Peace and Quiet...???

We had such a good time at our self-named "Flamingo Lake" a couple of weekends ago that we decided to spread the word and share the joy of a visit out to a "peaceful" place in the countryside! So we sent round an open invitation inviting friends to join us for a morning trip with a bring-your-own picnic lunch. 

On Saturday, several friends joined us on this second outing to the lake. We had promised great views of the flamingoes and a peaceful picnic spot. Here are the gang who came along with Andrew, Esther, Ben, Joel and I:

As we headed off-track and across the rural landscape, our 6 large vehicles surprised several pedestrians out walking on the dusty tracks near the lake. They looked up in amazement as one after another 4x4 vehicle bumped past on the rocky, sandy ground. We were not as inconspicuous as we had been a couple of weekends ago when just 2 vehicles appeared out of nowhere for the afternoon! Our 6 cars were very obvious, gathered on the dusty expanse of the shore with a tarpaulin shade cover rigged up between the roof-racks:

Once the shade cover was up, several of our group set out to walk to the edge of the lake and view the flamingoes, who were still very much in evidence on the lake:

By the time the explorers had returned from the lakeside to our picnic spot under the tarpaulin, "The News" had spread!! Local people literally flocked to the site where we were parked, to view these strangers from another place who had unexpectedly driven past them earlier and who had arrived in their locality bringing lots of strange equipment in their very large cars!
 I have lived in Tanzania long enough now to know that, wherever you go, no matter how remote it seems, you will never be as alone as you may imagine. People are always near. People are always watching. This will apply especially if you arrive in an obvious way, with a group of people and with cars full of energetic children eager to get out and about and to explore! We attracted a LOT of attention on Saturday!

Very quickly, local children gathered on rocks to watch us all:

A group of young lads came hurrying over from the nearby village and they spotted the football one MAF family had brought- so an inpromptu game of football was soon underway:

Meanwhile, another group of young people came simply to stare at us all, as we sat eating sandwiches and drinking tea under our shade cover. There is no shame in staring in Tanzanian culture; as we sat on our picnic blankets and camp chairs, carrying on with our planned picnic, our every move was scrutinised by these young men:

We must have looked incredibly odd to them, with our funny foreign food, our flasks of tea, with our camping furniture and all huddled together under the tarpaulin in a shade-hungry group, so determined to be in the shade that we sat there putting up with the clouds of dust which billowed across the dry shore on this windy Saturday! We provided quite a novelty for them all to stare at, with our foreign language and pale skins, appearing all of a sudden out of the blue in their rural community where 4x4 cars and foreigners are simply not common sights!

It wasn't long before the village elders had heard the news and walked out across the shore to come and talk to us- to find out who we are, what we are doing, how long we were staying and whether we would pay them an allowance for the privilege of visiting their area. When we refused to pay money, as we were not actually on village land, they asked for a gift of fruit juice instead. Since we didn't have any juice, only water, one elder laughed and decided to take his leave, soon followed by his friends.

The children were not so easily drawn away. They were extremely excited when Andrew offered them some free children's Christian booklets in Swahili. In fact, Andrew all but disappeared in the enthusiastic crowd!

Some of our kids encountered the curiosity of the local kids at close quarters as they clambered and played on nearby rocks, literally surrounded by eager faces gazing at them in surprise and amazement

This time round, our trip to the lake of flamingoes had a very different flavour. It was more "interesting" than restful! We had organised the outing with promises of flamingo views and a peaceful picnic spot. Our friends who joined us did get to see the flamingoes, but they did not exactly get the peace and quiet they may have hoped for out in the countryside!