Engorora Pt III

Across the Main Road it is somewhat drier than the Engorora village and it is a settlement of more traditional Maasai houses. Mainly we worked with Francis who was a keen environmentalist/tree planter and who was a leader in the area.

Francis suffered from a problem I often encountered when planting trees in most of the villages. He had made a plea to receive more trees than was usual - I was guarded about supplying extra trees to anyone because I was well aware that people faced problems with water as well as browsing animals and some people are just plain greedy wanting as many as they possibly could!
Well Francis prepared his holes well and received his trees and true to his word he did care for them well, taking the responsibility himself (as against handing the work to his wife or his children) so the trees grew well. He was vigilant that browsing animals did not damage his trees. One night though, 'marauding' donkeys (I haven't said much about donkeys yet) trampled through his property destroying a large proportion of his trees - he was devastated.
But this sums up what can happen. Alfred's trees turned out to be the worst in the other part of the village - why? Well he too took more trees than he could look after and assigning young Miriam to carry out watering duties, did not supervise her well enough. The trees were alive, but not thriving as they should.
The woman who mostly tended the vege garden also lost most of her trees. She lived a little more remotely from the village and water became a problem for her during the dry season - she had a health problem and could not water her trees - they all died.

These problems I learned to take in my stride and to work around in an effort to cause better outcomes. But I had to keep my whits about me. School kids were classic at, on inspection day, placing twigs/branches of live trees where their tree had died to fool me into thinking their tree had survived and in the hope of winning a prize. And in this village area a guy was begging me for trees. He had promised that his holes had been prepared - we went to check; no hole shad been prepared, so he recieved no trees!

Josiah was a staunch believer in education through motivation, and I went along with the idea. I realised that it had been a technique of mine over the years without actually thinking that it was 'motivation'. Josiah liked the idea of providing food, people would come, then snap, you give them a lecture, or at least instruction on environmental matters. The only trouble with that idea is we did not have the project funds to do it on a large scale, which meant that whenever we provided food, the funds came from our own pocket.
So before Francis had his mishap with the donkeys, I transported the environmental group from across the road to partake in a soda and bites and walk around Francis' plantings as well as some of the other plantings nearby.
Then on another occasion, we transported the environmental group to the Sanawari nursery where we provided a 'high' meal and were surprised to find that Mama Baraka also enjoyed the day.

Francis kept making requests to me for a project to bring water to this side of the village. Again this was an extra and there was no funding set aside for such a project. Josiah too was very keen, he had a vested interest as he had some land closeby where he grew beans.
Missy was about due to end her time with us and she made a request to her church back in the USA which resulted in enough funding to meet the budget I had worked out.
The first step of course was to gain a water right. There was a water line running from Arusha to outlying villages and our request was to hook into it. I spoke to the Water Board (my name for it) and the guy I knew there approved the taking of water, but we needed a letter from the village each side of where we were to take the water. This was a difficulty because the village chairman of each village saw the letter as being a cash cow prime for the milking. We had no budget for this and we could not raise money from within the village [the beneficiaries].
So I just left it for a month. But there was a constraint - the rains were due and the slippery nature of the black cotton soils meant that I would be unable to transport in the materials. And I thought it a good thing for Missy to see the project completed if at all possible.
Josiah and I went to negotiate with the village leadership of the lower village and they finally agreed to allow a hookup as long as it did not exceed a one and a half inch saddle clamp.
The upper village still wanted a substantial amount of money, so I suggested that we go back to the lower village and ask if we could take the water from within the village. This meant an extra roll of polythene pipe but would allow an extra branch line to within that village. It was agreed so we could go ahead. [The upper village then wanted the same deal, but we did not carry that out]
The village men dug the trench with the only difficulty being a dry creek bed which would carry water during the rains. We laid the pipe ourselves and made the joints as well. There was no holding tank required, just the standpipe and tap.
The project was completed with no further problems and Missy was thrilled to see the water flow. Francis too was pleased with the project.
It was Francis' genuine wish to have water close to his home so that his wife could have a better standard of living but sadly she died two years later. I have memories of her wide, welcoming smile and the love she had for her children. Maybe the water is in her memory.

Engorora Pt II

There was a small area beside the primary that was allocated to a local women's group and there they grew vegetables. This was encouraged by Hifadhi and probably funded as well.
The tie-up was logical for us really. The same people had children at the school and of course, houses or farms in the villages.

Mama Miriam was one of the leaders within the women's group and her husband, Alfred was an Evangelist and also participated within the village and environmental project.
For those who do not know, an Evangelist is a church worker who has somewhat less power than a pastor, but is able to carry out certain functions that help out the pastors in pastoral work as well as in the services/ceremonies.

My sister liked to support us in what we did and sent a child's cardigan which we gave to the young Noah, the young son of Mama Miriam and Alfred.
This small family lived in a traditional house - well no, not the round, Maasai houses - square, wattle and daub iron roofed house. Inside was plaster of mud and an earth floor. Pride taken in keeping the house clean and messages/art decorating the walls. Access is always given to hens and in a way they act a vacuum cleaners because they eat up any spilled food scraps. Alfred was building a new house of concrete block - to be completed in the future.

Alfred was given a bicycle by Hifadhi and this is an example of well intentioned aid turning out to be inappropriate. The bicycles were were bought from donations from a New Zealand secondary school which is a very good and cool thing for them to have done. But Big E gave the bicycles out as he saw fit, taking ownership of a project that was community based and should have been given out on a democratic basis. Had that been done, I think Alfred would have recieved the bike! But Big E gave it to him without consultation. Now, Alfred already had a bike, and one day when I visited Mama Miriam, she asked if we could please take the bike back! Why? Well there was resentment to Alfred and to Mama Miriam and whenever there was work to be done in the garden, they would be told, 'You recieved the gift, you do the work!'
I held a meeting, where I told the village people what had happened and how Alfred had recieved his bicycle. They saw that Alfred was not at fault and forgave him.
This is a good example of the need for democracy and openness.

The tree planting project throughout the village was successful and it was usual that we carried followup checks, not only to gather information for ourselves as to the performance of different trees in different conditions, but also to motivate the villagers to tend their trees.
Alfred presented a hen to me as an appreciation. I accepted gifts like these not because I wanted a gift, but because it showed our work was valued, even in a small way.

Motivation of the village people could be carried out in any number of ways, it was just putting our minds to it. One day I transported the members of the women's group to my Sanawari nursery. Of course we provided soda and some bites, then they took a selection of trees home with them.

I will always remember the good times we had at Engorora, because the people there are warm and open.

One thing to mention here that is unusual in our culture, but may well be changing in Tanzania. Even a women's group prefer to have a man running their group becuse they fell 'inadequate'.

Engorora Pt1

Just beyond Kambi ya Maziwa is the village of Kisongo where there is a Maasai market held each Wednesday.

A few hundred metres past the market site there is an indistinct turn to the right which leads quickly to a junction, left is the open cast marram [volcanic ash] mine and to the right, Engorora Primary School [the school is now known as Kisongo Primary School] and sub-village.

Back to the main road, just about opposite the turn into the Marram mine and school - there is a track that leads to Francis' house and to where we eventually carried out a water project.

Now before I go on, this Marram mine. Marram is used for road surfaces - infrequently because of the cost, as a material/ingredient in concrete bock manufacture and in the making of concrete. I used it for topping my planting pots to hold down the sawdust seed-topping so it was not washed away while I was irrigating.
The mining was all done by hand and the 'boys' would have their own particular pile. Of course there was intense competition for the sale, and they all knew I paid well, so I had a false sense of popularity whenever I went there.
Four and six tonne lorries would also come, and they were filled by man and shovel. I did not paying a higher price because it was hard, dangerous work and some have lost their life during a rockfall.

I have already covered the first seminar at Engorora which was held in a school classroom. But the focus then was on the local villages, but when I had to source funding for our projects, I found it better and more appropriate to focus on primary schools. That is not to say we forgot about the village people, and indeed Engorora was one village where we were very busy.

Engorora village comprised mainly Maasai people but there was a large number of Arusha tribe as well and as most usual some other tribal members.
Big E being Maasai was, I guess the main reason he wanted to work there and Joshia too had a reason to be there - his father had taught at the school so he had many friends and it was his home place. The main village leader we most often worked with was of Joshia's clan.

It was plain from our first visit to Engorora that it suffered the hardship of poverty that was so common in Tanzania. The school was built of timber and pretty much falling to pieces and an additional classroom built by the parents was made from mabanzi, slabwood; the cheapest building material available. The kids sat on rocks or boards because there were no desks. There were very few text books and teachers' copies [guide] were non existent.
Back home our neighbor's daughter mobilized Otepopo Primary School [our local school] and they sent pencils and rubbers as well as exchanging a questionnaire that I had prepared which I hoped would show each school the difference between the other - it was successful. Things like walking distance to school and to collect water. As well Joel thought it would be good to send some of his collection of toys - mainly Matchbox toys, cars & trucks. Such gifts were not available to rural kids in Tanzania and they valued them greatly.

Water was a difficulty in the village and there was a tap near the school which had been taken from the time that went to the Military Base at Monduli. In the end, it was not sustainable for the Military to allow people to take water from their pipeline as it compromised their supply, but other arrangements were made.
Sometimes though the water was unreliable and people would sit and wait - creating a long line of people, containers and donkeys. Mostly orderly but there were disagreements.

Despite the water problem, our tree plantings at the school were successful and the whole school took ownership of them. Even during the weekend and on holidays, a roster was set up so someone was there to prevent straying livestock from damaging the young trees.

The seminars were successful and during this time I was able to interact with the kids and this helped me with language and my ability to communicate. It is well known that if you are friendly with the kids, the parents too become friendly, so I was able to spread the environmental message.

The environmental programme was successful and that success spilled over to the village where we worked with the village's women's group. But Engorora school did something that personally pleased me. There was such interest to care and protect the trees the students planted that a roster was made to tend and chunga [guard from grazing animals] and irrigate the plantings.

The Primary Schools Assistance Project supplied 200 desks, some teacher's tables & chairs, text books, science aids as well as slates and chalk for the junior classes.
It is usual that items are numbered within a school's assets and I noted that the desks also bore the Agency's mark, which was a nice gesture.

Even when we moved to Makumira we still had some connection with the school - somewhat fostered by Josiah. But not entirely.