4WD to the village of Mbingu

Wednesday 22 May 2013
4WD to the village of Mbingu

James again arrived at 1000 and invited me to his sister`s house for lunch.  The cooking is done outside the house under a simple small wooden stick framed structure with a thatch roof, without walls.  Cooking may be done in small mud brick ovens with a wire mesh grill over the wood fire or three stones on the ground placed far enough apart to place a pot or pan on top with a wood fire underneath.  The perimeter of the kitchen contains a small mound of raised dirt to keep the interior dry during rains.  Some of the thatched roof kitchens are large enough to contain one or two rows of wooden benches for sitting while cooking or eating outside of the rain.  Fortunately, the rainy season has ended as there is now ample sunshine. 

I have seen many bicycles being ridden through the village with large bundles if 2” to 3” diameter sticks 3’ to 4’ in length strapped to the rear tire rack of the bicycle.  I imagine these wood bundles have come from forests on the village outskirts and brought home as part of daily chores of gathering firewood for cooking.  These bicycles are ridden by mainly older women but sometimes by young children, as young as 7 or 8.

There is no grass in the village areas, only hard packed dirt with gardens between the various family compounds.  Between the compounds or houses are narrow dirt paths sometimes wide enough for two bicycles, two people or one motorcycle to pass going from one location to another.  Somewhat like a city street grid in the US, the transportation grid away from the village center contains these narrow meandering paths wide enough for two people side by side on foot.  Some of the yards contain woven reed mats to place on the ground for people to rest on without getting their clothes dirty.  As James` sister could see my profuse sweating, she did not want me sitting under the thatched roof near their cooking fire in the kitchen area, therefore, a plastic chair was brought for me and placed nearby.

The delicious meal was pieces of cassava in a vegetable soup.  Just outside the kitchen were three large plastic buckets where several women were peeling the cassava root, similar to peeling a potato, and placing the cassava in the buckets full of water to be rinsed.  None of the houses have indoor plumbing.  The water is carried in various sized buckets (the largest I have seen being maybe 7 or 8 gallons) from central wells located throughout the village

Father Kayera said the village proper had a population of roughly 8,000, not the 150,000 I had originally thought.  Although the district, he said has a population of 450,000.

I am now in Mbingu, 60 km from Ifacara.  The trip was made in an early 1980`s model Toyota Land Cruiser 4 wheel drive extended wheel base wagon.  Three nuns including Sister Senorina, who I had met in Ifacara with James a couple days before and two mechanics (one being the driver) were the passengers for the trip.  We left Ifacara just before dark.  The main and only road connecting these two places was the worst road I have ever seen for commercial traffic.

Mbingu is a major agriculture center for bananas, plantains, cashews and rice. Six wheel 40 foot container trucks carry these products to ifacara and further to Dar es Salaam.  These roads of hard packed dirt may only be improved or graded once a year and therefore have many ruts and washboards from the heavy loads being transported.  The roughness of the road meant a travel time of 2 hours 45 minutes for 36 miles.   That’s an average 13.1 mph.  At one point through the trip, we came upon 7 container trucks backed up where the first one in line was stuck in a mire of mud.  The larger trucks could not pass.  The two mechanics got out to inspect the passage, came back to put the Land Cruiser in 4WD and was able to maneuver through the ditch around the traffic jam.  We were quickly on our way again.

I sat in the front left passenger seat with the driver on the right.  With all the windows down and the sounds of the diesel engine, not much conversation was made with me.  Occasionally, Sister Senorina would yell up to me asking about what I thought about the condition of the road or to tell me the name of a remote village we were passing through or to ask if I wanted an ear of roasted corn or water being sold from outside the windows of the land cruiser as we passed through a remote village center.  Another stop we made in route was right after Sister Senorina announced to me if I needed a “Short Stop”.  Immediately, not thinking of or knowing what a Short Stop was, I asked what this meant.  She said a short stop was a bathroom break.  I said I did not need one but would take advantage of the break if someone else needed to stop.  The driver pulled over. The three nuns used the side of the truck to the center of the road while I used the side to the ditch for our short stop.

Before leaving Ifacara, Sister Senorina had invited me over to the convent for a late lunch before leaving for Mbingu.  During the meal and getting to know each other with a couple other nuns, intently listening in on the conversation (none speaking very good English) between Sr. Senorina and I, occasionally, she would stop the conversation to translate to the others.  After the end of the meal she asked if I wanted to practice any of the Kiswahili I had learned.  I said I had been collecting a list of important simple phrases such as “Where is the market?”, Where is the bank?”,  “Where is the bus station?”, Where do I buy a bus ticket”? etc.  I pulled out my list and asked “Choo kiko wapi?” as I really had to go to the bathroom and needed a proper time and opportunity to ask.  Having seen and used bathrooms with pit toilets without toilet paper (I carry my own in my backpack). I also asked if there was a place where I could sit and have a roll of toilet paper as I did not have mine with me.  They all laughed at my question saying they did not expect me to ask this from my list of phrases at the end of the meal.  They may think I am a crazy or strange Mzungu.