Saturday, January 19, 2013

Shamba


Tanzania is a farmer. The Earth is the element. They touch it, sense it, they walk through it bare feet, letting it pass between their toes. That nice soil, dense of rain, teeming with life. By hearing the first drops of rain the population activate. Before the singing of the cock everybody is already on the field: kerchief, maize seeds and hoe, one child hold onto the back, another helping aside. The men come back from the work at the sunset. They show up orange feet, coloured with that land that is now a part of them. They eat four plates of ugali and fall on the bed, worn out... they snore up to half past three, when, after other four plates of ugali, they leave in the darkness with the hoe on the shoulder. Even the old Bibi forgets her thousands aches disturbing her back, stomach and teeth. In the morning without fail she is there, one bang after the another. She is not going to overlook even a single centimetre square of her acre of the land she loves more than the own children. In secret, hidden from indiscreet eyes, she plants a cap of coke... well, why not?

Friday, January 11, 2013

Domus



        “Salvete in mundo domi vostrae estis”








A spot of world. Round, just for us. We put in it a patchwork quilt, a cherry, and a kiss. That's it: The serenity. Our cutting, a place to nestle with everything we love. Where all the dimensions of our being are satisfied. To build up in any point of the nothing.

Daladala


10 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE DALADALA (:= local bus)



(i) If you think the daladala is full... well, it is longer not! This never happens...

(ii) If you are told the journey will take 20 minutes, it is meant in a very lucky case. You need to take into account the eventuality of unpredicted breaks:
    - The oil can suddenly finish
    - Parts of the daladala (meaning tyre, engine, stealing wheel, doors, windows, etc.) can get broken
    - The police traffic can stop you for some inspections (request of some strange permits, checking security measures, counting the passengers in excess, etc.). The discussion about the price to pay can take particularly long.
    - Break to fight with the driver of another daladala, about who have stolen to whom some opportunities of business (more passengers, transports of deals, etc.).

(iii) Look at the top! Attention, something can always fall down on you (tomatoes, chickens, charcoal, but even other more potentially painful objects like a saw or a hammer).

(iv) If you see pipes, mattresses, boards, etc. don't worry! It is still your daladala, and not a vehicle for transporting loads.

(v) Don't wear white clothes. People can walk on you, the Fanta of the neighbor can spill on your shirt in a sudden breaking, children can be interested in touching you, ... without calculating dust of the road, smoke of the engine, and so on.

(vi) If it rains, be sure you have an umbrella with you. You never know...

(vii) On the daladala you can find all the kinds of smells of Tanzania: mad, fertilizers, and sweat of the farm, local maize and/or bamboo alcohol, intensive fragrance of whom goes to the city to meet the new girlfriend...

(viii) The company is guarantee!

(ix) At some point, whatever can happen, whenever it takes, you will arrive at your destination! The daladala staff are extremely expert in fixing any kind of problem!

(x) The daladala is a true African adventure experience!