Kolila

I cannot claim that there was success everywhere we worked and Kolila Primary School was largely a dismal failure! But before going on to the primary school, the single thing that remains in my memory is the saga that was the food crisis in Meru. That story is in one of my very early blogs, but those event, especially the episode at Kisimiri will remain with me.

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 gap between the door and the frame was narrow, and try as she might, she could not open the door. Mags did not want to call for help - shy girl! And anyway we might not hear her. Oh yes, those toilets do have a habit of being stinky! She paused to catch breath before trying again and noticed words etched into the concrete floor. She read, 'Help me Jesus'.
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 gap where teeth have been removed.
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.

Ruffled Feathers

It has to be said sometime....

There were a few factors to the last round of the Primary Schools Assistance Project that need to be understood.
The first was that Mo & Jo, who were the drivers of the project had or were about to end their contract as Field Reps with the Agency. So from their point of view they wanted all issues resolved as near as possible before they departed.
The incoming Field Rep was Mama Rubani with her husband Baba Rubani - these two had certainly different ideas about development from what I had experienced and particularly they wanted nothing to do with the Primary Schools project and in fact were prepared to simply hand over money ' more or less to get rid of it'! They wanted no responsibility as to the effective expenditure and when I questioned Baba Rubani about this his attitude was they should be given the money - one bit of the cherry - and it is up to them how they utilize it.

The Rubani's tenure was cut short fatally, and the replacement was Mama Mbembe, who had performed badly for DME causing embarrassment for me. Her appointment was somewhat outside what would be acceptable in the 'real' world but she was totally against the Primary Schools project and also anti DME. [See The Female of the Species]

Jo [rightly] trusted DME and was to hand over the Primary Schools Assistance Programme funds directly over to them and they were to nominate the schools to be assisted.
There is a certain amount of kudos generated by being in a position to assist financially and we all like the glow. Various leaders of DME therefore nominated the schools they wanted assistance to reach - either their home school of one they were closely associated with.

Once the nominations were in, Loti and I went around the various schools to collect a list of their requirements. This would be for us to discuss the type of assistance eligible and they needed to have their requirements to me or collected by me on a certain day. The people who put the school's name forward was to be responsible to ensure the information came to me.

The reports came in but there was none from Ulonga which was sponsored by the DME treasurer. I made my report and although Jo wanted it urgently, I delayed a few days to Ulonga to come back to me. They did not (actually they failed my inspection on a couple of accounts too).
I gave a copy of my report to DME for their information and they announced what was to be given to each school to the people who had sponsored them.

A few days later, I was called into the field office to discuss the project with Jo, and she asked me about Ulonga. She agreed that if they were not able to come furnish their requirements on time, the funds should go to another school. I told her that I would go back to the DME but she said that time was short and asked it I had any opinion.
Just the day before I had been at Shishtoni so I estimated in cash value what they needed and Jo agreed to fund it. However, there was still money left in kitty, so again she asked me to nominate another. I nominated Valeska.

Shishtoni and Valeska being funded before Ulonga ruffled the feathers of the DME Treasurer! And he wanted answers! The General Secretary (Mr. Kaaya) and I had a very good relationship - right from the start we just hit if off! He called a meeting to discuss the matter and once explained the Treasurer calmed though continued to not to forget and caused irritation.

The funding this time was considerable because previously, the only building work allowed was for new school toilets but for DME other building projects were allowed because there was a Fundi School within the organization which had the ability to carry out the work 'as training'.

Well now, I was touring around all the schools carrying out project work and it was not long until the' old cynic button' self activated in my brain. Many building projects were started and not completed. At both Akeri and Olkung'wado the toilets were built but no doors fitted [in fact at Olkung'wado, I lent my screwdriver so they could fit the doors themselves!].
I kept harassing the principal of the fundi school to finish the projects and he made promises that he did not intend to keep. But the schools were complaining to me.

We called at Kwatulele to carry out an environmental seminar and found that a new ceiling was being fitted to a classroom by the fundi school. They were using old, second-hand materials!
As it happened we met the fundi school principal on the road, so I told him that it was not acceptable to be using second-hand materials in the school. His reply was aggressive and I realized that I had better inform Mr Kaaya.

He was not happy about what I had to tell him and I guess he did not need ' trouble in the camp'. It did turn out that the principal was creaming some of the funds, and some Pastors more or less supported him. The Hon Bishop knew what was appropriate and sent him to an outlying parish.

This was the last of the Assistance to Primary Schools Programme and it ended effectively and well. I was happy with the outcome. I had to remain watchful of the ex-principal though.