Tag: April 2002

This is the first time I have written an article for this publication
and I should like to tell you all a little about the charity Trade Aid.
It was set up in 1996 by a group of people headed by Brian Currie, a Salisbury
businessman. The aim of the charity it to create sustainable employment
in a village called Mikindani, a deprived and desperately poor part of
Tanzania.

The first phase of the project was to renovate a badly decayed but very
beautiful German fort, situated on the side of a hill and overlooking
the spectacular Mikindani Lagoon. With the help of European experts, local
people have restored this building to its former glory, and it is now
open as a 6 bedroom, country-house hotel. All the staff are Tanzanian
nationals and most are local people from Mikindani and Mtwara, the local
town.

Now that this phase of the project is complete, we are concentrating
on promoting the hotel and attracting visitors to this beautiful and unspoilt
part of Tanzania. Mtwara has an airport and there are scheduled flights
six days a week. The airport is 20 minutes from the hotel and guests are
collected by the hotel staff.

There is a range of guest activities available such as a guided tour
around the historic village of Mikindani, a trip to the Ruvuma River on
the Mozambique boarder, snorkelling in the crystal waters of the Mnazi
Bay Marine Reserve, or a two-day excursion to the fascinating Rondo Forest
Reserve. Some guests may prefer just lazing by the pool at the Old Boma.

Each month we produce a newsletter written by our volunteers working
in Mikindani, and I will include some of their news and activities in
the next article. This is an item from our January Newsletter written
by one of our Gap Year volunteers, Matthew Maddocks.

“Our Christmas at the Boma and in Mikindani was one I will never
forget for a number of reasons. In George’s (a fellow volunteer)
absence we awoke and had an exquisite breakfast of fresh bread rolls,
jam, marmite and English tea. Eggs would have been a choice if Tanesco
had been festive and let us have some power! But our palette treats were
immediately withdrawn when Mtipa came through with a traditional soup
he’d prepared that morning. His present to us was the intestines
and internal organs of a goat he had slaughtered that very morning, stewed
together! Ian and myself managed a tiny taste but we were all shocked,
and playing ‘guess the organ’ was fun, but also highlighted
the fact we simply couldn’t eat it all!

The day’s events didn’t really pick up until just after lunch
when I slipped into the grotto we had put up in the courthouse and dressed
myself in the mock up Santa’s outfit we had made. Dennis had said
that it would have been the first time Mtwara region had been visited
by Father Christmas and as I expected a few of the visitors were scared
silly and ran out again given one glimpse of me! However, overall it was
a big success and after asking names, ages, if they had been good, each
child was given a gift (including George who had just returned and came
to sit on my knee and tell me what a good boy he’d been.) One small
Indian boy did ask me for a car however giving that he was 5 and perhaps
not ready for such things I gave him 'the even better thing' from
my sack!”

I hope some of you will visit The Old Boma, and see this hidden treasure
of Southern Tanzania for yourselves. There is more information about the
Hotel, the Charity and the project on our website www.mikindani.com
The Beetle would just like to add that she visited the Boma, chatted with
the staff, had tea by the pool at the Boma, and it is not only fantastic
what the charity has achieved, but also the fact that they are genuinely
giving something back to the community.

This summer, three students from Imperial College, London will travel
on horseback to the remote and beautiful valleys and mountains of the
Altai Republic in south Siberia. The expedition will leave the UK on the
21^st June and return in mid-August.
Here they will work with Altaian colleagues to record and map the ethno-musical
landscape of this unique area, where Islam and Buddhism have met and mingled
with the indigenous animist Altaian culture.

This exciting expedition will be the first ethno-musical study ever carried
out in the region, and will provide us with a window on this little-known
world. The music the team encounters and record will be placed in the
sound archives of Altai and Britain, to provide an enduring record of
the unique and colourful Altaian culture.

The expedition has the approval of and is part-support of the Royal Geographic
Society, the UK National Sound Archive and Imperial College

The team invites sponsorship from any interested parties, and can offer
interviews, photo opportunities, articles and coverage for sponsors.

For more information contact team-leader:
Richard Scrase, 129C Sterling Place, South Ealing, London, W5 4RD
E-mail: Click Here
Web: Click Here
Tel:+44 (0) 207 852 1879 / 0778 779 4250

On Mardi Gras in good old Carnival style some 800 identically dressed
men go to the streets of Binche in south Belgium to fight for their freedom
from feudalism like they used to some 400 years ago. In colourful uniforms
with padded bellies and hunchbacks individual Gilles walk chaotically
up and down the town stamping their clogs rhythmically to the sound of
their personal drummers to pick up some fellow Gilles from their homes.
After a while small groups of them form and along with their personal
drummers trot their clogs on the cobblestones from one drinking establishment
to another.

There doesn’t seem to be any age restrictions so they start from
the clog wearing age to wheelchair ones capable to stamp their feet. Although
there seems to be some distinctions in the ranks. Novice Gilles get up
early in the morning and wearing identical masks march straight on the
Town Hall. “Approved” ones are allowed to trot through all the
bars and tavernas till the early afternoon when the real battle starts.

Clans of Gilles turn to the streets with long baskets full of blood oranges
to start defending themselves. Crowds of friends and relatives follow
them with massive sacks of ammunition. It is not clear why oranges have
been originally used as offensive weapon or how XVI century paysans managed
to import some 6 tonnes of them from Sicily. Nevertheless they start marching
through the centre of the town throwing them more or less violently into
the crowd. Oranges get squashed, splatted, caught, eaten or collected
for later. Interim result is that most people look like Sissy Spacek in
Carrie horror movie. Ambulances get busy and the battle goes on for a
coupe of hours till even the senior Gilles wearing some 2 meter hats of
ostrich feathers get to conquer the Town Hall.

Slight drawback is that the locals keep spraying some sticky foam all
over people and with complete lack of public conveniences there is little
one can do to clean it off. Also serving good old Belgian beer traditionally
in relevant glasses and in large quantities leaves the cobblestones scattered
with broken glass and mainly blood from oranges running down the streets.

My score was: caught two oranges, got badly hit by one on the forehead,
was handed one while licking off my face after the first hit and apart
from two badly dislocated fingers I really enjoyed the event.

Take a look at Krys’ web site: www.krystyna.com/Gilles.html

Oman is a fascinating country. For anyone who has been to Zanzibar, there
are striking architectural similarities, but it is not all about modern
or ancient towns, there’s desert, mountains and, of course, the
Arabian Sea! Most of the dive operators are attached to hotels. There
is one dive operation, called Dive Oman which is about 45 minutes drive
south from the airport at Muscat Dive Oman is run by Bernard and Stephanie,
a lovely couple, (French and Dutch) and is part owned by the poshest hotel,
which is close by, called the Al Bustan. Bernard can be contacted on:
diveoman@omantel.net.om

Here, you can stay right on the beach in a range of accommodation, from
air con rooms to a shared dorm. The bay from here is superb, not much
to see snorkelling, but it is very pretty, and a short boat trip away,
you will be able to see dolphins.

The diving is very good for the novice and intermediate diver: there
are no currents to speak of, you’ll find it difficult to get deeper
than 20m and the visibility is generally 15m +. The corals are not as
colourful as say the Red Sea, but this is more than made up for by fantastic
amounts of fish! Great for macro photographers too! You get loads of them
and they are so unafraid! The Beetle did not see anything particularly
large, but there were lots of turtles, and the occasional docile reef
shark, and in the right season, there are whale sharks. Visibility ranges
from 15m+ and the water temperature is around 25 degrees C.

Dive Oman is a very safe dive operation, not run by cowboys, good air
– reasonable equipment although the Beetle has her own. A proper briefing
preceded each dive and although few dives were guided, it was very safe
and almost impossible to get lost!

If you stay at Dive Oman, they are stuck out in the middle of nowhere
and only have food at weekends i.e. Thursday and Friday, so you'll
have to hire a care and go off and find something yourself the rest of
the time.

If you are British, you can buy a visa at the airport, around £16
or $23. If you have an Israeli stamp in your passport, forget it, you’ll
have a hard time getting in. Also, the Omanis are the worst drivers the
Beetle has ever seen, even worse than the Egyptians! And that takes some
doing! So driving can be fraught! The Beetle drove as a female over there,
which is possible but a major novelty, so she had cars overtake and then
sit on the other side of the road just staring in as she drove! The dress
code is long and baggy: don't wear shorts outside the dive centre
and females should wear long baggy trousers and long sleeved shirts or
long short sleeved T shorts.

Other dive operators include Blue Zone and Ecodivers bluzone@gto.net.om

Dive Oman have a web site: http://www.diveoman.com.om/

Next month: more on the sites of Oman

Meeting news from our branches around the world.