Mkonoo

The village of Mkonoo came about through the programme initiated by Julius Nyerere to bring about more order and stop the nomadic way of life common with many tribes in Tanzania.

To reach Mkonoo, the road passes through the poorer areas of Unga Limited, down a long ridge where houses become scarcer and to where Edgar Rice Secondary School is situated. On through farmland to a bridge spanning the Temi River with the road becoming steadily worse. There is turnoff to Mkonoo and the road continues straight to Nadasoito and Muriet.

Still on a ridgetop the road passes through farmland that can be dry and barren but when it rains the rich, red soil bears abundant crops - as long as the rains continue. Navigation is easy in the dry because you can see where you are going, but when the maize is higher than the vehicle - it is easy to lose your way! When the road is wet, there is a challenge for what I call a 'road' here is a dirt track, formed through use rather than by any road-making machine.

First there is the hospital - large for the area, as it serves a wide area - but like many hospitals at the time, under-resourced and under-staffed. Josiah knew a nurse there, so we would call there from time to time and he would bring her beans or rice. I had the opportunity to witness the treatment and the problems faced there and was frustrated at my inability to offer assistance.
I was able to provide some trees to plant in the grounds though and the shade from them I believed to some comfort to the patients and their families.

It is only a short distance to the village center - three or four small shops, a carpenter shop the village office and a large godown where food could be stored. The shops sell bread, soda and other general grocery items.
Transport for the village people was by foot and goods were carried by donkeys - punda. Of course there were lorries and tractors with trailers but those were at a cost.

Actually, along this road I saw a pile of maize cobs being 'threshed' by a tractor running over them - in circles! Ingenious but costly!

Onwards a little and there is a large water tank - dry. Built some time previously but is was this tank that water from Big E's project was to fill. We will get to that.

Close to this tank is Mkonoo Primary School.
First time we were met by the Headteacher and filled in his visitor book. Schools have a visitor book and a log book, and it is good for donors to know this and record what has been given this is transparency - uwazi.
For those interested there is always a buzz of insects and the bird calls [doves & pigeons have a special appeal for me] but the buzz in the Headteacher's small dark office made me look up. There was a large beehive working there - filaments of comb maybe half a metre long hung down and the bees busied themselves.
He was a bit frightened of them and the beekeeper in me wanted to take a closer look. But I thought it must have been there for a long time with no problem, so I just admired it.

Pic: With the Headteacher in the senior classroom
This Headteacher was a bit of an environmentalist. He had the school kids keep a vegetable garden and used the farm to grow maize and beans.
Hifadhi had supplied some trees and particularly the Grevillea were being eaten by termites and Big E's solution was to interplant with Mpilipili - Pepper Tree. This species was not eaten by termites but they were clever enough to find the food they needed. Oh the kids too did damage - breaking twigs off to clean their teeth. Toothbrushes were an expensive luxury then.

During my other life as a Forester and Nurseryman, I knew well the dangers of agricultural chemicals and throughout my time in Tanzania I witnessed so things that still worry me.
Here at Mkonoo I saw a large pile of harvested red beans being treated with insecticide powder by the senior students! Rolled up sleeves they were manually mixing the chemical into the beans!
Many people in Tanzania contract stomach ulcers through eating the red, kidney beans - maybe because of chemicals, but that was not my opinion. Tanzanians prepare food carefully and any chemical residues would be washed off. The cause is the red pigment in the beans! I taught all who would listen to soak the beans overnight - preferably in hot water - but this pre-cooks them. Cold water did the trick - then wash the beans completely to until no more red pigment was visible - then cook them. This was a success.

I had written a short story - 'Grace's Dream' - Ndoto ya Grace - and Joshia translated it accurately for me. I printed into a small booklet and Joshia read it at all the school seminars. I even did some drawings. I have copied it to pdf but it does not go into this blog - I will have to type it on when I have time - this was a successful tool in our seminar.

The tree plantings were successful and the Primary Schools Assistance Programme proved very successful to give us entry into the villages. At least with the Maasai, it was necessary to have the approval of the elders to work with the village people. The 'formal' way is to gain entry via the Village Chairman and Village Executive Officer.

Pic: Tree Deliveries

Mo had been lobbying me to complete the water project to be shared between Mkonoo and Nadasoito. This was funded by NZHC and was Hifadhi's and the responsibility of Big E. I had trouble getting his cooperation and I knew he had been fully paid out for the project.
I found a few anomalies - no, a lot! Without detail, it was the old trick - budget high, do a cheap job and then there are spare funds! Actually I detailed this and it became useful later on.
Anyway I did take the project over and Big E did do what I required him to do and the village people did get their water.


Pic: Water tap - Mkonoo.
The taps are brass and usually came from China as they were the cheapest. They soon fail and there is a waste of water. A cause of the failure is if no water comes - a kid will belt the tap with a rock - when it eventually comes, it can't be turned off.

The school recieved around one hundred desks, teachers' tables with chairs. Text books with teacher's instruction copies, science kits, plastic blowup globes, maps (world and Tanzania).


Pic: The teachers standing outside the classroom show their delight to receive the text books!

Village householders also wanted to participate in the environmental project and many people took advantage of our trees - I will highlight Jamatatu later. As motivation we took the school environmental committee to look at successful plantings around the village and they were also rewarded with a badge to were on their shirt - Misitu ni Uhai it read. 'Forests are Life.

Pic: Presenting a bike to a village motivator.

Funds were raised by a secondary school in New Zealand on the instigation of Big E and his friend, an ex Agency field rep. The idea was excellent. To award a motivator to tour around the village encouraging and giving advice to the village population. The scheme was flawed in that the motivator was appointed by Big E, not the village [or participants] and the motivator was not given training.
The man at the back of the pic is the Ward Councillor and he caused us to do a large planting at Nadasoito. Some years later, I met him in the streets of Arusha and he hugged me with some delight, saying that our tree planting had been very successful.

This contrasts with a gift from another quarter. Mama Kuku has carried out a lot of aid in the Arusha area and has raised large amounts of money to fund many projects. She gained her name because she was involved in large scale poultry farms. Mama Kuku had a truck that returned to Arusha from Moshi with no payload, so she loaded it with trees that she bought at Same. 60 000 trees ended up at Mkonoo, but because there was no training or distribution method - most died.
I went to see Mama Kuku and her husband at their Tengeru home and we managed to coordinate future tree deliveries within our project. During our time in Tanzania we saw many well meaning attempts at assistance fail because of a lack of understanding of the protocols to achieve favorable outcomes.

Riding the Ungo

An Ungo is a winnowing basket used mainly to clean beans, maize or rice. Often not using the wind as to clear husks from seeds but to remove stones or damaged seeds. And it is an art to use them correctly.

There is something else about the Ungo. Jini(s) ride them! What is a Jini?
Well a Jini is an evil spirit that has taken the body of a person, and the Ungo is their mode of travel. I don't really know what a Jini is but it is something like that - and they don't always travel on the Ungo.
Oh yes? It is when young Nai first told me about having seen a Jini, I gave the understanding smile - Nai was but seven years and had seen the Jini up a tree beside the river.
There was a wire crossing the river and some of the children used the wire to cross the river (I actually did not see the setup but the description was that there were two wires - one to walk on and one to hold on to).
The next day, the wire broke as children were crossing and two died. This I was told was the work of the Jini!
Accidents happen.

Sometime later, I heard a report over the local radio station - in news bulletin.
A man driving a new Toyota double cabin stopped to pick up (give a lift to) a beautiful girl. Once in the car and along the road a little, the beautiful girl turned into a leopard! The man stopped the car in panic and ran off. The beautiful girl drove off in the car.

Sometime not so long ago, there was a report in the Arusha Times newspaper - a very reputable newspaper - that a Jini had arrived in Arusha town suburb having flown from the town of Moshi. He was stoned by locals.

Mama Baraka went to the funeral of her friend's sister at the village of Ngaremotoni. Three days after the funeral, the close friends gathered as part of the wake to sit together to honour the deceased.
Three women were preparing food for the wake when suddenly they became aware of an old man - mzee - sitting on a jiko - a small, encased cooking fire. The fire was burning and he was eating charcoal; some of it glowing hot. The women tried to speak to him, but he refused to answer, so they called some of the men in but he remained silent.
The men began to beat him with their fimbo - sticks, drawing blood. The man said nothing but drank his own blood.
They took him outside and tied his hands together and bent him forward then secured the rope around his neck. During this time he said that he had come from Moshi.
They tied him to a tree and at midnight, they went out to check on him. He had disappeared! The rope was still tied and uncut!

I asked Mama Baraka what she thought of it 'Sijui.' I don't know.
'A Jini?' I asked.
'Aye.'

I have resolved never to laugh at another culture's food or beliefs - and I stick to that.

There are many more stories like this and as I find them in my diaries I will write them up.

Indian Visitor

One Saturday morning, a young Indian guy called at our Sanawari house with a problem.

He was taking his brother to hospital and had run out of petrol!
I felt sorry for the young guy, but as usual, before handing any money over - it always pays to check.
'Where is your car?' I asked.
'Down on the main road.' he replied.
'So you walked for fifteen minutes up here to find me?' the question was rhetorical. But he answered that he had.
Now his car would be fifteen minutes away from the hospital and how did he know that I was even there? I strongly suspected a scam!
I made a show of feeling in my pockets (I seldom had cash in my pockets at home). 'Don't you know it is foolish to carry money or have it in your house? Sorry I have no money here.'
The man left with no ill feeling.

Few days later, Missy told us of an Indian guy who had called on them asking for money. The description matched and the story was the same. This time one of her friends had given him something - not much, more a token.

Short but not so sweet

I have tried to separate events from Sanawari and Makumira, but sometime there are connections and separation is not logical. But for the record our period at Sanawari was August 1995 to July 1997 and Makumira from July 1997 to September 2000 & from September 2002 to November 2004.

Day 392, 15 Sept. Something gross happened. As I sat the Maruti waiting for a meeting [this was in Arusha town] A lame man walked up to me with his hand out, begging. His leg was bandaged up but there was a long rip down it. Puss was oozing out of the bandage and he was in poor condition and filthy! I had my window down and was prepared to talk to him and probably give him some money. He raised his leg and scraped some puss from the bandage and held it under my nose! The stink revolted me and I wound up the window. He used the puss to write roughly on the window!

Again as I sat in the truck, a man came up begging. He looked fine to me so I asked him why he was begging for money, he was fit, had two hand so he could work. He just pointed to his feet and said nothing. They were stubs, knocked off through leprosy! I gave him some money and made a vow to always check before making judgments.

I was a nodding acquaintance with a woman in town who sold bananas at the gate of Mt Meru hospital. On Saturdays however she begged in town pretending to be blind!

For a time there was a woman in town who had a problem of some sort. She would pretend to be very busy doing something. She would walk purposefully in one direction then pretend to look at something or pick something up then walk purposefully in another direction. She seemed to do this all day - never asked for money, just did that.

There had been bandits on the road at night and for a time it was dangerous to venture out.
One night at about 9:00pm there was a gonging at the gate of our compound at Makumira and our night guard came to the door. An old guy had fallen off the footbridge that crosses the creek just below our house. Some, [that's his name] a secondary school teacher thought this guy had hit his head seriously and needed medical treatment. The guy was drunk, very drunk! I refused to take him, but Some and Mbise, our guard talked me around. I agreed on condition a member of the drunk guy's family accompany us because I did not want to get stuck with the old guy. or be up for payment. A young man was found.
Mbise came too and half way down our road the drunk crapped himself! But it was watery one and leaked on to the back seat of the truck! And in copious quantities by the smell.
At the small hospital at Kilala, run buy local Catholic sisters, the guy refused get out of the truck! I suppose embarrassed at his state or perhaps just drunken stubborness. No coaxing would get him to get out, so I gave him my stern voice and told him to go with the sisters and not be a nuisance - he complied.
After I had asked the sisters if they could control him and they had affirmed they could, I told the young man who was his son, that he was to accompany us back and he was to clean the car!
Well we arrived at the gate and the young fellow opened the door before we had completely stopped and ran off!
It became Some and Mbise's job to do the cleaning as they had encouraged me to take the guy, but Some was cunning enough to do little.
In the event the guy was not really hurt - just some bruising, but a few days later, he arrived at our door, this time sober and apologized - sincerely.
At least that was something, but I suspect Mbise had something to do with it as Mbise would.

I had just climbed back in the Toyota when a bedraggled man came up to the window, said nothing, but threw a pinch of white powder on to my lap. He had startled me but I noticed as he walked to the next car that he was wearing a woman's pink corset over the other clothes he was wearing. This made him look like something out of a circus!
I think the powder was salt, though I never tested it and I never saw the guy again!

There was a man often seen around Tengeru who wore many clothes. He was bulky with clothes and always recognizable. We never knew why he did this, rumour has it that the town's youth banded together and stripped him down to give him a bath! Afterward he slowly gained in size as he collected and wore more clothes.

Muriet

Muriet village can be accessed through Nadasoito village via Unga Limited, but we most went there via the Dodoma road, turning off at a junction the name of which eludes me, but there is a large market there - Thursdays? - and the road to the sand areas and nearer, Olasiti Primary School. Lorries full of marram or sand often waited there to be hired.

Muriet has lately been in the news because the Arusha dump was established there and the smell and smoke no longer make it a pleasant place - though I have not been there.

Big E's brother John took us to Muriet in his car with a boot-full of trees from the nursery. I have no idea why this happened but I guessed Big E had made a promise to someone and had talked John in to taking me there.
Just how John knew where to turn off was a mystery to me but the faint track was smooth and easy driving. The road was not the lorries carrying sand made the road like a moonscape. However we were unable to reach the house of the man John was to give the trees to because of a shallow irrigation ditch. So a wheelbarrow was brought to transport them to his house.

A few people had gathered there and I demonstrated the planting method to them. John instructed the man to to distribute the trees among the people there and we were off.
I asked Josiah about this the next day and in the African way, he knew people there and had a connection. The connection comes through the Maasai inter-relationship and the church.

Through Gideon and his extended family, Muriet was one of our more successful project areas. The village was not well sited because of a high water table in the wet season and this limited access during those times - certainly I was challenged in the Maruti from time to time. Most homesteads were located in higher spots, which made living there a little more comfortable.

Gideon and his family became very keen tree planters and cared for all the trees we supplied. They also made sure the rest of the village people did the same.
Basically we ran the programme as with other villages. Providing a seminar on the environment and how to plant and care for trees. It was then up to the village people to prepare the planting hole - Joshia called them pits - my recommendation was you had to fit a 20 litre bucket into the hole. The soil was mixed with dry cow manure (or similar) and the mix was then returned to the hole. The hole was marked with a stick. The trees was then supplied ex our nursery and we often awarded an inducement for the best tree shelter [sticks, bags or whatever to provide protection from livestock and shade] - the inducement may be an avocado, pen or tin mug. Of course it was necessary to carry out followups and measure the trees' progress to be able to award merits.

At one household, we had inspected the plantings and I had given out some fruit - including mango - and had one avocado left. There was a small girl - knee-high to a grasshopper - whose name I found later was Neema. She had been following me around and looked at what I looked at and copied whatever I was doing. I gave her the left over avocado and told her to plant the seed inside [and how to do it]. About a year later, I was back in the village and passed her homestead. While talking to her father, she tugged on my trouser leg and said, 'Mzee, Mzee, come look at my tree!' It had grown to about 50cm and was healthy. Joshia showed her how to erect a shelter - though avocado trees are not palatable to stock. But this is what tree planting is all about! By now the tree will be fruiting.

Most of the village people were of a younger generation, Gideon himself had a modern outlook and had a metal work business (fundi) but others were more traditional. I always enjoyed calling on one Maasai boma where there were two wives - never met the husband - one of the wives had remarkable success with her trees, while the other was frankly hopeless, but she had the most children and they were well nurtured.

A group of women banded together as Mazingira Group so we were able to support them with materials and encouragement.

There was a desperate need for a preschool, chekechea, and we were asked to assist. Fortunately we managed to raise enough money to lay a cement floor, build a cheap slab wood building with an iron roof and a water pipeline to the building. We paid for the materials and the village people did all the work.



Green Arusha Society still work with the village which is the catchment area for Olasiti Primary School where we did little more than supply a few trees.

Kambi ya Maziwa

The name refers to a Milk Camp or presumably where a milk market was held.

This was an area of contrast. Kambi ya Maziwa the next village to Mateves and did not seem to be a village at all - just an old school. The kids came from somewhere but we never actually worked in the village, though some of them were from Mateves and others from Kisongo and we did work within those villages.

I had seen the school from the main road though it was quite some distance from the road and when some further funding became available, we went to see the school.
Kambi ya Maziwa primary school bounders on to St. George's School and here's the contrast. St. George's is named after the founder and presumably he thought himself important enough to to add the 'St.' bit.
His was a school for those who could afford the fees and so the school had the modern facilities that a well-funded school anywhere has. Around the grounds was a 2m high fence, presumably to keep the feral kids from Kambi ya Maziwa out.

The kids at Kambi ya Maziwa were just village kids - not at all feral but unable to pay the fees at a private school. The school was in bad shape. The weatherboards were rotting and springing loose in the hot sun. They were short of everything including teachers and teacher accommodation. They did have a water tap and that encouraged us to supply trees to plant around the school. This had a good measure of success.
Because this was an extra school in our schedule, we were not able to help in the way they really needed it but they recieved full curriculum textbooks & teachers' copies, cupboards, new blackboards, and teachers tables.

Through some fortune 'big noises' from NZHC came with us when we delivered the materials and they took with them knowledge of the plight of poor schools in Tanzania.
We continued our environment programme there for another year, which saw a number of trees established. Later, in another project we donated trees through Green Arusha Society.
I see now a Safari Lodge has set up business nearby and hopefully they are a good corporate citizen and are prepared to assist.

Footnote:
All this happened circa 1996 and then primary schools [and secondary for that matter] struggled financially, with resources and teachers.
Since then the Danish government donated massively towards education and friends of Tanzanian Schools, Compassion and people like Jane have contributed to assist schools. Much more is needed but it is pleasing that there is a movement to improving the lot of rural & urban students.
Perhaps I will give my take on what I saw in the education sector, but think that one of the problems faced by most students is there is no electricity in the home and it is dark at 7:00pm. Homework is given, but after household duties, how can homework be completed in the dark - the affortdability of candles and kerosine for light is a problem.

Mateves

The village of Mateves is not far beyond the Arusha Airport and actually backs on to the prison. Prisoners can often be seen in their black and white prison garb. These people tend a coffee plantation, a forest block of Grevillea and a vege garden. They never impacted on anything I did but the khaki clad prison guards were well know for their stroppy behavior.

Mateves was the first village we visited but really we did not work there a lot. This was probably not a conscious decision, but perhaps I thought our efforts were better served elsewhere and I did not warm to the village chairman - in the event he was beaten up and thrown out of office.

There was a woman's group there and Hifadhi had assisted them with a village garden and had been trying to get the villagers to plant trees. This was somewhat successful and we added to this through our work.
There was an elderly fellow who lived between the main part of the village and Stephen's compound who we assisted with nursery materials and seed. I was always careful when allocating materials and I found this man and his family to be keen tree planters and environmentally sensitive.
His nursery crop was a failure because his water source was cut by the army. They had set up a water line from the slopes of Mount to the Military Base at Monduli, but many village schemes cut into the line; so the military closed the line and set up another. This was a critical time for my nurseryman and the reason for his crop failure.
I provided him with trees for outplanting and to distribute among those he knew would plant them wisely.

We had not included the primary school among our targeted schools, but when one of the Vols decided he did not want to take up his allocation for assistance for his local school, we used the allocation at Mateves. We supplied Textbooks & Teachers Copies, cupboards to house them, exercise books for the kids, science packs, slates & chalk for the junior classes and teachers tables & chairs.

Later when Joshia had started his Green Arusha Society NGO, I helped him source his first funds for an environmental project at Mateves. This was a success and he retains contact with the villagers today. Green Arusha Society have a website and need more members and funding - help them if you can.

Papaya

I will write up about Papaya in my Treetop-ics blog, but for now something else about Papaya.
In some countries it is called Pawpaw, but it is a tropical fruit and it is common around much of Tanzania.
In the past the plant (actually a herb, not a tree) was grown for its gum - a sort of white latex which had medicinal value. The fruit is high in vitamin C and can be used to tenderize meat. A poultice of it can draw out sea urchin spikes - and I suppose other thorns.
It is a short-lived plant and it usually grows flowers of one sex, but male flowering plants do have fruit sometimes.

There are a few clones that produce better fruit than others and Joshia took me to meet his friend Stephen at Mateves who grew some really good-fruiting plants.
Like Joshia, Stephen was Maasai and he lived in a tidy compound in the new house he had built for his new wife. Like most houses, there was no ceiling board so on hot days, the radiated heat could be intense. That's why you plant trees - to provide shade! No ceiling board is because the ever-present dust accumulates on ceiling board and the weight eventually causes it to cave in - just one of those small problems that we in NZ find hard to understand.

Stephen was trying his best to make a good life for himself and his wife (and later the baby boy). He and I traded Michongoma and its seed as well as other trees - he was a keen tree planter. Stephen also kept partridge hens (kanga) - they were difficult but interesting.

Stephen would give me some of this big fruit - watermelon size and almost red fleshed. I would give the fruit away on condition that the dried seed be returned to me. There is opinion that the white seeds are male, but that may be - I tend to think they are enviable.

I had a lot of contact with Stephen, his wife and child and was pleased to count them as friends.

I grew the Papaya plants at Sanawari as well as Makumira and also provided seeds to those interested in growing them. The high vitamin C made it a good addition to the diet of rural children.

The first batch of 400 plants was just ready to deliver to the villages but to my surprise, they disappeared during a weekend that I was away! It transpired that Big E was short of cash and had given them to his son's school in lieu of fees! Well I was none too happy, but hey, the plants had served a purpose and were being well used - I could produce more in a few weeks.

Papaya are easily grown and stop fruiting well before the plant dies. For optimum management it is best to have a replacement plant established before removing the old one.

Monkeys steal the fruit and birds - especially mouse birds - eat their share as well.

If you see Papaya (Pawpaw) in the super market - buy it and give it a try.