A drive in the country.
The major highway is sealed and busy. Busy because it not only services cars, 4WD vehicles, trucks and buses but motorbikes or scooter, bicycles, lots of pedestrians, and handcarts. The horn can be a useful accessory for your vehicle here. Along the side of the highway crops of maize, beans, tomatoes, potatoes etc are growing in unfenced plots and in some cases being harvested.
As we leave the main highway we leave the sealed roads. Luckily it isn't the rainy season or some of the roa
ds, which today the 4WD navigates, would have been the topic of fervent prayer. The two bridges on our route are only recent additions and stories are told of hours spent stuck in mud, of water invading the passenger section of the vehicle, of women praying as the driver passed through the waters. (The promise of 'the Lord our God to be with us' comes to mind here) We pass through
farming areas observing the mud brick houses that are well laid out and tidy with brush or corrugated iron rooves and crops in neat rows. Individual or small groups of cows, goats, sheep, and chickens are all part of the scenery. We notice some different crops, coffee and pyrethrum. The white daisy like flowers of pyrethrum being harvested nearby.
Occasionally we pass through a town with its more dense collections of houses, small dukas (shops), and increased pedestrian and animal traffic. The women, always in traditional dress, are often carrying something. (Women carry the wood, the water, the groceries, the clothes....men, well they push wheelbarrows or carts sometimes). The men are in trousers and shirts. The many children are watching all that is happening, its unclear who they belong to unless they are babies (mtoto) on their mother's backs. Utes, trucks and 4WDs are often loaded up with passengers. Our own vehicle, a 4WD ute, had about an extra 12 passengers in the back as we headed back to Mbeya after our day out, the sky darkening as the sun went down.
The major highway is sealed and busy. Busy because it not only services cars, 4WD vehicles, trucks and buses but motorbikes or scooter, bicycles, lots of pedestrians, and handcarts. The horn can be a useful accessory for your vehicle here. Along the side of the highway crops of maize, beans, tomatoes, potatoes etc are growing in unfenced plots and in some cases being harvested.
As we leave the main highway we leave the sealed roads. Luckily it isn't the rainy season or some of the roa
ds, which today the 4WD navigates, would have been the topic of fervent prayer. The two bridges on our route are only recent additions and stories are told of hours spent stuck in mud, of water invading the passenger section of the vehicle, of women praying as the driver passed through the waters. (The promise of 'the Lord our God to be with us' comes to mind here) We pass through
farming areas observing the mud brick houses that are well laid out and tidy with brush or corrugated iron rooves and crops in neat rows. Individual or small groups of cows, goats, sheep, and chickens are all part of the scenery. We notice some different crops, coffee and pyrethrum. The white daisy like flowers of pyrethrum being harvested nearby.Occasionally we pass through a town with its more dense collections of houses, small dukas (shops), and increased pedestrian and animal traffic. The women, always in traditional dress, are often carrying something. (Women carry the wood, the water, the groceries, the clothes....men, well they push wheelbarrows or carts sometimes). The men are in trousers and shirts. The many children are watching all that is happening, its unclear who they belong to unless they are babies (mtoto) on their mother's backs. Utes, trucks and 4WDs are often loaded up with passengers. Our own vehicle, a 4WD ute, had about an extra 12 passengers in the back as we headed back to Mbeya after our day out, the sky darkening as the sun went down.
Sounds interesting. I'm not sure i'm down with the women doing all the work.
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