Week 02: Kindness, Chaos & Dairy Dreams

From surprise dinners to Peace Corps adventures, embracing the unknown

Our week here started with a bit of an adventure we never saw coming. On Friday night, we were kindly invited to a “house” dinner by the owner of our hostel, Erick. Still learning the ropes of kindness and obligation here in Iringa, we accepted, knowing nothing expect it was a meal we probably wouldn’t have to buy ourselves. By the end of the night, we had met the equivalent of Tanzanian Jeff Bezos, a man who owned a large conglomerate of businesses, including dairy production, trucking, fuel, cooking gas, real estate, agriculture and much more here in Tanzania along with several of his friends. Despite our lack of language skills, we were invited to go to the “Farm” on Saturday which we didn’t know what that meant but accepted. After a night out with new friends, we weren’t sure what to expect the next morning, but the vibes told us we weren’t really invited to the farm.

To our surprise, we were shortly instructed to hop in the car because it was farm time. Soon we found ourselves touring the largest dairy farm in all of East Africa. We saw some of the 2,000 permanent bovine residents and the sprawl of this farm from a watch tower at the farm headquarters. While touring, Mr. Ahmed, showed us how nothing was wasted, the manure was repurposed into liquid fertilizer and solid bedding for the cows, and the “no touch” technology that limited the potential of disease transmission from human to cow. 

1) An irrigation dam being constructed at the farm 2) The area where the cows file in to get milked twice daily 3) View from the farm headquarters, overlooking the mountains 4) View of the corn fields that are grown as feed for the cows 5) Lucy and the horses of the second farm 6) Jersey cows at the second farm 7) Views from the paddock with the Arabian horses

During our first full week here, we mastered the art of group bajajis, small three wheeled taxis that bump and bounce over the streets, squeezing as many people as possible. After we arrive in town from our group bajaji from the hospital, we are met with the bustling market.

Shouts, sounds and smells pierce the air. We are the only white people in what seems like the whole market and we face the stares associated with that fact. As we stroll through, we see the busy bus stop, packing travelers into small dala dalas, heaps of clothing, being pawed through by eager shoppers and shoes being handcrafted from tires. The resourcefulness and persistence of people here reminds us that they live hand to mouth. With that reminder, we learn that it’s ok to give our bajaji driver Tito 10,000 TSH instead of 8,000 TSH, a difference of $0.76, but a little goes a long way here. 

Each day that passes, we know that our time here grows shorter and we must make the most of it. Each new interaction holds the possibility of a new adventure, so why not take it while we have the opportunity. So with that, we ended our week adventuring with new friends from the Peace Corps, capitalizing on the time and place we exist in. 

1) Chai at Hasty Tasty 2) View of the mountain that overlooked our hostel 3) A puppy that lived on our street 4) Group bajaji ride home from the hospital! 5 & 6) Views of the sunset from our walk to dinner!