Coming Home – to Musoma

First, the compound. Since it’s the same house we stayed in last time we were here it feels immediately like home. There are some compromises that we have to make here, but we have hot water, electricity and, when the antenna gets installed, internet. Some things have changed since I was here last year. Most obviously, 250 boxes containing 3000 solar lights fill part of the living room and we now have a dining table and chairs.
From the road, the first changes are the painted signs on the wall outside the compound for Tanzsolar and Juasolar, my mom’s company and its partner that is affiliated with Juasun, Robi’s Internet company, and does the installations for Tanzsolar. Inside the compound, the new headquarters for those two companies is visible in the new paint job on the small building in the back that was not in use last time I was here. It now has yellow paint halfway up the walls and is labeled “Ofisi ya Tanzsolar/Juasolar” – office of Tanzsolar/Juasolar. There are also solar panels strewn over the lawn, charging two-dozen solar lights on weekdays. There is also a white car that is partway hidden under the tree on the side of the house.
Being the company offices, the house constantly has at least one person during the week. They had been using our kitchen while we weren’t here and my mother quickly took that back over, giving them one electric hot plate and hot water kettle to use. We meet the new guard – we have one guard in the day and two at night now. Markus and Daniela, who live in the smaller house on the compound, are nice as ever.
The first day we get settled in. My mom sorts out all of her luggage and makes piles for Robi, Kilimanjaro and everything for her. We have no food in the house so we eat peanut balls – like giant versions of the peanut clusters in cracker jacks but spiced with pepper because they were a gift from Robi – for breakfast with our tea. We then get on our bikes and go to the market to fix the lack of food.
Having spent almost a month here last year, I am very familiar with Musoma and it hasn’t changed in the past year. We bike to one of the entrances to the market and lock up our bikes then walk through the narrow gap between the two shops and into the market. As always, there are counters full of fruits and vegetables and baskets hang from the roofs above some of the counters. Through the fruit counters there can be seen the rice and grains on the other side of the market. We walk through the market buying whatever looks good, filling out backpacks with a watermelon, cucumbers, green bell peppers and some small bananas. Going to the shops surrounding the market we also get peanut butter, tea, milk and bread.
It is suggested to us to begin taking classes at the language school and we bike out to the school, a long-ish journey that is certainly not flat. We talk to Father Edward, who is in charge there, and arrange to start classes the following week with a Sister Mary who will be arriving from India soon. The classes are going to be at least all morning long, every morning and I am not sure yet how that will change my plans of working for Juasun.
After finishing at Shule ya Lugha Makoko, the language school Makoko, we head past our house and toward town. Instead of going all the way to town we turn off to the right and down a familiar dirt road, past some shops and a sports stadium to Juasun’s office. We greet the familiar faces and sit down with our computers to use the internet. Having to bike to Juasun to use the internet is inconvenient but until the antenna, which my mom sent nearly a month ago and only just arrived, gets installed, the compound is without internet.
The first day in Musoma reminds me most of all of one thing: we would be bicycling a lot while we are here. Especially going to language school every day, my legs (and butt), which already after one day’s biking are complaining when I encounter a hill, would have to get used to the exercise.