Ten passengers, one motorbike, one land cruiser and a goat named Hubert

We had a day off from Kiswahili class yesterday in order to visit Usolonga, a remote village north west of Iringa where Jen and I will be working. Our 8:30am departure only got delayed an hour as we had a few things to pick up in town to bring to the village. After collecting the medicine, cement, kerosene and a boy who wanted a ride, we were on our way! The drive there went smoothly, it was very humbling to see how people lived – the mud huts, miles of barren land and the countless children were a lot to absorb. I was in for another reality check upon arriving in Usolonga. (They weren’t kidding when they said ‘remote’). Usolonga is separated from the surrounding villages by a river that is unfortunately not passable by car as the bridge was destroyed by flash floods during the rainy season. We got to meet the doctor and two nurses that work at the dispensary (essentially the entire staff, minus Simon, the administrator who is currently on holidays). Andrew took us for a walk through the village to meet the preacher’s wife and to see the local church and school. As we were walking, the children would run out to meet us and would continue to follow us around – so by the end of our little ‘tour’ we had a faithful posy of at least 25 children! I’ll have to take some pictures of the church! It is essentially a very long, narrow mud hut, with little rows of clay humps along the inside walls for seating. Looking at the ‘building’ I would guess that it would hold approximately 50 people comfortably, but I am told that at least 150 people show up on Sunday mornings!! We ended up staying for three hours, meeting new people and seeing the ‘sights’ (which at the moment resemble a desert but during the rainy season should be beautiful and green!) Our ride home was VERY interesting – a true Tanzanian experience that I’m sure we’ll see a lot! We had five additional passengers on the way home; a carpenter (who was working on the house we will be living in), a couple and their 8-year old son (who were attending a wedding in the city) and a goat named Hubert (the wedding gift). Aside from the occasional wail from the goat, who was tied up and laying in a very large basket, the ride wasn’t too hectic. . . until we drove by two men and a motorbike. One of the men happened to be the village’s ‘mayor’/chief so of course we had to stop. The bike they were riding had a busted rear tire. After much deliberation and attempts to fix the tire, it was decided that the best thing to do was cram the motorbike into the back of the land cruiser and bring it to the nearest village to get fixed. That was the original plan, but after fitting the fairly large bike into the vehicle, they decided that there would also be room for everyone (ten people in total) and the goat! Needless to say, the ride back was not very quiet! The African concept of “there’s always room for one more” will take some getting used to!