I met this young woman who recounted the story of how con artists visited her home and convinced her husband to sell all his belongings, 6 head of cattle and an oxen plough. Promised instant riches, the husband obliged and handed the cash to the connivers.
The couple were taken to a graveyard at a hilltop in the district headquarters at Bunda and the woman recalled seeing the cash being wrapped in some old newspapers, and a mysterious voice from one of the graves issued instructions to wrap the cash in newspapers, bury it in their compound, and retrieve a larger stash of cash after a few days. They followed the instructions and retrieved old newspapers without the cash.
Her husband was ashamed to tell his neighbours of his misfortune and she wandered off to beg for money to buy food to feed her children. The only cash earner for the family was the oxen plough which had been sold at the suggestion of the con men.
June 16, 2010
June 16, 2010
The Mwanza railway station building used to be an extremely busy place during its heydays when rail travel on the Central Railway Line used to be the main conveyor of goods and passengers between Dar es Salaam and most of the Lake zone regions of Kagera, Mara, and Mwanza.
Now, road travel has replaced the rail as the principal conveyor of goods between Dar es Salaam and the Tanzanian hinterland.
June 18, 2010
June 18, 2010
I was in Dubai at the invitation of Jaffar Amin who visited Butiama in April 2009. At his office he, left, extended to me the “official” welcoming handshake.
Later in the afternoon, we visited the World's tallest skyscraper and I looked down at other shorter buildings that appeared like toys.
The immense height of the building is illustrated by the necessity to tilt a camera diagonally to fit the entire building in the viewfinder of a camera.
June 19, 2010
Jaffar donated a new Nikon digital single reflex camera to the Mwalimu Nyerere/Mt. Kilimanjaro Charity Climb, my annual fund raising drive for charitable causes. Now, in addition to my small Sony Cybershot, I had a serious camera to document the annual charity event involving climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, and I had one less excuse for climbing the mountain again.
June 20, 2010
On a walkabout in Dubai, I learnt about some of the strict laws that are in force in Dubai.
June 23, 2010
After I returned to Dar es Salaam I walked past my old secondary school, Tambaza, and it appeared to me that right in the middle of what used to be our football grounds were two apartment buildings under construction.
Many years earlier I noticed the same encroachment on the school grounds of my old primary school, Bunge.
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