Language training - week 1

Once again I have proven myself incapable of learning a new language.  I can follow the logic and rules of verb and adjective construction well enough but I have the memory retention of a goldfish when it comes to vocabulary.  This means that the word I want is never there when I want it.  Oh well!  The greetings, numbers and shopping words will have to do - again.  I endured week one and will endure week 2.

Pied Colobus

The college campus here at Usa River (-3.37016, 36.83890) is rather nice with many huge trees and a stream flowing along one side.  There are many birds but it seems they too are waiting for the wet season to arrive (now about 6 weeks late).  The birds are very quiet.  Yesterday Jenny and I were in the middle of an active mixed flock - maybe 10 species and 20 individuals and not one was making a sound.  After a week I have 50 species here including White Stork, Booted Eagle, African Emerald Cuckoo, White-eared Barbet, Green-backed Honeybird (lifer), Amur Falcon (lifer), Isabelline Shrike, Sombre Greenbul, Violet-backed Starling, Pale Flycatcher, White-starred Robin, Rüppell's Robin-Chat and Golden-backed Weaver.  There are also Blue Monkeys and Pied Colobus monkeys to entertain us.

There is a small hill in the middle of the grounds with a tower you can climb for a view over the trees to Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro.  Kili is often shrouded with cloud but occasionally it shows with small patches of snow.

Mt. Kilimanjaro with snow patches.  It is 65 km away and nearly 5000 m higher than the college campus.

Yesterday (Saturday) Jenny and I went to the other side of Arusha to her workplace in Ngaramtoni.  Jenny had to fill out all her visa application papers again as she will be now applying through the Catholic church.  It is important to give the visa people no reason to reject so to be thorough she filled out forms in blue and black pen, made sure documents were printed double-sided and rewrote her resumé to fit on just one page (down from original four).  We were told our passport photos should have a blue background and the white background would be grounds for rejection so we drove into the nearest shops to have our photos retaken and another 24 printed each.  I hope they are the right shade of blue.  The chances of visas being approved in time for us starting our jobs on the 29th are slim.

Our borrowed Suzuki Jimny

We have a house and car!  We signed the lease on the house and move in next Saturday.  It will be great to stop living out of suitcases.  Yesterday we borrowed a car from Jenny's workplace - Olkokola.  They have several that are for the use of volunteers.  We scored a tiny Suzuki Jimny.  It goes well apart from a steering-wheel shudder at 70-80 km/h - wheel balance issue perhaps?  We will use the Jimny until we get our visas and will then look for a bigger Suzuki or Toyota to buy.  To celebrate our wheels we are taking the other volunteers here to lunch somewhere nearby today.

A word about the failed wet season.  Supposed to start in March we are now well through April and it still hasn't arrived.  Crops that were sown in anticipation are now looking very thirsty and many paddocks are lying bare waiting for rain so sowing can commence.  As I write this it is gently raining but we need days of good rain.  If this long wet season fails we will have to wait until October for the next, short wet season.

Bird list (122 species/4 lifers).