Pictures

A DAY AT THE BEACH

Local fishing dhows plowing the waters off of Shangani Beach. Usually about four or five men man these boats, as they fish with hand-lines, nets, or fishing traps. The local fishing industry is what is known as an “artisanal fishery,” as it entails primarily the use of traditional equipment. These boats sail out from port just before sunset, and set up for the night, waiting to pull in their gear in the morning. Once dark, the lanterns on their boats line the ocean horizon, like a string of Christmas lights in a perfect line across the night sky.

West Shangani beach, near the original town of Mtwara, which is now no more than a row of mud thatch buildings amidst a forest of coconut trees. Sitting on this beach, you often have to remind yourself that you’re basically looking out towards Saudi Arabia. But when you get in the water, there’s no mistake that you’re swimming in the Indian Ocean. The water is warm, if not hot, heated by the bay’s shallow surface. The tide comes in fast, but even at high tide, you could walk several hundreds of meters out before reaching water over your head (you have to walk carefully, watching closely not to step on any sea urchins).


Moss enjoying the view


Merritt posing by the coral


At Msemo Resort, which is about a 15-minute bike ride from our house. This is a nice place to come relax and feel like we are on vacation rather than living and working in a small African Town.

HOME IMPROVEMENTS

Tanzanians have an unyielding affinity for painting rooms in a two-tone color scheme – dark on lower half, and a lighter shade on the upper half. While we’ve kept the pattern in our living room, the hallway seemed a little dark and dingy, though the remains of it can still be seen, as on the far wall in this picture. Now our house is mostly white with black floors, and although Merritt says it reminds her of a hospital, it is a lot more clean looking and comfortable. On the left is the office, the middle room (the former duka shop) is still unpainted and will serve as our workshop and a place to hang laundry. And the far room on the left will be a guest bedroom (so karibu!). In the middle of the hall on the right is an extra bathroom and shower room. The master bedroom is at the end of the hall on the right.


The new office – it’s still a little bare but nevertheless an enjoyable place to sit and work or read. Cooler than are other rooms (a relative term as you can see), from here you can take in the daily happenings of Magomeni. And the mosquito netting serves as kind of one-way window – allowing one to look out on the world, but apparently not allowing outsiders to look in. Here in Tanzania, the ability to go unseen is a rarity and it certainly is part of our growing affinity for this room.


Looking out the office window


The Kitchen. While I was away in Dar es Salaam for 10 days, Moss worked hard to paint our entire house and build furniture. These two tables are his works of art, as well as the desk in the previous office pictures. Notice the green buckets... they are our ‘dishwasher.’ Because water is sometimes unreliable, we keep one bucket full of soapy water and one bucket full of clean water. Our bucket system makes doing dishes a quick, easy process!


Our guest bathroom/shower room, coming from the living room this is located in middle of the hallway on the right. We often use the shower room to do the worst chore ever... laundry! Image spending 4 hours in this little room scrubbing your clothes...not fun.


Our bedroom, to the left is our bathroom and to the right is a bookshelf filled with clothes. Can you see Kali, snuggled between our pillows?


The bookshelf that Moss made. It was so nice to finally unpack after living out of a bag for three months.


In Other News

Okay so this is absolutely disgusting! But since we had the picture, we thought we should share it. This is the result of Moss dropping a pot of boiling water on his foot. He was unable to run for 2 weeks and is still limping around. The wound is finally healing and he is feeling much better, but as you can see this was a rather painful accident.


This is a picture of Maren (one of my new favorite people) and me in Dar es Salaam. She is the other Peace Corps Volunteer working for I-TECH. She lives in Mbeya, which is about 10 hours away from Mtwara, but we will be traveling to Dar together once every three months for an I-TECH conference.