Briefly, Hon Bishop Paulo Akyoo asked me to carry out a survey about hunger in the region because a woman at Kolila had hanged herself when she could not bear the pain of having no food in the house when her hungry children returned home after school. She had made a fire to boil water and placed stones in the suferia with the water. She then went into the next room where the children later found her hanging.
Mch Majola took us first to the Krismas Parish at Kolila and as was typical of many of the churches in Meru, it was in a prolonged construction phase. There is the belief that a fine church is a reflection of devotion and of enthusiasm within the Diocese. But there is a universal shortage of money for such projects and when some becomes available, further construction is carried out. Slowly the churches are completed, often with the help of a harambee, a pulling together where guests are called upon to donate.
We carried out a seminar with the parishioners which was successful and attracted a good number of people. I was made aware that there was a problem with water and I did know [and had carried out considerable research] that there was ground water available, but that water was heavily contaminated with natural, poisonous salts [fluoride among them] from the volcanic Mount Meru.
With water being a problem, there are strategies that can be employed. Make no mistake this is a dry region between the seasonal rains and fresh water sometime has to be bought from the young men who ferry in their bicycles for some considerable distance.
It is the culture [something the West needs to adapt more fully] to nawa, wash hand before eating. Some of that water, I suggested could be stored and used to irrigate tree seedlings. Though one of the uses for that water is to tip it onto the yard around the house - to keep the dust down
This reminds me that there is a reason that few homes have ceiling board, yet the radiated heat through the corrugated iron roof becomes intense during the heat of the day. When ceiling boards are fitted, wind carried dust gradually fill the ceiling cavity and the ceiling board just collapses under the weight!
During the seminar, I did not notice Mags move away. She needed to use the toilet which was situated some 200 metres away. It was a standard squat-type, low cost toilet with a concrete floor. The wooden door had a simple wooden snib - like a small stick of timber fixed with a nail in the center.
When she had finished, the door would not open because the snib had rotated to lock her in. The
On her next try, the door opened!
We supplied trees and supervised the planting of them over two planting seasons around the church and we had some success but there were no fences and wandering livestock damaged some of the trees - though Mjohoro is unpalatable to livestock. Those parishioners who wanted them also took trees to their homes - three each on account of the water problems - most of those trees survived.
There is no actual village at Kolila, rather it is an area of farms some of them being quite small. There are a myriad of tracks to follow but as we said 'all roads lead to Rome' and we generally reached our destination.
We found another area of Kolila which was more of a hamlet, mainly a market place which is close to the turn-off to the Kilimanjaro Airport. We went there by chance because we gave a lift to a young woman who was interested in planting trees and wanted us to supply trees to the Maasai part of of this Kolila village.
This young woman was Maasai and beautiful. Serene and vivacious. She
was dressed traditionally with ornamentation but not excessively so so. Her head was clean shaven and shone in the afternoon sun. She had circular scars, tattoos, on her cheekbones. She spoke to us in very clear English and her sparking white teeth shone, showing the She was the second wife of a young Maasai man and was absolutely comfortable with her life - very happy in fact. She had gone to university in England, and had gained her degree, but had longed for her Maasai life realizing it was far better than the 'false' way of life in Ulaya, the far off land.
Seldom have I met a person who is completely at ease and comfortable with his/her lot - she radiated with it.
We visited the few Maasai bomas there a few times and provided them with trees but never saw the young woman again but generally the trees were well cared for and grew well.
Kolila Primary School had a small role as compared to many we worked with and every time we visited there, the students were outside playing and unsupervised. Loti always blamed the 'lousy' teaching staff for this. Not of course meaning infestations of lice, but meaning really useless. And on reflection I agree.
The teachers were happy for us to 'take over the school' and be responsible for the kids whenever we visited. I could see that the kids lacked education, but they participated with and understood our message as well as any of the other schools. The teachers bemoaned the lack of water and did not want to plant trees on a large scale and we respected their wish. But I held the maxim that if trees survive in an area now, then it is possible to plant more!
Sometimes teachers are posted to outlying schools, probably against their wishes and have to make the best of it. There are problem living a basic life because of a lack of water and a lack of produce. Remote too there is no public transport, so they close the school on market day and for their monthly pilgrimage into Arusha to collect their pay. Even taking this into consideration, these teachers were lousy and did not treat their charges fairly.
The first lot of trees we took there and helped to plant were stolen the next morning. There was suspicion that the teaching staff had sold them.
We were told of this by one of the students, a girl who arranged for her siblings and maybe peers, to line the track as we passed clapping in time with the song they were singing - Tunapenda, the environmental song we had taught. Of course we stopped and handed out some trees. This type of tree distribution grew and we often gave out trees to kids who on inspection cared for them well.
After our trip back to NZ, I brought back some crystal rain - granules that took up water and slowly released it. We used it for yet another planting at the school during the wet season and there was success because I called it a 'trial' and said that we would monitor the trees. The kids, who had added a verse to our song - If a thief comes along, catch him! - seemed to take some responsibility for the security of the trees and they were not stolen. Still the lack of water suppressed them as they grew older.
During the last year of our assignment, the focus was more on water projects than on tree planting - say 60/40. On a visit to Kolila to check on the trees talk to the kids, I found that there had been a water project there but it was defunct. The main line that serviced the branch to the school was refurbished so I suggested that the school committee arrange to dig up the old line and we would see what could be salvaged. I was getting very good at negotiating and managed to buy materials cheaper than I had budgeted so had a small surplus. Ten joiners, one roll of pipe, a standpipe and tap later, the school had water delivered to the yard! This was one of my last jobs and therefore I have no followup but I have no doubt that the repair we made was good. ADRA worked on the main line and with their resources, one would hope water still flows.
Kids listen as we plan strategies against the theft of trees.
Demonstration of preparation of planting pit adding crystal rain.
Prizewinners at Kolila. Despite the challenges trees were established. Note though that all the prizewinners are boys. The environmental teacher usually knows best which student has performed well but sometimes they do not select fairly. This indicates unfairness.
A Maasai family carefully tend the few trees they have planted.
