Hey ho! Hey ho! Its off to work we go

 

Last week Malcolm mentioned that the dog Forest is enough of a puppy to play with the younger Smash. However, he gave no photographic evidence ……. Until now!

The home of Ben and Katy’s family is just over 4 miles from the workshop and café – close enough, sometimes, for Malcolm to walk there.

The house is located in a large estate with scattered houses. One of the larger properties has rescued some wild animals. These include small herds of gazelles, elands, wilderbeests and zebra.

There are also 2 giraffe who roam around, bush pigs and occasional hyenas…...

 

Not to mention the termites and large snails!

On the way Malcolm passes the former Arusha Polo Club. The Club’s building still exist, a number of residents keep horses but sadly Polo is no longer played.

The route passes the Usa River station. This modest building is on the main line between Arusha and Dar es Salaam; a journey of over 500 miles. The good news is that tickets only cost from about £5 single for third class. The bad news is that there are only 2 trains a week each way and the journey takes over 18 hours overnight, if you are lucky. Still, that is less than 30p an hour and 1p per mile and saves on paying for a hotel – what do you expect for your money?

The journey to the workshop by road is about 4.5 miles, and takes about an hour and a half. There is a short cut frequently used by locals along the train track which, with very few trains is extremely safe, (almost!). However, this involves crossing ‘the Bridge of Death’. This is a 20 yard, narrow, piece of track carried only by steel sleepers with intermediate, semi rotten pieces of timber to partly fill the gaps which crosses a river about 20 yards below.

There are no guard rails or safety nets!!

The first time Malcolm tried crossing it he took 2 steps and had to turn back. Fortunately a sympathetic local abandoned his wife to cross over and help Malcolm across.

The second time Malcolm tried crossing the Bridge of Death, he took 2 steps, went back to avoid passing out and gave up. He turned back, travelled about 2 miles extra to get around the Bridge.

He needed an emergency pick me up when he arrived'

The SAFI Café has a delightful open air aspect in an attractive garden. It is partly covered by a canopy (essential in the rainy season) with covered tents for private groups in the garden.

 

Malcolm is gradually working his way through the menu! The meals are varied and freshly cooked from locally sourced ingredients, and so far Malcolm’s stomach scores the food A***.

Despite failure at the Bridge Malcolm has had some success this week. He was part of the team (Where’s Mandy’s donkey) which won the Café’s first ever quiz night. The eponomous Mandy was delighted to accept the prizes on the team’s behalf (which includes a voucher for a free meal and hot drink as the café!). 

Malcolm would like to boast about how he helped the team with the answers but his knowledge is limited concerning African history, African Proverbs and Pop Music since the 1980’s (other than about Fleetwood Mac!) But who cares? He has the certificate!

Back to basics.

This week the Café had to call on the ‘Water Taxi' (Maji taka in Kiswahili). This name hides a dark secret.

 As there is no mains drainage here (which means here in Tanzania other than large towns) properties rely on Septic tanks for waste disposal. As in Britain sewers can get blocked by ‘fatburgs’ which in the case of the Café seems to have been caused by pouring used cooking oil down the sink. As a result, there was a bit of a problem so the ‘Water taxi’ was called to sort out the problem. Is this the fifth emergency service? (though with no vehicle recovery service, or emergency ambulance service maybe it’s the third after police and fire?)