Life in Africa Fifteen

My interest in Africa was first stimulated when as a lad, I was taken to watch the movie Were No Vultures Fly. I recall very little from the story, but in my mind's eye, I see the vultures flying. Rarely in our travels did we see vultures circling a kill, but when I did I would look at them and remember that movie. Their dowdiness is no comparison to Lilac-breasted Rollers but everything in nature has its beauty.


'A horse in striped pygamas' The patterns on a Zebra are always fascinating. Sometimes the white is covered with the red dust of the savanna but more usually the white is quite sparkling!
This was taken on a trip through the Ngorongoro Crater.

A brick kiln near Karatu had the environmentalist in me grumbling.
To produce these bricks there is a lot of fuel-wood used - equating to trees. Brick works decimate the land leaving huge craters where the soil has been excavated.
On the other hand, building materials are needed and people need to be employed. Burnt bricks are much cheaper than concrete ones, and can usually be manufactured close to the building site. Cost is a huge factor and a newly built burnt brick house looks very good!.

 Wildebeest and Zebra congregate together which is protection for them against predators. This herd in Tarangire keep a watchful eye.

A Kori Bustard roams the grassy plains. These are quite large birds and apparently are the heaviest bird in the world capable of flight. They do not fly much though preferring to hide from predators rather than fly away from them.
Kori Bustards eat mainly insects but will take lizards and similar prey.

These Baboons were in Tarangire National Park but we saw Baboons regularly when we passed through Arusha National Park on our way to to work in the Ngarenanyuki area.
Looking at those darting eyes, it is interesting to speculate what is going on behind them - certainly they have a measure of intellect - after all they are primates. 
Watching them groom and feed is much like 'people watching' at an airport!

A large male baboon sitting on a termite mound in the Tarangire National Park. I wondered if there were and live termites in there and if they nipped his bum!
Termites aggressively defend their homes and trails.
Anyway the baboon looked like he was enjoying himself.

There are plenty of elephants in Tarangire and we had a couple of frights when a bull ran at us aggressively. One time in Manyara National Park we sat in our car  surrounded by elephants - young Vai was wide-eyed and fearful.
When you look at elephants and how they live, you have to admire their strength and poise.

As water becomes scarce, the creek bed slowly dries up. This one is quite sandy so the elephants are able to dig  little holes to reach any underground water with their trunks.
They don't use their trunk like a drinking straw! They suck up some water, then put their trunk to their mouth and fill their mouth. Anyone who watches David Attenborough will know that anyway!

An area of Tarangire National Park and the river crossing. Down on the flat was a good area to spot lions coming to drink.
These are wild animals rather than zoo animals so you can't expect to see animals all the time.

Sunset in the Tarangire. Baobab on the skyline.









I took some special people on a trip to Tarangire - locals seldom  have the opportunity. We have Upendo, Mbise, Mama Upendo, Vai and Eriki.
They are standing below a Mbuyu (Baobab) a favourite of mine. It was a good trip.

A young lad managed to sell us this big tortoise so we took it into the park where we released it - a good outcome for the lad and the tortoise.
From time to time we were offered thing that in reality we had no person had good reason to own. Things like ostrich eggs, lizards and small animals. We mostly bought them and took them some distance and released them.



Way up above Lushoto township, we found and old man who had a tree nursery. I regularly bought a few trees from him - more to give him some money [probably to buy pombe - the local booze].
These kids were usually around to help - the old man's grandchildren. His daughter lived with him, or should that be the other way around?

 Kids at Mateves. Our activities at Mateves involved working with the village people and it was not until later when we found the primary school.
The school was pretty much in need of major infrastructure assistance but we were able to contribute with desks, text books and teaching aids.
There were 'science kits' available but they were not to a high standard at all.
These kids were beside the road where a friend of Joshia was growing maize.

Muriet village where we carried out an reasonably extensive planting project. There was a mixture of tribes there - mainly Maasai and Arusha.
Always keen to pose for photographs these kids give me a big smile.
The new power line was installed right above the village, but these people were unlikely to afford the electricity or even the wiring to use it.
Then the Arusha Council established a stinking rubbish dump  closeby. A sad thing to happen to the village.

A German woman brought her grandmother to our house at Makumira. The elderly woman was the second wife of the farm manager who had lived in the house. We conversed in Swahili and because she didn't speak English and we didn't speak German and it turned out that she was proposed to by her husband in the room this picture was taken.
There was an urban myth that the first wife was buried in the compound but her grave was robbed because of the likelihood that she was buried with a gold cross. I found no evidence of the grave - which means nothing.

Watering by Hand

When I tally things up, I have spent a good deal of my time irrigating/watering trees! Even in the commercial nursery here in New Zealand where we have good technology, it always takes time!

At Reidston we had a submersible pump down in the Kakanui River, but it could be guaranteed that if there was a long weekend or the Easter break approaching - the thing would break down.

Daily watering of cuttings was required - even though there were misting systems, and then in the yard, the sprinkler heads had to be checked that they had not jammed - always a soaking for me!

And out at Hilderthorpe the same was true, though we had no submersible pump! Though from time to time it would not prime and this involved time as well.

Not to mention the shifting of pipes in the paddock or the big mobile irrigator and its particular idiosyncrasies.  

In Tanzania the lack of technology made irrigation a routine each evening. I stuck to my philosophy that I would always water by using a hand watering can, because if I did not, how then could I expect the village planter to water their trees by the same, daily method.
This was quite and undertaking because no matter how long my day or how tired I was, the job had to be done. Of course when I was away I made arrangements, but always it was obvious that sometimes the watering was missed.

I learned never to take the advice of locals who would say, 'Listen to the thunder, rain will soon be here - no need to water!'
Usually I would begin watering at 6:00pm as the sun was going down and it would take as much as an hour and a half. It was always in the evening so the plants utilized the water and evaporation did not occur.
As the weather became hotter, it was a matter of maintaining the plants, not encouraging growth - there was never enough water to do that.

By planting time the rains usually had come [otherwise we could not expect survivals on out-planting] and it was easier to add moisture to the pots for transportation.

So, if I tally it all up, a good part of my life has been spent watering plants to keep them alive.

Kisimiri Primary School - and Secondary

Kisimiri Primary School sits at the apex of two tracks that lead to it and then on up to the village and one track goes on the short way to the relatively new Kisimiri Secondary School.

The track we chose depended  where we had been previously: from Ngarenanyuki the track past [our] the water trough is a bit rugged but then continues up past Uwhiro eventually reaching the school. Or taking the ford which is now behind the Olkung'wado village office and on up to the Kisimiri village office where there was a sharp turn and a steepish dry creek crossing to reach the school.

Both these routes are dusty, sana!

When we first visited the school, some classes were still being held in the wattle and daub building, but there were also some newer classrooms of modern construction and some older but built on the same construction principles.

 From what I understand, the grandson of  one of those displaced settler farmers has started this group that has carried out some very good works at Kisimiri. They have been involved of a long time - since 1996.
There is a website Friends of Kisimiri and there is an opportunity to donate for the ongoing work.
All of this is a very good thing - they are delivering appropriate assistance and obviously they are proud of their Swiss heritage.
As it turned out, I never met these people but I saw what they have achieved.

Very often we found it appropriate to first involve village leadership with the environmental project so they felt comfortable with us moving around the village.
The man in the pink jacket is the Village Executive Officer, Mtengaji, and the man with the cap talking to him is the Ward Councillor.
I found that carrying trees in a bowl was far easier on the trees than carrying them individually, damaging the foliage.

 The whole school turned out to the environmental seminar that is always targeted to the older students. The smaller kids sat and listened as well. There is never enough shade and some kids are exposed to the sun for the entire seminar. Where possible we used classrooms or interrupted proceedings to follow the shade around any trees that were there.

Some of the older girls perform a Risala thanking us for the environmental programme. The kids enjoy cultural aspects of their education and singing plays a major role.
Although the area is very dry - the once reliable short rains have failed in recent years - but luckily Friends of Kisimiri had established a water point in the courtyard of the school and a flowing pipe in the creek bed where the track crosses. Therefore we expected trees would receive adequate water.

Planting on a cooler, foggy day. The teachers were quite ambitious about the area to be planted and the second year's planting was also ambitious but initial results were very good.
There were trees already established - behind the wattle and daub classrooms there were mpilipili, pepper trees which grow well in the area.

Loti walks around on an inspection of the trees after the first growing year and results were good.
It is always very difficult to assess which kids had looked after their trees the best. Of course every kid wanted to win a prize and most usually we said we would select the best ten. We left it up to the teacher though because it was they who knew which kids worked the best. Even that is not entirely fair but it was the best we could do.

The trees established well, which is due to the care they were given.
Behind id that iconic hill again!
The building is an eco-toilet built by The Friends of Kisimiri people. It is a very good toilet [especially compared to some I have seen].
The other good thing is that it was being used and cared for appropriately.

It is always difficult to select the kids who had cared for their trees the best. The standard here was very high. Never the less, we awarded prizes with the help of the teachers.

As usual the teachers too wanted to be photographed. In the previous photo, The man on the back row, third from the left was the head teacher. We had a good relationship with him and I'm sure Friends of Kisimiri did too.
As with other schools, teachers are moved around at the behest of the regional inspector person. There was also a round where 'under-qualified'  teachers were moved around.

While we were away 2000 - 2002 the Kisimiri Secondary School sprung up!
We did not have every much involvement with the school other than carry out an environmental programme and supplied trees.
The teachers were dedicated and seemed to me to doing a good job.
They had wanted help by way of a volunteer teacher through the Agency, but that was not pursued due to certain changes in policy.

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.

Kisimiri

As it turned out we were quite active in the Kisimiri area. It all started with the Primary School and I will deal with them later.

 We were approached by the sub-village chairman, who happened to belong to the Pentecostal church, first for assistance with a tree nursery and that extended to a village water project. Of course we were working under the umbrella of the Lutheran Diocese but the Bishop believed were were there to work with all Tanzanian groups and I was happy with that mandate.

Each group we worked with had differences to others, and we embraced that. The Lutheran church group were always keen to make sure we were fed before we did any work.

There was a water tank there built to store water when they were building the new, concrete block church. The new church was 'a work in progress' as are most churches relying on parishioners to front up with the required funds.

The site of the church made it difficult for us to bring water to it.

It is fair to say all the folk in Kisimiri looked after us well, and perhaps it is wrong to single out individuals. But these women at the Lutheran church helped keep the group together and kept us well fed.

They are wearing project T-shirts. We had a stencil made and produced the T-shirts as a promotional activity.

There is plenty of Whistling Torn Acacia in the area and it was used to keep stock out of the tree nursery and to provide shade. Likewise for trees out-planted.

Whistling Thorn Acacia  has galls that ants live in creating the hole to cause whistling when the wind blows. The spines a tough and sharp and sometimes girls use them to pierce their ears.

Otherwise the tree is not useful other than to provide browsing for goats.

Planted trees with shelters at the Kisimiri Lutheran Church. The old church is surrounded by block work of the new church being built as funds are available.

This is the water trough built I guess by the expat settler/farmers and that darkish gulley in the center of Mt Meru is the stream that passes the Kisimiri school. Michael wanted us to take water from there for the village which is considerably higher up the hill from the school - the idea came too late for our projects.
This trough is at the botton of a line that starts way up the mountain, at Kisimiri Juu (Juu means 'up/upper'). The rumor was that bang (cannabis)  is grown there and it is a dangerous place to go.

Water was coming to the trough, but it was damaged (causing the furrow) and was intermittent.

We had a cursory inspection of the line and found that it was rusted galvanized iron pipe and in places was in need of repair.
Of course we were asked to look into upgrading the line and I promised that I would try to source the funds.

The kids knew me from school, but felt freer to interact with me on their home turf. The girl on my knee is Matindi who was the daughter of a medical officer. I took the kids for a ride in my truck and Matindi in particular enjoyed it as she was preschool and had never been in a vehicle before.
These kids were showing me how they used string to make shapes.

We were told that whenever Matindi heard my vehicle approaching, she would rush inside to 'paka mafuta'  put on oil - over her dusty feet, legs and face to be ready for a ride.
She would also expect to be carried wherever we went!
In the vehicle she would stand on the seat and laugh in her deep voice.

The man behind is the Mtendaje.

Much later I found Matindi studying at Olkung'wado Primary School, no longer using her name from her home.
Her shoes show the dust that is endemic of the area, but she was quiet and shy in the school environment.

I wonder how she progresses and one day, maybe she will see this and smile. Good luck to her.

 The Pentecostal people set up their nursery right beside the church and worked hard on the project.
Michael, the sub-village chairman led these people well and they were enthusiastic to change landscape for the better.
The cans and other materials we provided by the project but all the work was carried out by the village people.

Under the shade of a Schinus molle, Mpilipili, the Pentecostal group sit with me for a photograph.
For us there seemed to be no animosity between religious groups although the Meru crisis was there in the background.

Parked up at the Lutheran church, there is that pointy mountain again.

We saved a lot of project funds by transporting materials for the water project ourselves.

Funding eventuated for the water project and we climbed on foot up four hours to the chanzo, start of the old water project at Kisimiri Juu. 
The people were friendly and we had no problems at all, their patches were well tended and there is many years of viable seed remaining in the soils. Water flows into concrete box which serves both Losinoni and Kisimiri. Someone blocks off the Kisimiri side with a plastic bag, which is a reason the Kisimiri side has irregular water. That was a village problem to be sorted among the locals.
We used the fundi from Makumira, well further up the hill, but he had a relative who lived at Mwakeny. The galvanized pipe was resurrected and improved where necessary which brought water to the trough, which needed repair.

  We involved as many as people as possible in the process and held a seminar/talk with the village people including the village authority.
We investing in the village, our policy was to supply the materials and any expertise and the village people were to carry out the manual work. Relationships within villages, I supposed would sort out the the water blockage problem with Losinoni, which it seemed to do.

The trench well under way to lay the polythene pipe. Work stalled for a time and our fundi complained at a lack of village workers. This, I discovered was because one village leader had a prposed tap outlet closer to his house than the other. For half a roll of pipe, work was restored when the distance became equal.

Bricks were brought in to repair the water trough and also for inspection boxed where air pressure was let into the line.
There was little fear of goods being misappropriated as everyone knew what was taking place.

The fundi rightly was the first to turn the water on. The standpipe was supported by a pole, pity there was no saw available to shorten it, but it served the purpose.

Over quite a period of time this man helped out with many water projects and he was always keen to be sure that everything was technically correct.

 Micheal's wife was also pleased to have the water near her house. The pressure was good as well!
It may not be realized by many that the water pipe did not go to each house. The standpipe was set up in communal areas and still had to be carried back to the houses. While the project was in progress, our first port of call as at their house and I remember well and am grateful for the sweet tea and turned-over fried eggs that were prepared for us!

Small children still carry water in small containers and as they grow, the container gets bigger. As you see with this little girl, there was not much we can do about the dust, at least in the short term.
If our project progressed to the extent that areas were re-vegetated, then maybe the dust would be reduced.





 

 The team of people who carried out the manual work - of course they will be remembered.
The whole project depends on that fragile galvanized iron pipe from Kisimiri Juu! The pipe is indeed fragile because such pipe cannot last forever, so someone needs to take up the challenge of finding a way to establish a new pipeline.

Looking down towards the greater Ngarenanyuki area, Kisimiri is actually quite high. And from the Lutheran church there, looking at the gully [probably formed by the stream the water project takes the water from] there is evidence of a dam that has obviously bust.
This dam would have been of great service to a large area and I wonder if the dam burst through natural misadventure, of by the departing farmers. It would be possible to reinstate it.