Travels and Thoughts of Late
I have been blessed of the last couple of months to be able to travel pretty much for free, had a couple of job offers in Southern Tanzania, so I went down to check them out, my prospective employers paying for me to come and see them, which was sweet.
The first was at Mngeta Farm, way out in the boonies, a huge rice project, about 3000 hectares of workable land, complete with a hydro power station, massive godown/wharehouse area and lots and lots of machinery.
They have a lot of investors from over seas, that need to be reported to on a daily basis, and that is the main job they wanted me to do, as well as assist the crops manager, and manage the office side of things. It wasn’t really my cup of tea, and while I felt I could have fit in quite well, I didn’t feel it was the right place or time for me there.
The second place was just outside of Iringa, a much smaller project, fresh vegetable production. Up there, I was to do a mushroom project and generally assist the owner/manager with his work with the vegetables. I really liked the place and I told him I wanted the job, but he came back to me yesterday, saying it wasn’t really the right timing for them financially.
Frustration – Yes…
Over the last few weeks I have felt toyed with… Something will fall through and then something will come up almost immediately after that.
Right now what I’m looking at doing is unfortunately not farming, but managing my parent’s restaurant/café for a little while, getting the food quality up to scratch and just generally keeping an eye on things.
However there are issues with permits etc… so not entirely sure how it will work, but if it doesn’t, I will move on.
Anyway, back to the main point – Southern Tanzania… it is amazing how the climate, soil and terrain in general can change in such a short distance – about 1100 kilometers from Arusha.
The soil is a sandy clay mix, which goes rock hard in the dry months, but is quite good to work with in the wet. You climb up in altitude about a thousand or so feet, so it makes it quite a lot colder, and the terrain is quite rocky, lots of mountainous areas, and lots of eucalyptus trees. There is a lot of charcoal production going on up there.
It was wonderful to go through Mikumi and Ruaha a couple of times, see a bit more of the country I have called home for as long as I can remember.
It is diverse, rugged and beautiful, and at the same time, a harsh and unforgiving lifestyle.
