Banking Town: Babati

The daladala picked me u in front of the school as planned and it took nearly 3 hours till we arrived in Babati, my banking town. For much of the ride, I held a small boy on my lap and did my best to keep his head from hitting the side of the dala on the bumpy road. Not the most comfortable ride but he was cute.

I was surprised as the road turned to paved as we got to Babati. My goal was to buy a bike and I needed to take money out of the bank to do this. The ATM didn’t work when I tried so I waited for the bank to open. Never having been in a bank in Tz before, I had no idea what I was doing. I ended up having to go through the line 3 times because I needed forms and my account # (not the same as on the ATM card apparently). At least they gave me my money.

Babati may have a paved main road but it still only has one place to buy a bicycle. There were ~2-3 dozen used bicycles and very few had my requirements: mountain bike tires and gears. I tried a few out and settled on one that they said they would do “maintenance” on (aka fix) before I came back to buy it. So I went off and did the rest of my shopping. At the market, I found an assortment of spices, pineapple, and green beans! These are impossible/hard to find in Katesh, much less my village. I got some other vegetables at the market as well and found a plastic grater (like my host family had) at one of the stores. At the safi duka (really nice store – still really small), I was excited to get not only peanut butter but ground cinnamon, oats, powdered milk, whole wheat flour, and plastic clothespins. I figured I would just go back to the daladala and wait after I picked up my bicycle so I tried to get something to eat beforehand. I asked for chapatti – they were out, I asked for maandazi – they were out. I tried to order lunch food – there was none (I think not ready yet). I asked what was available and was told “figo” was. When I said I did not know what it was, he said it was figs. Alright, I think, I’ll try it. It was not figs. It was a plate of pieces of liver, I think (maybe kidney?). Well, I don’t get meat when I cook for myself so I guess it’s what I needed.

I head back to the bike place and the bike seems to be in good working order, gears and all. With the bike, I bought a rack for the back, which they installed, and a lock. As a bonus, the guy gave me these very colorful things to put in the spokes that look like giant rainbow pipe cleaners. Um, thanks buddy.

I found my daladala okay but it did help that they saw me coming from about 30m away and came to get my bike to put on top. Once the dala was full and we headed into the hills outside of Babati, I realized that it had rained and was continuing to rain here. You think paved roads are dangerous when wet, try dirt roads with some clay. It was scary. Somehow we made it back to Endasak, where we waited to fill up with people again before continuing. As we headed down the road, we passed the road to Gitting. Now I had been told that the same daladala will take me from Gitting to Babati and back to Gitting. At this point I’m afraid that I might end up in Katesh and have to spend the night there so I ask them to stop. I figure a 2 hr walk in the rain is more desirable but I’m told that the dala will take me back to Gitting – after going to Katesh. The result was a couple of hours added to an already long trip. It was dark when we got back to Gitting but they did drop me off at the entrance to the school. Then they made me pay a full extra fare for transport of my bicycle. Why didn’t they tell me this in Babati?! I tried asking, I tried negotiating/bargaining but I got nowhere. I am not looking forward to taking the trip again; going to Katesh in tiring enough.