Life in Africa Fourteen

One of the better picture of Mt Kilimanjaro taken from the road Leguruke - Ngarenanyuki road.

After all she is the tallest mountain in Africa and she does not lift her skirts (of clouds) very often.

Mt.Meru from the Arusha National Park. On occasion there is a dusting of snow on top. We have planted trees right around the base of the mountain and at Makumira and Sanawari we lived on the lower slopes.

At Makumira we noticed that in the evening cooler air came down off the mountain.

Also thunder/rain was always preceded with sudden wind.

 We had the opportunity to visit the Uluguru Mountains by Morogoro. If you enlarge this picture you will see that it is farmed very intensively for vegetables. Terraces have been built and water schemes installed to produce vegetables for the Dar es Salaam market.

There are always adventures and we went on a road where we were advised not to go, and the military descended upon us to turn us away.

It rained while we were there, so holed up with our mates and some bevvies we made some promises we would never keep!

This rock bluff is somewhat behind our house at Makumira and has been quarried by the Makumira Secondary School. (not sure what the dark strip is?) Rock quarrying is a blight on the Tanzania landscape and is a cheap form of house/building foundation.

In this case it caused land movement resulting in damage to a building we had constructed.
Rock quarrying has left huge holes in the land and damage to the environment. Concrete foundations are a more expensive alternative. In this case, I petitioned the village government to put a stop to the quarrying, but that was like doing the proverbial against the wind! The Headmaster had his reasons and will reap his harvest.

 I did not expect to see primary inter-school sports competitions because of the problems with transport and the cost of running the events, but I was pleasantly surprised.
Of course it is difficult because pupils walk to the regional school where the event is to be held, then winners go in to district competitions and then there are national competitions.
We took the time one afternoon to cheer on the Makumira students 'at home'.

I'm not sure if this girl was a local or not, but she was a clear winner!
Poor kid lined up for a 800m metre race and was off at the sound of 'go!' but it was a miss-start and they were called back but she didn't hear, so continued around the 400m course. So per penalty for that was four strokes of the cane! Sure enough!
She still won by a long way when the race finally was run!
The course was really just a flat paddock and the kids ran in bare feet.

Mzee Obedi had the job chunga ng'ombe of herding the Makumira farm dairy cows. That is he walked behind them as they browsed throughout the day. There were no fences so his job was that of a safety person. Not uncommon, in fact very young kids do this job throughout Africa.
Obedi helped me as a witness when the bus hit me.
I greeted him almost daily and helped him transport materials to his home on occasion.

It became a trend to use Maasai as night guards because of their perceived bravery and reliability. The Makumira Secondary School employed Moses, from Monduli, probably the first Maasai guard in the area. As I have said people are people and there is a danger in generalizing (bravery and reliability) and all Maasai being tall and lean. Well this is Moses' mother, she was short as was Moses. She was a serene woman and happy with her particular lot. The baby is that of her daughter. Moses had a good sense of humor and curiosity.

 From time to time I was given a goat as recognition of the progamme I had brought to the people.
On of the goats drought funza, a little jigger-maggot that bores into you skin. I have already written about those fellows!
I found that keeping a goat as zero grazed, was difficult because goats like to browse - just pick at food as they travel along. It is depressing to collect food and present it to the animal, and all it does is sniff it and reject it.

 This is generally how goats end up. This one is ceremonial and sort of substitutes for a cake. More often the meat becomes nyama choma - grilled over coals and found in restaurants and bars.
Of course goats eat trees and tree seedlings, causing environmental damage. But owning them is seen as wealth.

I'm not sure which Acacia this is, growing in a remote area, but the bush was yellow with the flower. Bees were working the flowers and the noise was very audible.
It would be hoped that these trees are not destined to be felled for charcoal production.

Traditional bee hives hanging in a Baobab tree.
Baobabs are iconic in Africa and a favorite tree. Bees feeding on flowers such as the golden Acacia produce good amounts of honey.
Honey is not actually used on toast, more likely it is made into an alcoholic drink. But it is recognized and being a health product.
People are being encouraged to utilize honey for all its good uses.


 The Deputy Headmaster at Makumira was Mwl Mashoya (3rd from left beside Mbise in the green cap) who is a member of the Chugga tribe.
He took us to his home place at Lukani on the lower slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. His family greeted us warmly and we visited a local primary school. They would have like the same assistance as the primary schools we worked with received but that was not possible under the structure were were working.
Mashoya was friendly with Mbise so we knew and his wife quite well and we were pleased when he became Headmaster at Ngarenanyuki Secondary School. There he managed to receive assistance for the school from Germany and seemed to us to be quite successful. For reasons that we were unable to fathom, he was replaced and found work at an international school.

Mashoya wanted me to take a photo of his parents. In the villages there is much respect for the elderly and this pair were modest and returned the respect.
The trip to Lukani was a long one and on the way we saw the huge meeting place where the Maasai congregate for special ceremony.
It was really good to have a guide who know the history and the meaning of what we saw.