Chamwino: Arrival!

           We took the bus, or dala-dala as they call it here, out of Dar es Salaam Sunday morning.  The bus station was frantic.  Our taxi driver helped us to our bus where the conductor thankfully spoke English.  It was just Diane, my friend Chris Mena, and myself.  Our other friends were mostly meeting us there later or catching a bus the next day.  We left Dar at 9 AM, which is 3:00 in Swahili time.  It’s strange.  6 AM is 0:00 to them, and people will use Swahili time interchanged with regular time totally randomly.  Our bus tickets said departure time of 3:00, but we knew better.

The view out of the front of the bus.  Bus conductors just
sit on the middle console, sometimes with a cushion.

A glimpse of the chaos of the Dar bus station.  It's just a ton
of busses in a line and a million people walking around
trying to sell you things or give you a ride. 

            We rode until about half past 12 when our bus stopped in an area called Morogoro.  We got some snacks and found an ATM.  The filling station there had a strange vibe.  Everything was getting very rural and a little more sketchy.   Places that attract a lot of traffic (especially internationals) become kind of targeted.   We got back on the bus and rode for four more hours.  They had a TV on the bus that just played music soap operas and music videos in Swahili.  Chris’s and my favorite was one that depicted a white princess leaving her kingdom because she fell in love with a tribesman. 

The Morogoro filling station.  Some beautiful mountains
in the background.  Some sketchiness in the foreground.

            We were headed towards Chamwino, but there is no bus station there.  We were on a bus going to a larger city called Dodoma, but we were instructed to get off at a specific junction to await a car to pick us up.  We managed to get off at the right place, but our driver was not yet there.  So instead a large group of guys riding motorcycles, or piki-piki, crowded around us trying to give us a ride.  Only one spoke any English and he just kept saying, “Don’t worry, man.  It will be fine.”  He probably shook my hand like fifty times.  That is a big thing here.  He was about my age, I’d say, and probably a little drunk.  The other guys were all just laughing at him as he spoke and stumbled around a bit.  It was like 4 in the afternoon.

This is the van that picked us up from the junction, and also
the van I rode in all week for other village visits.
The driver's name was Jai.

            Our driver arrived with the “CAC” sign for which we were told to be looking.  “CAC” stands for the “Chamwino Arts Center,” which is an organization run by Dr. Kedmon Mapana.  He teaches at U of Dar, but he is from Chamwino and is still active in the community development there.  He is the mastermind behind the whole Wagogo music festival we are attending in Chamwino.  We got in the van and were taken to the CAC building to check in.  Two of the guys from CAC that picked us up were named Nason and Sospeter.  Sospeter is Kedmon’s brother.  Nason speaks English.

Nason is pictured here, greeting guests in front of the CAC.

The sign out in front of the Chamwino Arts Center (CAC).

Narrowly snuck this picture of Sospeter in one of the villages.

A later picture of Nason in front of the CAC building.

            After writing in the guest book at CAC, we were taken to Sampa’s Family Complex guest house.  There are no hotels in Chamwino, but this is the next best thing.  Chamwino is really a small village that has gradually developed into somewhat of a town.  The guest house had tile floor, which is a big statement here.  I have my own room with a full size bed and a good mosquito net!  When we arrived, there was no running water.  We found out that Chamwino only has running water certain days of the week due to water shortages during the dry season.  Things are getting real.

Upon our arrival, Chris and I went to go find some water and
something to drink at a nearby shop, run by these two cute boys.

            We settled in a bit at Sampa’s, and then we walked back over to the CAC building to meet Kedmon.  He took us over to his home for dinner with his family.  Dr. Patricia Campbell of University of Washington was already there, as well as a couple named Keith and Lynn.  They are from Seattle, and they hosted Kedmon and his family for 6 months when he first moved to the U.S. to do his PhD.  They promised to come visit his hometown once he moved back, so here they are.  Keith is a pastor.  Kedmon’s wife, Pendo, was there.  He also has three children.  The food was delicious!  There was rice, meat, greens, and even some fruit!  When they serve meat here, it is usually just a bunch of different chunks of beef in a pot.  This is pretty typical cuisine for all my time so far in the villages.  Greens are a nice luxury, and fruit is very very rare.  It is the dry season in Tanzania, so everyone is conserving some.

            Kedmon has a beautiful home.  He also has tile floors.  He even has a suspended water tank that supplies water pressure even when the public water is off.  Many people have these large black, 2500 liter tanks to carry them through when the water is not on.  This is how our guest house operates.  You just use buckets to shower and wash waste down to the septic tank.  The toilets here are not American, but squatties.  There is quasi-consistent electricity, and really good phone reception!  Chris and I laughed at the irony that I could check my email while having to take a bucket shower.  There is one paved road that runs from town to the junction where we got off the bus.  Otherwise all roads are dirt.  It’s pretty intense out here in Chamwino. 

           After dinner we went out to a nearby village for a special sunset preview performance.  Different groups from all the villages will be performing at the festival later in the week, but from Monday through Wednesday we get to go out into the villages and preview some of the performances in their actual native contexts.  It is a seriously cool opportunity.  Sunday night we just got a super sneak peak.  About a dozen women of the village came out and sang traditional songs.  They also played the muheme drum, which is traditionally an instrument only for females.  Men don't play drums in Wagogo tradition.  The performance in front of the sunset was breath-taking.  Not to be cliche, but the whole time in each village is completely like something you see in some documentary about a far off place.  It is so strange to be there with the dirt actually on your feet.

This girl was cute.

She caught me taking a picture of her.

This is a muheme (moo-heh-meh) drum.  It is surprisingly
lightweight and has the handle carved into it.  I got to
see a cool video of one of these being made.

            So much more to come!  Get ready for lots of pictures of beautiful African children.  Here’s a bonus one, just for reading all this.