Africa. Travel without an agenda.

A year ago this week, Jamison and I began our “sojourn” across East Africa. A year ago, we landed in Nairobi, Kenya and began our long process of navigating transportation, housing and information.

Now, in light of the current political turmoil, I found myself remembering the way many Kenyans had avoided speaking about politics, sitting in restaurants with large framed pictures of President Kibaki. One woman had mentioned what was then ‘next year’s election’ with fear. “He won’t want to step down,” was all she said, frowning.

Now, two weeks after a corrupt election and a run of violence that claimed the lives of more than 600 civilians, Kenya faces political instability unless something is done to reconcile election results and political unrest.
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An old friend of mine, who runs a productions company in Madagascar, is screening a film at The Galapagos Center in Brooklyn on monday. It’s called “Voyage of the Vézo,” and it sounds awesome. It’s free, and open to all.

For more information visit www.ddcmadagascar.com

or download the PDF with synopsis of the film.

Where the hell did we go!? You might have been missing out updates on Sojourner Dispatch, or you might be rather content not getting any extra email. Either way, we´re back.

Update: We´re about to move to Brooklyn (tomorrow), I´m taking classes at New School University, Aubrey is searching for a job that won´t drive her (and subsequently me) around the bloody bend, and so our sojourn continues. We promise to post about all our happenings through the eyes of two culture shocked Africanists.

If you are wondering weŕe we went… well we fell in a hole. Aubrey stood on my shoulders to try and get out. I got mud all over me, and we fell back down. So now, we´re trying again.

See you in an African minibus minute…

Sorry, Jamison

OK, so we have been slacking a bit on the site…sorry. Things got busy here last week when my family showed up to take us on Safari across Northern Tanzania. It was an incredible change of pace from what Jamison and I are used to, but a welcome one.  I need to thank my parents again for bringing us along, into a part of Africa that without them, we would not have seen.

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Ok, I promise we will start to put some more interesting things up here soon. In the mean time, here is an update of where we have been since Bagamoyo:

Lushoto:

After Bagamoyo, we caught a dala-dala to Dar, navigated public transport around town, booked our South African Airways tickets home, hopped more public transport, then a private hire taxi, then a big bus for 5 hours, and a overstuffed dala-dala for the last hour from Mombo to Lushoto. Sound confusing? Yep,  that was 6 different forms of transportation and 12 hours of travel. We reached Lushoto absolutely bone tired.

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We made it to the beach! After months and months of travel along the roads of Africa’s interior, we have finally made it back to the Indian Ocean. Bagamoyo, just an hour ride north of Dar es Salaam is a little slice of dilapidated heaven. Ruins of the 19th Century slave trade, German and Arab control remain, crumbing around town. The crumble is pretty, atmospheric and a nice change from the boring concrete buildings in most cities, but it doesn’t make up for the lack of decent food.

We have been on the road for long enough that food is a main attraction. Well, it always has been, but I’m reaching my limits with bad stew and overcooked meat. This little town has promising daily catch: fish, crab and octopus. Unfortunately, much of the good food ends up exported away from the landing to the expensive resorts at the side of town and elsewhere. At the landing, its easier to get beef stew and ugali than a decent fish meal. Odd.

So, while we’re whiling away some time under the enormously tall coconut palms, we spend the majority of our time thinking about food and how to find something decent.

Regardless, there is a ton of creativity here in Bagamoyo. The town’s atmosphere is shaped in part by its plethora of little art galleries, where youth train with more experienced artists. Local work, from huge busts of past political figures to tingatinga paintings and wood carvings. The creativity and spirit of the art and drumming and drama that is somewhat omni-present is refreshing. Granted, the quality of the work is not expert, but its nice to see a town so committed to the arts - and to see this supported through the class system.

Lets see, what else? We’re getting boring, sorry. Jamison got his tooth fixed in Dar es Salaam. It took about 20 minutes to get the hole filled - turning back was a non-option once he sat in the chair for consultation. The dentist just went straight in with the drill, no Novocaine, and 20 minutes and 50 dollars later, his teeth were back to somewhere near normal.

Next up on our itinerary are the Usumbara mountains about 5 hours north of Bagamoyo. While supposedly incredibly beautiful and temperate, my main attraction to these mountains is the locally made cheese, yogurt and granola. The guide book had best not be wrong about this!

Over and out.

So, its been a while since we posted. Sorry. Things have been mighty confusing here lately, but I’ll try to keep the rundown short.

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I haven’t believed in the tooth fair since she stopped giving me money. She must have figured out that I was leaving chicklets under my pillow, and not teeth. And so I logically stopped believing in her.

So you must understand my surprise, when long after I grew the manly permanent teeth I own today, she came out of retirement. Perhaps in retribution for the chicklet, she took part of my molar. I don’t remember it happening, but she got it none the less. With a shock, and a start, I dove under my pillow searching for some Tanzanian shillings, but alas, nothing but dirt and sand.

So as you may be away of, we’re (still) in Kigoma, Tanzania. Yeah, I don’t know how the Tooth Fairy found me here either. Tomorrow morning, Aubrey and I board a 24/hr overnight train to Dodoma (on the other side of the country). We’ve been waiting for 2 weeks to get this train, which cost a pretty penny (shilling). And so, on a day when no dentist anywhere in the world is in his office, that Fairy of all Teeth decides to equalize things. Not to mention that Tanzania isn’t known for it’s dentistry.

Now, I’m not really complaining. If you know me personally you’d know I like to reserve my complaining for times in my life that don’t really hurt (which is most of the time).

None-the-less, I need help. If you have any recommendations for for short term care and diagnosis. As the picture below shows, I have a filling on the tooth, but I don’t have a lot of pain coming from the tooth. What really scares us is the Tooth Fairy coming back with an abscess, which might end our sojourn. Please send and email to jamison@thewiggins.com or leave a comment on this post with suggestions.

Click image for full size.

So I figure (hope!) the Tooth Fairy and I are even, but I think I’ll sleep with a flashlight tonight. Just to be safe.

Hi all. Aubrey has a new album going: Tanzania! You can view it by clicking the album below, AND, as a new Sojo feature, you can subscribe to the Photos feed!

Album: Tanzania

Since I’m sure you come to the Dispatch for Aubrey’s Photoraphy, I thought you might want it delivered to you. You can do this in 2 ways. The first is through the ubiquitous RSS feed, and the other is by the ever simple subscription by email. If your using Internet explorer, Firefox or Safari you can click the orange icon below, and your browser should walk you through the setup.

Here are the links.

This is the RSS Feed.

or get it by email (it’s a pop-up, so turn your blocker off):

Subscribe to Sojourner Photos by Email

We may have been very bored for the last week, but that doesn’t mean we completely gave up exploring the area of Kigoma and the institutions held within.

Over the last two weeks, I have been communicating with a local primary school, just up the road from our guest house. The communication has been friendly but full of bureaucratic ridiculousness. I showed up last Wednesday to see if they had any use for a volunteer TEFL English teacher. A teacher, once he understood that I did not want to get paid, told me to come the next Tuesday at 10am.

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