Mswakini
Mswaki is the name of a tree, the twigs of which
are traditionally used to clean teeth – so the translation is 'toothbrush
tree'. The ni at the end of a word
signifies 'at', 'in', or 'the place of'. So the village of Mswakini is the village where the toothbrush tree grows… There’s an
interesting aside to toothbrushes that occurred in all the rural village I
worked with back in the mid-late 1990’s. Mswaki
wasn’t only the toothbrush tree that was used for tooth cleaning, many of our
early tree plantings were damaged by people, mainly school kids, breaking off twigs
to use for toothbrushes… and while I'm on about damage to our plantings, another
unforeseen problem cropped up. The school yards were simply bare earth and during
the day they became dusty and littered. So because there were no janitors, the
duty class arrived at 7:00am to clean the classrooms and sweep the yard, but unfortunately
there were no brooms or brushes for the purpose, so tree branches were used. Very
soon the available material from the school environs became exhausted so neighbourhood
trees were targeted. Often the kids even had to bring sweeping material from
home. This was just one of life’s challenges the people of rural Tanzania coped
with at the time.
Before I get on to Mswakini, a
word about the teachers. Unless it was their home place, teachers were
reluctant to work in isolated rural areas because domestic life was difficult
in the pori. Mostly firewood was used
for cooking and of course gathering firewood was a problem for the teachers, so
as a perk, each pupil was required to bring one or two sticks of firewood from
home per week – just small, dry sticks. With school rolls of 400 – 700, enough firewood
could be brought, for perhaps six teachers. The same with water, water still
remains in short supply, so the pupils brought a few litres each day, and
sometimes from a great distance.
Mswakini is easy to miss as you drive along the sealed highway, the
Arusha-Dodoma road… actually, no far past the National Park, the road turned to
rough track, and Dodoma is the country’s capital. For anyone who doesn’t know Tanzania, a
village is not necessarily a group of thatched huts in a circle, a village can
be an area of small farms, administered by a village office. The people of
Mswakini are Maasai who live in Bomas,
a thorny enclosure that protects the families and livestock, the man lives in
his own hut, while his wives live in theirs, each with their own children. Most
villages have a church, a school and perhaps a clinic. The village office at
Mswakini was in need of repair, a 'wattle and daub' building, its mud walls
eroded by wind and rain, which made the office drafty. The corrugated iron roof
radiated the sun's heat onto those inside because there was no ceiling board. Ceiling
board can’t be used because it would collapse under the weight of the dust that
would accumulates, dust is blown under the roofing iron during the dry season.
Hifadhi, the outfit I was working for, had already
been working at Mswakini Primary School, on projects funded by our government,
but the funds had run out, aka used elsewhere, so the projects had stalled. Although
not my responsibility, I had been gently nudged into seeing that the projects were
completed, which I knew would mean stepping on a few toes. We also had our own environmental
project to initiate and maintain, plus, we were formulating a Primary Schools
Assistance Project, so we were going to be visiting Mswakini frequently!
Big E, as I called him, was the director of Hifadhi, so let's start with what Big E and Hifadhi had achieved so far, because it was pretty much a one man
band. They had facilitated a concrete block classroom with a corrugated iron
roof, but it had collapsed. Big E told me that the fundi, the builder, had stolen half of the cement, so the mortar
was weak. Maybe so… but the roof had blown off first, which suggested that the ties
fixed through the lintel were unsatisfactory. The ties were made from those
metal strips used to tie timber into bundles, which were never made to last
anyway. Galvanised wire is better, even barbed wire which is more malleable but
of course the metal strips could be obtained cheaply, whereas wire would have chewed
into his bar building funds. This sort of thing was typical of Bug E.
At Mswakini water was especially a problem, so daily the school kids were
walking one and a half hours each way to collect household water for the
teachers… during school time! So education was taking a big hit! I accompanied Big
E to negotiate for water to be taken from a borehole within Tarangire National
Park, using a pump owned by a Phosphate Company because they held the water
right. The water would be pumped into a nearby holding tank and piped to the
school utilizing gravity. Enough fuel for one year was in Hifadhi’s budget, funded by our government to give enough time to
establish a goat rearing project that was to be managed sustainably to purchase
fuel. It was a well thought out project. But! The school was considerably
uphill from the holding tank, and I could see straight away that the gravity
feed would never work. Big E didn’t believe me so I brought out my trusty old
exforestry abney level to prove it. The
other hiccup was that there were no goats to do the proposed breeding! I could
see that all of this was a classic developmental mistake. Big E is a Maasai and
this was a Maasai village; so he consulted nobody, sourced the funding and he
told the village people what they were going to get. And then working with only
the village chairman and not involving the village people, meant they had no
ownership of the project. This was to cause trouble. Of course the village
people would have benefited from the water but they had Big E properly summed
up, it was a moneymaking project for him. Now with me on the case, their
expectation was that I had pockets bulging with money and so they looked to me
to bring the water to them.
Luckily I had my co-worker, Josiah who was on my wave-length, he was
Maasai and the Head Teacher was Maasai so they could properly convey my
thoughts to the parents and the village population. All of the village used the
Maasai language rather than Swahili, which often left me a bit out of the loop.
So far, the water and goat projects were a disappointment to them, so I
distanced myself from those projects meantime while focusing on the Primary
Schools Assistance Project. Starting off on a positive note would hopefully
motivate the village people. The Schools’ Assistance Project was instigated by The Agency’s field reps and I had
fourteen primary schools under my wing to service. We surveyed each school to
find what each school's needs were and did the budgets to share the funds as
appropriately as possible given that it was funded by our government. The
assistance was channelled through The
Agency’s six volunteers, with Mo and Jo, The
Agency’s field reps doing the purchasing and paying the bills. Buying in
bulk had advantages and our Sanawari house became the sorting area for the
entire project. We even made a round stamp for the text books stating the donation
was from our government.
Mswakini Primary School had been built as a donation to the village from
the Danish government because they had also funded the nearby phosphate mine,
which was defunct because the phosphate was found to be mildly radioactive. Because
the village is situated on the boundary of Tarangire National Park, the
National Parks Authority, were funding the building of another two new
classrooms. Actually they provide assistance to nearby villages to all the
National Parks so they’re in my opinion a good corporate citizen. They also
funded two toilets that had been recently constructed; round, concrete jobs
that had an element of biodegradability but my, oh my, they stank to high
heaven! Unlike most of the schools we worked with, the floors and blackboards
were in good nick at Mswakini. There had been an attempt to a construct a rainwater
harvesting setup, but the small tank leaked and the spouting had fallen down – really
all it needed was some maintenance to make it functional again. There were
answers if the questions were asked… I found that one reason for the delay of
the goat rearing project was that teachers had moved into the hut that was
supposed to house the blimmin’ goats!
Taratibu, formalities, there are always formalities (yet
nobody takes responsibility) and sure enough there was a process where annually
each school reports to the Education Department listing the needs of the school.
At the time the Education Department had no funds, evidenced by the fact that sometimes
the teachers had to wait a month or more for their wages, but nonetheless the
requests were made. For us it was useful
to see a copy of their list because, well, you have to exercise discretion when
dispensing assistance. Some of the listed needs were 'best case scenarios' so we
needed to be mindful of that. Generally I found that text books and the
associated teacher's copies of how to run the lesson using the text books, were
not on the lists, but bicycles for teachers to go to the nearest store - duka - were. There was a desperate need
for more desks at all the schools, because three kids were crammed into desks
that were designed for two. The schools were using out of date text books, they
had none of the latest curriculum copies, yet Standard VII pupils had to sit a
National Exam, where a pass is needed to progress on to secondary school. At
that time barely six percent of the kids went on to secondary school. In order
to involve the village population, we met with the village government; the
village chairman and secretary, and the Mtendaje.
The Mtendaje is the village executive
officer, who reports to the central government and collects fees and taxes on
their behalf, Joshia also advised me to invite a few of the elders because
Maasai elders have an enduring status in village life.
Some 600 trees had been planted, supplied by Hifadhi, but I wasn’t surprised to see the survivors weren’t doing
well. It was so difficult enough to get household water, so why would they use
it on the trees? There’s a lesson there, it’s no use dropping a lot of trees
off without at least some basic instruction. Anyway, I say 'the survivors'
because those that remained had been browsed. 600 trees is an investment in
time and money, but here, it was a complete waste.
Hifadhi had a Suzuki 4x4, which was donated by The Agency, the vehicle was supposed to
be for the project’s use, but Big E used it as a personal vehicle, so by now we
had the use of The Agency’s little Maruti.
Unfortunately Big E was one of those people who have trouble keeping a vehicle
going, so he needed me to transport him to negotiate with the Head Ranger of
Tarangire National Park for access and permission to carry out the water
project. You’re entitled to ask why he hadn’t done this before funds we applied
for… I did. At the park gate Big E talked his way in at no cost, and as we
approached the office he told me that the guy we were going to meet, wanted to
marry his daughter. Just what that was about I never quite found out, at the
time she was nine years old! Anyway, later we took the opportunity to drive
around the National Park which was my first time there. A fortunate
eventuality.
A week later, I suspected Big E had another reason to visit Mswakini,
but used the excuse that he wanted to check on the progress of the digging the
furrow that the pipe was to be laid into. Of course there was another problem
with his Suzuki, so again we travelled in the Maruti. This was fine because I
felt safer doing the driving. We didn’t call in at the school but instead called
at the boma of one of the elders. A
child was sent off, running, to bring a three-legged stool for me to sit on,
while old fellow and Big E sat in the shade on the ground with their backs
resting on the wall of the hut. They spoke in Maasai which was mostly lost on
me, and after some refreshing sour milk, we climbed in the Maruti to check on
the pump and the reservoir. This meant following a faded track through the
village and into the National Park. Surprisingly there was no fence or visible boundary.
In front of us was a wall of elephant
grass, which stood some 3 - 4 metres tall and looked very thick. The Maasai
elder told me (in English, which is interesting to note) to proceed, dubiously,
I looked at Big E for confirmation but he just shrugged… encouragingly, the guy
said there was no problem. I nudged the car forward and the grass fell over somewhat
easily and our guide pointed the way to go. Dead reckoning I supposed. I could
tell that the soil beneath was wet, but the grass gave me traction. Suddenly we
came to an area where the grass had been knocked down by elephants grazing
there and their poo smelled fairly fresh. The going became bumpy because the
elephant footprints were 30cm deep causing the wheels to wallow into the holes
the elephants had created. I had no warning of them because I couldn’t see the
holes below the mat of grass. When three wheels fell into holes at once, I was
stuck and the other two had to push! This happened several times, too many for Big
E's whose lack of fitness told, and it increased his blood pressure. Twice he
fell over into muddy water, so he wasn’t too happy! Anyway the visit to the
pump didn’t tell us anything other than it was operational.
While our other projects were running well, this one was a shambles!
Sure the Primary Schools Assistance Project was were where we wanted it to be, but
we needed to have some closure of the Hifadhi
projects. Jo was getting a bit titchy with Big E and had me keeping on to his
tail as well. He was busy building his bar cum restaurant and the Mswakini project
to him was the cash cow, the funds were already in his pocket, so to him
Mswakini was only a distraction. I thought a visit with Jo might gee things
along, so she drove her Toyota with our team, 60 trees and with Big E perched
in the front seat. Leaving at 8:00am, we arrived at the school at 9:30. The
Head Teacher met us and was happy we had arrived, yet sad because he had no
opportunity to prepare tea for us. Big E had rolls and rolls of polythene pipe
stored on top of his/our house and although he told us they were for other
projects, I had coerced him into using some of them on this project. All the required materials were stored at the school
and I gazed out over the area where the water was supposed to flow – there was no
chance of water running uphill! Big E said that definitely he had money put
aside to purchase fuel for the pump for one year, so we were satisfied that was
in order. But the goat project was no further ahead. At least the teachers had
moved out, but the yard hadn’t been erected. We were unable to go to the pump
because of flooding caused by heavy rain the night before, which was why we
took the 60 trees. We gave the school a seminar on the planting and care of the
trees and supervised the planting. The kids were a joy. On the way home, Big E
wanted us to deviate for an hour or so to call in at Monduli to the Army
Headquarters for a meeting with the General who was an ndugu, a distant relation, of Big E. Getting in there was very
military and time consuming, but the General was happy to see us and happy to
know we were planting trees in the area. He wanted to plant trees around the military
compound too, so I promised to return. But basically we were there because he
wanted the contract to make the school desks and cupboards in the factory that
he and his brother owned! Trouble was the price was too high - but that emerged
later. There were always fingers in pies whichever way we turned!
While in the area, we called at Ngarash Primary School to find Mama Kuku,
an Arusha poultry farmer, had delivered 20 000 trees at the school for the
village people to plant! Mama Kuku knew we were working in the area and thought
this would be a help to us. She bought the trees at Same, a hundred miles away,
and delivered them free. Kind and generous as it may have been, it was another
problem for us because large numbers of trees were just too difficult for us to
manage. At the very best I could only pack 500 into the Maruti! 20 000 seedling
needed to be watered each evening and there was the constant shortage of water,
without proper care, the trees would dry out before they could be distributed
and planted, so in many cases trees were planted that were never going to
survive, thus disheartening the planter. This happened later from time to time
and was something I had to sort it out, but that came later too.
There’s more to come about Mswakini…