From Tanzania Corespondent Lute Wa Lutengano…

As you read this third rate column I will be somewhere in Benaland in Njombe district in the famous southern highlands of Tanzania. I will be there with a group of three other Arusha friends who are now getting used to Njombe. For this will be the third time they accompany me to this land of ‘ulanzi’, the local bamboo wine.

However this time it will be during the season which they have never experienced before. You see all the other times we have travelled to Njombe have been during the Xmas season; a season renowned for heavy rain and fog in the southern highlands. But the June/July season is all winter in this land.

To most Tanzanians winter season is something they only read in books or see in television. Not for Njombeans. For the Benas, Kingas and Wanjis, the natives of this land, winter is something they literally live with.

I remember it was in the mid 60s when I first had a firsthand experience of this winter. I had joined a boarding primary school located somewhere on top of the Mount Livingstone ranges, Tandala Lutheran Church Middle school. One evening in June I realized that all the veteran pupils at the school were as usual drawing water in basins from a water duct passing through the school – remember this was long before piped water had reached the area..However instead of using it they were placing it under their beds inside the dormitories. I wondered; what the hell was going on here.

That night I was treated to what was to become the norm. That night, notwithstanding the sparkling stars in the sky, sleeping was pure hell. Tucked inside my heavy blankets I could not go to sleep because of the chilling, actually body numbing cold. I woke up and put on all the clothing material and socks I could find in my wooden box and re-tucked myself inside those blankets. It did not work.

I rattled my teeth till morning. But I was in for another shocking revelation. When I went out to fetch water from the duct it was all frozen. And looking around I could see some white flowery material engulfing all the ridges around the school. Later I was to be told that this was called snow.

I now understood the reason behind my colleagues’ decision to keep some water under their beds. That is it would still be water in the morning.

Necessity is the mother of all inventions. If we were going to survive in these conditions we had to devise ways of staying alive. We were forced therefore to mould some charcoal ovens and place them inside our dorms – though with stern warning from the school teachers that we must leave all windows open otherwise we would die of carbon monoxide.

The mornings were hell until around 11 am when the sun’s heat would thaw the snow and soon afterwards the whole land would then be swallowed up with fog. It was not until early in the afternoon that we would all rush out to bask in the mountain sun. Oh! How I loved that sun.

It was not until many years later that I came to understand why Europeans or North Americans and others from lands which have harsh winters love to fly to the tropical lands and shores to just lie, laze and bask under the tropical sun.

It would therefore not be surprise to see sometimes in the very near future hordes of Njombe tourists swarming the Bagamoyo, Kigamboni and Zanzibar beaches along the Indian Ocean to bask under the tropical sun. Sunbathing Tours! That will be a popular advertising slogan in Njombe streets.