A Time and a Place to Catch Up

 
It’s been the last full week for Malcolm in Tanzania as he begins thinking about packing up to return to the UK.

Last week he mentioned that he has been playing the Cajon at the Fellowship services. For those of you unfamiliar with this type of drum, here it is. And yes, it can double as a chair!

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And it’s been an exciting week – in a Tanzanian way!

We’ve mentioned that there is a railway station in Usa River, near the SAFI Café. With only 2 trains a week each way, the main use of the train station is as a shelter when Malcolm got caught in a heavy storm on the way walking home.

However, on Friday he saw a train! – Or at least a train engine. Sadly, it was in the dark and he didn’t have a chance to take a photo. The main excitement, though, was the lack of warning. Unlike the UK there in no warning that a train is coming. Malcolm had borrowed Katy’s car and was driving to a point where the road crosses the rail track.

 

There are no warning lights or automatic gates. Nothing to stop someone driving across the track whilst a train is coming. When Malcolm was approaching a crossing by car, fortunately someone waved him down to warn him that a train was coming, and it passed after about 5 seconds.  Phew!

Driving has its own excitement even without trains. Main roads are tarmacked, but most other roads are dirt tracks. There is normally a maintenance regime which periodically ‘regrades’ the road by scraping the surface and flattening it. But fairly quickly, particularly in the rainy season, the road gets churned up and in places turned to mud. This means potholes everywhere.

But not just small potholes, as in parts of England. This is Africa so there are big potholes that look like ponds!

And to make life more interesting on his 4 mile journey home, which is slow enough due to the potholes, there are at least 50 sleeping policemen (speed bumps). These become even more effective when the rain washes the road surface away by the side of the bump.

Malcolm has mentioned some of the animals that live around the house he is staying him. This week, a herd of Elands cossed the road in front of him.

Then a small family of monkeys passed by.

All sorts of animals wander around. On Friday an unsupervised cow decided to wander along the main road outside the SAFI Cafe

And at Malcolm’s house, a caterpillar of a Monarch Butterfly built its Chrysalis on one of the shutters. It will be interesting to see if the butterfly emerges before Malcolm leaves next Thursday.

And finally, for twitchers reading this: