Back again

I have been back to Tanzania for a very brief stay - just one week. We also traveled to the UK to see our family there.
Of course I have some comments about both trips and perhaps air travel. We traveled down to Kilimanjaro Airport from Heathrow on Ethiopian Airlines and enjoyed the flights even though the aircraft were not as classy as the new Singapore Airlines' Airbus A380.
Anyway I am back and will get writing soon.

Trouble with Vehicles

We would never really wear out tyres (tires) on our vehicles - I guess being used to New Zealand certificate of fitness standards. Anyway, whenever we had new tyres fitted, there were always vijana (young men) waiting to buy them.
We had fitted new tyres to the Maruti and one fellow outbid his mates by offering Tsh50 000/-. This was a good price - Jo had sold five from a Toyota to a 'friendly' travel agent for Tsh12 000/-. The guy did not have the money on him, so said he would come up to the office. He turned up and loaded the tyres then presented us with Tsh20 000/-. I suggested he unload the tyres. He then offered Tsh25 000/-, but I told him that was half of his original offer. We had other business to attend to, so locked the tyres away, but as we drove off he offered Tsh30 000/-.
I wasn't there next day, but I suggested to Jo to take the Tsh30 000/-, and she did.

Next day, Big E announced that we were going to Mswakini in the Suzuki! Wow, the project vehicle! We were going there in response to Jo asking me to action some of Big E's projects. I will report on that later. But I rushed down to Jo to get the receipts etc. pertaining.
After a sort out there, we headed off but I noticed the Suzuki was coughing a spluttering every now and then.

Mswakini is quite far away from Arusha - near Tarangire National Park. But we first called at the primary school where the Headteacher greeted us. He was a big friendly fellow, a Maasai I think, and he told me the reason there were no children in the school was that they were all collecting water. It was a round trip of one and a half hours and the water was being collected for the school teachers' houses. The school had the responsibility to provide water. We were there to address this interruption of education time.
It is worth mentioning that we were going to take the water from the Tarangire National Park, from a borehole and using a pump owned by a phosphate company. We went to see the guy at the company office just past the National Park turnoff.
The phosphate company was not working because it no longer had sales. Hmm says I, there was a lot of derelict machinery there, some heavy machinery and it would be possible to rehabilitate it. The phosphate was found by some South Africans looking for uranium. The phosphate is full of beta rays - not that bad but making the Geiger Counter sing its song. But no wonder nobody wanted the product. As I have an interest in geology and fossils, I asked to look around, but the sun on the white surface nearly blinded me, so we abandoned the idea.

After we had completed our business - successfully gaining permission to use the pump - we headed homeward and at Kisongo the Suzuki began to cough and fart! It stopped complete just at the edge of Arusha and Big E pulled off the fuel filter cover, breaking it in the process! We managed to bypass the filter, but that was not the problem. Big E found a fundi (mechanic - but the name covers any tradesman) who tinkered with the points and managed to restart the vehicle. Just short of the Agency office, she conked out again! I left him to it and walked to the office and he arrived about the same time as me. He then took it to town for repair and I walked home.

There had been no electricity since the previous night and it did return - just for a couple of hours, then it was back to candles and kerosene lamp.

I had been having trouble with the Maruti as well and ended up being stranded because of it - but there must have been a dud lot of those small condensers in the distributor - they would last about a week!

When the Maruti was 'fixed' it still was not running correctly, so I was cautious. and again a few days later it was causing problems and ended taking it back to the fundi. When I check on it I found that they had disconnected the choke because they though it was the problem - only thing was that she wouldn't start in the morning. They said they had tuned the motor, but the air filter had not been cleaned.
We decided to take it to Bobby Safaris, but became stuck in a traffic jam! This was because the police had cleared the main road for the arrival of the Kenyan President!
Mhukta one of the Bobby boys is a very able mechanic and he knew what to do and had the wee Maruti running like a top!

I was very happy with Mhukta as our fundi, but in-office politics saw us move away from him to someone less appropriate and more trouble - but that is after a lot of water going under the bridge and a whole other story.

Primary Schools Programme

This successful project was thought out and applied for by Mo and Jo and the funding came through the NZHC.
There was a small management fee for it which Mo and Jo put to purchase an office photocopier, but otherwise the rest of the funding went to the primary schools and was managed by the volunteers working in the location of the targeted primary school.
Mo and Jo worked out that each volunteer would be able to assist six primary schools in their general area and as well Mo and Jo had a couple of schools that they wanted to assist.

In the event some of the volunteers did not have the time to put into the project and others were unable to take up their full allocation, there were a variety of reasons. Some didn't want to participate.
This worked very well for our projects because we were already working with primary schools, while the other volunteers were not so it was very easy for me to add other schools to the list. As well the project made us more visible in the villages and out environmental programme was more readily taken up.
The other thing was that I really enjoyed working in the schools.

As I had already been around a good number of schools, I had a good idea of what was needed, especially the rural ones, so I was able to provide advice to Mo and Jo on what was appropriate.

It should be pointed out that schools in Tanzania in those days were under resourced and conditions were tough, especially from a western point of view. Since then there has been a lot of investment and improvement in the education sector but what we did at the time was pertinent and very important.

The project ran on for a few years and was tweaked over the years and actually became a large part of my work - but lets go back to the beginning.

There was a shortage of desks, and at schools such as Engorora (now Kisongo), pupils were sitting on rocks or broken bricks, in some places boards sitting on concrete blocks served as desks. And where this was not happening, three kids sat at desks designed for two. The combined tally of desks was high, and we needed to find a manufacturer.
Mo and Jo, because of the work they did, had contact with different people than we associated with simply because of the nature of our work. Of course Big E wanted his mate, the brother of the Major General, to build the desks and knowing what I know now, they would have creamed it. I found these two brothers at Ngaremtoni who's business operated under some obscure chemical importer's name, but their business was the manufacture of wood products.
They were most gentlemanly which is what you would expect from a business that was about to land a big contract. But these guys were gentlemen. They provided an example of their work and their price was 'delivered on site' and yes they had a truck they used to hire out as well. Their price was very competitive.
There was a holdup. It was difficult to obtain timber that was dry and of the wider dimensions that was required. Cypress timber, Cupressus lusitanica was the most desirable timber because it held nails better, but I could see we would use more Silky Oak, Grevillea robusta because it was more available. However it would require extra bracing.

The paint on school blackboards was worn to the state that they could not be used. The blackboards were made by plastering a cement base onto a wall and after smoothing it off, applying the blackboard paint. On most the plaster had deteriorated and the paint was badly faded.
Most schools could not afford to buy chalk!

There were not enough text books to go around the class, and some of them were simply out of date.

There were no teaching aids such as maps, science kits or world globes.

There was a lot of building work required, but the direction was that only school toilets could be built. Obviously someone had seen them and thought them a health hazard. That is probably very correct as there was no water available for 'modern toilets' or even for washing hands.  All school toilets were 'bomb boxes', pit latrines,  and the challenge was to breathe while you were using them!
However, I always had the feeling that addressing the toilet issue was not a priority. Certainly the schools did not see them as a priority.

So it was a matter first of finding the numbers of the required items. I helped Jo with the purchases because there was a need to negotiate prices and I was getting good at that. Mags helped Jo bundle things up in school lots and the was a lot of work involved in that too.
Josiah was helpful in this as he wanted to see the available funds go as far as possible - and he was interested in education - Mama Ng'ida, his wife is a school teacher.

The Primary Schools Assistance Programme was set to start.

Losinoni Village

Losinoni is not that far away from Arusha, but it is remote and living conditions there are very hard. Their only water supply comes from up on Mt Meru by a two inch pipe. Actually much later I helped refurbish the intake.

About an hour and a half along the Nairobi road there is an Ostrich farm and it is about there you turn off to go into Losinoni Village. It is a long way in there too - probably half an hour, along a dusty and sometimes rocky track. In these areas, you pick up people who need lifts and often the wee Maruti was loaded up! One time we had to take a woman to a clinic because she had bee beaten up.

Generally the area is dry and domestic livestock are moved to better areas. Check my pictures and you will see that generally it is dry, but with rain comes the green growth.
The village sprawls out around the primary school and a clinic. This clinic had been donated through New Zealand funding - well the building was. There were no fittings and it was only used when visiting medical people came to carry out inoculations and the like. But it would be developed as time goes on.

The first thing we did was investigate what tree planting was going on in the village. Mama George was the Village Chairman's wife and she had a small tree nursery.

Now a nursery may be just a few trees and Mama George's was just that. She used a few planks of timber to provide shelter from the sun. I thought she had done remarkably well taking into consideration the severe conditions and the lack of available water. Mama George was a leader in the local women's group so she was a good contact to have.

This old woman, Bibi (grandmother) lived in her small house by herself and she would not allow this photo until she had changed into her Sunday best! A remarkable, bright woman and the reason for our visit was that she had planted a tree, yes a tree and she was looking after it despite the dry conditions. Now if everyone did that, our battle would be over.

Our main focus as always was with the primary school and we began there by presenting our environmental seminar. Holes then are prepared - dug out, cow manure added and the soil returned.
When the rains arrive, we deliver trees from our nursery and divide them among the school pupils who carry out the planting and put thorns around them to protect from goats and other livestock.
The interaction between the us and the school - teachers & pupils is really what make the whole thing worthwhile and all participate enthusiastically.

Later we would arrive to assess the quality of the trees and how well they had been looked after. There is always a danger of
snakes lying on the thorns though most would slither off before causing too much of a fuss!
We would award the growers of the best trees/shelters prizes. Usually about ten of them. There was no funding for this so we paid for it out of our personal resources and sometime we were creative. For this prize giving we awarded some of those one litre mugs and some pens. Having their picture taken was also a reward to them.
At one time, there was a severe water shortage and the village elders decreed that water was only to be used for household water and livestock. The School kids stole water at night to water their trees!

There was a responsibility for us to make the task of watering as easy as possible and we gathered bottles and pottles - even beer cans.
Josiah demonstrates to Mama George the was to punch a hole in a beer can so water can be delivered to the tree slowly and economically. We did this wherever we supplied trees.

Likamba Village

Joshia wanted us to work at Likamba Village, mainly because he had an association with the church choir there, but anyway I was happy to be guided by his experience.

Like most villages, there is more than one route to get there, but we took the Nairobi road turning off before the market village of Ngaremtoni. The road/track slowly deteriorates and becomes dusty. This is a major cause of erosion and at times I have had to use four wheel drive in the wee Maruti because the dust was so thick - maybe 30 cm!
Then when there is heavy rain, the dust is washed away and the road becomes a river!
Vehicles tend to look for the best driving surface and the road becomes wider and wider - adding to the problem.

We decided to visit the primary school to find where the Village Executive Officer could be located. We later worked with this school in our (the Agency's) Primary Schools Assistance Programme. But I have to show the All Black we found there. There is a thriving industry of secondhand clothing in Tanzania and people do not know the circumstances of it really.

It may be thought that clothing given to charity somehow gets to third world people and is given to them. But how is it distributed? Well Take this girl's All Black football jersey; it was bought in New Zealand by an American tourist who sometime later puts it in a charity bin. It is bundles up and transported in bales to Tanzania where it is auctioned off (possibly to pay for the transport). The buyer then washed and irons it and displays it in his stall (this type of clothing is mtumba - second hand clothing) and sells it to this girl (or her mother). So while the charity clothing is actually sold on, it provides useful employment for someone and supplies clothing at a much less expensive price (affordable). I really good industry!

The school Head Teacher sent a girl with us as a guide to find the Village Executive Officer. She of course was excited to travel in our vehicle and showed us the best way to find him. Her bonus was that she was close to her home and had an early finish to her school day.
The Village Executive Office was a fine young fellow and we could see he was prepared to support us in our environmental project. No wonder! His father had been a forester and on his farm grew Eucalyptus on a coppice rotation to supply/sell poles for building and other uses. Simply put, a house is built by standing poles in the ground, tying them together and filling the gap with rocks or other material. Then the whole lot is plastered over with a soil/clay and cow dung mix. A very effective method.
So we made plans to set our programme.
Of course the programme would include women, so we went to talk to the chairperson of the local women's group - associated to the church and the choir. This group was quite active and had received assistance from New Zealand. The picture is of the Chairperson with her father and daughter. Being of the Arusha tribe - closely related to Maasai, she often provided loshoro or sour milk to sustain us. Loshoro is sour milk with cooked maize and is refreshing. Maziwa mgando - sour milk is also refreshing and kept in a calabash. The calabash is lined with the ash of Dodonea a shrub endemic to New Zealand, Australia and Africa (our Ake Ake). I recall sitting in her house and hearing her shake up the calabash to mix the separated sour milk and the water associated with it. They have these big, one litre enamel mugs that are filled with loshoro or milk and I had difficulty in consuming so much so quickly!

These are members of the Likamba women's group who managed the New Zealand donated maize mill - for making maize four to make the staple food of Ugali. They also had a kiln donated and made clay jikos - small fireboxes as cookers. Income generation for them. They were active and participatory. This was a very sustainable project.

We proceeded around the village and saw that wheat was grown there for the commercial production of beer - Safari Larger. The area received more rainfall than most of the other areas we worked.



We visited this 'old bugger'. He actually had planted and cared for a lot of trees and there was good diversity. He had two wives, this was his first wife and the other was much younger. She showed me her hedge of Sesbania seban and told me that she cut branches off it on a regular basis and fed them to her cow. The sticks that were left, she would dry in the sun and after about a week she would use them as fuel in her jiko. Just a few sticks would be enough to boil water to make a Thermos of tea.
But the old bugger tried to entice me away from Josiah by telling me he wanted to show me special trees. Once we were out of hearing, he would hit me up for money to buy sugar - pombe more like - booze.
He never got money from me.
There was much for us to do at Likamba and once the Primary School Project was under way, we would return more often.

Trip to Mwanza (Part 3)

Through the medium of television, most people know of the Serengeti (though many think it is in Kenya!) and mast know about the Wildebeest migration.

Seeing the real thing and the vastness was a privilege and I am grateful for the experience. The animal is not pretty and the name Gnu probably suits it better, but their coats looked to me like a shiny eel skin and we had a good look at them as we gave way for them on the road. In the park, vehicles are supposed to give way to animals, but the line is so long that we nudged our way through.
As a farmer who once raised cattle, the vastness of the Serengeti to support such animal numbers is indeed vast. Though, next to the Serengeti is the Maasai Mara, which is in Kenya, is another large sward of grassland.

From the Seronera Lodge, where the brilliance of the lizard population and the Rock Dassie is overshadowed by the spectale of the lodge itself, there is a road that heads North to the Masai Mara and another West, to the West Gate (Ndabaka) on the Mwanza - Musoma Road. We took the Westerly route and I sat back spotting game as I would in my old deer hunting days.

Some work was being done to improve the road, though we saw none actually being done. But it deteriorated as the landscape became flat and the only vegetation was Whistle Thorn Acacia.
There were boggy parts and I was promoted to driver to negotiate them. Heavy traffic could not negotiate these wet spots - it was tricky but manageable and I suspect the lorries usually took the Northern route.

We saw just one other vehicle on this leg and it was a car going the opposite way. It was a mission to get past it and I stopped to warn the driver that I did not think a two wheel drive car could get through. We helped him turn around.

The sealed road to Mwanza was a good road and I enjoyed the rock formations on the way.

Having always been interested in geology it was interesting to see the weathering of the rock formation - some looking like someone had made huge piles of the rocks. And we had glimpses of Lake Victoria. This lake is so big that it actually has tides. The local people use the lake as a food source and we saw large fish being carried on the carriers of bikes. Water birds too - Egrets, Herons, Ibis, Storks and Swifts.

There was rich soil here and the thatched houses were home to industrious farmers taking advantage of adequate rainfall.

About 30km from Mwanza the road deteriorated into potholes that had to be driven around and progressively became worse until there was no seal at all and progress became slow.

The Main street of Mwanza was no better and there was a lot of traffic - all avoiding the potholes as best they could.

We were booked in at the Naad Hotel, a large establishment, where the the staff were pleasant, but the room had an innocuous smell. I fact Mags refused to sleep in her bed because of the smell!
There was no hot water in the shower, but the cold was warm and satisfactory. Then we were off to see Petra, the Agency vol, who was the reason for our visit.

Jo wanted us there because there was some antagonism between her and Petra. She lived not far from the hotel and we drove up the narrow access-way to accommodation provided by the school (she was a secondary school teacher). They were built of plastered concrete and we climbed the 8 steps - I have to say Petra's place looked dirty, but she wasn't there! I talked to a boy who told me Petra did not stay here, but was living in another house nearby. Jo told us that the school Headmaster had complained about her changing houses without authority.

Most of what happened is between the Agency and Petra, but we were made to feel uncomforable. Petra was sitting talking to her African boyfriend, looking at photographs and she did not even look up when we entered the room. The reception was frosty to say the least and my biggest disappointment was that we were not offered a cup of tea - I was hanging out for one!
Finally, she introduced us to her man and told us we should meet at the school at 8:00am.

Over a beer at the Lakefront Hotel, we discussed our next movements because Mo & Jo were supposed to be in Nairobi by the next weekend. I suggested that matters be claned up and we head back on Wednesday - tiring but possible.

The hotel was noisy and we did not sleep well, but it was ok.

Without going into it too much Perta wanted to extend her contract - I guess because she didn't want to leave her man. The Headmaster did not want her to - probably embarassed about her involvement with the guy. Jo could therefore not allow her to extend and in a perverse way, Petra blamed Jo. So while there was bad feeling, we were thre to help transport Agency equipment back to Arusha and Jo to do a debrief with Petra and ther boss, the Headmaster.

While Jo was doing her work, Mags and I looked for a Neem Tree project - unsuccessfully and reaching Shinyanga on a newly formed Mwanza - Dodoma highway - nowhere near completed and reverting to the old single dirt track from time to time. The new highway will be amazing though and the project manager was a Kiwi.

When we returned we loaded the equipment - a drum, 2 cookers, fridge, pots & pans plus other odds and ends.

We managed to leave Mwanza at 5:45am and the return trip was uneventful save the lions we saw in the shade of a small Acacia tree. Fatigue had taken the gloss off what we were experiencing.

We arrived back at Mo & Jo's house at 7:30pm after travelling 1446km in three and a half days. No wonder we were tired!



Mo did not expect us so early and had not much food in the house, but poached us an egg and made us toast. He brought forth his bottle of whiskey which promoted a good night's sleep!

Trip to Mwanza (Part 2)

We left Karatu before breakfast and were ar the gate into the Ngorogoro Conservation Area before the wardens were there to open it. Trucks were also waiting as this was one of the routes freight was carried to the interior. Maybe even to Kenya for goods that may not pass at the Namanga border.

We were passing on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater, then going through the Serengeti and on to the Mwanza/Musoma Road - past the Souther part of Lake Victoria.

We expected to see a lot and at this time it was all a new experience for me, so I was excited. There are any amount of documetaries about the Serengeti and these days pictures of the animals are easy to come by. But this is from my point of view and my camera was just and old point and shoot thing but readers may be interested.

The gate warden had actually overslept and he was half an hour late, but we were processed and we made our way into the Conservation Area. It was rainforest with large trees and we were climbing on an unmetalled road of red soil. The Ngorogoro Crater was formed when the centre of a large volcano collapsed inwards leaving the rim - like hills and a flat bottom. We were climbing the hill towards the rim and the road skirted along part of the rim before it goes on to the Serengeti. There is a lookout when the road first reaches the rim and the view reveals the huge area that is the crater. We did not tarry though because we had a long journey ahead. I expected to a lot of animals in the early morning, but saw only one buffalo and one sneaky hyena.

There are tourist complexes along the rim and I suspected that they are expensive places to stay - but the views would be tremendous!

As we dropped off the rim, we saw some giraffe,

grazing the tops of Acacia trees and they looked at us with disinterest. Once we left the crater rim, the vegetation turned to mainly grassland which was dry and in some parts, barren.

The road was corrugated and especially on the corners, it was not possible to drive with any speed. Never the less Mags nodded off and slept through it.

There was not much feed or cover for animals, but there were a lot of Thomson's Gazelles and many Zebra. These animals always look clean and neat with smooth coats and I felt some humility that I was able to view them in this way. I still think that I have been incredibly lucky to have seen all the animals and places that I have.

I was driving at this time, so I was able to stop momentarily to have a closer look. Jo did not mind me stopping for a photo, we all knew the time restraints but it was not like a sledge hammer over our heads!

There are some large birds that I had long wanted to see and I was able to stop for a longer look at these. There was the secretary bird. This bird was on my 'to see' list an I was pleased to see some at close range. They seem to solitary birds though.

Then the beautiful Crowned Crane. Over the years we saw a lot of these birds and always they were aloof and beautiful.

It is some distance before the approach the gate 'Naabi Hills'. Yes, Big E named his bar the same name, but he said it was a pun and really meant a mixture of the names of his daughter and that of Round L's daughter.

As we neared the gate, on our right were many vultures feeding on a carcass, probably a kill from last night. When I was but a lad, I saw a movie called 'Where no Vultures Fly' - can't remember anything about the movie, except they looked to where the vultures circled to find where the lions were. I was pleased to see these birds bepite the reputation they have.

At Naabi Hills you leave one park and enter another and of course have to pay the entrance fee. It might be thought of as a money making exercise but I think it is well worth it.

These guys are used to dealing with the public and it all goes well. I have seen people having trouble - but largely they make for themselves.

We thought we were making good time and here are a few pictures that need no explanation.

Well maybe they do - the baboon is ok but those are lions under the tree and there goes a chettah.

Our next stop was the Seronera Wildlife Lodge where we had a coffee and something to eat. This is a beautifully built lodge and actually built into the natural rocks there. We needed the short rest because were were still excited about the Widebeest Migration we had seen earlier I will come back to that in my next blog, because there are enough pics here for now.