Shrinking my ignorance

I always enjoy our rides back from village visits especially when Gideon brings lively regional music such as Bahati Bokuku, Marlo, Rose Muhando or Justin’s favourite: Alpha Blonde. They translate the lyrics and I listen to them chat about current affairs and local culture. I learn so much. For instance that the Chair of the National Environment Management Council, Mr Reginald Mengi, is ironically the same man who owns the Tanzanian rights for ITV, East Africa TV, Kilimanjaro Water, Nepashe Newspaper, the (Tanzanian) Guardian news rights oh and.... yes that factory leaking green liquid emissions near Dar Es Salaam...the Coca Cola Company.

I learn that the hundreds of yellow petrol bottles lying flat around a school are what the children use to bring their required daily supply of water to school. They tell me that the two huge cylinders with staircases I can see in the middle of a field have been there since colonial days. Once used to stored cereal, then prisoners, they now make resilient homes for several families.

I also learn about some of the tribes here. Much cherished post-colonial leader, Nyerere, did a great job in stimulating harmonious tribal interactions in Tanzania. Today a Gogo and a Maturu can sit in the same car and joke about the Masai who’s short-man complex allegedly led them to allow tall members of the Barabaig tribe to make their wives pregnant so that their kids would be taller than their parents! Justin also claims the Wagogo got their bushy eyebrows due to mixing their genes with the Barabaig.