Construction, the Tanzania way!

Written by Trent Lawson - Tanzania 2008 UniBreak Volunteer

This week i organised a door, windows and desks for the Nursery School. Laraha (the maasai i am currently living with), the boss Fundi (builder) and myself travelled from Esilalei to Mto wa Mbu, or Mosquito River by Dalla Dalla (the local transport here, a minivan that seats 11 including driver but is usually crammed with between 25 and 30 ppl not to mention livestock also).

After finding out that our other contact had only paid half for the total cost of doors and windows, we had to call a driver from Donna's safari company who was in the next main town and hour away to come and spot me the $210 USD to pay the bill. Once this was paid, we travelled back to the market, halfway between esilalei and mto wa mbu to hire a truck. After about 30 mins of bargaining we were on our way back to Mto wa Mbu with a truck, and 2 very drunk maasai who were already in the back of the truck when i hired it (i felt like i couldnt kick them out). Once we were all loaded up with the door and windows, we stopped at another builders yard to order 30 desks. The order was placed, and deposit paid, and we were on our way back to Esilalei to drop the door and windows at the school site. On the way back one of the drunk maasai men spat flem out the side of the truck which got caught by the wind and was blown back onto my neck and it dribbled down my back, NICE!

The day began at 9am in Mto wa Mbu and ended at 7pm at the school site. I was very dirty (swahili: chafu sana) and very tired, and in dire need of a beer, which was warm of course ;)