Africa's Calistoga

I was prepared when I left the US to be a bit bored in Africa; I figured it would be kind of like Barbados – not really much to do for fun. I was right, but didn’t realize the extent of how little there is to do here!

Kigoma is a small town, and is now reminding me more and more of Calistoga. Except, believe it or not, I think Calistoga has more to do for the visitor than Kigoma. At least there’s wine-tasting and spas. Kigoma’s nicest building is the train station built by the Germans in the late 1800s. A pretty building, but empty since the rail line doesn’t reach Kigoma anymore. Town is a single street with “shops”, really just little storefronts where the owner sits behind the counter. We’ve found our favorite with the best cookie selection – a meal here really isn’t finished until you’ve had the full range of carbohydrates, it isn’t very satisfying to only have one or two kinds of carbs, really. The fun thing about the shops is that they are very specialized – there are several stands that sell sundry foods, but the others are very specific. Such as the pirated DVD store, the speaker store (sells nothing but stereo speakers, but sadly doesn’t have computer speakers), the ribbon store, the plumbing store, the electrical store, and the liquor store (selling wine from New Zealand for $8, but I have a feeling it’s been in the hot sun for a few years).

There are several small eateries along the one road in town (no stoplight – Calistoga has a one up on that) that serve the same thing: chips mai (omlette made with fries) and a variety of fried doughs. There is one small restaurant that serves rice and beans. And lastly, there’s Sun City, a restaurant we frequent because we get our food in 15 minutes (more on that later) and there are at least three things on the menu we can order – the same fish with three different sauces, served with three cups of rice. We usually either eat here or at Gibbs resort, which is where we stayed the first four days we were in Kigoma. So, needless to say, the food lacks variety. We tend to get excited about food that’s not necessarily good, but at least different (like the beans with rice – the rice had seasonings added to it, so at least it wasn’t white). We just got through trying to decide where to go for dinner, and none of the three options are sounding too appealing. It’s going to be a long month!

So other than “shopping” and eating, what else is there to do? I go for runs around town which are usually pretty entertaining. As I run along, I get yells of “mzungu!” and “jambo” as I go past, and plenty of giggles and smiles. Sometimes I run into more exciting road companions. Such as the time I looked up (I have to run with my head down so I don’t break an ankle in one of the gazillion potholes) and saw a heard of bull running towards me. Or my last run, where I ran to a small village nearby Kigoma that has a cute little port (lots of little wooden sail boats) and a small market. By the end of the run, I had the entire village of children running after me – at least thirty kids – all yelling and hollering as we ran. That run I did with Terry, the visiting boyfriend of one of the girls from the University of Michigan. The two MPH students are doing a study on women’s utilization of health facility in the rural villages outside of Kasulu, and spend their weekends here in Kigoma. They’re nice girls and we “hang out” (code for talk about how there’s nothing to do) sometimes on the weekend. Terry may be my new running partner, we had a fun time exploring and had a good run.

Unfortunately, western Tanzania is pretty out there (the bush, as Dr. Mbaruku calls it). The road connecting it to other areas aren’t really open all the time, and it’s not like there would be anything there that there isn’t here in Kigoma, since Kigoma is the “big city” on this half of the country. So no weekend trips for us, sadly. Stuck here in good ole Kigoma, watching the fish dry. It’s called dagaa, a local specialty. They’re tiny little fish about an inch long that fishermen lay out to dry in the sand (very hygienic) to dry (fun to watch, like paint) and salt, and are served as a snack or in a sauce with rice or ugali.

And well, that’s about it. There are still the discos to check out, which I think we might do next weekend. We met DJ Super at Sun City, so we’ll see how he spins.