Ngarenanyuki - Water and Primary School

If you go to the UK, you can see the old castles and other history of the country but it is not so easy to see history in the Ngarenanyuki Area.

I'm always interested in history, the very reason I put things on my blogs, and around the Ngarenanyuki village, there is some history if you know where to look - or if you are fortunate.

There are two ways to get to the Ngarenanyuki village; the first (shortcut) is through the ford just past Olkung'wado and through the banana plantation, and the other by following the road on past the secondary school and over the high bridge, turn left and keep on going.

There are some small shops (duka) and from there to the left is a track that leads back to that ford but first passes by the state hospital. But straight on is a bridge and the road becomes rougher, rocky at first, and there is a big 'Shell' sign (yellow scollop shell). It was apparently erected for/during an international car rally event. The road passes across a dry river/creek bed and then in the dry season the dirt road becomes a dust road - dust at least 30cm deep! Off the road there, there are building that are the local government offices and others that seemed to be disused.

Loti's sister and her husband live on that dusty corner.

From here the road almost peters out but still reaches the Ngarenanyuki Primary School and next door (there are no other doors) is the Lutheran church. Between the church and Uwiro village, the road is a bit tricky as it crosses a creek bed where the rocks and slope kept me alert. Once through though Uwiro is easy to pass through with the next stop being Kisimiri Primary School.

There is an avenue of Jacaranda trees within the school grounds and the classrooms  are off to the right. And then  there is a long drive to buildings, converted to classrooms, but in the past seemed to be storehouses.
Between the main school block and these converted classes, to the left is a large old house, probably and old farmhouse that is now the Head Teacher's house.
The tree shelters in this picture were very well made and the planting were very orderly, planned by the Head Teacher.

When we first called at the school, the Head Teacher was a friendly, well liked woman whose husband held high village office. She took to the idea of carrying out and environmental programme and was happy that we were to assist the school.
The area is very dry, seriously dry, but we were told that watering trees was no problem because there was a water supply nearby.

Sure enough to my surprise there was a creek, fed by a good spring where (mainly) girls were able to collect water and carry it back to school. Here there are five pupils with the Head Teacher collecting water.
Water quality is a great problem throughout the district because of the various salts. I was told that this spring had good quality water.

People travel a long way to collect this water, certainly Maasai from as far a Ilkirimuni. I was curious to see a Maasai man with a camel, speaking Arabic to the animal - I don't know if it is true that camels only understand Arabic.
But, while I was in the creek bed, I could see the remnants of an old dam that must have been a water scheme.

The environmental seminars went well and as usual, while we wanted to put our efforts into the senior classes, the whole school wanted to take part. We were quite happy to work with the whole school but I doubted the smaller kids would understand my brand of Kiswahili.

Here the head Teacher makes some emphasis to some of the younger pupils.

The school through the Head Teacher encouraged the pupils in the environmental programme, but we continued to encourage by awarding prizes for good care of the trees/environment.

We were able to facilitate the supply of sports balls - a rarity in remote areas. The pity is that there are Acacia trees and they have thorns, causing punctures and early deterioration of the balls. 

 It is quite important to protect newly planted trees. Obviously from livestock - including hens) but also from the dehydrating sun. In most areas there is also a shortage of fuelwood, so usually materials for shelters is a very real  investment!

These were very good shelters and inside there is a bottle to supply the tree with water by the drip method.

The success of all school planting rest with the enthusiasm or lack  of the teachers and we were well supported here.

Later, there was a change of teachers - it is difficult for me to to understand why these changes occurred, but at the time the teachers were not happy and we noticed a reduction in cooperation. This happened in many schools.

 As with most of the schools we worked with, we were impressed that that cultural traditions were used to emphasize what we were teaching. It is easy to lose culture and singing, dancing and risalas are treasures.

There are usually reasons that trees fail to grow and the first growing season is probably the most important. The faster the tree is established and with active growth, the better the chances the trees have. Danger times are school holidays and not through drying out. More likely animals come through and knock down shelters and eat the trees. Sometimes donkeys are a problem and even giraffe (you need tall shelters for them!). However continued watering is always helpful.

 The Lutheran church is close to the school and of course they too wanted to have some trees planted in the grounds. Shade is needed around church grounds - but look how dry it is. 

Of course some of the teachers also belonged to the church, probably holding office of some kind. I suspect that school kids carried out some of the watering of these trees.

 As it turned out, and thanks to DanChurchAid, DME were granted funds to carry out water projects and it became my role to oversee the project.
This is when I found out about some of the history of Ngarenanyuki.
(Presumably) whoever was in what is now the school house and set up an elaborate water project. From the creek, in an open ditch to this transfer box. I thought that the box had been put in by the settler farmers had done this to supply water to the locals, but I guess there were no locals, only workers for the settler farmers.

From the transfer box the water went into a huge, concrete reservoir. I would guess that the other outlet went to the farmer's house by galvanized iron pipe. But this reservoir (I never measured it, but at least 20m x 20m and perhaps a metre or more deep. The reservoir was overgrown and full with mud and rubbish but I suspect had been used to irrigate a banana plantation and perhaps market garden.
The project was for domestic water supply but the reservoir was cleaned out. From the creek, we renovated the dam and hooked a pipe to the transfer box. We left a pickup point for water at the creek so did not utilize 100% of the water.
From the transfer box we took a line to the school and church, and another line to the nearby village of Uwhiro. Any water from the transfer box that was not used domestically, went into the reservoir. That is water flowing in over night. Some could be siphoned off for the nearby cattle dip as well.

 The significance of livestock is high in within the culture of local people which was why the cattle trough was installed. But my personal secret is that of conservation. If you look nine pictures up, you will see animals in the creek-bed - I would leap at the chance of avoiding that any time.
I guess the water trough was situated midway between Uwhiro and Ngarenanyuki.

And there we are, cattle using the trough.

You have to be a kid to know, but I would hope that the kids were genuinely pleased that they had water on tap at their school. When I was a kid, I think I would have liked the distraction of going to a creek to collect some water. On the other hand we adults and in this case, the teachers would look at their watches to judge how much mischief the kids were up to. All kids do that, but mischief too could be a learning experience.

On another occasion we took our friend, Mama Upendo to Ngarenanyuki and she was delighted to pose with teachers, kids and Loti.

A little beyond the school - up the hill, if you like, I was taken to a site where the farmer settlers had established a bore hole that tapped an underground lake. I was told the water quality was good and I have no way of knowing for sure but it is possible that the lake feeds the spring/creek we tapped from.
The pipe is about four inch and is filled with stones. My guide told me it was kids tossing stones down there (mischief) but it is also possible the farmer settlers sabotaged the bore before they left.
Water was extracted by means of a pump powered by a tractor and pulley.
My time had run out there, and I would have liked the opportunity to revitalize the bore hole

Life in Africa Eleven

A seam of marram, volcanic ash that has been tilted slightly by earth movement. This is at Engorora where it is mined and sold to whoever will buy it. I used it in the nursery to hold down sawdust applied over seeds sown directly into pots.

It is not easy work for the young men who scratch out a living doing this and it is dangerous work.

Loading the truck directly below the pit face. If you enlarge the picture, there is a heap to the left ready for sale. The marram is actually packed quite tightly and the bigger chunks are not saleable. The young men do not cheat with their produce, though they will try you regarding price. I knew the price and payed well so had a good relationship with the guys.

 Typical soil erosion just North of Engorora. A water pipeline crosses this gulley which carries water from Mt. Meru to the Army Base at Monduli. Of course people have tapped into the line - legally and illegally causing the army to discontinue its use.
Water, or the lack of it, continues to be a problem throughout the area.



A typical lineup for water at a tap beside Engorora (now Kisongo) school.
Water is  turned on at certain times and the water drums are filled in order of the line.
Washing is also brought to the tap in the hope there is enough water available at the time.

 Well. I'm a sucker for baobab trees and this nice one in full leaf is by on the road Kikatiti to Valeska.

I was fortunate enough to to take photos of a lot of elephants. I post this one because of the nice-shaped Acacia tree in the background.
I once took kids through Manyara National Park and we parked in the bush to watch some elephants, but a large group came along and we were sitting among them.
Upendo. Eriki and Vai sat there wide-eyed and very quiet!

 Horses in striped pajamas! There is areal beauty in the clean lines of zebras. Even though lions were close to this group, they seemed to know that they were somehow safe.
The lions were not hungry. 

Lions check us out, and even though the zebras were not too concerned about them, we were excited to see them so close.
We travelled without a guide, and they have the advantage of radio contact, so when exciting things are spotted, those in contact rush to the spot. It is good not to be involved in all that and we trust to luck.
We saw our share of good stuff!

It is easy to become relaxed about these wild animals and one time we stopped to watch a small number of lions feeding on a buffalo - not ten metres away.
I climbed out of the drivers window and stood on the roof-rack to take a good photo. But we had the children of friends with us (18 - 20 year olds)  and they appeared up there with  - from the back door. I told them to quickly get back in - which they did, but that was a risky - foolish thing to do!

 Mongoose burrows in a very large termite mound. These little animals seem to be alert all the time. We parked close by them and they performed for us.

A meeting with Maasai men at the village of Mkonoo. This was at the terminal of a water project we helped to establish.
Mount Meru in the background is the source of many of the downland water projects because groundwater is deep and often high in salt content.

Our 'Egg Girl' at Makumira. Her mother sent her to sell us eggs from their house at Nshupu. Upendo was a nice polite girl and the eggs were very good. We ended up giving her a job in the nursery where she performed very well. Later she trained as a cook - or was that chef? And she was lucky to obtain work in a hotel in Arusha. All did not end well for her.
Upendo's younger sister became our egg girl, and she too was a good kid who worked hard at school, passed the national examinations and was selected for a distant secondary school. She came to visit us when she was able to return home during holidays.

We took on a 'House Girl' who had been employed by leaving vols. We had not contemplated employing a house girl but we felt sorry that Mama John had been left in the lurch.
Rather than cleaning, it was good that she cooked for our nursery workers.
There was a cloud in her and she left quite suddenly. I saw her occasionally working in a bar closer to her house.

There is not much choice other than to use charcoal in the larger centers, but this is what causes the wood resource to diminish seven times faster than it is growing. To make one bag of charcoal, you need to use two bags of wood.
Where charcoal is produced, the land is denuded of tree cover.
And it is one the ways people can earn a living. It is not sustainable, healthy or environmentally sound. The only answer is in the logo 'Plant five trees before you cut one tree'. I say, double it!

Pit sawing is an age old system of cutting timber. It is still practiced in Africa and the guys carrying this work out make a very good job. I was dismayed to see a team arrive at Makumira with chainsaws and to use them to cut timber. This more than doubled the amount of waste ans saw the demise of a worthwhile skill.

These logs, I cut (felling the tree with a chainsaw) as the tree was leaning over our house. Mbise paid the men to cut the timber for the house we later built.

Back in New Zealand

We have been away in the UK for some eight weeks because that's where our kids are and of course our grandchildren. Of course this is why I have not added to any of my blogs.

We flew part of the way on the new Airbus A380 which is a remarkable aircraft. This picture was take from Farnborough at the time of the Air Show. My wee camera did a good job for me but to see good pictures, there are plenty of online images available.

Likewise the Avro Vulcan. I saw this aircraft in Christchurch, New Zealand  around 1958 and if I remember correctly it crashed a on its return to England.

What I did not remember was the noise and power! It flew low over us and really shook the house.

This is the Typhoon jet fighter and it too was very noisy! As was the F18! You will get better pictures of these on the internet but I think I did ok capturing these with my old camera.

We went on a bus (coach) tour of Ireland which was enjoyable as well as thought provoking. We went with C.I.E Tours and Paddy drove the bus. He was excellent and we were happy with the tour. Kiwis may well raise their eyebrow at the thought of travelling in a group of 39 with us two Kiwis, two Italians and the rest Americans, but really they were a great bunch we enjoyed their company.

The whole point of putting all this on to this blog is show the Irish Famine Statue. This event had a profound effect on Ireland and there are some lessons and I would like to discuss them, but the best forum I have is my Soapbox, which few people visit. This may change that.

A Trip to Mombassa

Mombasa is the sea port of Kenya and the Nairobi - Mombasa road is main artery road with goods coming and going as well as 'normal' traffic. The road in many places is perched above the landscape as a result of erosion, and there is just room for the two lanes - outside this there is a dangerous drop. Naturally enough lorries and buses do not want to go over the edge, so did not move over at all to accommodate oncoming traffic.

We arrived safely in Mombasa.

The original town of Mombasa was on an island in the harbor and as we were heading South we entered the island by way of a very good bridge and left the island by the Likoni Ferry. It is a short crossing and everything went smoothly.

We found a place at Diani Beach, which is a very pleasant place and we found a motel owned by Marion and expat Brit who had lived there most of her life. Hazel from Birmingham was staying with her - they were long time friends.

 Marion accommodated us in a very nice motel - well, house really. Two bedrooms, a toilet/bathroom, a kitchen and dining room-cum sitting room. If there was a fault, it was the toilet wall did not go fully to the ceiling, so anyone in there could be heard and smelt from the dining room. It was a matter of saying, 'I'm going to go!' and everyone else headed outside!
But to us it was outstanding accommodation!

Wema [maybe Mwema] was assigned to us as houseboy, our cook and cleaner. A very good fellow he was too! However we did most of the cooking and each meal, even if he cooked it, he sat at our table and shared. He liked to be given money and go to the boats to buy fresh fish for us, and bring the exact change. He wasn't required to do much cleaning either. I think he had as good a time as we had!

Our bedroom window reached almost to the floor and I was surprised to spot this monitor lizard walking along the path.
They are usually killed on sight because they eat poultry and eggs and as well their bite is said to be poison.
I enjoyed my close encounter with this fellow!
Actually Mo, while lying half asleep on the couch, saw a metre plus snake slither through our bedroom door and out that low window!

There were a number of Sykes monkeys at Diani Beach and they were cheeky. I guess because tourists fed them but even so they were troublesome.
Very good at thieving food - even came inside and stole a pot of margarine and took it up to the tree-top to devour.
I always thought I would like monkeys, but I found them to wasteful and just a pest to have around.

The sand beach was pleasant but devoid of life - over exploited. However to tout sure did exploit it! At no time could I venture out onto the beach without a 'very good offer' for anything from a drink of tea to drugs or a on-the-beach massage [behind sacks].
An expat Brit patrolled the beach, he told me that he was a Tourist Policeman. He told me that one of the problem was that young women from Europe come to Mombasa looking for a sexual experience and end up HIV positive. [He put it more crudely than that!] We certainly witnessed the sexual experience part.
We did go out on an outrigger canoe to see dolphins, but they failed to appear - I would say they lacked prey. Though I did enjoy the day. And on the trip there was a young German who wore a yellow swimsuit showing more skin to our 'boatboys' than they would eve see among their own women.

We paid a tourist visit in to Mombasa and I enjoyed the experience, especially the more traditional shops.
My bent for history was satisfied by visiting Fort Jesus. The fort was built by the Portuguese over about three years, starting 1593. Principally it was built to guard the Mombasa port.

The gunsight of an old cannon - I think it would be easy to hit a passing boat. This for was won and lost nine times and the architecture change by the Omani Arabs and the British. An interesting history.
The British used Fort Jesus as a prison and was in use until 1958.

Fort Jesus now is a museum and a World Heritage Site - and worthy of the title.






A fancy door at Fort Jesus reminiscent of those on Zanzibar.

We built up a friendship with Hazel, who had her own property in the Simba Hills and she was keen to have me look at the success of her plantings. She has been instrumental in the gazetting of an Elephant reserve adjacent to her property.
She came back to Arusha with us and visited a few of our projects. We have visited her at her Birmingham home and we remain in contact.

A part of the Simba Hills where [I'm guessing] the Elephant reserve has been established.
Hazel lived quite high up the mountain amongst the rainforest.

Hazel told me that there was a spring nearby that was the 'original' water source for the town of Mombasa. This interested me and an employee of Hazel took me on a bit of a route march to find the spring.
It was situated quite high and in a rocky gulley and while water is not visible in this picture, the stream was quite strong. The scheme is not operational at all - not even for villages further down the mountain.

My guide sits on the water tank, which I guess was a holding tank for the Mombasa water supply.
For the work that has gone into this project there must be a reasonable. if overgrown track into the area but we never found it.




We wanted to go home via Lake Jipe, but there had been flooding and the road, we guesses would have been troublesome.
We headed South towards Tanga and the remarkable thing was that one of the Tanzania boarder people called himself  'Kia Ora' which a Maori  greeting. It turns out that he had heard the phrase and liked it and just called himself that name.

We enjoyed our tour to Mombasa, and Hazel returned with us for a visit to our area.

Ngarenanyuki Secondary School

The Ngarenanyuki Secondary School is situated on the main road through the area, just before the high bridge that crosses the Ngarenanyuki River.

The school has its own website now, and that probably marks the difference to the school as it was when I first visited there in 1997.

Ngarenanyuki Secondary School is a DME school and in those early days, struggled financially through the results of the Meru Crisis and the relatively recent establishment of the diocese.

Among the spiel provided by the Agency before we went to Tanzania was that only 6% of all primary school students were able to go on to attend secondary school. I have no reason to dispute this figure and happily the percentage is far higher these days.

So even though the facilities at the school were few in those earlier days, it does show that DME were forward thinking in providing the educational opportunity.

From my personal point of view, I really enjoyed seeing pupils from the various primary schools that we worked with, progress with secondary school education. Some of these pupils held responsible roles in the primary schools and I knew that they looked forward to their continued education.

That's positive!

Social demography is way beyond me, but it would be interesting to research the influences of what I noticed, as on outsider, at the school.

Ngarenanyuki is an isolated place and as such, it was a good place to send students, say from Dar es Salaam, who were 'disruptive' or worse. Of course the school would be happy to receive fees from the parents of these students because local parent probably were more tardy in their payment.

It would be interesting to quantify how this effected the school and the whole area of Ngarenanyuki.

The old school was built from timber and the weatherboards were treated with waste engine oil. During the dry season dust clung and settled on everything. The administration block was cooler and built with concrete blocks.

The Headmaster was the elder of the Somi brothers, we knew the younger brother, whose name we didn't know at the time so we called him 'Bwana Tie' as he was always smartly dressed and wore a tie. Actually the name stuck as far as we were concerned.

The elder brother eventually became Headmaster at Leguruki Secondary School and Bwana Tie [James] became Headmaster at Ngarenanyuki Secondary School.

As an introduction to our first seminar at the school, the the Headmaster introduced us using English, but a direct translation from Kiswahili which was very polite. Unexpected but nice to hear.

The students took part in the seminars and were very happy learn what we had to offer. We carried out a planting programme there with some success.

Later, Mwl Mashoya who we knew as Deputy Head of Makumira Secondary School became Headmaster of Ngarenanyuki. We liked this Mashoya and visited his home place on the slopes of Mt.Kilimanjaro - therefore he was of the Chugga tribe.

There was no need for us to become involved in assistance programmes for the school because they were receiving good assistance through the work of a German Pastor who seemed to have access to funding from Germany. This developed the school in a very positive way.  

During Mwl Mashoya's time at the school, we supplied trees for planting throughout the school area and carried out environmental seminars.

There was some cloud or other as Mwl Mashoya was replaced by James Somi which I put down to internal politics and I like to distance myself from politics.

Somi though has been a success at the school and he asked us to assist in the establishment of a tree nursery at the school which we were able to do.

I think the students at Ngarenanyuki are well-grounded.

A seminar in one of the timber classrooms. The gaps between the boards can be an advantage during the warm season but causes a problem with dust when the wind blows.

A demonstration of the planting technique. This was during the dry season and I was planting into dust! However by adding dry cow manure to increase the organic content has the effect of holding moisture and because there is water available at the school, artificial watering is not a problem - as long as time is allocated to the task.

This young fellow planted a Loquat tree in the prepared hole. I used to buy Loquat fruits at Lushoto and then give the fruit to people around Makumira who returned the seed to me. The trees were then grown in the Makumira nursery.

Quite a bit has gone into the production of these seedlings.

The followup to all planting is to make sure moisture levels are adequate. The porous, sandy soil at Ngarenanyuki loses water quite quickly.

At this time each tree was given perhaps 10 litres of water, which is a good start.

Clearing vacant ground to establish the school tree nursery.
It was a good site, under trees which provides adequate shade.
The students removed the rough vegetation and leveled the site.

Once cleared, some measurement was required to create an area that was a rectangle. The shape does not matter two hoots to the trees or to nursery production. It is good though because it is rare that students have a practical opportunity to use geometry.

There is a small skill in cutting the polythene tubing to size - again it is a practical exercise of mathematics. The student wanted to actually understand the principles of what they were doing.

The mixing and sieving of soil is an important part of the process. Oh sure it is ok to just use soil and fill the pot, but making good mix without lumps makes the soil better to work with and always produces a better plant.

And then there is the filling of pots. Remember that the pots are made from polythene tubing, so there is no bottom to the pot. This means that the pot must be packed with soil properly, so that when it is lifted or carried, soil does not fall out. On the other hand, 'plants will not grow in bricks' - in other words, the soil should not be packed too tightly.