Iringa

Never posted, from February 2011

I'm taking a little vacation in Iringa this week. My projects (with the exception of Mali Hai) are going nowhere and it was too frustrating to stay in the village and watch it happen. So I decided to get out for a bit. Iringa is nice, its not far from Dodoma, but the direct road is bad, so it took a long time to get there. It didn't help that the University of Dodoma let out for the term the day before I wanted to leave, so every outgoing bus was full. I was lucky to get the last ticket on the bus I took.

The drive to Iringa goes through Morogoro and a section of Mikumi National Park. I saw an elephant and impala! It was safari on the cheap at 50mph. Iringa is in the southern highlands so its nice and cool. A refreshing change from Dodoma. I found a hotel, got a room, and decided to walk around and orient myself with the town. I asked the hotel owner if I should leave her my room key and sh said yes. In TZ, you're usually supposed to leave your key when you leave the hotel. Its so they can get in to do cleaning and stuff and so it doesn't get lost or stolen. They don't have master keys or anything, so if you lose a key they have to re-key the door. I came back from my walk and she could not find my key at all. A half hour she looked for it, even checking couch cushions, bathrooms, desk drawers, etc. Finally she had to have some guys take he doorknob off the door and pry it open. I got my stuff out and she moved me to another room. I could tell she really felt bad about it, especially since I had asked if I should leave it with her! Since there was another room to give me, I didn't mind.

Let's see... I went to dinner a couple of times with my former sitemate and his girlfriend. Yummy Indian food once and super expensive Italian food with local JICA, KOICA, and VSO volunteers.

I took a side trip to Isimila, a site where stone age tools have been excavated. Its a huge dry gorge now, but they said it used to be a lake, and the stone age people made tools there because they hunted the animals that came to drink at the lake. There were also remains from extinct animals, like short-necked giraffes. But the best part was the awesome stone pillars nearby. I went without a guide, and the guy gave me lousy directions, so I got lost and missed them the first time. When I got back to the entrance I was a little disappointed in the whole experience and told one of the staff how I couldn't find the pillars. Just then a group from a local university showed up to tour the area, and I followed them out to see the pillars. A-mazing. Don't worry, I have pictures!