..."I left Lushoto on the 26th of June. My next destination was the Amani Nature Reserve, which stands as one of the primary reasons for me picking this country as a destination. I learned about Amani, its beauty and importance, out of Rainforest Conservation Fund, which has established one of its international project, here. This has happened in the begging of the last year, when I started researching the organization (the next, dedicated to the Amani Project post, will include info about RCF and our cooperation). It was then when I discovered this natural monument, and since then visiting the area has been a dream to me! I had informed RCF about my intention to visit, and I was contacted by Mr Cordeiro, from the USA, but also by Mr Dangalasi, who could not join me to Amani, because of the final examinations of the University of Dar Es Salaam (he is teaching there). On our last communication, he told me that a local priest, named father Barutti, who has been working with RCF, would be my guide when I was to arrive there, and he would also host me to his place. And so was it. A dala-dala took me to Muheza after almost five hours of travelling literally one on another. But you need to witness this in order to get the picture. The way they fill these small, ancient and badly maintained vans with passengers is equally impressive with the way they drive… Especially for him who will experience this for the first time, I guess it will look to be completely insane to him. When arrived in the bus station of Muheza, I headed to a local restaurant, got myself a “tsai” (tea), and called father Barutti. He told me he would come and pick me up with his 4X4. Amani is some 35Km away from this city, and this should normally take one hour and a half. One hour later, he called me again and said his track was stack in the mud, as it has been heavily raining this morning. I said I could take a local transport, but Mr Barutti said that the taxis and the public bus did not make schedules because of the bad condition of the road. There was the possibility of the bike-taxis, but I didn’t have to do that, because he would come and pick me up, next morning. I got the idea that this kind of special treatment had to do with my co-operation with the organization, that it was a fruit of it, which proved to be far away from truth, as proven in the next few days."... read more...
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 18:09:59 +0000
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