Jason did not have to go in to work today so we set up a ride to the Bujora Cultural Center. The cultural center was created by a Catholic missionary who set up a church in the area in the 1960s. He wanted to ensure that the Sukuma culture and history were available to the Sukuma people. The Sukuma are the majority ethnic group in the Mwanza area. The cultural center is 16 kilometers outside of Mwanza so we had Fiona, the hotel manager arrange a taxi for us. Jason's co-worker, Prosper also went along with us. He is from Uganda so we weren't sure if he would be interested in joining us – we figured it might be like us traveling to Mexico and going to a museum about Canada while we were there. But he was interested so he also went along.
The center was interesting but what was more interesting to me was the ride there. I finally got out of the hotel and saw the “real” Mwanza. My impression of Mwanza is that it is an interesting city. Lots of half-built buildings, many run-down buildings and lots and lots of garbage out on the side of the road. It made me wonder – does the Tea Party REALLY not want a central government? Because, I think if we didn't have all of the government services that we currently have – and don't even think about – like regular trash pick-up and litter laws, building codes and traffic laws (let alone signs and signals) – our country might look a lot like Tanzania! Without government oversight and repercussions for actions like littering, the few of us who do care about things like fairly clean and safe streets simply cannot control the masses who don't. I mean, think about how much litter there is on the sides of the road as it is with the laws – without the laws, you have Mwanza.
There were people everywhere. Walking along with things on their head (how do they do that?) - and riding bikes piled up with an unbelievable amount of items – some of the things we saw on bikes were piles of corn, chicken coops and big plastic jugs for water. Everything was very dusty and run down. Traffic is insane – there are two lanes and there did not seem to be any traffic rules. It was all very interesting to look at and take in.
But I digress, back to the cultural center. The taxi that was arranged by the hotel was a jalopy. Not a problem, except when we arrived, after we got out of the car, the driver lifted the hood. Prosper said “why do they always have an old car?”. It made us a bit nervous when we realized that none of us had the number to the hotel – so if the car did break down, we weren't quite sure how we might handle that – so, we just went to the information center where we were met by a nice man who collected our admission fee and began the tour of the center. There were two other young women there to take the tour.
The cultural center consisted of a number of buildings each with different artifacts related to the Sukuma people. There was a traditional house, traditional tools, drums, etc.
Traditional Sukuma house
He also explained the different Sukuma tribes and showed us some of the items the King of each tribe uses – headdress, chair, etc.
We also had a tour of the church – which was very interesting because it is still a functioning Catholic church. In fact, when we were there, a number of children were in the church taking a class of some sort. The most interesting thing about the church was how the pastor there mixed both the traditional and catholic rituals into the layout and structure of the church.
The tour ended in a building that had artifacts related to the Sukuma's dancing rituals. The building had a net outside hanging from the rafters. It wasn't exactly clear to us what the net was for but there were a number of mummified bats in it. When we got inside, we noticed there were a number of live bats hanging from the ceiling. It was a bit concerning to us but our guide didn't seem to notice or care. For an additional fee, we could have taken a look at a live python – but none of us really wanted to spend the extra money so we declined the offer. Jason wandered out a back door and almost saw the python for free – but our guide caught him just in time.
After the tour we drove back to the hotel and had a nice late lunch. After that, we went for a swim in the pool and then went back up to our room to get ready for our safari.
No comments:
Post a Comment