Nadasoito village is close to Mkonoo village so naturally enough the people there wanted to participate in an environmental programme like their neighbors.
Julius, the Ward Councilor came to our house in Sanawari to lobby for us to go there and he was ambitious to see large areas of trees planted in his home village. He had also come to talk to Big E about the water project.
I made the undertaking that the I would ensure the project would be completed. [As I had some pressure from Mo about it!]
There were discrepancies between what Big E had budgeted for, recieved and used. Things like concrete blocks for the tank being substituted for rocks gathered locally by the school kids; and claiming Tsh250 000/- for rolls of polythene pipe when the actual cost was Tsh30 000/-. I did not condone this sort of thing and I fronted Big E about it with a satisfactory outcome - which I may reveal later.
In the end, I took materials from Big E's store, and had him buy other necessary materials; then Joshia I motivated the village men to carry out the work. Though I supervised the installations as I can do plumbing work.
I noted that there was an 'illegal' branch line going into a private boma, and when I mentioned it to Joshia, his look made me think this
issue be left alone.
The people were happy to receive their water.
When you encourage people to plant trees, one of the first constraints is water, and for Nadasowito this problem was addressed, but there are strategies and gradually we were to develop those. But the Primary Schools Assistance Project opened to door for the local village people to participate in tree planting activities.
It was important to talk to the school - that is the chairperson and the teachers about what assistance was required. Now having been to a number of schools, we knew what was required in a general way, but by talking/negotiating the ownership of the project is turned over to the school - and that is appropriate.
Security for text books was deemed to be important so lockable cupboards were provided. Classrooms in most schools had no windows, just the gaps for them. Often there were no doors, or badly performing doors. The Headteacher's office usually did have a door and usually not windows, so while they may be dingy, the office was the most secure area in the school - so text books were stored there.
The contract for the school desks was with our friendly brothers from Ngaremtoni and the contract price included delivery. I was gratifying to see new desks in the classrooms numbered and usu
ally with the Agency logo written on them.
We carried out our environmental programme in the school and in the village. We found the message spread from the school to the village and Joshia's reading of 'Ndoto ya Grace' added to the understanding for the kids.
We found it was important to carry out follow-ups and one of the tools we used was to make a show of measuring and taking a record of the trees that were planted. This was merely done to motivate the students and village people into caring for the trees - it was just a little bit of bullshit that worked.
Each student prepared a planing pit/hole and was later given a tree. A prize was given to the ten best tree shelters, then for the best performing trees.
We thought the Nadasowito tree shelters were not up to scratch, so we took the three environmental prefects on a field trip to Mkonoo Primary School where the shelters were to a high standard.
Visions in Action asked us to take out a group of new recruits to help them decide how they wanted to spend their year as a volunteer.
I had been worried that village people were confused about a medicinal tree called Mwarubaini locally. There are two trees with the name - one is Neem the medicinal tree and Melia a poisonous tree. The trees are similar in appearance to the untrained and Neem does not grow in the cooler areas of Tanzania.
The easy way to identify the difference is by the seed [they have a similar shaped berry]. Melia has a ribbed seed while Neem is smooth. I demonstrated this by peeling the flesh from the berry of the Melia. There was no Neem there because it is too cool at Nadasowito. Many people wanted to talk to me that day, and I did not get to wash my hands! We were provided roast maize cobs as a snack, and because of the poison from the Melia still on my hands, I was violently sick that night and it took a few days for me to recover!
Nadasowito Primary School was the first at us to be guests of honour at the Std VII graduation ceremony. This was after the Std VII national examination - the results of which determined if the student qualified for a place in a state secondary school. The fees of state secondary schools were cheaper and at that time only about 6% of all students went on to secondary school.
The graduation ceremony was an emotional time for these young people and the school did its very best to give them a fitting send-off. Not easy in those financial times [even now].
The letter of invitation was very respectful and I was prepared to return that respect. I had another appointment that day with Mama Faraja's group at Monduli. The Headteacher was happy with that constraint, being happy that we were prepared to attend.
There was singing and dancing, speeches, the presentations and role plays. Followed by a meal and a soda for the school leavers.
Some pics:
April 8, Day 598:
To Nadasowito - even used Hidhafi's Suzuki. Big E was crook with the booze though! Made two trips and took over 100o trees for the village people. A bit difficult though because of the muddy condition of the road out there and it meant I had a lot of trees to prepare for de
livery [load up too]. 300 trees was for a special project to be overseen by the Ward Councilor but he was late and Obedi, the village environment motivator, took us to the village office where we found him.
Joshia took out another load late in the day - I had other work at the Agency office.
Tired by days end but a person turned up wanting to buy 600 Michongoma - so I had to clean them up and help him to load them.
Julius, the Ward Councilor came to our house in Sanawari to lobby for us to go there and he was ambitious to see large areas of trees planted in his home village. He had also come to talk to Big E about the water project.
I made the undertaking that the I would ensure the project would be completed. [As I had some pressure from Mo about it!]
There were discrepancies between what Big E had budgeted for, recieved and used. Things like concrete blocks for the tank being substituted for rocks gathered locally by the school kids; and claiming Tsh250 000/- for rolls of polythene pipe when the actual cost was Tsh30 000/-. I did not condone this sort of thing and I fronted Big E about it with a satisfactory outcome - which I may reveal later.
In the end, I took materials from Big E's store, and had him buy other necessary materials; then Joshia I motivated the village men to carry out the work. Though I supervised the installations as I can do plumbing work.
I noted that there was an 'illegal' branch line going into a private boma, and when I mentioned it to Joshia, his look made me think this
issue be left alone.The people were happy to receive their water.
When you encourage people to plant trees, one of the first constraints is water, and for Nadasowito this problem was addressed, but there are strategies and gradually we were to develop those. But the Primary Schools Assistance Project opened to door for the local village people to participate in tree planting activities.
It was important to talk to the school - that is the chairperson and the teachers about what assistance was required. Now having been to a number of schools, we knew what was required in a general way, but by talking/negotiating the ownership of the project is turned over to the school - and that is appropriate.
Security for text books was deemed to be important so lockable cupboards were provided. Classrooms in most schools had no windows, just the gaps for them. Often there were no doors, or badly performing doors. The Headteacher's office usually did have a door and usually not windows, so while they may be dingy, the office was the most secure area in the school - so text books were stored there.
The contract for the school desks was with our friendly brothers from Ngaremtoni and the contract price included delivery. I was gratifying to see new desks in the classrooms numbered and usu
ally with the Agency logo written on them.We carried out our environmental programme in the school and in the village. We found the message spread from the school to the village and Joshia's reading of 'Ndoto ya Grace' added to the understanding for the kids.
We found it was important to carry out follow-ups and one of the tools we used was to make a show of measuring and taking a record of the trees that were planted. This was merely done to motivate the students and village people into caring for the trees - it was just a little bit of bullshit that worked.
Each student prepared a planing pit/hole and was later given a tree. A prize was given to the ten best tree shelters, then for the best performing trees.
We thought the Nadasowito tree shelters were not up to scratch, so we took the three environmental prefects on a field trip to Mkonoo Primary School where the shelters were to a high standard.
Visions in Action asked us to take out a group of new recruits to help them decide how they wanted to spend their year as a volunteer.
I had been worried that village people were confused about a medicinal tree called Mwarubaini locally. There are two trees with the name - one is Neem the medicinal tree and Melia a poisonous tree. The trees are similar in appearance to the untrained and Neem does not grow in the cooler areas of Tanzania.
The easy way to identify the difference is by the seed [they have a similar shaped berry]. Melia has a ribbed seed while Neem is smooth. I demonstrated this by peeling the flesh from the berry of the Melia. There was no Neem there because it is too cool at Nadasowito. Many people wanted to talk to me that day, and I did not get to wash my hands! We were provided roast maize cobs as a snack, and because of the poison from the Melia still on my hands, I was violently sick that night and it took a few days for me to recover!
Nadasowito Primary School was the first at us to be guests of honour at the Std VII graduation ceremony. This was after the Std VII national examination - the results of which determined if the student qualified for a place in a state secondary school. The fees of state secondary schools were cheaper and at that time only about 6% of all students went on to secondary school.
The graduation ceremony was an emotional time for these young people and the school did its very best to give them a fitting send-off. Not easy in those financial times [even now].
The letter of invitation was very respectful and I was prepared to return that respect. I had another appointment that day with Mama Faraja's group at Monduli. The Headteacher was happy with that constraint, being happy that we were prepared to attend.
There was singing and dancing, speeches, the presentations and role plays. Followed by a meal and a soda for the school leavers.
Some pics:
April 8, Day 598:
To Nadasowito - even used Hidhafi's Suzuki. Big E was crook with the booze though! Made two trips and took over 100o trees for the village people. A bit difficult though because of the muddy condition of the road out there and it meant I had a lot of trees to prepare for de
livery [load up too]. 300 trees was for a special project to be overseen by the Ward Councilor but he was late and Obedi, the village environment motivator, took us to the village office where we found him.Joshia took out another load late in the day - I had other work at the Agency office.
Tired by days end but a person turned up wanting to buy 600 Michongoma - so I had to clean them up and help him to load them.
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