusha Coffee Mill, cupping coffee & sampling different blends & estate coffees, & differing roast levels, & generally learning heaps about the preperation side of the coffee process. It's been fascinating talking with the director there, who's the 3rd generation of her family in the coffee industry in Tanzania, discussing all the different varieties of Arabica bush grown on their estate, & the peculiarities & taste profiles of East African coffee in general.

Jeremy & Kendra are back from their trip, & we had them up to stay with us for a weekend. Lots of great times playing cards & games, talking, & Jeremy & I went off-roading to try & get to an acacia forest visible in the distance from our place, but were repeatedly thwarted by deep korongos(dry river beds). Ironically, just as all the family got back together, Alan left for his trip back to NZ, so it'll be another 3 weeks or so until he's back too.

Must go now, will post when & as possible.

Africa is hard on your kit...

So, my laptop died. Again. It seems Dell & Africa are incompatible on pretty much all levels. I'd had problems with the laptop before in NZ, but Africa seems to compound any malfunctions, weaknesses or accidents into catastrophic gear failure. :) So, this means we'll be updating the blog less often, although I still have access to my email & facebook through my blackberry.
Africa is also hard on vehicles, & old Land Rovers are notoriously fuel-inefficient, using perhaps 80l of fuel where a Hilux would use 25l over the same distance. So, we're considering the possibility of getting a newer vehicle, either through importing one, or trying to find a good deal already in-country. So, if you have a spare moment, please pray that God provides either a vehicle, or the money to get one, as our fuel costs are becoming a bit of a financial burden.
That's all for now, I need to let Ben have his laptop back, so he can keep working... :)

Life Through the Looking Glass...

There is something about Africa that speaks to your soul. Something primal and primordial that reaches into our ancient human spirits and strikes a chord. In amongst the dust, heat and frustrations you become aware of the voice of the ages thrumming from beneath your feet, the drum-beats as they pound through your veins. And in the bleak face of the mountain, inhospitable and harshly beautiful; in the opulence of a brief sunset, brilliant and blinding; in the exuberant and excessive display of colour from blooms fighting their way out of the baked earth; in the smiling and dust-covered visages of children tending their goats, flies crusting their eyes, you can truly see the face of God.


So, we've been here a month now, and what a month it's been! I have a awesome job, Dan has more than enough to occupy his time, we nearly have the internet, we have a lovely house to stay in, my family close(ish) by, a horrific road and terrifying drivers everywhere, a stunning view (exhibit a above) and still no water!! Living the fairytale is everything and nothing like we had anticipated...

Seeing as Dan has already enthralled you all with stories of the cars, roads and the daily death-defying gauntlet into town, I will not expound anymore, but will satisfy myself with a brief update on how things are going in Aimee's little Wonderland.

I have been at Aqua Hair, Health and Beauty working with Trish for two weeks now, and loving every minute of it! I approached the role with the usual apprehension that a new job brings, and have been pleasantly delighted with the salon, despite limitations in space and colour, with my boss, who is heaps of fun, my coworkers (free manicures and pedicures anyone?) and my awesome new clients. I was initially alarmed at having to use foil to highlight (I know, who'd have thought??) but I am happy to report that I still have the touch! And the pace here is so chilled out: clients don't mind if they have to wait for ages, and everyone knows everyone, which means the conversations are never dull... In fact, in my first week, a client was happy to wait while I cut Trish (my boss)'s hair because she hadn't had a real haircut in eight months! So cool!

The latest interesting news is that last Sunday our water ran out up at Lengijave... Oh nos! Then ensued a mad hunt for someone to truck water up our horrific roads (apparently the last time someone tried, their truck got stuck - eep!) which resulted in a tractor belching it's way up our drive, hauling 4,500 L of water with it. Operated by a very interesting fellow bearing the enigmatic name Bwana Masikio (Mr. Ears), it was all in all a learning experience as it took a couple of tries, due to the tractor's bald tyres. So, finally, we have a little more water, a lot more experience (and potholes thanks to the tractor) and a definite need for lots of rain before we run out again! So please pray, we need all the help we can get!

In fantastic news, we have made loads of awesome new friendships, re-established some old ones, and made some awesome contacts... This really is the land of opportunity: Dan has already been made two job offers in as many weeks, and with his permit in the pipelines (hopefully only two weeks away), it looks as though things are set to take off soon! Watch this space...

And so, from a dusty Wonderland, over and out.

We're still alive...

Our internet connection isn't, though. The original setup at Lengijave was a satellite connection, which I found out would cost US$175 per month for 1gb of data, if I got it reconnected. And I though NZ had it bad for broadband... So I'm looking into cellular broadband options similar to the Vodafone Vodem back in NZ, & using wireless hotspots in the meantime. Hence my slackness at posting here.

My time at Outpost is going well, I'm looking into sourcing locally-roasted fresh coffee, as opposed to the not-so-fresh stuff from Kenya the cafe has been using so far, but it's a question of quality-vs-freshness at the moment. The Tanzanian stuff is pretty good, but I think I'll need to try sample batches every week or two for a while to ensure that the quality & flavour remain constant. Oh well, trying coffee isn't much of a hardship, really... :)

Aimee is going really well at the salon, she's loving the environment, & her boss is pretty cool as well. As an added bonus, a lot of her old school friends play sport at the complex where she works, as it's also the local venue for rugby, soccer & other sports. So, seeing as I finish a bit after her, & have to drive for about half an hour to get to her salon, she has a bit of time to catch up with them before I get there.

Speaking of driving, the city of Arusha seems to be in a permanent state of, well, you can't really call it gridlock, seeing as they don't even have a grid, but more a case of No-One-Can-Move-Because-Of-Every-Other-Bugger-In-The-Way. There is one set of traffic lights in town, & it seeems to cause more problems than it solves, due to sheer unfamiliarity on the part of the drivers. There are no give way rules, except those that apply out of self-preservation, ie Give Way To Bloody Big Trucks. Intersections are navigated by pulling out into the smallest gap in the lane you want to be in, whenever you can, want to, or just feel like it. Indicators can be used to signal an impending turn, a lane change, oncoming traffic, passing, don't pass, or any combination of the above. Use of the horn is an accepted alternative to indicators. You can pass on the right, the left, the footpath, or even the other lane in the path of oncoming traffic, if you think you can get away with it, & no-one will even look twice. Of course, this may be because the traffic is only moving at about 10km/h anyway...
Except for the Dala-dalas. Dala-dalas are vans used as taxis, filled with squashed passengers, & driven by grinning homicidal maniacs bent on vehicular manslaughter. These guys will take any gap, pass at any time, stop without warning, turn without signalling, & I suspect they may even drive with the horn taped down. They turn even the jammed rush-hour into a non-stop adrenaline-fuelled madcap destruction derby/rally/survival-of-the-fittest fiesta.

So when I say you can only afford to keep half your attention on the traffic, & need all the rest for the road itself, it gives you some idea of the state of said roads. Only some of the roads in town are paved, & somehow they manage to be at least as bad as the dirt roads. Potholes big enough to swallow at least a medium-sized elephant abound in the paving. Cracks, shoddy repairs & gravel patches give a wonderful texture through the suspension. And speed bumps. Let's talk about speed bumps. The designing, construction & maintenance of speed bumps seems to be some sort of Tanzanian National Pastime. They have them at each end of every village, every zebra crossing is a speed bump, they put them in dusty spots to slow passing cars, they even have small speed bumps to warn you of approaching larger speedbumps. Some are smoothly paved & can be taken carefully in 3rd gear, some are almost square in profile & are best avoided by driving off-road around them. Some of them are constructed out of dirt using shovels, and some come small & in sets of 3 or 4. It's like they didn't think the rest of the roads were rough enough, so they decided to help. Maybe they just missed that old-fashioned off-road feel. And the best bit? You can never tell what type of bump it's going to be until afterwards.

It's not that I'm complaining, mind you, I like off-roading. I just didn't expect to be doing it for 2 & 1/2 hours every day, from home to Aimee's work, then mine, & then back again...

Still, all in a day's work, eh? :)