Olkung'wado Primary School

We had quite an involvement with the Olkung'wado area because the church complex was the Jimbo Office for the Ngarenanyuki area. As well the local government office was located there and both the village chairman and the mtendaje supported an environmental programme. These two fellows were removed later, and probably for good reason, but that had nothing to do with me and from my point of view, they helped 'the cause'.

The church and its associated office were perched on a small hillock and the school was nearby. The track that led to them was directly off the main road/track that led from the Olkung'wado village to Ngarenanyuki village.

In those early days, within the church offices, there was the local clinic and the guy in charge of it was a relative of Loti's and I found him to be a good man and dedicated to his work. The new clinic was under construction and he moved there during the time we were there.

The village of Olkung'wado is growing quickly and building are springing up built from concrete block, which gives the village a grey appearance - especially with new corrugated iron! The village was much smaller back in 1997 and the main street, lined with small wooden dukas had the appearance of 'old west'. And I suspect some of what went on there might have been much the same! The sandy soil whipped up in the wind made everything dusty and that dust was grey. Plastic bags littered and clung to the whistling thorn trees. Goats browsed on vegetable waste including spilled rice during the market times.

The primary school must have been built much the same time as Ngarenanyuki Primary School because the buildings were in much the same condition. As usual under resourced. The teaching staff were to us, motivated and some of them became friends. The Head Teachers moved around, or were swapped, the reason was unclear to me.

Olkung'wado recieved assistance through the Primary Schools Assistance Project and were very pleased to receive the text books, teaching aids and some desks. Plus the cupboards to store the text books.

Unusually, sitting on a shelf in the Head Teacher's office was a real human skull. I asked where it had come from and was told that one of the pupils had picked it up years ago. There seemed to me there was no sense of mystery or thought of identifying the person. There was however fascination for me.

It was very good that the hand over of materials for the school were handed over in front of the whole school. The Head Teacher [who later became head teacher at Mwakeny] receives the maps and the Head Girl a box of books.

As part of the assistance package was the new toilets for the school. The school committee dug the pit - a huge pit - and the Leguruki Fundi School carried out the building. Actually they subcontracted most of the work which was to a high standard, but the doors were made at the school and never fitted despite many words to the then principal. So in the end, one of the teachers [actually from Shishtoni] borrowed a screw driver from me and fitted them himself.

When the teacher asked to borrow a screwdriver, I wanted it returned to me so told him about boomerangs. Most will know that a boomerang is an Australian throwing weapon that is supposed to return to its owner. I was actually having fun with him because if he did not return it, the cost was small. It is the conservationist/hoarder in me to hang on to stuff - I have a container of stuff. He did return the screwdriver and without my asking - and he made a good job of fitting the doors.

I have a red-handled screwdriver that I value. I acquired it in my NZFS days and used it through my nursery days for a dribbler when pricking out seedlings and as a weeding tool. I have lost it and left it where it could have been stolen/acquired - even in Tanzania - but I have always found it and it was never stolen. Mbise tried to acquire it once after I loaned it to him but it remains with me and I still use it in my small nursery here at home :)

As with all schools in Tanzania [and probably all of Africa] the kids are always ready and willing to sing. Each time we visited the teachers had prepared a small performance for us, and of course this encouraged us as well.

All this showed they were prepared to participate and were appreciative of assistance provided.

Although the Head Teacher changed from time to time, the stalwart deputy Mwl Mbise remained in his position for the whole time were were working with the school. He was great to work with and led the kids well - he had an affinity with them.

He was happy to formally accept some of the educational material that we were able to supply to the school.

The risala is a song/chant of thanks that details whatever the thanks are for. The kids generally write it but helped by the teacher involved. It is usually performed by senior girls and a neat copy is given to the person being thanked. I found the copy useful because the risala is often sung quickly and I could not pick it all up.

The girls are always shy, but they enjoy performing.

We carried out several tree planting programmes at Olkung'wado and this time the very best tree was grown by the smallest boy at the school. He was pleased to have his picture taken with the head Teacher looking on.

The teacher behind was one of the good characters we encountered in our travels.

The prize-giving ceremony was always an excuse for the whole school to be outside. I took it upon myself to look at each tree and talk to each tree planter - trying to motivate. Some kids replaced their dead tree with a fresh sprig to either trick me or hide the fact their tree had died. A hard lesson really because the kids had just the one tree and if it died, their chance for a prize was gone. Some found trees from elsewhere though.

A group of prizewinners and their prizes. The kids had asked for their prizes to be trees from our nursery, so the could plant them at home. So we had extra prize-winners.

The woman on the right was the wife of the village chairman.

The staff and I guess the school committee requested a tree nursery at the school to raise funds for the school. I was certainly not against the idea but suggested that before I put project funds into the project, they need to establish an animal-proof fence to protect the seedlings.
The complied so I was right behind them with materials and advice.

For the school to obtain maximum profits, they needed no expense and they had ready and willing labour. The kids were enthusiastic to use the new screen for the soil and cow manure each kid brought to the school. Actually this dust is not too good to breathe in - I developed a cough and Dr. Joyce suggested that I had a fungal growth on my lungs! He gave me two sets of medication and I read on the label that taking these tow together risks cardiac arrest! That was resolved by finishing one lot of the pills before taking the other.

A girl practices using the method I taught to measure the length of polythene tube to cut to make pots. They were all very careful not to waste the tubing.

I give a demonstration on filling pots. It is all basic stuff, mixing the soil and filling the pot so the soil mix does not fall out the bottom. The kids were pleased with their effort - as was I. The kids retain these basic skills and I have found that they are used in later life.

It is well known that African kids love to sing and every time we visited the school 'Tunapenda' was sung. And the kids liked to make up verses and add them, sometime making fun of me and how they saw me. Very clever really. Very often the teachers would lead in the singing.

On an inspection tour of 'big noises' [bosses if you like] Loti led the singing and was enthusiastic to show the work we were carrying out. It is always good to have critique on your work, and the value of it - in this case they seemed pleased enough with what we were doing.

Note that we supplied plastic watering cans. I liked the galvanized ones because they had a good 'rose' on them, but if not looked after, they always leaked and needed soldering. The plastic one stood up to a lot of wear and tear so were ideal for a school.

Incidentally - at this time there was no water at the school, so the kids brought some each day.

I supposed it was because of a Russian influence [Nyerere experimented with socialism and aligned with Russia for a time] that ndugu - comrade became used as a soft term of endearment among people. And the way people identified with each other.

We had the slogan [if that's the word for it] 'Mazingira juu!' Up [with the] environment! And the reply is raising an arm, sort of salute, and calling out, 'Mazingira juu, juu zaidi!' more/extra!

Despite the lack of water, the nursery was successful, but if we arrived unannounced, invariably the nursery would be dry. However that's not so bad - all the village nurseries, including mine were often on the edge of being in drought stress.

The trees were either sold or taken home by the students. It is only Grevillea robusta and Dovyalis caffra that are popular to buy. I cheated a bit here because I provided some trees from the Makumira nursery. Fruit trees and worthwhile species that I knew people would not buy, but the kids would take them home.

Loti and I inspect a young Grevillea planted out - even regularly watered, the soil packs down and water does not percolate to the roots. Mulching or trickle irrigation with a pottle/bottle is the best answer.

Not everything we did actually worked out and a prime example is the planting of the shopping and market area of Olkung'wado. It was my initiative to carry out the planting programme and was not community driven - probably the reason for the failure.

We called the village 'the grey town' because of all the concrete buildings - like the old village office here. We also noticed the market stall-holders sat exposed to the wind and sun for the whole day. My solution was to plant trees to 'green the place up!'

We asked the school to participate and we were 'given' the kids for the day - again that was a mistake - not so much as a lot of kids are difficult to control, but it would have been better for kids to take ownership of the trees they planted. Here we are getting organized for the days work.

The kids did a very good job of planting the trees and erecting the barriers. I supplied sisal sticks which were cut to length and and split into three or four depending on the diameter of each stick.

From this pic it is plain why I wanted to do this.

Mwl Mbise and I set up the sisal sticks as an example to follow - the kids had no trouble doing this.

Few of the trees survived. The local stall-holders were not prepared to water the trees nor was there a willingness to chase browsing animals away from the trees. It was usual to allow animals into the area to clean up spillage and debris from market day and the sisal barriers did not do the job!

I would have been pleased to see this part of the project work, but the people just did not accept ownership of it. Still, I would like another go at it.