Engorora Pt II

There was a small area beside the primary that was allocated to a local women's group and there they grew vegetables. This was encouraged by Hifadhi and probably funded as well.
The tie-up was logical for us really. The same people had children at the school and of course, houses or farms in the villages.

Mama Miriam was one of the leaders within the women's group and her husband, Alfred was an Evangelist and also participated within the village and environmental project.
For those who do not know, an Evangelist is a church worker who has somewhat less power than a pastor, but is able to carry out certain functions that help out the pastors in pastoral work as well as in the services/ceremonies.

My sister liked to support us in what we did and sent a child's cardigan which we gave to the young Noah, the young son of Mama Miriam and Alfred.
This small family lived in a traditional house - well no, not the round, Maasai houses - square, wattle and daub iron roofed house. Inside was plaster of mud and an earth floor. Pride taken in keeping the house clean and messages/art decorating the walls. Access is always given to hens and in a way they act a vacuum cleaners because they eat up any spilled food scraps. Alfred was building a new house of concrete block - to be completed in the future.

Alfred was given a bicycle by Hifadhi and this is an example of well intentioned aid turning out to be inappropriate. The bicycles were were bought from donations from a New Zealand secondary school which is a very good and cool thing for them to have done. But Big E gave the bicycles out as he saw fit, taking ownership of a project that was community based and should have been given out on a democratic basis. Had that been done, I think Alfred would have recieved the bike! But Big E gave it to him without consultation. Now, Alfred already had a bike, and one day when I visited Mama Miriam, she asked if we could please take the bike back! Why? Well there was resentment to Alfred and to Mama Miriam and whenever there was work to be done in the garden, they would be told, 'You recieved the gift, you do the work!'
I held a meeting, where I told the village people what had happened and how Alfred had recieved his bicycle. They saw that Alfred was not at fault and forgave him.
This is a good example of the need for democracy and openness.

The tree planting project throughout the village was successful and it was usual that we carried followup checks, not only to gather information for ourselves as to the performance of different trees in different conditions, but also to motivate the villagers to tend their trees.
Alfred presented a hen to me as an appreciation. I accepted gifts like these not because I wanted a gift, but because it showed our work was valued, even in a small way.

Motivation of the village people could be carried out in any number of ways, it was just putting our minds to it. One day I transported the members of the women's group to my Sanawari nursery. Of course we provided soda and some bites, then they took a selection of trees home with them.

I will always remember the good times we had at Engorora, because the people there are warm and open.

One thing to mention here that is unusual in our culture, but may well be changing in Tanzania. Even a women's group prefer to have a man running their group becuse they fell 'inadequate'.