Man in Crows Jersey seen slaughtering a goat??

Yesterday started with a trip to the Manyoni market, big things hadbeen promised but it was a bit of a sad affair except for the cattle market.Lots of photo opportunities, but reluctant people who quite definitely did not wanttheir picture taken.  So I needed todevelop some new strategies, zooming in from a distance was one tack but itneeded a very steady hand; ah! but there was a dead set solution for women,“can I take a picture of your baby?”, “oh yes of course” and then the wholefamily gets drawn in. But getting the pictures of the incredibly striking Masiherdsmen is difficult.

The cattle market was amazing, all done in a 2m walledenclosure about 75m square where cattle and people were packed in and the dealsdone. There was maybe 70 cattle and 200 people in that enclosure, a mixture ofthe obviously very wealthy i.e. over weight and the lean herdsmen. It seemedtotally chaotic, did not seem to be a bidding process, but money changed hands.

Oh yes the goat incident, next to the cattle market therewas a 20m square pad where goats were being slaughtered, no stun guns here, alldone with the knife and every part of the goat was utilised which meant a veryslow death as capturing the blood was the first thing and what better way ofdoing it than letting the poor old goat deliver it into a bucket as their heartpumped its last. There seemed to be at least a dozen or so “in process” at atime, I think they were primarily meant for the lunchtime BBQ. In the midst ofall this was a fellow in this red, blue and yellow jersey dressing the hangingmeat (i.e removing the entrails etc), from a distance it looked like an Adelaidecrows jersey and it was exactly that.

Roads in Tz seem pretty good, traffic is a bit chaotic butnot bad, I would feel OK driving here but hey for $12/day you can get someoneto do it for you and they are pretty good. Life seems to revolve around the roadit is the place of trade and of course transport, you can not go a km withoutsomething being offered for sale, corn, veg, charcoal, petrol, furniture,clothing, sex whatever. It is a constant hive of activity. There are not a lotof cars but heaps of trucks, buses and bicycles and believe me there is nothingthat cannot be carried on a bicycle. Apparently they are made in China and soldby the millions.  Pedestrians and cyclistare not considered as road users and end up in the gutter if you happen to beovertaking.  As we saw today a truck onits side in the ditch is not uncommon, probably saw about 10 today, even moreinteresting are the burnt out buses, I think the count today was 3 but theydisappear very quickly as they are dismantled for scrap.

A feature of the roads is the traffic police. Tanzanian’sare typically very lean people, but there must be a genetic flaw in the trafficpolice, invariably they are oozing out of their white uniforms.  Some suggest it is a product of the bribesthey demand and what it is spent on – most likely. We have been stopped onceand I was chastised by the “fat inspector” for not speaking Swahili.

Yesterday’s goal was to travel from Manyoni and to try andstay in the Mukumi Game Reserve – grand plans and great expectations.  Tanzania in parts is breath takinglybeautiful and it was a spectacular drive but we arrived at the Park too latealmost right on sunset but we got brief sightings of elephants, zebra andgiraffe, apparently I missed a small leopard darting across the road. Butunfortunately they were all too brief and some rather distant.

Luxury accommodation last night staying in a tourist resort,some white faces and English speaking people. I think all educated Tanzaniansspeak English but still very difficult to understand and 50% of conversationsneed to be repeated or you just nod without a clue of what’s been said.