Thursday June 3, 2010
Get a fairly relaxed start to the day, giving everyone a chance to sleep in a bit. Pile in the jeeps and head off in the direction of Qaru Lambo to the village of Basodawish where we are going to visit a secondary school and some farmers. First stop is the village office where we all need to sign the guest book. This is a very important ritual – every office of every elected official has a guest book. The more signatures in the guest book indicate that said official has been doing a wonderful job so he is likely to get elected again the next time.
We walk over to visit the secondary school, which is hard at work in preparations for the torch ceremony which will be stopping at the school the next day. Sounds kind of like the recent Olympic torch run across Canada, except it happens every year in Tanzania and there is no competition at the end of it.
Due to the impending ceremony, the school is in immaculate condition. A very new school, it is surrounded by beautiful gardens. The school was built by the community, mostly farmers, because they recognize that education for their children is the key to future growth and the only chance they have for improving their future. Once a community has built a school, the government provides the teachers, although not always enough of them. Inside the school, many of the classrooms did not have enough desks or desks at all, meaning students would be required to sit on the floor. There were also very few other resources – no textbooks in evidence. Teachers’ residences at the back of the school have been marked out but the community ran out of money before they could be built, so they have 4 teachers sharing the one existing house.
The teacher makes about 200,000 (approx. $130 Canadian) shillings a month, before taxes. Students at the school are given 2 meals a day. The first is a porridge, which is really just sweetened flour and water – no real nutrients, it just fills the stomach so the students don’t feel hungry. The second is ugali (sort of the same thing, only thicker and not sweet) and beans, so there is some protein. Secondary school has school fees – only primary education is “free”. On top of the school fees, students or their parents must pay for their food, contribute water, pay for a uniform, and pay a host of other expenses each term. Skipping classes is not a problem at all – attending school is not only a privilege but also a great hardship on their parents to provide this education, so it is very highly valued.
We then visit a small dairy goat farm run by Mikali and his wife. They have 3 children, the second of which is disabled due to a condition at birth..JPG)
CPAR provided one female dairy goat which the farmer breeds and sells the extra goats. He now has a herd of about 5 or 6 goats, which he can sell for about 100,000 shillings each. The extra money he has is now used for visits to the doctor for his son. The milk he uses for his family. His farm was spotless and very well-tended. .JPG)
The precious dairy goats were in a separate barn to keep them free from diseases carried by ordinary goats or cows, which were kept in a separate enclosure formed by a ring of trees. Mikali travels 2 km twice daily to collect water for his family, and collects water for his animals from a nearby (about 1.5 km away) slough.
Off to another area to see the Farmers’ Field School. This is a cooperative of 21 farmers, male and female, who each have paid to rent one acre of land..JPG)
They experiment as a group with the combined acreage, planting ground cover crops like beans between rows of maize to help the soil retain moisture and return nutrients to the soil. The teachers are the CPAR staff workers – Nderingo, Dayo, and Japhet, who all hold degrees in agricultural studies from university. Through this experimentation, the farmers have been able to increase their yield by as much as 8 times that of traditional methods. Harvest from the shamba darasa (Farmers' Field School) is sold and the money reinvested in the group, which is quite formalized with a chair, vice-chair, secretary, and treasurer. After the discussion of the project, the farmers danced a traditional Iraqu tribal dance to welcome us and express their pleasure at our visit. They handed us each bottles of mineral water, a most precious gift indeed, as a sign of their respect.
We then split up, as some students were feeling in need of a rest. Some went back to the hostel while the rest of us drove out into the countryside near the Ngorongoro highlands to the village of Kampi Simba to visit a women’s cooperative vegetable garden. The surrounding area is lush and green with many fields of flowers and other crops. The flowers (cosmos, nasturtiums, and marigolds) are used to make pesticides.
First, of course, we file into the village office and sign the guest book. Public service posters in the village office make you realize you are really in a different culture. One had a picture of a couple in wedding finery. The Swahili translated to a message encouraging people not to marry young, and to be faithful to avoid HIV. A second showed a picture of a young man, and the caption read “I respect myself. I don’t rape. What about you?” The third showed a happy family and the caption “My wife is not mutilated. She is faithful to me and our family is strong.” Not quite promoting male fidelity yet - baby steps.
The women greet us with song and dance and showers of flowers and proudly display their garden. This project involving 21 women uses a new and simple drip irrigation technique to grow different vegetables that will be sold at the market. One of the problems they have is trying to keep the animals out of their garden – things like elephants. Not something your average Manitoba gardener has to worry about. These are incredibly strong women and again the message they have is that they key to success lies in education. So many times we hear that from so many different people in Africa..JPG)
After another very bumpy ride back to Karatu, we stop at the Bureau de Change to get more shillings. We immediately attract a flock of vendors that dogged our heels the entire walk home. Some of the girls picked up dresses they had had custom tailored and some bought more lengths of material. As we made our way home with dusk falling, we had to encourage the girls to keep up with us. They love chatting to all the street kids, but may be a little naïve when it comes to thinking they are their friends. The street kids are charming and love to find them good deals, but they are definitely looking after their own interests first. Many of them say they are selling trinkets to pay for school fees – hard to say what is true and what is just a story to tug at tender heartstrings.
Get a fairly relaxed start to the day, giving everyone a chance to sleep in a bit. Pile in the jeeps and head off in the direction of Qaru Lambo to the village of Basodawish where we are going to visit a secondary school and some farmers. First stop is the village office where we all need to sign the guest book. This is a very important ritual – every office of every elected official has a guest book. The more signatures in the guest book indicate that said official has been doing a wonderful job so he is likely to get elected again the next time.
We walk over to visit the secondary school, which is hard at work in preparations for the torch ceremony which will be stopping at the school the next day. Sounds kind of like the recent Olympic torch run across Canada, except it happens every year in Tanzania and there is no competition at the end of it.
Due to the impending ceremony, the school is in immaculate condition. A very new school, it is surrounded by beautiful gardens. The school was built by the community, mostly farmers, because they recognize that education for their children is the key to future growth and the only chance they have for improving their future. Once a community has built a school, the government provides the teachers, although not always enough of them. Inside the school, many of the classrooms did not have enough desks or desks at all, meaning students would be required to sit on the floor. There were also very few other resources – no textbooks in evidence. Teachers’ residences at the back of the school have been marked out but the community ran out of money before they could be built, so they have 4 teachers sharing the one existing house.
The teacher makes about 200,000 (approx. $130 Canadian) shillings a month, before taxes. Students at the school are given 2 meals a day. The first is a porridge, which is really just sweetened flour and water – no real nutrients, it just fills the stomach so the students don’t feel hungry. The second is ugali (sort of the same thing, only thicker and not sweet) and beans, so there is some protein. Secondary school has school fees – only primary education is “free”. On top of the school fees, students or their parents must pay for their food, contribute water, pay for a uniform, and pay a host of other expenses each term. Skipping classes is not a problem at all – attending school is not only a privilege but also a great hardship on their parents to provide this education, so it is very highly valued.
We then visit a small dairy goat farm run by Mikali and his wife. They have 3 children, the second of which is disabled due to a condition at birth.
CPAR provided one female dairy goat which the farmer breeds and sells the extra goats. He now has a herd of about 5 or 6 goats, which he can sell for about 100,000 shillings each. The extra money he has is now used for visits to the doctor for his son. The milk he uses for his family. His farm was spotless and very well-tended. The precious dairy goats were in a separate barn to keep them free from diseases carried by ordinary goats or cows, which were kept in a separate enclosure formed by a ring of trees. Mikali travels 2 km twice daily to collect water for his family, and collects water for his animals from a nearby (about 1.5 km away) slough.Off to another area to see the Farmers’ Field School. This is a cooperative of 21 farmers, male and female, who each have paid to rent one acre of land.
They experiment as a group with the combined acreage, planting ground cover crops like beans between rows of maize to help the soil retain moisture and return nutrients to the soil. The teachers are the CPAR staff workers – Nderingo, Dayo, and Japhet, who all hold degrees in agricultural studies from university. Through this experimentation, the farmers have been able to increase their yield by as much as 8 times that of traditional methods. Harvest from the shamba darasa (Farmers' Field School) is sold and the money reinvested in the group, which is quite formalized with a chair, vice-chair, secretary, and treasurer. After the discussion of the project, the farmers danced a traditional Iraqu tribal dance to welcome us and express their pleasure at our visit. They handed us each bottles of mineral water, a most precious gift indeed, as a sign of their respect.We then split up, as some students were feeling in need of a rest. Some went back to the hostel while the rest of us drove out into the countryside near the Ngorongoro highlands to the village of Kampi Simba to visit a women’s cooperative vegetable garden. The surrounding area is lush and green with many fields of flowers and other crops. The flowers (cosmos, nasturtiums, and marigolds) are used to make pesticides.
First, of course, we file into the village office and sign the guest book. Public service posters in the village office make you realize you are really in a different culture. One had a picture of a couple in wedding finery. The Swahili translated to a message encouraging people not to marry young, and to be faithful to avoid HIV. A second showed a picture of a young man, and the caption read “I respect myself. I don’t rape. What about you?” The third showed a happy family and the caption “My wife is not mutilated. She is faithful to me and our family is strong.” Not quite promoting male fidelity yet - baby steps.
The women greet us with song and dance and showers of flowers and proudly display their garden. This project involving 21 women uses a new and simple drip irrigation technique to grow different vegetables that will be sold at the market. One of the problems they have is trying to keep the animals out of their garden – things like elephants. Not something your average Manitoba gardener has to worry about. These are incredibly strong women and again the message they have is that they key to success lies in education. So many times we hear that from so many different people in Africa.
After another very bumpy ride back to Karatu, we stop at the Bureau de Change to get more shillings. We immediately attract a flock of vendors that dogged our heels the entire walk home. Some of the girls picked up dresses they had had custom tailored and some bought more lengths of material. As we made our way home with dusk falling, we had to encourage the girls to keep up with us. They love chatting to all the street kids, but may be a little naïve when it comes to thinking they are their friends. The street kids are charming and love to find them good deals, but they are definitely looking after their own interests first. Many of them say they are selling trinkets to pay for school fees – hard to say what is true and what is just a story to tug at tender heartstrings.
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