King'ori Jimbo

At the time we started with DME, Mch Majola was in charge of the Jimbo (Leguruke District within the Diocese) . There was a small, temporary office very close to the Nkwakiringa Church/Chekechea which conducted all the business of the Jimbo office, but there was a new building being constructed within the King'ori village. This was going to be a grand building and very functional. Of course the completion of it was dependent on funds and I think their German friends were generous in that respect and as the Bishop drove past it each day, I guess he was keen to the building's completion.

Mch. Majola did not remain in charge for our time there, it seemed to be policy that roles changed and the Bishop allocated other jobs/project that arose from time to time. However any time I called at the Jimbo office, I was accorded respect and courtesy that was formal and always friendly.

Our role there was small but it was a meeting place and we often called there as we passed, more or less out of courtesy. The area around the new office was large, and we supplied trees and shrubs to beautify the area. On a trip to Zanzibar I had found a grove of olive trees that had been a project to trial by somebody several years previously - the area was now untended. I took some seed and grew a few trees, one of which I donated to the Jimbo office. Likewise, I supplied them with a millennium tree, Terminalia catappa to celebrate the new millennium.

The office staff were interested to start a tree nursery project to raise additional funds and to utilize some of the trees within their households. They were most interested in Mchongoma (as usual) because the hedging plant was most popular and saleable. Finding and extracting the seed was the hard part and viability of the seed did not last long.
We supplied hoes, soil sieve, shovel, watering can, polythene tube and seeds. Actually we also supplied some potted seedlings to give the nursery a boost. The project was a success as there was water available.

During our later project we were concentrating on rainwater harvesting so we built a holding tank and spouting using the same method we had used in other projects. The area did suffer from irregular water supply, but the most important aspect was that it served as a demonstration to the many folk visiting the Jimbo Office.

Another nursery school was set up in the Jimbo Office grounds - a testament to the growing number of infants. Craig and Helen donated pens and toys (balls being the most popular).










Presentation of Nursery equipment.









Marking site for water tank.









Foundation nearly finished.









Tank taking shape - 10 000 litre capacity.









Top fitted to tank - almost completed.










Craig presenting a ball and other materials to the teacher of the nursery school.










Nursery school kids hold up their pencils - I wonder at their progress.

Detail of Assignment

As there becomes an overlap of assignments and activities, perhaps it is a good thing to note down basically what I was about. Certainly I will try the chronological approach when writing things up, but that has not and will not always happen.

Hifadhi - August 1995 - May 1997. Finished 3 months early.

DME - May 1997 - May 1998. First assignment.
DME - May 1998 - May 1999. Extension to assignment.
DME - May 1999- June 2000. Mainly DanChurch Aid.

DME - October 2002 - October 2004. - Rainwater harvesting.

While we were with DME, I was still associated with Joshia and we kept in contact with some of the villages or people from the Hifadhi days.
We were lodged at Makumira for the whole time with DME and always kept the tree nursery in production and distributed trees to villages, schools and other areas. Mostly we were funded by NZHC which evolved to NZAid. DanChurch Aid funded water projects and environmental work which was a five year project compressed to about one year.

The stroke of a pen

I heard the news first by the grapevine, but a few days recieved a letter from the Agency that they were pulling out of Tanzania. For that matter they were also pulling out of all of their partner countries in Africa and Asia. The focus we are told is that the focus will be on the Pacific.

This is essentially a political decision and I was aware of the murmurings, I had heard them before and a past government had intended for the same thing to happen - I, among others, wrote to that government and they remained with the status quo. This time I again wrote to the minister responsible with a failure result. While it is my democratic right to have my say, I have no illusions and I am like a small pebble in front of the minister's shoe and he kicks me without realizing that the pebble was even there. But I take heart because I know his backside will one day fester and not burst, so will need lanced by some huge needle!

Loti always said to me that politics is a dirty game, and I think myself as being not very political at all, but then, I am not adverse to write to governments and take my personal stance on various things and that makes me political too. Mind you Loti is now in politics too, so there we are!

You never know what the Agency agenda was in all this too, and it is much more expensive operating in distant countries compared to the Pacific. I probably could write a very good proposal had I been debating on that point. And as a nation we are cash-strapped just now.

But it fascinates me how the stroke of a pen can effect the lives of so many. The minister putting a line through the name of Tanzania impacts on the lives of many and that is without the developmental aid that would potentially go the people of Tanzania. I guess in the bigger scheme other agencies will step in - I do not know.
We see it all the time, the pencil goes through some organization effecting the lives of those involved and the pencil-wielder (we think) has a smug look.
We can't really denigrate these folk but we can just imagine the guy with the needle - and that puts a smug look on our faces.

King'ori

The primary school at King'ori is some distance from the township and I suspect a good population from the King'ori village actually attend Kwatulele Primary School. The actual township of King'ori would be a good place to film a western movie because while there are shops there, they seem to do little business until market day when the area become vibrant and busy.

I still can't quite figure out if I can claim King'ori Primary School as a success or not - then if it does not spring to mind as a success then maybe it is the antithesis. The teaches there were friendly and respectful, but my impression was that they did not see that planting trees was necessarily an important activity for the students to spend time on.
Maybe that attitude did change when there was a big flood and the student toilet block tipped into its pit! So the school harvested some Grevillea robusta trees that grew in the school grounds, had them pit-sawn into timber to build new toilets.
Perhaps another reason for the lack of enthusiasm for our projects was that they were not involved in the Primary Schools Assistance Project or the food relief project.

We carried out our environmental programme there and the kids participate well in the classroom secession. Their plantings too progressed well but wandering stock did take their toll. In the second planting programme - after the flood - a spare area of ground beside the school was planted.










The first of the prizewinners for the best tree were all boys - picked by the environmental teacher - that is not to say they didn't deserve the prize but not one girl? Odd that later in life the caring of trees would generally be the duty of the females in the family.










Another privileging hand shakes from the school leadership, the Head Teacher.










It was pleasing to see that by the final prize-giving there were two girls who were awarded prizes. Perhaps after all we taught humanities as well as environmental matters. I hope so.