The Female of the Species

I had a background in the Scouting movement, but here I do not refer to Kipling's poem - I never was into poetry. Silly rhymes? Well maybe.
Before Ian Flemming wrote about James Bond, I enjoyed Bulldog Drummond by Sapper and one of those works was titled, 'The Female of the Species'.

There are loads of myths and assumptions about life in Africa and sometimes I have been astounded how even locals or so called 'professionals' can fail to grasp the truth - if truth actually exists.

So many times I have heard it said that African men are lazy and spend all their time talking, while their women do all the work. This is a massive generalization and sure there is truth in the statement. But I have seen some really hard working men.

There is one agency I know about that deals in water projects but only when the administration is carried out by women or women's groups. I must say that I smile at such suggestions because it assumes that women somehow are not corrupt.
Such a suggestion is foolish because corruption rears it nasty little head wherever there is a perception that somehow there is an advantage to somebody - usually finanicial.

The water to our Makumira house and nursery was fed by a scheme that took water from a spring high on Mt Meru and ended at the Makumira Secondary School. The scheme was wrought with problems and we raised money to make extensive repair to ensure water for the school and the nursery. Why were there problems?
A local women's group was granted a very large amount of money by a US aid agency to carry out the project. The leadership of the group bought themselves Landrovers and other things before the village people had access to any water. The project was carried out as cheaply as possible using inferior materials. The scheme was barely working and part of the line supplied Nkoaranga Hospital!
The thing is temptation relates not to gender nor to the affluence of a person, it is only that the poor are tempted by less that than the rich - but even that doesn't always apply either.

I do not want to back away from 'The Female of the Species' theme.
I have seen that sometimes expats who volunteer, visit, live or work in Africa have somehow a hidden agenda. Perhaps not an agenda, maybe it is simply how they are. I really don't know, but I have seen some strange things.
Watch how some young women enjoy to be hassled by touts selling souvenirs and beating them down in price. Even boss them to about. Enjoying some euphoria.
But that's not what I'm on about here - my work in Tanzania was somewhat constrained by the actions of certain women. Without judgment, this is what happened, a history if you like - I give them all my Swahili names. I do not wish to unkind here, just report some of what actually happened and how it effected me.

Mama Malkia had been a Field Rep for the Agency during which time she developed a close friendship with Big E [now my boss]. She had taught him how to apply for donor aid and encouraged him to form his own NGO. Big E accompanied her on field trips, providing advice and, I guess, security. The need for security is real, but in reality, she had taken on a job that involved traveling and being alone.
Mama Baraka told me much more about what she had seen and it became well known what was happening.
Now the reason my job had been re-advertised was because the guy who had been appointed heard of the relationship between Mama Malkia and Big E judging there to be certain risks. Nobody told me of this.
There was a delay in Big E accepting my appointment and Mama Baraka told me that Big E had used all the funds supplied for my assignment and had not prepared our accommodation.
Once we were on site and into our assignment, I found there was indeed no money and I had to make application for funds to carry out our work.
Big E even told me that he had seen that volunteers caused a problems for NGO's and he only accepted us because he found that he couldn't get out of it.
Mama Malkia knew that Big E was spending donated funds inappropriately but accepted it like some accept a favorite puppy peeing on the carpet - a tut tut, nothing more.

The case of Mama Mwuguzi was more tragic and did not actually affect my assignment but it did indirectly affect the Agency relationship, therefore mine, with my employer, DME.
Mama Mwuguzi arrived with her husband who was unassigned. She was to take up a position at Nkoaranga Hospital and was accommodated in a house not too far away from where we lived.
What often happens is that people get a fixed idea of what things will be like, even though they are correctly briefed. This couple, I have no doubt were told that they would have no vehicle and that they would be close to amenities.
These people were 'older' and access out was a walk of perhaps 15 min and to them, they were remote. There was no phone, water was unreliable and of course there was some difficulty carrying stores. They needed to use public transport, meaning the daladala and they were not used to that at all. Sure transport was provided to the hospital, but that was all.
The husband quickly caught a stomach bug which he was unable to throw off and Mama Mwuguzi worried about him - rather, she fretted for him. Because I had a vehicle, I helped them out and regularly called on them as well as helping with the transport of food. But doing this made me late for my appointments.
Mama Mwuguzi confronted Jo in a hostile way and accused the Agency of not supporting them as well as not giving proper details about their living conditions. I could see her real stress.
In the end they pulled out of the assignment and returned home. Poor woman died of cancer within the year.

Mo & Jo were replaced by Baba & Mama Rubani.
This placement ended in tragedy also which caused an impact in my work again and in my relationship with the Agency and DME.
Mama Rubani was actually the Field Rep and Baba Rubani was 'an accompanying partner' so did not have real authority. But of course he did by influencing his wife. They did not welcome vols to their home the way Mo & Jo did and they were generally cool towards us all.
I have no really issue with this partnership but they had an entirely different view of providing donor funding to what we had developed - the ideas generally came from Baba Rubani. He did not believe that text books were necessary in schools. He believed that funds be given to the targeted beneficiaries in a lump sum 'to be used as they see fit - they get one bite of the cherry and if they blow it, it is their problem'. The theory of that is ok but in practice the funds are abused.
Ralph Naylor our old forestry mentor instilled into us that the money available to us as public servants was the taxpayers and our job was to spend it as effectively as possible - it was our duty. I adhere to that principle even today.
We were in the middle of the Primary Schools Assistance Project and this pair believed it to be a distraction from their work and wanted shot of it. Their way was to spend or distribute the funds as quickly as possible.
The good thing is the Rubani's employed a local woman as Administrator - Mama Tabasamu was to have a checkered career which ended well.
I was so embarrassed when I invited them to a function put on for us by Nkoaranga Primary School to thank us for the school decks etc that was provided. Baba Rubani was offered a soda, and took a bottle of Coke but quickly returned it stating out aloud that Coca Cola is no good unless it is cold! There was no fridge miles!
Out of the blue, at least to us, the Rubani's resigned. There had been tension with the Agency and I acknowledge that parties are not always compatible.
Tragedy struck when Baba Rubani was killed when the light plane he was flying ploughed into Monduli Mountain. This was a really difficult time complicated by the fact that flying aircraft was outside the terms of agreement of the Agency's insurers.

Enter Mama Mbembe.
We had stayed a night with Mama Mbembe in Zimbabwe when she told us of her wish to become a vol in Tanzania.
She was well connected and knew a few important people. She was married to a diplomat of sorts for a time living with him in Ethiopia. This may or may not have a bearing on what happened.
Anyway, it eventuated that she turned up at DME as a fish farm adviser by reputation rather than merit because she had no experience in fish farming.
She lived in the DME house where Mama Mwuguzi had lived and earlier the other troublesome Kiwi couple who had worked as fish farm advisers and left early under a cloud.
I was busy with my own assignment and coping with the Rubani's but took time to be friendly to and welcome Mama Mbembe.
The first I knew of trouble when my friend and the person I answered to, the General Secretary of DME told me of problems he was having with Mama Mbembe. She would not go out into the target villages with her co-worker Enoch and instead was 'flitting around the Northern outskirts of Arusha'. The General Secretary showed me a letter from Dr. Sudi stating that she was totally uncooperative in the fish farming project - a copy was sent to the Agency. At another meeting he told me that he had asked her for suggestions for a certain complex that DME were to build but her response was a Marae style (Maori meeting house), which is actually inappropriate in Tanzania as mixed sexes could not sleep in such a way - but Mama Mbembe was insistent. I was asked 'to sort her out as we come from the same country'.
Mama Mbembe complained about her accommodation being unsafe (but DME had two night guards posted there each night) and she came to me saying she had heard gun shots closeby. I sent Mbise down there to investigate and I joined him. Our conclusion was that the sound was whips boys used to scare birds from rice and maize crops.
Never the less this caused her to be allowed (by Mama Rubani) to move into rented accommodation in Arusha costing the DME Fish Farm Project USD 250.00 per month! Totally outside their budget.

Well now, there came an Agency conference and the Africa Programme Manager, Mama Mhindi came out to take part. The General Secretary of DME told Mama Mhindi exactly the problems he faced with Mama Mbembe and it turned out that Mama Mbembe had done nothing toward her assignment in the six months she had been there. This meant a directive from Mama Mhindi that both Mama Mbembe and I were to meet monthly with the General Secretary to discuss what had been done and what was to be done. Well Mama Mbembe did not like the General Secretary so did not meet him - I did but that was usual anyway and he just preferred me to get on with my work.
When the Rubani's decided to resign, (and I suspect this was talked about at conference) Mama Mhindi was going to appoint Mama Mbembe as Field Rep. The grapevine whispered the news of this intention to me and I was horrified to think of the result - for the sake of vols, the partner organizations and the Agency.
My response was to throw my hat into the ring and apply for the job. I did not actually want the job as I preferred what I was doing, but I thought that I would force an open selection.
It did and many very good people applied. The Agency telephone was down so we had to go to Mama Mbembe's house for a telephone interview. With her in the next room!
It was down to the pair of us and Mama Mhindi and a sidekick came to interview us for the second time. Mama Mbembe was selected - what a process to go through for that outcome!
After the death of Baba Rubani and the takeover the Agency's error of judgment came to fruition fully. Mama Mbembe became offside to all the vols, the partner organizations and was discrediting the Agency by her actions. I don't need to go into the gory details but the effect on my reputation was that she told the Agency that I was unhappy with my Toyota truck so sold it cheaply to the Tanzanian fellow she had taken up with this left me with a dunger of a Landrover. He arranged for Agency vehicle repairs and she grossly overpaid him - even he was embarrassed! I caught them once and then after the next repair, as I drove down our road, the tie-rod end popped off leaving me with no steering! A different result if I had been going 100kph!
There was an accusation that Mama Tabasamu had stolen Tsh 400 000 /- in fact Mama Mbembe loaned it to her boyfriend to retrieve a vehicle from one of the National Parks! It was repaid. But poor old Mama Tabasamu was treated somewhat as the colonialist would have treated her.
Just one other: Of course Mama Mbembe was somewhat antagonistic to DME and particularly the General Secretary. I had written up a funding proposal so that DME could continue the environmental project after I had returned to NZ. I ran it past Mama Mbembe, as was protocol, but I could see that she was not going to support it.
Well a short time after, A Big Noise (my term for someone in authority) was to pay us a visit and a function was arranged to meet him. I managed to corner him and discuss the proposal to him. Mama Mbembe was livid!
That night in her words 'He and I drank and danced until the wee small hours'. And the funding was never approved.
Generally though I was very busy - I had my assignment, the Primary Schools Assistance Project, building Valeska Primary School (a special project), building Mama Upendo's house and building Mbise's house - oh there was the food assistance as well. I still had a lot to do with Mama Mbembe and bits will emerge as we go.
There is much more but I have to say in my last days of those assignments, she helped us with our departure. However the Agency finally realised the problem/damage she cause and paid her to walk away. What a disaster!

We had two years back in New Zealand and responding to a call from DME I again accepted another assignment with them.
The Field Rep by then was one, Mama Viazi and she was pushing hard for me to change my assignment from DME to an outfit in Mbulu. I had 'unfinished business' at DME and so refused the Mbulu invitation.
I could tell from Mama Viazi's emails that she was not too pleased about that outcome.
Being an old hand at the 'game' I wrote up a funding proposal for DME to send off to the new NZ funding body, and I spoke to them by phone. They intimated they were happy to continue support of DME and thought the project worthwhile. My reason for doing this was to make sure there were funds available when we arrived - remember Hifadhi?
When I arrived at DME the new General Secretary - who I already knew to be a fine fellow - told me of a huge argument they had with Mama Viazi. She had tried to have them accept another vol instead of me, but the DME told her that if they could not have me, then they don't want anyone! Mama Viazi tried for them to have nobody!
Don't blame DME - and I am not big headed about this. They had had the fish farmers - they were big trouble to DME and to the Agency; they had Mama Mwuguzi and her husband; who had left early; they had the Tongans - who complained about the night guards, the lack of water and had received complaints about walking around the village without a shirt and carrying a huge knife (plus other issues) and then they had Mama Mbembe who had treated them so poorly. We were the only NZers who had not caused trouble! Any wonder that they did not want to experiment with others!
Mama Viazi was none too happy when she found out that we had already applied for project funding! The thing was: if I had applied, it should have gone through her. But in fact, DME had the right to apply independently and after the argument, they were not going to tell her anything! All I had done was write up the proposal for them to present.
Mama Tabasamu manned the Arusha office and Mama Viazi's office was in Pretoria, so she popped down to the funding agency and 'threw a spanner in the works' for our funding!
With no funding, we could not operate so I had two choices - sit and do nothing or return to NZ. I took the third option which was to fund the project myself, from personal resources in the hope that funding would come through. There was a high risk and I had to be prepared for the funding not to come through.
I had the Landrover to fuel, I employed Upendo (but did not pay her until the funds eventually came through), I bought the nursery materials and managed to run the environmental project.
The Agency Africa Programme manager had been replaced and he was more realistic in his approach. He made changes that saw Mama Tabasamu become Tanzania Field Rep and after a full year the funding was granted to DME and they repaid me in full.

Ngarash Primary School, Monduli

Ngarash Primary School is situated just a little outside what I would call the Monduli town boundary. The school was obviously under resourced and had a growing roll.

We visited the school early in our assignment so we had not yet formalised just how we would go about our environmental programme. Simply we called on the school and Joshia offered trees for the school to plant. The Headteacher thought there was indeed a need for trees around the school, so he agreed to plant and care for any trees we might bring to the school.

By the time of our next visit, we were more prepared with our 'system' in place, but because I was not yet confident with my Kiswahili, Joshia took most of the seminar and read 'Ndoto ya Grace'. As usual, we were not able to address just the senior part of the school, all of the kids wanted to participate. He instructed the kids to prepare planting holes and we would bring trees in four weeks time.
On the appointed day we took the Maruti loaded with trees to the school - a selection of mixed species and spent the day planting them with the students.

As the Primary Schools Assistance Project was now in gear, we arranged to meet the Monduli Village Executive Officer (Mtendaje) so the village government/leaders were in the picture as to what we were proposing to do.
The school head teacher had heard we were coming and was waiting for us - expecting a handful of money. He particularly wanted a new office built for himself.
Here we were again; I found using the Assistance Project to be a good lever for the Environment Project and it proved so again.

We were to supply 100 school desks, 5 teachers tables & chairs, 2 cupboards to house the text books - enough for the senior part of the school and some junior books as well, teachers (instruction) copies, slates and chalk for new entrants, and blackboard paint.

I had on board some 174 Guava trees to be planted out because of a request from the deputy headteacher to provide vitamin C for the whole village population.
Our followup revealed that the trees were not thriving too well because of the fierce sun and lack of water. We certainly understood about the lack of water but called the school together and allocated one tree to each pupil to care for. We announced there would be a competition for the best tree shelter - to provide shade as well as protection from livestock. I would give a prize for the best shelter and later another for the best tree.

On our next visit (Sept 10) all the Assistance Project Material had arrived and was stored - the teachers and students were happy and grateful.
I could see that work was going on in the Guava orchard, but this day we were inspecting the plantings behind the school. There were, as expected, varying results but overall I was pleased. I had bought some pencils and exercise books for the best three trees. There were as always some kids who's trees were dead so they put a green twig in the planting hole to fool me - it didn't, but I was well aware that not all trees handed out were equal and failure could not always be put down to poor care. However the best ten trees could not be separated so Joshia called what he thought was fair to represent the best five and we gave them a pencil and exercise book each.
'This is not enough!' I muttered to Joshia, and he, in agreement said the next lot of prizewinners could 'feel the hand of an mzungu' - white man. That is, shake my hand. But I remembered I had bought some avocados at the market, so distributed those until we ran out. But the kids did in fact enjoy shaking my hand.

A week later I was astounded when we returned to find 174 tree shelters covering the Guava trees - all immaculate and well built, each with the name of the student; remembering there were few materials and no money for resources. I had no idea how we were going to choose the best - I had brought prizes for ten this time - bits I had gathered up while at the market - enamel mugs, combs, toothbrushes.
We made our choice after much deliberation (making a show of it for them to see) and presented the prizes.

After our project was completed and we moved to Makumira and the Lutheran Diocese, but I went back to Monduli to deliver Upendo to secondary school, so I took the opportunity to return to Ngarash.
The woman who had been the deputy Headteacher was now Headteacher and she immediately recognised me and slow hand-clapped chanting 'Babu, Babu, Babu!' (Grandfather) - until the whole school had come outside to join her in her chant. I more than was a little overwhelmed at this and even though my Kiswahili was good now - I was lost for words.

Some of the Guava trees had been removed to make way for the expansion of the school - a new classroom, but the kids were eating the fruit, I saw some of them! Now that's a good outcome!

Monduli - a small scale nursery.

I have previously mentioned Mama Furahi, who we met through one of the Agency vols who lived close by her and was friends with her.

Mama Furahi had the sharpness of her clan and she soon became aware that we had some resources at our disposal and that we assisted with various projects. It did not take her long to ask us to help her 'group' with a tree nursery project. It is/was common that assistance for small project meant that the funds would be handed over and the project generally fizzled out because the funds were somehow 'eaten'. Another Swahili term.
Mama Furahi did not know then that she would never be given cash money for her project, but if we were to assist - then materials only would be donated. This was general policy for our projects, though I had developed a cynic button in my brain that self activated - and it had clicked into gear on its own.

I asked to meet this group of women and to lure them, I told Mama Furahi that perhaps I could provide some help. I had the feeling that the 'group' was hastily thrown together, but I considered that did not really matter. They were made up mainly of women from the College compound, with one or two exceptions. While I had my suspicions about the motives of the group, what made me decide to help was Mama Sudi. She lived with her children and cared for her father who was a frail centurion on their small subsistence farm. They were very poor and I judged that she would probably carry out the bulk of the work, but her needs and enthusiasm would keep the other members honest.
I had planned that I would give a notebook to Mama Sudito record the hours each member put into the project, then when the young trees were allocated (or sold) the divvy would be based on the proportion each had put into the project. At a meeting I drew up an agreement and all members understood and signed it. I worked out well.

A friend in New Zealand belonged to to an altruistic club which wanted to donate a small amount of money to a worthwhile project and with these funds we donated the nursery equipment to the group and I supplies the tree seed - the chairperson signed for materials on behalf of the group.

I gave the group a seminar on how to operate a small tree nursery and I warned them that they would face problems because of the summer water shortage - therefore, grow only the number that can be properly cared for. I saw that most were at least interested but I guessed a couple of the women would drop out fairly quickly once the work began. And that did happen!

To her credit Mama Furahi did her fair share of the work and together with Mama Sudi, a good number of seedlings was produced they did not really thrive well within the walled yard of Mama Furahi's house, but I suspect that was because she had enlisted her daughters to do most of the watering.
Once her new house was built, Mama Furahi assured me that the trees would thrive much better, but as I saw the house slowly growing, I was sure that her time would be concentrated on her house rather than the group project. There was another problem in the back of my mind - security. What was to stop the trees being stolen from her new, unfenced yard. Oh yes of course she asked for assistance to erect an enclosure - I declined.

So when Mama Faraja changed houses, I advised the group that the trees should be divvied up and that was agreed to. Mama Furahi and the members from the College compound used all their trees around their properties but Mama Sudi sold her share 'to buy soap and sugar'. The term for household needs.

Once the house was finished, Mama Furahi did manage to surround it with a post and barbed wire fence and for two further seasons the group, now a trio carried on with the tree nursery. I donated further polythene tubing and seed - it would have been nice had the group set aside funds for this, but hey, I was there to help. I was assured the nursery would keep going, but I never returned there. I hope it is - I will ask one of my friends. Was the project worthwhile? In my opinion, it sure was!

Monduli cont.

From memory the Monduli Teacher's College complex was built through assistance from Denmark, some 40 years ago and was donated to the Tanzania.

Don, an Agency vol was appointed there to teach the trainees how to teach Chemistry, something he was very good at.

As vols do, we stayed with him from time to time which gave us a change to look around his work environment and around the College. I was very impressed with the amphitheater made of brick and could imagine the students listing to oratory of some great speaker.

One weekend Don had arranged for us to go for a walk up the, not insignificant, hills at the back of the Monduli village. We were all enthusiastic as we all had our personal agendas as reasons to go, but we all thought the view would be good. We were aiming to climb beyond the bushline onto the (supposedly) grassy tops.
Don had hired a guide - with a rifle - as there were elephants and buffalo up there, so we needed protection. Besides we needed to know the best way to the top.

Well the trudge was steep and some became tired, so through experience I placed myself at the rear - not to push but to keep everyone together. The bush was second growth and quite dense and there was no definite track - we were following animal tracks that were random and did not actually go anywhere. My gut feeling was that our guide did not know much about what he was doing. This was confirmed when we reached the top, and there was no open grassed area! We had climbed an isolated knob that was completely bush covered! There was no lookout. I climbed a tree to see out and I realised time was against us to venture further. I did spot just a short distance away, an are that looked like a fenceline and had been cut with the regrowth being just over knee high. We could see out from there. The fenceline went a long way in the distance.
While we rested and took photos, I was interested in our guide's rifle so asked if I could look at it. Well I discovered that it had no bullets nor was he carrying any! This I found out in Kiswahili - which the others lacked conversational use of - so I never let on because to do so would create a fuss. We had not seen any animal, though I had smelled some - but I figured it was too hot for them to be active - and the feed would not rate as their ice cream.

Back at Don's people needed the toilet and a sponge down. Monduli had severe water problems, especially in the dry season. It came from a spring high in the hills, and Don left a tap on so water would flow into a 200 litre drum. Water came on usually at 1:00 am for around 30minutes - but sometimes it did not come at all. In fact in the morning, I boiled water for a cup of tea (my usual was to rise early and make a brew - wherever I was), the water I boiled was water that was to be used for poaching eggs - it had salt! After I had sampled the tea - I tossed it and did not let on to anyone about my waste.

Feeling guilty about my waste, late that afternoon I wandered around the village and saw some kids and young women filling buckets from a tap about a km away. I took one of Don's 20litre buckets and headed for the tap and waited in line. With two buckets in front of me, the water stopped and the line of people drifted off but one young woman said she would take me to a Mama who had a tank.
If you are polite and try to use the language people are just so friendly. The woman had a storage tank - maybe 1000 litres, but I had no idea if it was full or half or what. But the young woman called 'Hodi' and explained that I had a problem with water.
The woman did not hesitate and welcomed me, but refused to help the young woman. Really to do so would cause her further problems and we all realised that. I did not want to take a whole bucket but the woman insisted that I should and that it was ok.
I knew that a full bucket would be reduced by half by the time I got back to Don's because 20 litres of water is heavy and I am not adept at carrying buckets of water for long distances.
The young woman would not have me even lifting the bucket, she hoisted onto her head and we were off to Don's place.

Once there, I thanked he sincerely and demanded she half fill the her empty bucket that I had carried back. She did so and with a smile, she took her share of the water home.

Water is as precious thing!

Around Monduli

Monduli is noted for the Military Barracks and the Secondary Teacher College there. We had some dealings with both institutions - mainly supplying trees. The Major General wanted us to do other business there, but we did not proceed with that. There are noted secondary schools there also (Upendo went to one of them for a year) and a primary school that provides practice for training teachers. Also there is a rehabilitation center there for people - children - who have suffered accidents.
Monduli is the administrative center of the Monduli District.

Monduli is situated some distance from the main Arusha /Dodoma road,and in those days the tar sealed road was pockmarked with potholes, some very large, and even at slow speeds you could not dodge them. Just past the Army HQ the seal peters out and the dust/mud track lead on to the village.
Today the new road is of tar seal making the trip from the main road smooth and fast.

One of our Vols was a lecturer at the Monduli Teachers College and so we had the privilege of being involved with the College and some of the folk within.
I remember picking Don from the airport - well not the first time as the plane did not arrive! But at the time the new road was being built and it was dusty! In the light of day the banana trees were dusty grey. Some of the householders built speed bumps to slow down the traffic - the first night there were a dozen or so, but the next night there were 64! This made a slow trip slower!
The Principal of the College came to meet Don accompanied by some of his students - two of the young women actually wept with joy that they had 'such an expert' to teach them.

Of course, as you do, he often stayed with us at Sanawari, and we stayed with him at Monduli where we had some adventures. His accommodation was within the a compound where the rest of the lecturers stayed. The whole complex was built with a reddish/yellow brick and was quite impressive.
His new friend Mama Faraja lived there too and and through their friendship we came to know her. Mama Faraja was a primary school teacher at the Demonstration School.
I had always found it strange that she used the name of her second child, rather than that of her first. It transpired that Mama Faraja was of the Meru tribe and her clan name was Nyeti - that became significant when we had our second spell at Makumira. It tied in a bit.

Of course our main area of involvement was with the primary school - Ngarash. There were enthusiastic teachers at Ngarash which made our work there somewhat easier and encouraging for us.
We also carried out small scale plantings around the villages, mainly the parents of school children.

Within the greater village area, there was a mixture of Tanzanian tribes and expats, but the outlying area was almost exclusively Maasai and Sunday saw the busy Maasai market.
Many of the Arusha region's 'walinzi' (night) guards came from the Monduli area - at least until security business became established.

In it's own way Monduli was a vibrant place, with extensive plantings of Jacaranda making a blue/purple show and the flowers making a carpet on the road. And of course there was the unruly hub of the bus terminal.

The Military Base - more correctly, Tanzania Military Academy - is situated on a small hill before the road dips and later turns very sharply to the left. Way back on the main road is another complex, mainly accommodation I think. We drove beside that area on the way to Meserani Chini as part of the Primary Schools Assistance Project - but that's a different tale.

I don't think there is anything secret or sinister/controversial about the Military Academy, but I was not unwise enough to take photos. The main gate is neat and well maintained and nicely trimmed bougainvillea growing on mowed grass stretches each side of the gateway.
The Major General (well that was the title Big E gave him) was an ndugu of Big E - that word can mean a relative, or from the communist time, comrade - sometimes it is hard to know which. But on our way back from Mswakini Big E wanted us to meet him 'as he is committed to tree planting'.

As you would expect, to see the O/C of any military organization can be no spur of the moment thing. So we sat at those gates and the soldier - a military policeman - spoke into a telephone not appreciating the proximity of Big E who wanted to take hold of it.
After a short wait, another military policeman hopped into the passenger seat and order that I drive forward and gave me directions. The guy was friendly and courteous but firm.

Once at the parking area, the policeman escorted us to the office of the Major General. He was affable and ordered a soda for us and some of those small packets of biscuits and we chatted about our various projects. Sure he was interested about tree planting and had already carried out some extensive plantings. He asked if we could sell him some trees later in the year.
Big E had obviously told him that we had this Primary Schools Assistance Project and were going to buy desks, tables, chairs and cupboards. The Major General had a brother who had carpentry workshop - he would be delighted to be awarded the contract.
Tanzanians try to look after their kin/ndugu and there is always posho for facilitating business deals. Posho is a consideration and can be anything from a cup of tea to a more spectacular handout. I could feel the strings being pulled.
I had also found that in Tanzanian society a direct refusal is unwise, rather give a little. For example if someone comes to the door and asks for a kilo of sugar - you don't tell them to bugger off - you give them perhaps half a cup.
So I told them that the desks were already being made, but their ndugu could build some of the cupboards. This was accepted and we left there happily with the promise to deliver some trees later.

Actually the cupboards were made to a poor standard and only six were made. There was no bad feeling over this - I think the Major General was trying to generate business for his ndugu but the ndugu didn't really want it.

Big E did not come with me on the day of the tree deliveries, but the military policeman recognised me and the route to the Major General was the same, as was the soda and biscuits. He personally took delivery of the trees and promised that they would be well planted and cared for. He arranged for us to eat at the canteen which was outside the gate and across the road. He was to take care of the bill. It was a good place and after that we ate there from time to time.

During that time transport to the main road was difficult of the soldiers and many tried to flag me down. I stopped once to tell them that the Agency did not allow us to give rides to people in uniform. Not really true, but we would not feel safe transporting those guys, but the word soon got around and mostly the flagging stopped as far as we were concerned.

It is natural for us to feel a little uneasy around the military (and police to some extent) in many countries because we never see them at home. And there are always those stats about the armed forces in third word countries being rife with HIV. You hear such thing, but you don't really know.
However, what is not generally know or understood (and this also is hearsay but from reliable sources), when Iddy Amin was doing his thing in Uganda, there was not much intervention from the UN or US or the Brits, it was largely left up to the Tanzanian army to clean him out; the cost was high and the country still remain in debt for that campain.

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.