Ticket to Ride (Zug um Zug) Tanzania

All aboard the Tanzanian Express! On my way up to Dar for our Close of Service (COS) Conference a couple of weeks ago, a few other volunteers and I decided to take a ride on the Tanzanian railroad system. Despite what you may think, the trains in this country are actually considerably slower than the buses (no small feat), only run twice per week to a very limited number of cities, typically arrive hours after schedule, and, aside from 3rd class tickets (think standing only, rush hour subway - esque sardine packing for multiple days) are even more expensive than your average big bus. So why would anyone in their right mind actually choose to ride the train rather than a bus? Well, as far as Tanzanians go, very few actually do take it aside from those in 3rd class who are simply looking for the most economical way to travel, since those tickets actually are very cheap. But for we foreigners, why the heck not? As long as you have a 2 day time frame within which to reach your destination. There's much more leg room than a bus, a small fold-out table to watch movies on, "concessions" being sold by mama's along the way, and a rare chance to see some of the more stunning scenery in an already inspiringly beautiful country.

The train starts in Zambia and passes through the town of Makambako, which is about an hour north of Njombe, my banking town, on its way to Dar es Salaam. There are two trains in each direction weekly: an express train and an ordinary train. Unfortunately the one we needed to take was the ordinary, but then again, we were in it for the experience and to get to see the country in a new light, so longer wasn't necessarily worse in our case. The station gets very busy on the train days, and seems to turn into a free hotel for a lot of people. Outside there is a sizable shanty town of various vendors and child salesmen, selling things like hot tea, roasted corn and blankets, since this is now the winter season in the southern highlands. We found a small plot of wall space to set up camp and wait an unknown number of hours for the train to arrive.

The arrival time itself was quite ambiguous, but we ended up waiting around 4 hours until our train rolled in at around midnight. Not too bad given our expectations. After waiting for them to attach the car that contained our actual train cabin, we were finally settled in around 2am. The cabins had 6 fold-out padded benches for beds stacked in 2 columns 3-high. In between was a fold-down table and above was a good amount of storage space for luggage. Even though it was only four of us travelling, we bought out the whole cabin to ensure our privacy.

When we woke up the next morning, we were a good ways farther north into some much hotter weather, but there was plenty of breeze in the cabin - another major plus over the buses. We entertained ourselves by playing some card games, including the Ticket to Ride Card Game, which, being played while travelling on a train, could only be likened to playing Settlers of Catan on the Old Settler's Trail in the Smokey Mountains. At various stops along the way, children would come playing around the train tracks (right in line with typical Tanzanian children's standards of safety). We gave them paper cranes and airplanes made of colored post-it notes, which they got really excited for.

The train arrived in Dar almost exactly at midnight, so our full trip was right at 24 hours. We then went from looking like homeless train bums to staying at a schnazzy beach resort in Dar for our COS Conference. The hotel had its own beach, swimming pool and air conditioned rooms, so a big change from what we had just gotten used to on the ride up. But undoubtedly the best feature of the hotel was its thrice daily buffet meals, each consisting of about 8 courses, linked together by intermittent chai and snack breaks. I guess they were trying to compensate for all of the volunteers who have lost too much weight over the last 2 years by fattening us up over a week of binge-eating.

The week was a great vacation and final opportunity to spend time with the remaining volunteers from my training class. Although it wasn't quite as relaxing for me, since I am still trying to figure out if my extension will work out. At this point, it sounds like it would be very easy to extend at my site and just change the focus of my service from teaching to doing other secondary projects like these science competitions. There are a couple potential partner organizations that I could end up extending with, but those obviously take more time to figure out and to see if their needs match up with what I want to do. Nonetheless, I am trying to remain patiently optimistic to have my plans for the next year settled before long.

Since finishing our COS Conference, I have been staying in Dar for our Shika na Mikono (Hands-on Science Group) handover meeting to the new class of volunteers. We have been helping them to plan the upcoming trainings for the Education volunteers coming in July, as well as handing off all of our training resources and brainstorming new ideas for the future of the group. We are hoping to put more of an emphasis on science competitions along with doing more practice "practical" lab exams similar to those given for the national exams, to help the PCVs get a feel for what preparation duties they may have at their schools. Of course if I end up extending, I will still remain a part of the group and hopefully be able to help push the competitions and confereces aspect myself. Woo science!

I am now on my way back home, where I will be for one night before taking a handful of students to Wino (the nearby volunteer's school) for another mini science weekend. One of the original students that I took to Njombe in March came up to me and asked if we could do another competition there to get more students involved, so we will do that Saturday and Sunday. This time we may try out some new ideas like building gliders, paper helicopters and probably more JEOPARDY games. More on that to come!

Meanwhile, using the magical powers of Dar internet, I've been able to upload my video from the science weekend at my school in April. One of the teachers at my school was able to take some great video footage, which was a great help in putting this together. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt-ZGmLOfKQ&feature=youtu.be