Makonde

We arrive. She falls onto her knees, kissing my hand and thanking me for the ride 😅. I get introduced to Leo, the young security guy with the only village moped, and decide that staying here in the village could also be a nice option. But nobody speaks English. With hands and feet, the base of my intention is communicated. Still, I have to wait many phone calls until things proceed. I am handed the phone where – for the second time this day – a guy asks me about my purpose and tells me that I should have registered in the district office before coming to Liunji. What is going on here 🤔? I explain to him the idea of being a tourist and that his claim is ridiculous. How should foreigners know to register anywhere in advance? Finally, Leo leads me through fields of coffee bushes to meet the village's chief. A young, calm and fascinating person with authoritarian aura. I am granted permission to camp next to the dispensary.

In the dark, during my dinner preparation, Oscar arrives on a motorbike. A talkative boy who – in a loose conversation – manages to interrogate me thoroughly, asking about every item around my car and … about my purpose of coming here 🙄. "I just looked on my map and thought that it might be beautiful here! I am innocent of whatever you accuse me!" Only now he tells me that he is the village's executive officer. With a mischievous grin he asks "And you are sure you didn't come here for the minerals?" 🤦‍♂️. So, that’s the reason for all this creepy suspiciousness in this mountain region!

The following morning, we have an official gathering where I am supposed to be introduced to some other persons in charge. But nobody apart from Oscar and the ladies from around the small market square appear. I share my favourite Tanzanian coffee brew with them. In turn, I am asked if I wanted to try their "bamboo juice". For sure! A cloudy, watery drink, sour, sweet, slightly sparkling. The girls start to giggle. It contains alcohol! After a regular-sized mug I already feel dizzy and this is where I notice that the ladies are sharing a two- or three-litre plastic bucket of the same "juice" (Ulanzi). Alright, let's get drunk at 07:30 in the morning! This also explains why all the ladies in the previous villages where laughing and going wild when I jumped out of the car in search of lunch. By noon, they must have been thoroughly drunk already!

Oscar turns out to be a splendid lad and spends half the day hiking with me around the hills and introducing me to the secrets of his village. I see the coffee tree nursery and get shown how they extract their bamboo juice. The first time in my life I see yams plants, we visit avocado, cassava, maize and beans farmers and I learn that they keep their cattle mainly for natural manure production. "It's much better than all artificial fertilizers" Oscar proudly states, pointing me to a pit where all sheep and goat poo is collected for later use on the fields. They also keep happily grunting pigs in wooden cages. After harvest, the coffee pulp is reused as fertilizer as well. Aye, what a beautiful place this is! Descending down to the lake is not an option anymore because a round-trip would take a whole day and massive cumulus nimbi are accumulating above us. My new family demands taking a picture in front of my mobile home and with a half-broken heart I continue my journey into the unknown void.Read more