From time to time I will add 'life in Africa' from my photo album and
some notes.
The dusty Sanawari road. Just up from the main Moshi - Nairobi road, we walked up this road for two years while we lived at Sanawari. Big E's bar was further up on the right and there was a shop that sold wild animal meat [zebra, eland]. To go into town we had to cross the main road and head down past Mt Meru Hospital and AICC complex. The crossing was often difficult and I used the term 'spaghetti junction'.
Just up above that old tree stump was the local fruit/vege market where we continued to purchase our needs through the years.
The Agency office was in the CEDAH complex almost beside spaghetti junction and opposite was this small shop and bar area. This area became a timber yard where I purchased materials for some of our building projects. The small fence in the middle of the pic is made from sisal stalks that have been split.
Sisal is harvest annually until it throws up a stalk and flower head, then the plant dies. It is either replaced or 'babies' at the base grow on.
Nai sits happily in our house sporting the tiki [on her waist] we had given her. Nai is the daughter of Big E and she was a delight to have around. Because we lived in the same house but in separate parts, Nai was not supposed to 'bother' us but we did not mind her about. She would be called by her mother but she would always leave her sandals [malapa] behind - a perfect excuse to return!
We kept loosely in contact when we left Sanawari and I attended her Confirmation. I hear she is a mother now.
Helena was Big E's housegirl, or should I say, Mama Baraka's. Here doing the family washing at the water tap that sat on the edge of our 'front lawn'. Helena was nice young woman who tried to make us speak Kiswahili because she said she knew no English. Big E had her sweep the Msisiwe leaves from the nursery each morning - sometimes an onerous task.
The house cow was kept at the back of our house on a zero grazing regime. Food is brought to the animal each day, rather than the animal graze outside. The Heifer Project recommends this type of husbandry but it needs to be very clean. This one stunk because of the quality of food provided -the excess went rotten and the effluent was not removed. I saw many really successful zero grazing units and some that fed bio-gas units.
Rural roads are either muddy or dusty, and because it is a dry climate, mainly they are dusty and that red dust finds its way through most vehicles. The Maruti had a canvas canopy that was ripped, so we became covered. One trip to Likamba saw us particularly covered - the dust was 30cm deep and the poor folk we passed as they walked around the village were bathed in in this fine, red/brown dust!
I used to keep bees and have always had an interest in them, and of course I was interested in the bees in Tanzania. I had considered that beekeeping could become part of my assignment but decided that it might be too complicated to do well. However I did make a study of bees there and encouraged some people.
This hive is traditional, but other traditional hives are made out of logs and hung in trees. There are new styles that have proved quite successful.
If you disturb them [take honey] bees abscond quite easily, but on the other hand they populate a new hive quite easily.
Samson used honey to make a strong brew and together with medicinal uses, brewing is a major use of honey - there is not much toast. Samson collected puffballs from old [very] pit latrines and used the spore to attract bees to an empty hive; also to quieten them. He warned not to breathe in the spores because they a hallucinogenic - I never tested that.
Termite are an essential part of nature by utilizing organic material and creating holes for rain to percolate into the soil. If only they did not disturb mankind! I admire the way they go about their work but they eat young trees and poles for buildings/fences. They ate the Pinex ceiling board in our house - leaving just the paint! A thin layer of paint.
Break parts of a termite mound, wet it and it can be used for very good mortar between bricks. When you do that, the soldier termites rattle in warning with pincers at the ready! They fiercely defend their home!
Sometimes, as beside our house, there is a need to kill off the mound so the queen is dug up and destroyed. Now if a queen bee is lost, they will breed another, I'm not sure if termites can do that.
We replaced the roof of Manyata Primary School because all the rafters and supporting timbers were eaten by termites!
I had no idea that I would be able to cross the Serengeti, but some of my duties took me there. I drove through Ngorongoro Conversation Area four times and had a pass to Tarangire National Park. As well my work was on the other side of the Arusha National Park, which was a free public road until for most of the time and then I had to negotiate access.
I did not take a flash camera [don't own one] so my photos were never quite as outstanding as others, but later I was able to get quite close to a lot of animals. Above is a cheetah.
Lions shelter in the shade of an Acacia tree, quite close to the road across the Serengeti plain.
On a trip to Mwanza we managed to witness the Wildebeest migration. An awesome sight and at times we had to give way to them on the road. Officially 'animals have the right of way' and we respected that.
There is a small area near the entrance of Arusha National Park, called Little Serengeti because often animals can be seen there - some locals took unsuspecting tourists there and took a fee for park entry which was not applicable.
There are no big cats in this park and people walk from Ngarenanyuki to Usa River, but they risk buffalo attack.
While we lived within sight of Mt Kilimanjaro, she did not lift her skirt of clouds very often and many of our photos of her are unconvincing. The mountain claims a few lives annually because it is the highest mountain in Africa and the peak lacks oxygen.
I never climbed it - too expensive for a volunteer, and not my priority, though I would have liked to see the flora.
We did visit the gate of the National Park and visited the home village of Machoia, a teacher we knew, which was on the slopes of the mountain.
Nearby there is an area where Maasai gatherings are held on a very large scale. These are traditional meetings and perhaps festivals, where no doubt the becomes a mixture of genes.
some notes.
The dusty Sanawari road. Just up from the main Moshi - Nairobi road, we walked up this road for two years while we lived at Sanawari. Big E's bar was further up on the right and there was a shop that sold wild animal meat [zebra, eland]. To go into town we had to cross the main road and head down past Mt Meru Hospital and AICC complex. The crossing was often difficult and I used the term 'spaghetti junction'.
Just up above that old tree stump was the local fruit/vege market where we continued to purchase our needs through the years.
The Agency office was in the CEDAH complex almost beside spaghetti junction and opposite was this small shop and bar area. This area became a timber yard where I purchased materials for some of our building projects. The small fence in the middle of the pic is made from sisal stalks that have been split.
Sisal is harvest annually until it throws up a stalk and flower head, then the plant dies. It is either replaced or 'babies' at the base grow on.
Nai sits happily in our house sporting the tiki [on her waist] we had given her. Nai is the daughter of Big E and she was a delight to have around. Because we lived in the same house but in separate parts, Nai was not supposed to 'bother' us but we did not mind her about. She would be called by her mother but she would always leave her sandals [malapa] behind - a perfect excuse to return!
We kept loosely in contact when we left Sanawari and I attended her Confirmation. I hear she is a mother now.
Helena was Big E's housegirl, or should I say, Mama Baraka's. Here doing the family washing at the water tap that sat on the edge of our 'front lawn'. Helena was nice young woman who tried to make us speak Kiswahili because she said she knew no English. Big E had her sweep the Msisiwe leaves from the nursery each morning - sometimes an onerous task.
The house cow was kept at the back of our house on a zero grazing regime. Food is brought to the animal each day, rather than the animal graze outside. The Heifer Project recommends this type of husbandry but it needs to be very clean. This one stunk because of the quality of food provided -the excess went rotten and the effluent was not removed. I saw many really successful zero grazing units and some that fed bio-gas units.
Rural roads are either muddy or dusty, and because it is a dry climate, mainly they are dusty and that red dust finds its way through most vehicles. The Maruti had a canvas canopy that was ripped, so we became covered. One trip to Likamba saw us particularly covered - the dust was 30cm deep and the poor folk we passed as they walked around the village were bathed in in this fine, red/brown dust!
I used to keep bees and have always had an interest in them, and of course I was interested in the bees in Tanzania. I had considered that beekeeping could become part of my assignment but decided that it might be too complicated to do well. However I did make a study of bees there and encouraged some people.
This hive is traditional, but other traditional hives are made out of logs and hung in trees. There are new styles that have proved quite successful.
If you disturb them [take honey] bees abscond quite easily, but on the other hand they populate a new hive quite easily.
Samson used honey to make a strong brew and together with medicinal uses, brewing is a major use of honey - there is not much toast. Samson collected puffballs from old [very] pit latrines and used the spore to attract bees to an empty hive; also to quieten them. He warned not to breathe in the spores because they a hallucinogenic - I never tested that.
Termite are an essential part of nature by utilizing organic material and creating holes for rain to percolate into the soil. If only they did not disturb mankind! I admire the way they go about their work but they eat young trees and poles for buildings/fences. They ate the Pinex ceiling board in our house - leaving just the paint! A thin layer of paint.
Break parts of a termite mound, wet it and it can be used for very good mortar between bricks. When you do that, the soldier termites rattle in warning with pincers at the ready! They fiercely defend their home!
Sometimes, as beside our house, there is a need to kill off the mound so the queen is dug up and destroyed. Now if a queen bee is lost, they will breed another, I'm not sure if termites can do that.
We replaced the roof of Manyata Primary School because all the rafters and supporting timbers were eaten by termites!
I had no idea that I would be able to cross the Serengeti, but some of my duties took me there. I drove through Ngorongoro Conversation Area four times and had a pass to Tarangire National Park. As well my work was on the other side of the Arusha National Park, which was a free public road until for most of the time and then I had to negotiate access.
I did not take a flash camera [don't own one] so my photos were never quite as outstanding as others, but later I was able to get quite close to a lot of animals. Above is a cheetah.
Lions shelter in the shade of an Acacia tree, quite close to the road across the Serengeti plain.
On a trip to Mwanza we managed to witness the Wildebeest migration. An awesome sight and at times we had to give way to them on the road. Officially 'animals have the right of way' and we respected that.
There is a small area near the entrance of Arusha National Park, called Little Serengeti because often animals can be seen there - some locals took unsuspecting tourists there and took a fee for park entry which was not applicable.
There are no big cats in this park and people walk from Ngarenanyuki to Usa River, but they risk buffalo attack.
While we lived within sight of Mt Kilimanjaro, she did not lift her skirt of clouds very often and many of our photos of her are unconvincing. The mountain claims a few lives annually because it is the highest mountain in Africa and the peak lacks oxygen.
I never climbed it - too expensive for a volunteer, and not my priority, though I would have liked to see the flora.
We did visit the gate of the National Park and visited the home village of Machoia, a teacher we knew, which was on the slopes of the mountain.
Nearby there is an area where Maasai gatherings are held on a very large scale. These are traditional meetings and perhaps festivals, where no doubt the becomes a mixture of genes.
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