charcoal

On our flight from Amsterdam to Dar es Salaam, we touched down in Kilimanjaro (which is in northern Tanzania and where you land when you are going to safari the Serengetti or hike and climb Kili) to allow the Mzungus (a not always flattering term for Europeans or, of late, Westerners in general) to disembark. It was while we waited on the tarmac with the late evening breeze blowing in through the cabin doors that I caught josey at the back getting some fresh air. When I approached her she said, "This is what Tanzania smells like". Huh? "It smells like charcoal." (and garbage burning...)

Dar imports 22, 000 sacks a day of charcoal from the countryside to feed their traditional cookstoves. The cookstoves, unfortunately, are not terribly efficient. There is no ceramic to retain heat. There is not an elaborate system of vents. It is basically a wok over an open flame. One of the projects that josey is involved with is to try and replace the charcoal with LPG. LPG is Liquefied Petroleum Gas. Now, I know that the term "liquefied gas" makes your head hurt. But I think we just need to get over it. As the kids say, and people who have just screwed you over (i.e. your manager) say, "it is what it is". I'm sure you've guessed that there is no natural gas pipeline delivering gas to every house. There is no water line or sewer either (which, incidentally, it why cell phones are ubiquitous - Africa got to skip the step of sending home lines to all the houses in Africa - they built cell towers instead).

My bright idea was that the water delivery trucks would deliver LPG like the water (akin to the milk man of olden times). But josey says the profit margin is already so tight on LPG that it wouldn't work. However, I feel that is the only way that we can ween people off the charcoal. At the present rate of consumption of charcoal for fuel, East Africa will be without forests in 16-20 years (and if that doesn't give you chills on this hot Africa day, start reading Jared Diamond's Collapse about the issues facing Montana farmers!).

Charcoal bags on the highway in to Dar. Yeah, I said highway. Bicyclists often have these on their bikes. 

To make matters worse, one of the corporation that supplies LPG in Tanzania is pulling out. They have bigger fish to fry (see how I did that?). So now, there is more of a supply crunch than before (there is only 3 weeks of supply and sometimes the ship won't make it back and into port before the 3 weeks is up). The corporation is one that we've all come to know and love, British Petroleum. Beyond Petroleum. We're on this side of wood fires, jackass.