During the time I have been here in Iringa, I have been mostly working on TEDC conference, which in Marcus got me involved. It has been very interesting experience, I must say. In addition to those TEDC organizing tasks, I have found myself working on interior design, creating a business model, being a building inspector, and so forth. I have always known that I am a bit of a jack-of-all-trades, but even if it is positively challenging, I would prefer to leave some of those things to real professionals. The problem just is that there are not always those professionals available here.
On last week, Marcus, I, Laura & Mikael (a Finnish couple with whom we are sharing this house here in Iringa) had a chance to head down south to Lake Nyasa (or Lake Malawi, if you prefer that) for a short beach vacation. In the very northern tip of that lake is a small, quiet village called Matema. Matema is quite hard to access by normal 2WD, and during the rainy season that would most probably be completely impossible without a proper 4WD. An interesting and illuminating fact is that we drove about 4-5 hours from Iringa to Tukuyu (400+km), but then from Tukuyu to Matema, it took us 3 hours to drive the last 80 kilometers of rough road. My concept of road has become much wider, while being here in Tanzania.
Matema is lacking most of the classic tourist services, but there is a nice place called Lake Shore Resort located right next to the beach. Saying that place a resort might be a bit of an exaggeration, but anyway the place is having a perfect spot on the beach and nice spacious rooms with very reasonable price. Our rooms had a bit of a spider problem, but nothing that an insect spray would not have solved out. Our neighbors had a bit more worrisome guest in a form of a scorpion, but well, at least they are not deadly here.
Matema is certainly not a place for those, who are looking for wild nightlife, but those who are interested of having a bit more quiet place with gorgeous beach, supposedly bilharzia-free spot (I shall take the test back home just to be sure) for swimming and snorkeling, and beautiful view to the Livingstone mountain range surrounding Lake Nyasa, will find Matema a perfect spot for some days of relaxation.
During the days we spend in Matema, we went to a canoeing trip and a walk to a nearby waterfall[3gp video]. From these two trips especially the walk up to the waterfall was a great experience. It took us and our local guide one and half hours to climb up through the jungle following the water stream up to the small spot resembling the classic tropical paradise. The climb was rather strenuous, and as there was no any clear track, there were some spots, which were dangerous. Furthermore, as we were walking in shorts and trekking sandals with bare feet in them, in some times quite dense vegetation, we were subject to be stung or bitten. Luckily, the only problem that we had was the red ants that can give you quite a painful sting.
Even if the waterfall and its cool watered pond were the paradise on earth, we managed to forget all about it on our way back down. First thing to do after the walk was to get rid of the sweaty and muddy clothes and ran to the lake to wash off the dirt and sweat. Nevertheless, it was an interesting walk and the views up there made it worth the trouble.
We got back to Iringa and normal life on last week and now we are heading back to Dar, where Marcus and I shall look for rides, small buses, to take the participants of TEDC from Dar to Iringa. Furthermore, we try to do our best to help CBE to prepare a seminar for 3rd of July, where also our professor, Erkki, will give a key note presentation. There are quite a many things to be solved still with TEDC and that seminar of CBE's, but I am quite positive that things will turn out just fine.
What it comes to my other work related tasks, the SMILE project managed to surprise me once again. I sent the last template for that project on a week before last week thinking that I am very soon all finished with this project. Well, it turned out that I could not have been more wrong. The template had unfortunately a different orientation than the Greeks wanted it to have, so it means a lot of work for me. This week will be very critical for this work. Therefore, I need to put all of my efforts in it. After that, the next goal for me will be a very selfish one, my graduation. Luckily, I have been able to put also some effort in it here, so that July might be that magic month for me.
Well, 8 years is a long time for getting a MSc, but I can always say that I have been also quite busy working most of that time. Just too bad, that in applying for a job that is not an acceptable excuse for not having the degree.
1 comments:
Those photos Pasi are great. Not only them though, ..except the SMILE, maybe :)
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