As you will very quickly gather this is Katie writing on behalf of Tarka, as he has just returned to Africa from a fleeting visit to the UK. (Confused?)

Well, Caroline Rose (our speaking agent) had been asked by a client if Tarka could return so they could book our dual talk. Considering all that’s gone on, with the projects goals changing due to my departure, and how Tarka is so passionate about his speaking, we were delighted to except the job. In addition it was a great opportunity to see each other, as it has now been 4 weeks since I left Africa and it will be a further 3 weeks before he is home for good. 

Tarka’s journey was a fairly hectic one, flying from Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania to Nairobi in Kenya and on to Heathrow, where I picked him up. We then drove to Birmingham to give our evening talk and then the following morning we went back to Heathrow for him to fly once again to Nairobi and then on to Dar Es Salaam. He is now making his way back to where he left his bicycle before he can continue into Malawi.

On a different note, Tarka throughout the journey has had very little time for taking photos, as when he is not cycling he his predominantly filming (our primary aim of the journey). On his brief visit back to the UK he did remember to leave with me his used DV tapes and memory cards. I have started to go through some of the DV tapes and the footage is really promising. Below I have posted some of the few photos he has managed to snap, most of them are from Kili, as this seems to be the only place he has had the time to take both photos and film footage, but there are a few more from the orphanage also.

This cross section of images from Kilimanjaro show just how diverse the landscape and terrain can be within the 5 day trek, ranging from the humid rainforest’s through to the punishingly cold glaciers.

 

Next are some more pics from the Huruma Orphanage (including another one for Hector)

 

 

 

 

Seeing as I am going through a rather depressing patch of cycling at the moment and I need to distract myself from the daily monotony, I thought I would let you have a very small Swahili Lesson. This is absolutely and by no means a definitive guide!!! In fact almost everything that I have learned so far has had to be by simply asking people to say the words over and over again as they point to it and I write the words down phonetically. I have been relatively surprised at how few people can write so I have done my best when I do meet somebody literate to get them to check what I have written. On that basis, I accept absolutely no responsibility if you chose to try out your new found Swahili, it all goes horribly wrong and you get lost in translation. The sign post that I cycled past this morning illustrated this nicely and made me laugh, maybe it was intentional. (Incidentally if there is anybody who happens to be an expert in Swahili and see’s a major mistake please let everybody know in the comments, thanks).

One thing you cant get away from in any language is numbers. Whether I’m asking the time, how far it is to the next village or probably most frequently, how much something costs. They all need a vague grasp on numbers.

1.Moja
2.Mbili
3.Tatu
4.Nne
5.Tano
6.Sita
7.Saba
8.Nane
9.Tisa
10.Kumi

100. Mia (Easy as thats my sisters name)
1000. Elfu Moja (2000 is Elfu Mbili and so on)

As a general rule the people of Tanzania have been incredibly friendly and so quite a considerable amount of the day is spent greeting people as I cycle past. Not only is it considerably nicer being able to greet people in their own language, but there are less English speakers in Tanzania than there are in Kenya (They also speak Swahili in Kenya although it’s a very different kind). So the basics of every greeting are:

Hello - Jambo
How are you? - Habari
(If you are speaking to somebody younger than you you can use the word Mambo which means - Hi how are you? but it should never be used to one of your elders!)
Welcome - Karibu
I’m great - Safi
Cool - Poa
No worries everything is fantastic - Sowa Sowa
Good buy - Kwa eri
Thankyou - Asante
What is your name? - Jina Lako Ninani
No Worries - Hakuna Matata

The word for ‘very’ is Sana and can be put on the end of other words ie. Karibu Sana - you are very welcome etc.

Unfortunately knowing a few words means that people assume I can speak the language well and rabble sentences off that are still a complete mystery to me. When this does happen I have to jump in with a very useful sentence:

I don’t understand! - Ona Taka Nini!

Foods are hugely important but as a general rule people only eat local produce so there is a relatively limited vocab to learn to get buy.

Banana - Endizi
Pineapple - Nanas
Mango - Embe
Coconut - Mnazi
(These make up the bulk of my diet at the moment)

Oogali is the staple food in quite a large proportion of Africa and although it takes on different names in different countries it is always the same. It is a maize paste that is probably best described as a bland version of mash potato. It’s not great to eat on it’s own but thankfully it is usually served with a sauce of either:

Vegetables - Maiza
Chicken - Kuku
Beef - Ngombe
Goat - Mbuzi

Some of the other foods that turn up that I was slightly surprised about are chips!!! For some extraordinary reason they have attributed the chip to Ireland and are always calling them ‘Irish Potatoes’. It makes me laugh that served up next to all the African fruit and Oogali is a dish they seem particularity fond of, the ‘chippi omlati’, I will let you deduce for yourselves what that might be!!!

A few other useful foods are:
Egg - Yai
Potato - Kiazi
Bread - Samaki
And probably the most important thing is water - Maji

The good news is that once you get the basics right Swahili is actually quite a simple language to learn. The bad news is that in about a week I will be crossing over into Malawi and all my hard learned Swahili will be of no use what so ever and I will have to start all over again. Oh well!!!

PS. Thank you all so much for your messages, they are much appreciated. I am slowly getting round to answering them all but my days are a little full at the moment so please be patient.

I have no idea if there is a category in the Guinness Book of Records for the ‘most breakages on a bike’ but if there is I would like to enter Herbert in, as I think he stands a good shot at the title. In the last 150km I have managed to clock up 12 punctures, 2 broken chains, a broken spoke and last but not least the rack on the back of the bike that holds my panniers decided that life was just too difficult and gave up the ghost this morning. The only saving grace is that I now have enough footage of me fixing tyres to make a feature length movie! Or if all else fails I suppose I could start up a bicycle repair school!

Incidentally Ben (Saunders), if you want to do some ‘real’ training you can forget racing around London on your 500g carbon fiber bike. Get yourself a rusty old bike (about 10kg) with no gears that is too small for you, load it up to the point of destruction and then ride 60km uphill with a semi flat tire into a head wind on a road with melted tar… It’s one of those moments when you should really admit defeat, get off the bike and push. But instead you get this irrational rage, refusing to give up and challenging the road to throw even more at you, in a kind of ‘is that all you’ve got?’ way!

A few days ago I developed a high fever and fearing the worst I counted my malaria tablets to make sure that I hadn’t missed any. Not being an expert on African diseases I thought it best to visit the next Malaria clinic on route at Same (pronounced Sah-may). The great news was that the malaria test came back negative, the not so great news was that it was going to take a whole day to try and work out what was the matter. After exhausting every possible option two doctors finally managed to agree that it was probably due to untreated water. Normally all the water that I drink is either bottled or iodized but when I went to the orphanage I was offered a glass of water and in a moment of empathy for the children I drank it without thinking.

I think more than anything else the prospect of the Huruma children having to drink that water day in, day out has spurred me on even more to try and help them get a water treatment facility installed. I suppose at times I am just as culpable as the next person, when I am at home I take for granted the fact that clean drinking water flows freely from every tap. The most alarming fact is that still in the 21st Century, with all our technology, the greatest majority of the worlds population still doesn’t have access to safe drinking water!!!

On a related, but not quite so serious note (well actually just as concerning but in a different way) I read a shocking statistic recently, that more Coka Cola (products) are consumed everyday around the world than water! I have to say that I was very sceptical about this at first and would appreciate it if anybody has any hard data to back this up. However having spent the last few months in Africa I am starting to believe that this might actually be true. Coka Cola products (I.e. Fanta, Sprite etc.) are consumed at a frightening rate. The cost of a bottle of coke along this trip has been between 10 and 20 pence (sterling) whilst a bottle of water has averaged out at about 50 pence (sterling)!!! I have watched people consume Coka Cola products with breakfast, dinner and every hour in between. As much as the statistic may be disturbing (if it is indeed true) you have to admire the marketing of a company that has such a global domination.

I haven’t forgotten you Hector! I know I promised you that I would take photos of insects and unusual wildlife, but by the time I have stopped the bike (anything up to about 100m without brakes) and got the camera out, most of them have run into the undergrowth. I did however manage to get a photo of this chameleon for you and I will keep trying.