An amazing day

Sunday 10th April
As there was no church service today, the Meschenmosers’ gave us a choice of either visiting Säntis in Switzerland or going on a boat trip on Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Europe. We decided that visiting the Alps would be more exciting, especially as it meant travelling into Switzerland AND a boat trip!

First we drove to Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance and briefly visited the Zeppelin Museum as the ferry wasn’t due to leave for some time. We looked at the displays in the foyer. Zeppelins are still made in various sizes, some are used for tourist flights. If you look closely at the LH photo, you may be able to see a model being played on by children outside the museum.
Walking by the side of the lake, we saw a nesting swan so close to the pathway. What a brave bird to nest so close to humans in such an exposed spot!
It was a lovely calm day on the lake and we could see the Säntis in the distance. It is the highest of the Appenzell Alps at 2502 m above sea level. We had even been able to see it (just) from the Meschenmosers’ house as the sky was so clear that morning. It was fun looking back to the German side – there was a castle on the outskirts of Friedrichshafen (pic top R) - and ahead to misty Switzerland. You can see the other ferry boat heading away from the Swiss side in the photo below left. Eventually we reached Switzerland at Romanshorn, a very attractive-looking place (centre pic).
We were soon driving off the boat, and then proceeded on our way. At first we passed many orchards. The grass was full of dandelions and other flowers. We had noticed the rather (to our eyes) unkempt-looking lawns in Germany and were told that while some people have ‘English' lawns (that’s to say they keep them short!) many prefer a more natural look and enjoy the wildflowers that come up. There were certainly plenty of them! We also passed many cyclists - what hard work to climb those hills!
We passed through many towns and villages on the way to the Alps - Rorschach seemed quite large, and the houses were timbered and had shuttered windows. We saw a Zeppelin in the sky! I didn’t like St Gallen very much, it seemed quite ugly – there were lots of ultra-modern multi-storeyed buildings. Even in the older part of town, the buildings towered up 6 or 7 storeys, but at least they were more attractive to look at. It's the largest city in Eastern Switzerland.

As we drew closer to the mountains, the scenery became more and more interesting. Smaller towns and villages such as Urnäsch, Herisau and Appenzell led us closer and closer to our destination. It was so lovely to see the little mountain chalets, Brown Swiss cattle, small farms dotted all over the plentiful green grass, with dark pine forests and the snowy peaks providing a pleasing contrast.

When we arrived at the foot of the Säntis it was so awe-inspiring to stand in the road near the cable car depot and to look up the mountain (LH pic). What would it be like to go all the way up there? We were soon to find out.







It was simply amazing! From time to time we’d cross over a sheer rockface, and on all sides you could see mountains. The snow soon covered everything and we had the most incredible views in the clear air. The car park soon looked really tiny and the people like little ants. The cable car was really large and can hold up to 60 people, but it wasn’t too full that day. It was a great way to travel and not at all scary. LH picture is the view back down to the car park near the top. Centre - view from top, RH sheer face at terminal.
The terminal building has several stories and includes conference rooms, restaurants, viewing platforms and a rock and mineral collection from around the world. Unfortunately there were no examples from New Zealand.

Once we went outside, the views were absolutely stunning. In one spot a large panoramic view engraved into a metal plaque showed the peaks that are visible in six countries: Italy, Austria, France, Germany, Lichtenstein and of course Switzerland. The land slopes down towards France and Germany but we could see some of the high alps in the others. Way over in the distance we could just make out Lake Constance (LH pic). One interesting mountain with a distinctive shape was the Altmann (centre), 2,435 m above sea level, and further north is the Churfirsten group (RH pic), a range of mountains whose beautifully scalloped peaks rise up into the sky.
As the day went on, it started to cloud up a little but we had a great time. It had been a lovely warm temperature of about 20-21 deg down by the lake but was only 5 degrees up on the mountain, 2007 m above sea level. Once the clouds started to thicken, a cold wind sprung up and we soon started wanting to seek shelter.
From one side of the complex you can descend through a partial tunnel in the rock - part of the outer wall is of glass so you can see outside – or into the snow that was covering it. It was really cold in there. On the inside wall were placed various pieces of equipment used over 50 years ago by alpine guides. The tunnel leads to the mountain guide quarters. Guides have been active on the mountain for well over a century. There is are tables set out on a small terrace where you can enjoy a cup of coffee or light meal. We did just that and it was most welcome.
You could just sit back and relax, gazing at the tremendous views. Leading down from the buildings were paths leading to various places, with signposts telling you how many hours it’d take you to get to the other mountains and villages. If you want to walk/climb up or down the Säntis, it is supposed to take you 4 hours. It takes about 1/2 hour by cable car!

The complex also has an important weather station with a huge tower that was too difficult to photograph adequately (LH pic). it was interesting to look at however.
We also enjoyed watching the Alpine Jackdaws (centre) that liked visiting the outdoor restaurants and were having an amazing time soaring on the thermals up the side of the main building (RH pic).
We decided to leave around 4pm as we were starting to feel quite cold. We returned by a different route, driving around the side of the lake passing through a small section of Austria before reaching Germany again.







It was amazing how the countryside suddenly opened out into a broad, flat valley, bordered by snow-capped mountains – the Rhine. In one place we saw a cog railway that went up a steep hillside in a little gorge. I was quite surprised to see a vineyard or two in Switzerland, I'd always imagined it to be too cold! Pics: Urnäsch, Rhine valley scene, Altstadt.
It was interesting to find out that the Swiss still prefer to use their francs rather than the Euro. There is a hefty annual fee of E100 if you want to use the motorways there! It you don’t buy the ticket, it might cost you 2-300 Euros just to make one trip.
It’s often quite difficult to tell just when you cross the borders in Europe - unless your cellphone decides to tell you you've just joined a new exchange. Ours did this when we crossed from Belgium to Germany. We did notice that there were a lot of curved tops on the chimneys in Austria which was different from the Swiss architecture. Of course, place names change too, so if you know your languages, it does help. At some borders there is a police check-point but they usually only stop trucks. There was one between Austria and Germany.
We stopped to fill the car with petrol once we'd crossed into Austria. It was quite interesting to see the different prices between the diffent countries. It's cheaper to buy in Austria so many people make a special trip across the border just to fill up the car! The differences in price are caused by the way petrol is taxed in each country.hough sometimes you see a police-stop at the border (there was one at St Margrethen between Switzerland and Austria). They don’t usually check the cars, just the trucks.

We decided to stop for a break in Bregenz, an Austrian town at the side of the lake. It has an ancient history dating back to Celtic settlements over 3,000 years ago. We had a good walk around the waterfront, visiting a rather unusual-looking unfinished lakeside open-air theatre. Performances will cost €100 a seat! Ouch! Nearby was a marina where the Stadt Bregenz was moored (centre), and just past there, the town hall (RH).
We were feeling a bit hungry as we hadn't had much to eat since breakfast, so we bought some butter Bretzels – huge, butter-filled pretzels. Really nice but a bit too much butter! It gets injected into the roll in long strips about 5 mm thick! It was very welcome though as I was starting to feel quite weak and tired after all the walking an fresh air!
As it was getting on a bit and we were all rather tired, we went back to Friedrichshafen via a more inland route, and from there back to Horgenzell. We crossed into Bavaria in Germany over a river at Lindau. We had Spätzle for tea, a Swabian speciality.

A day in Brussels

Friday 8th April
We left Addis not long after midnight local time, spending 15 minutes waiting on the runway at one point. It seemed to be rather disorganised.
One thing we noticed about the service on the airline, you don’t get any refresher towels, and the food wasn’t very good. Breakfast consisted of fruit, juice, a rather dry, small ‘muffin’ and a spam roll. The latter two were not terribly appetising!
We landed in Paris just before 7 just as the day was dawning, but had to stay on the plane as it was only a short stop. We reached Brussels 45 minutes after taking off then had a ‘long’ wait at the immigration counters – well, the Americans standing in line thought it was very long. It actually was only half an hour! It hardly took any time at all to clear immigration once we arrived at the desk, and we wandered down to the train station. It was rather hard to find the correct timetable for our train and part of one platform was closed down, so it was rather confusing. Our train actually departed from a different place to where it had been advertised, and it was only by asking a guard that we were able to catch the right one!
Once at Le Midi, I tried to find a Brussels map, but they only had a rather large and expensive one at the first place I went to. We ate some coffee and cakes before heading off to our hotel. It was easy to find with the map, but we couldn’t go straight to our room as we arrived some hours before check-in time. So we left our bags there and wandered off around the streets for a few hours. We found a nice bakers’ quite close to the hotel, selling yummy cheap food. However, he thought I was saying ‘goûte’ instead of ‘coûte’ when I was trying to find out how much something cost! We walked down the street till we found a small park to sit down in. It was a very poor area of the city, lots of rather tatty-looking buildings. There were lots of African and Middle-Eastern people and an interesting-looking Turkish-Moroccan market. We bought some really nice oranges quite cheaply at a fruit stall and carried on on our adventure. At this stage we went completely off my map!
We ended up beside a canal, and watched a long barge with six loads of gravel go past. On the stern stood a car and a small dinghy. We enjoyed watching the Pont des Hospices bridge being raised, then lowered again to let the traffic cross. The whole road was winched up on both sides.
Further on, we came to an imposing gateway with a statue of a bull on each side. Inside was a market, and on the roadside was a café. We bought some coffee then wandered around the stalls, which were starting to be packed up at only 2 pm. Mostly they sold clothes or fruit and vegetables. Some of the vendors tried to persuade us to buy!
Just past the market was a busy street with many shops, many selling hams, salamis etc. One was called the King of Ham (in French). Bruce decided to try a hotdog at one stall, but the man didn’t reheat the frankfurter and onions properly. It looked like it had been a while since he last had had a customer, which is what put me off having one too.
We were pleased to see a street name that looked familiar, we had passed the other end of it on our way to the canal. We managed to successfully find our way back onto the map again, and back to the hotel, where we were able to book in.
We went for another walk after a rest, to find somewhere to eat tea as we thought the hotel meal looked a bit pricey. We went past quite a few eateries but Bruce didn’t like the look of them. On the way back to the hotel, we passed one that had a picture in the window advertising fish and chips for about 7 Euros. That sounded pretty good to me, so we went inside. The young lady who greeted us seemed a bit taken aback when I asked for the menu, and spoke to a young man who came up. She pointed us to the tables and we were rather taken aback to see a hookah on each one. She asked whether we’d like to sit at one of these tables or in the back room. When she took us towards it, I thought it looked just like one of those opium dens you see in films – everything was red, and there were reclining curtained couches around the walls. Needless to say, we backed out pretty quickly! Then I saw the front of the blackboard that was standing in the street – on it was a picture of a hookah with a price. We’d seen one or two other places advertising them too, and at first I wasn’t too sure whether or not the picture was of a rather fancy coffee urn! Perhaps such things are legal in Belgium!
We ended up having dinner at a Turkish restaurant and that was quite an experience. We were the only non-Turkish people present and it was a very traditional-looking meal. It started with an entrée of what at first I thought were green chillies – but which turned out to be okra, and pide bread with two dips – one was very sour and salty, the other a hot chilli paste.
After a while, we were brought a huge platter each of food. Bruce had asked for a combination of meats, and I’d asked for lamb, which was very nice, rather like barbecued ribs. Both plates were heaped high with salty-sour foods, a refreshing cucumber salad, and more pide bread. We had a lovely mint tea to drink too. It cost a total of 20 Euros, which was pretty good compared to other places we’d seen, and we certainly were well-filled!

Back to Uganda

Wednesday April 6th
We slept till about 4am, and that was it! Dogs were barking, Bruce got up, the mosques started to blare out their call to prayer, then the roosters started. A man knocked on our door at 5.40 – he may have been from hotel management, otherwise he was in the nextdoor room and had been woken by the noise of our shower. We left just after 6 am and were on the bus at 6.20. We bought a loaf of bread to eat on the way, and the bus left at 7 sharp!
There was no checking of passengers at Kyotera on the Tanzanian side of the border, and we reached Mutukula at 8.30, and only stayed there a short time. One young man in a yellow T-shirt had been tugged and pushed onto the bus by a woman, his mother? before the border. When the bus stopped at the side of the road in Uganda where a man was standing, he didn’t want to get off and the opposite to what had happened when he got on! One wonders what the story was there!
Masaka was reached at 10.30, then the outskirts of Kampala at a quarter to one. A man got up and started trying to sell medicine – in fact he made quite a few sales – of creams, pills and potions that were supposed to cure anything from baldness to impotency. He was quite amusing as he pantomimed a bit and told all these stories as testimonials – some really made me laugh and amused the other passengers too. I was kept busy outlining it all to Bruce.
Half an hour later, we neared the city centre, where the traffic had practically ground to a halt. It took another hour to reach the bus centre, which the bus couldn’t enter as there were vehicles parked in front of the gates. many of the other passengers had already got off, getting frustrated with the lack of progress – not an option for us, not knowing our whereabouts! We found the taxi stand quite easily, and soon set off for Entebbe. This time we had a much faster journey! It was a pleasant day, 26 degrees. The minibuses stop right outside the Entebbe Flight Motel so it’s a very convenient place to stay.
After dropping off our bags, we went for a walk past the nearby supermarket to the small village shopping centre. Around the taxi park are many small shops and cafés. We chose one that said it served snacks and cold drinks. Lutheran music was playing and we seemed to be the only customers. It was around 4 pm by now. The menu was a little unexpected: the ‘snacks’ were all some kind of meat or fish accompanied by chips, whereas ‘meals’ were the same thing but instead of chips, were served with ugali, matoke or various Ugandan alternatives! I asked the girl whether they had anything smaller like chapattis, and she was able to offer us samosas. We enjoyed drinking mango juice as well. Whilst we were relaxing in that cool place, we noticed a rather amusing poster on the wall. It said that if you smoked, the staff would think that you were on fire and treat you accordingly!!!!
After that break, we walked around a small food market and bought some bananas. Bruce was interested in finding out the price of some very nice looking steak at a butcher’s, and we were surprised to find out that it was quite expensive – 7,000 Ush a kilo (nearly 3USD). In Tanzania it is about Tzsh 3,000 a kilo (2 USD).
We stopped at a rather modern supermarket and bought some water as it was much cheaper than the hotel’s. We had a look around at all the different foods on display and bought some fruit juice. They have an interesting system when you leave the supermarket – you have to hand your docket over to a person near the exit doorway, who has a brief look at your purchases before waving you on. There is also a guard at the entry point. Rather different from here in NZ.
I found out that you have a choice of ordering from a menu or eating the buffet dinner at the motel, so I decided to choose from the menu rather than have to try to eat lots of food at the buffet to make the extra price worthwhile. Bruce wanted the buffet, so this put the staff in a brief quandary. Normally people eating from the menu dine in one room, and those partaking of the buffet in a 3-walled room opening onto the main courtyard. However, they decided that they could serve me my meal there as well as long as we agreed on a suitable time for dining.

Last Sunday on the island

Sunday April 3rd It started thundering early on and it rained until about 9.30. A rat had come into our bedroom around 4 am, making me rather nervous, imagining another fall! We had bananas for breakfast today, a welcome change from cold rice!
The service lasted 2 hours again, and I translated for Bruce. I wanted to take some photos before and after but the camera was playing up again. The congregation was really small this time – just the Mugaruras, us, Danieli and one of another family’s daughters. I took a photo on the way home to show the tall grasses that hide the paths in many parts of the island.Danieli brought us some coca cola to drink as a gift – we were quite glad as we’d run out of water again! We had a snack of bananas to go with it, but lunch wasn’t till just before we left for a service at Fideli’s. The local mourning custom is to hold services and prayer meetings for 9 days after a Christian’s death, and many people come and visit the family and even stay with them during this time to comfort them. Mama said we’d have to hurry as they fine people who turn up late!
The service started at 4.30 pm, and lasted about an hour. The preaching was very vigorous, given by Danieli’s father-in-law. He knew some English and chatted with us a little. As the camera was behaving a bit better, I took photos of Fideli’s family and the grave to try to make up for Saturday.
Tea was nice: chicken, rice and sweet potato.

A Tanzanian funeral

Saturday April 2nd 2011
Unfortunately it had been rather a bad night – the rats were very active, Meshaki had many coughing fits, Bruce was restless and my pillow seemed lumpier than ever – in the end I gave up on it and put it off the bed. Like the mattress, it was just filled with straw. As the head of the mattress was quite raised, I didn’t miss it very much at all and just put my head on my dressing gown.
It was a day that started with bright sunshine, but some clouds came over quite fast. We were glad that all our washing got dry apart from our underwear, which of course was languishing indoors!
We had a very interesting breakfast – passion fruit, the guavas, cold rice and eggs. Yum.
At about 10 am, we walked down to the stream then up the hill the other side to Fideli’s. There were so many people there and still more on the way, from every part of the island as well as perhaps some of the smaller ones off-shore. The men congregated outside near a large fire, and the women sat inside in the vestibule on the dried grass and mats.
Mama and I sat indoors with the women for quite some time before going outside. But first we had to go into a tiny room to greet Fideli and a strange mama (I think she was a pastor from a neighbouring church). The old lady’s body was lying wrapped up on a mat on one side. I tried to encourage Fideli, who had been weeping, by assuring him that his mother was now with the Lord and was rejoicing in heaven, free from her weak, sick body at last. She had been a keen Christian for several years.
The ladies were all quietly chatting, some looking after small children or breastfeeding babies. Small groups of people came in, greeted us all round, then filed into the little room to view the body and comfort Fideli. The mamas were very surprised that I would choose to sit with them, so mama mchungaji explained that I was her friend. They talked a little about mama Christine, the American doctor, and how much they liked her, she was always so hospitable and friendly.
The men outside took turns to dig the grave and to help make the coffin. Bruce spent some time with them with pastor and another man who knew a little English.
Eventually mama decided it was time to return home for lunch, which was ready at 1.30. We had been told that the funeral would start around 2, so we ate in haste – sweet potato, rice and fish. I was surprised just how much rice Danieli and pastor ate! They didn’t leave anything behind this time!
We were very happy to meet an old friend from previous visits, Amin. He lives in a small village at the end of the island past the AIM church and clinic. He and his wife now have 2 children, I think.
Mama had to walk up the hill carrying a bundle of dry grass – all the women had been asked to make a contribution. At first I’d assumed she meant that they each had to take some food or tealeaves – but it appears it was dried grass for the funeral. Other people did take food with them because many would be staying with the family for at least the next night or two.
When we arrived back at Fideli’s, we sat outside on a log under a silk bush which had just started flowering – very pretty. We chatted with some children who told us that the funeral wouldn’t start till about 4 pm. It looked like there were at least 60 people gathered on grass and wooden slabs on the ground outside. The sun had got really hot and I felt like I was getting quite burnt – ouch! It was quite hard to stay in the shade as the sun kept moving round.
At around 3.30 people started gathering outside the house, and many of the men went indoors. The mama’s body was brought out from the little room and placed in the coffin. The broody hen we had noted a few days earlier made a grand entrance during the singing of a hymn, and everyone had to leave her a path to walk through. As there was not enough room inside for everyone to gather, some of us stayed outside whilst several songs were sung and some prayers made. Then everyone trooped outside again and sat down near the grave. I’d been asked to take many photos as a reminder of the occasion, but unfortunately, the camera decided to go on strike, and I was not feeling very comfortable with photographing such an event. As Bruce had been asked to speak, he was standing at the head of the grave with pastor M and another pastor, and I was asked to join them – but had to stand behind them as there was no room – it was not a good position for taking photos!
The coffin was placed in the grave straight away, then we sang some songs and a prayer was made before Bruce gave an encouraging message, with Pastor M translating. He did get stuck a couple of times and occasionally rather garbled the message but I didn’t try correcting him, not wanting to do anything that might be misconstrued. Overall he was quite accurate!
Pastor was the first to throw some clods of earth on the grave, then all the men took turns tossing a few shovelfuls of earth on it. One young man got rather carried away, and tossed the earth so hard that people close by got spattered. Once the grave was filled in, the mamas brought bundles of cut grass and laid them around it, then some of them gave flowering plants to the little children who planted them on the grave.
We were a bit surprised when the island chairman stood up at the end of the service and gave a formal notice about a collection of money for the local schools. It caused quite a bit of dissension amongst those present. He told them it was a government edict, not his own idea – and that it would mean that the school would be theirs, not the government’s. It kind of seemed a bit odd to us to have such an announcement at the end of a funeral, but as pastor noted, it was a good occasion as the whole village was present.
We went back past the Mugaruras’, continuing up the hill to the very top to see a site that they’d like to purchase and use as a life-skills training centre for the locals. Bruce thinks they could run a school to train people in various skills such as starting and running a small business, using better agricultural practices, Bible teaching, etc etc. They would really love it if we would return and teach there. They say I could teach English to all ages and would get students from all over the island! The cost of a few hectares of land would be at most a few hundred dollars. They would be prepared to make the bricks and start building, and to plant a shelter belt around the outside. They reckoned it was an ideal spot, being fertile land – although it was pretty rocky so I was doubtful about the depth of topsoil present. There certainly were plenty of rocks to use for foundations! The biggest problem would be water. If you had to go all the way down the hill to the stream below the Mugaruras’, it would be a huge task, and it didn’t look like there was a closer stream on the other side of the hill. It would increase the cost of building hugely to put on an iron roof and put up some kind of water tank. Transporting one up there would be difficult so you might have to build one out of the stones and make sure it was water-tight with a good concrete lining. Lots of things to think about, but certainly not a project we could do in a hurry. We’d need to try to get backing from a missionary organisation, partly for our own protection and support, as well as do a heap of research re what might be feasible. One possibility could be to see whether AIM would help us as they already have missionaries on the island and perhaps such a project could complement their medical work. Life is hard for those who are not fishermen, and good sources of income hard to get. Even the fishermen might find life rather tough shortly, as the government wants to put a 3-month moratorium on fishing in Lake Victoria to try to build up fish stocks again. It is becoming harder and harder to find the large fish needed for export, and the fishermen are catching and selling far too many small fish on the local trade.
Before a fairly late tea at 8.30 of ugali and beans, i had an opportunity to speak with Julietta on the phone. At first, I spoke with her uncle, who speaks good English, but unfortunately the battery went flat after a while so I couldn’t say much to Julietta. She would have loved to have been able to travel to Kemondo to meet us off the boat, but unfortunately she couldn’t afford the bus fare. She has learnt how to use a sewing machine so is helping with the family finances. Her little baby, Christina (named after me!), is doing well.

Differing viewpoints and work on the shamba

Thursday March 31st 2011
Another thunderstorm from 6.30, which lasted into the early afternoon again. The day stayed cool until the sun came out around 5 pm.
Breakfast was the standard cold rice and chai – and I still struggled to eat it. On the other side of the table was a bowl containing some left-over sweet potato, but I was too shy to ask pastor if I could have a piece, and he ended up eating them all up.
We had ugali and beans for lunch. I was really hungry and ate quite a lot – so much so that I felt a bit queasy for the rest of the afternoon! Oh dear! Bruce didn’t enjoy the beans as much. Ugali is a staple food of many parts of Tanzania and Kenya. It is made from white maize flour and water, and is cooked until it is very stiff and turned out in a mound for everyone to pull pieces off to eat with the mchuzi. On its own, it is quite tasteless, but with mchuzi becomes quite edible. The Maasai have a variant of this made with sugar and fat, and it is quite tasty on its own.
In the afternoon, we went outside once the rain cleared to watch pastor working on the shamba. He was trimming old leaves and other old plant material on the stems of his banana palms. You have to do this once or twice a year. He also planted a few new ones. He says that to grow good bananas, you need plenty of manure. He was using dung from the area where the goats are tethered.We watched him selecting banana stems for planting. You can either take a stem from a banana palm that has already fruited and cut it right back, or use a new one growing from the base of the plant. Each stem only lasts one year, then dies after it has fruited so you usually cut them down afterwards. New shoots grow out from the side of the old base and will be flowering and fruiting that same year. So you can get quite an ‘orchard’ growing if you take the time to propagate them and don’t let hens or pigs destroy the bulbous stem bases and new shoots.
Some of the palms were diseased – when you remove the surplus leafy material from the bulb at the base of the stem, you might see some brownish streaks. If you cut into the stem, you’ll find some beetles or other pests inside or an area of rot. Pastor had to throw out a few like this, but he found quite a few healthy plants too.
Before putting the stem into the hole, you have to trim it really well of all surplus material and cut off most of the old roots if it’s an old stem, or trim back the top hard if it’s a new one. Then you replace the soil around the hole, and mound it well up, leaving a depression for water to collect and soak in. Mulching the mounds is very important too. We had been very impressed with Fideli’s neatly-made mounds, covered with grass mulch.
We also watched pastor layering coffee plants. If you bend over the stems and tie them down, they will grow lots of new branches from the top surface of each stem, and so you can vastly increase the yield of each bush. He has been planting coffee as the prices have gone up quite a lot, and so he hopes to be able to improve the family’s income.
They also have a small plantation of sugar cane near the stream, and each year, cut it and send the stems to the mainland. He says they’d get far more for it if they had a crusher to extract the juice.
The long rains last until May, then it gets really hot, with some rain off and on. They can plant beans and other vegetables in August.
We enjoyed watching some hawks hunting around the shambas – one even sat over our heads in a tree. We saw one swooping down then returning with something in its claws. It flew far away, presumably to its nest.
I helped Meshaki with the goats this time as Rosemary wasn’t around. I asked him to show me how they are usually tied up, but he just stood there – so I was left to my own devices. I was glad that they didn’t escape!
We had another new addition to the menu – matoke (cooked green bananas) – as well as rice, fish and chai. It was nice but I couldn’t eat much, having eaten too much for lunch!
It had been a long, slow, rather boring day, being kept indoors in the morning during the rain, and then just watching pastor on the shamba. Mama had proudly shown us her two pigs, one of which loves rolling over onto its back for her to tickle its tummy! It was funny to watch. She doesn’t eat any meat or chicken, although she doesn't mind preparing and cooking them. She laughed when I said she must be very soft-hearted!
At one stage during the afternoon, we ended up talking about different viewpoints re population growth and contraception. She said that their viewpoint is that it is a sin to limit the size of a family as God told us to fill the earth with people. But I said that some countries were already having serious problems trying to feed all their people and is it fair to overpopulate a nation and thus put people into hardship? I also said that many people, and not just in the West, feel that it is irresponsible to keep on having babies without putting any limits on family size, because in many cases, people cannot afford to feed them all let alone send them to school etc. Others choose to limit their families owing to having had serious problems giving birth, or when there’s a family history of inherited deformities or serious disease. Still others can’t even have children due to infertility, and even pastor and mama only have two children.
With many disturbances during the night – rats, Bruce’s early morning wander, and a lumpy pillow – I ended up spending some more time thinking about these things.

Church and visits on Bumbire Island

Sunday March 27th 2011
It was a cool, wet morning, and quite thundery at first. We started the day with a breakfast of cold leftover rice and black tea, also some bread. After the rain had eased off a bit, around 10 am, it was time to go to church. The paths were quite slippery, but we managed to climb the hill without falling over.
It was our first time in the new brick church that we'd last seen in the early stages of construction. On our first visit to Bumbire Island in December 2006, we helped carry large rocks to help build the foundations. These were later concreted by a fundi, but there were some problems. The first fundi to do the concreting asked to have all the money paid in advance - saying that he had some urgent family needs. He then absconded, leaving the foundations only half-completed. The second fundi didn't mix the cement and sand together in the right proportions, so, when we arrived on our second visit in August 2007, parts of the concrete could be brushed off the foundations as it had been made with too much sand. We spent some time removing the poor quality concrete so that it could be replaced it with a better mix. All this cost the small church far too much money.
Between those two visits, the church had been busy making bricks. Some had been stacked all around the site, others needed stacking, and there were some ready to be burnt in a kiln. We took part in the work of stacking bricks and assisting with fetching water to make more. The biggest problem was convincing pastor that we really wanted to help - otherwise we would have been sitting around, feeling rather bored and useless!
Brick-making involves one man puddling away in the bottom of a deep hole in the mud whilst others, including women and children, go to the water source to fetch water in 10 or 20l containers. It was some way off, entailing a walk down the path along the top of the hill, down the steepish hillside through a couple of shambas, and finally down a shortish path to a reservoir that had been built by missionaries. It is filled by a clean spring which then flows out of the concrete-lined pool to form a stream that continues down a narrow ravine, eventually passing below the Mugaruras' shamba.
I tried carrying a 10l container on my head, placing it on a round, twisted grass cap. Unfortunately, I didn't quite fill it right to the brim, trying to avoid getting wet. I thought the cap might come off if there was too much water-pressure on it! The containers were plugged either with a piece of a plant or by fastening thin plastic over the opening with a rubber band. The water moved too much when I was climbing the hill, causing quite a headache and a lot of pressure on my skull. Many of the women carry 20l containers!!! I decided it was much easier just carrying the containers by hand, and ended up taking 2 x 10l the next trip. They thought I was very strong, but I think they are too!
The water is poured into the hole and the soil is trampled in and dug out of the sides as well. Others assist by bringing suitable soil from further away. When the mud reaches the desired consistency, it is scooped up out of the hole and given to men holding wooden forms. The mud is pressed into them and the excess smoothed off the outside. The resulting brick is pushed out of the mould onto the ground and placed on one side to dry.
The bricks have to be turned from time to time until they are dry enough to stack. The stacks are about 1/2 metre high; the bricks are placed loosely, first lengthwise in two rows, then the next layer crosswise. We helped do this one day. Each pile ends up being covered with an umbrella of dried grass so that rainwater is shed. If this isn't done, the unburnt bricks start to crumble and dissolve!
After a while, the bricks are restacked, as different layers dry at different rates. Eventually they are built into a kiln, and a fire lit inside to burn the bricks. The process can take quite a long time.
On this, our third visit, the church had been in use for some time, and already the site of the former church had become overgrown with young trees and vegetation. It was hard to discover where it had been. We were really a bit sad that they had decided to build a brick building; we had really enjoyed the atmosphere of the traditionally built thatched one, and thought that the traditional method is so practical and cheap to put up, using local renewable resources. The biggest problem would have been maintaining the thatch so that people didn't get wet in the rains, and replacing the walls if/when they get destroyed by ants or termites.
The new church had been roofed with iron sheets - a big expense - but the Agape church provides its churches with these if the congregations do the rest of the work in building the main structure. Swallows had built a few nests under the roof, so were flying in and out as we held the service, which was quite fun really!
There was only a very small congregation at first: us, the four Mugararas, and the faithful elder, Daniel. However, after an hour or so, several other people turned up, including lots of children, so the total congregation was 18. I was asked to translate Bruce's sermon and managed pretty well, although I got a bit stuck on a few phrases so was glad that Pastor was able to help me out.
Lunch was rice and chicken (the same as we'd had the previous night) - but there was nothing offered to drink. Fortunately we still had some water in our room that we'd bought in Bukoba. After lunch, we went down the steep path to the stream, crossed it (you have to take a big step or small jump across from one rock to another then clamber over slippery tree roots to meet the path on the other side), and then climbed up the path to Fideli’s house, one of the next-door neighbours.
Pictured are Fideli and his wife, Pastor Kaserwa (from the mainland) and Bruce, photo taken December 2006. We were amazed to find out that Fideli now has five children: three boys and two girls. He only had the three boys when we last saw them in 2007: Mika, Meshaki (called Meshaki 1 to distinguish him from the Mugaruras' Meshaki), and Melkizideki, who was nearly a year old when we left and was not yet walking, much to everyone's concern. They told us that most babies start walking at around 8-9 months old! Melkizideki had taken everyone by surprise by weaning himself at 9 months of age; usually the babies are fed for 2-3 years or at least till the next one is nearly born. He obviously hadn't been getting the right kind of diet as he was quite small and seemed rather lethargic.
It's very hard for the locals to provide the right mix of protein, fat, carbohydrate and vitamins for newly-weaned babies and toddlers. Meals are based mainly around starchy staples. Meat, poultry and fish are very expensive so aren't eaten very much or in small quantities, and fresh fruit and veges don't feature very strongly in the diet. If you have your own shamba you try to grow as much of your own food as you can, but many things are seasonal and can only be eaten out-of-season if you can get to a market that brings in foods from other parts of Tanzania where the seasons are different. The mchuzi – a soup-like liquid served in a bowl, sometimes one for each person - usually contains onions and tomatoes, but these might be the only veges eaten in a day if you don’t count the starchy roots such as cassava, taro or sweet potato. If meat, poultry or fish is cooked, the cooking liquid becomes the mchuzi.
All of Fideli’s children are very friendly, well-mannered, and quite delightful, and were very happy to see us. I amazed them (and myself!) by correctly identifying Meshaki. Fideli's mother was very sick, and was in the vestibule lying on a mat on the grass-covered dirt floor. She was very weak, and although she did manage to sit up, could hardly walk. Mama Mugarura helped her outside at one point - presumably to visit the choo, and that seemed to completely exhaust her. We were told that she'd been sick for about 6 weeks, had a high fever, wasn't drinking properly, and couldn't keep any food down. They had tried all kinds of treatment without success, including antibiotics, so were discussing whether to take her to the clinic run by African Inland Mission the next day.
Most of the local huts and houses have a kind of vestibule or room just inside the front door where visitors sit, usually on mats. Fideli's house is quite large, so this room could seat quite a good number of people. There was a lovely clucky hen in one corner sitting on some eggs - this is quite common! In one house, we were very amused to see a hen sitting on one of the chairs! When you visit, you are usually offered some kind of food or drink - we were offered some fresh pineapple - yum!
Once we'd finished our visit, mama went home, but pastor, Bruce and I went down another path and crossed the stream further down. After a good walk around the side of the hill, through a section of bush, then down a rockier path right to the lakeshore, we arrived at Kiiza's house. His brother was the one who had provided us with sodas in Kemondo. Kiiza offered us cold rice and spiced tea - yummy! We had a very nice conversation, and he expressed a desire that we'd stay in Tanzania and build a house on the island! He doesn't have a very good source of income, and has a wife and two children to feed. Sometimes he can earn a little cash by carrying burdens for people at the landing stages, but mostly they survive on what is grown on his shamba. He is living in a very interesting home, it has belonged to the family for some time, I think, and may have been built by Germans. The doors are solid timber, quite ornately carved wood, and the house looks solidly built of well-laid bricks and is quite large - but the vestibule had obviously been added on at a later date, and the concrete floor was parting company with the rest of the building!
It was quite hot on the way back to the Mugaruras’, and some time after we arrived back, the children returned with their two goats. The goats are tethered for many hours during the day as well as all night, but once a day they are taken down to the stream for water and up the hill for grazing (usually the children’s job). Meshaki lost his goat this time, he finds them rather hard to hold - but I managed to catch it for him.
We had quite a late dinner with Daniel - rice, chicken and tea again. Unfortunately I felt a little nauseous after drinking some tea, so decided to be very careful how much I ate. We ended up going to bed close to 10 pm.
The evenings close in quite early; darkness falls quite abruptly around 7 pm, and with no electricity, it's impossible to read - although pastor likes to try, using a torch. He now has a rather interesting battery-powered lamp that resembles a kerosene one in shape and size. Unfortunately the light it gave barely enabled you to see what you were eating, so if Pastor wanted to read, he had to use a torch as well!
I was glad to have a much better sleep; there was no wildlife for quite some time, although I woke up briefly in the early morning to hear rats running around in the house.

Kemondo and a trip to Bumbire

Saturday March 26th 2011
The electricity went off at 7.30, then it started raining. We received a text from Pastor Mugarura to say that he was on his way from Bumbire Island to meet us at Kemondo. Our boat wouldn’t leave till the afternoon and his boat wouldn’t arrive till nearly lunchtime. There is only one round trip a day. So after breakfast, we went on a tour of the German mission's orphanage and school once the rain had stopped.
There are eight orphans' houses; each one has a coloured strip of paint on the outside wall that gives the house its name. Pictured is the "White House" and a staff house in the background. They are built of rather nice-looking brickwork and roofed with corrugated iron. Each house has 2 mamas and up to 15 children: 2 rooms for boys and 2 for girls. The children help in normal household chores such as fetching water and helping cultivate the gardens. Some of the children aren't true orphans but have parents who are too poor to be able to care for them – this isn’t surprising given that fact that quite a few families have 6-8 children.
We were able to go inside one of the new houses being built. The lefthand photo show the inside of the house, upper right shows the outside kitchen (jiko) and storeroom, and the lower right shows Gayle outside the house.
The primary school takes boarders, and there are 3 dorms for boys and 2 for girls, a total of about 160 children. The plan is to start a secondary school on the site so that the children can continue to receive Christian education, which is a feature of the primary school, as well as all studies being done in English. As is usual in Tanzanian schools, you start with just a Form One intake, then as each new school year starts, you add on a new Form One and the older students progress through the system until they complete the 7 Primary classes. The school itself is built as a quadrangle of classrooms with a central covered walkway. Gayle has her own office which is quite a good size (lower RH picture).
The entrance to the block of classrooms is quite impressive (LH). There are sheds housing dairy cows (photo lower right) and goats. As usual, lots of chickens are running around!
Gayle is trying to grow her own veges but is finding it hard in the sandy soil, and unfortunately, burying her food scraps to enrich the soil attracts dogs who dig everything up, and her small fence keeps getting wrecked!
Pastor arrived at Kemondo at 11.30 so we walked to meet him, which took about half an hour. Unfortunately there was still no electricity, so we couldn't buy any cooked food, and had to contcnt ourselves with some sodas that we were given by a brother of one of pastor's church members.
Our boat, called the Pajero (RH pic), started loading at 1.15pm but didn't depart until 2.30. I managed to climb the ladder OK, Bruce was steadying it for me. Some women get carried to the boat and boosted up over the side in a rather undignified fashion!
It was quite a fast trip, we arrived at Rushongo (RH pic) in just under 3 hours after stopping off briefly at two other landing places, one on another island. The lake was very calm and it was hot and sunny, so we were glad of the awning over the boat. Our previous trips to Bumbire were on open boats - perhaps they put the awnings up when it's the rainy season. They are not the most comfortable of craft to travel in, the seats, if you get one, are rather hard and uncomfortable - just a rough plank - and the crew have a stereo system - on this boat even a TV showing videos - that is turned up extremely loudly, and it really beats on one's eardrums. Perhaps it's supposed to distract people from feeling sea-sick!
Once we arrived onshore, pastor took us on a bit of a tiki tour through the village, trying to find the chairman, until we were left outside a rickety shack, which turned out to be the chairman's office! On our two previous visits, we'd met the chairman up the hill in a much better type of building.
Shortly after our arrival, we were invited inside, and a youngish man greeted us in English, and told us his name. Pastor reappeared shortly afterwards, and we found out that the young man was, in fact, the chairman that we'd been seeking! It's always important in Tanzania to introduce visitors to the local official, who usually notes down your details. On one occasion we were taken to a neighbour who we were told was the 'balozi kumi kumi' - a representative for ten households. During Nyerere's time, these men were very important in maintaining order and keeping records of who went where and when, and for what purpose. These days, they are almost non-existent.
After our brief sit down in the office, we continued on our way to Pastor's house. That entails a half-hour climb up a steepish hill, and we really were not quite fit enough, and it was hot and we were carrying our packs - Bruce had the large one and I had one of the two small ones plus a new cooking stove and some tomatoes for mama! We needed a few stops on the way up, much to pastor's surprise, and were quite relieved to reach the high ground. One of the church elders, Daniel, joined us on the way and then we were relieved of some of our burdens. However, I continued carrying the tomatoes and cooker - a small clay one that you can place charcoal in or even twigs. Pastor had bought them in Rushonga.
Much of the hillside is in quite short grass, but at the top there is a rocky, treed section, then scattered smallholdings growing maize, bananas etc, as well as open grassland. The Mugaruras live part-way down another steep hillside in a narrow valley above a stream. It's hard work fetching water each day as the hillside is steep and the path slippery, especially after the frequent rains. The children do much of this work, carrying 10 litres at a time - quite a burden for the youngest, who's only about 7. I felt rather sorry for him.
We found out that the eldest, Julietta, has left home, so Rosemary, her sister, seemed rather subdued, probably due to missing her sister so much. She's now about 12 and in Standard 4, so still has 3 more years to go before she can go to secondary school! She's got rather behind because the family has been struggling financially.
The youngest, Meshaki, is actually one of their nephews. One of mama's sisters died four years ago, leaving 3 small children, one was only a baby, and I'm not sure whether that one survived. It was put onto cow's milk and was only about three months old. Each child had to be placed with a different member of the family, as no-one could afford to look after all of them as well as their own It is a real struggle for the average Tanzanian to be able to feed and clothe his/her children, let alone find even a small amount of money to pay for schooling. Meshaki now goes to chekechea (pre-school) and is due to start school some time this year..
The house is built of mud bricks and thatched with hillside grasses. The thatch had started to break down, and Pastor had tried to fix it, but as there were still some leaks, he placed heavy black polythene over some poles that he'd positioned on the bedroom walls. As there are no ceilings in these houses, you can do things like this. Unfortunately the plastic didn't quite extend all the way to the outside wall, and when it rained heavily, we had to move our bags that were placed up on a board near this wall to escape the drips. Sometimes the end of the bed got a bit wet, and you could even feel the odd drop or two on one's face!
Mama first served us chai with some of the bread that pastor had bought. Later on, before bed, we had a cooked meal of chicken, a very salty mchuzi (the soup-like juices from the meat) and rice. It was nice to get to bed, but I didn't sleep at all well: we were visited by mice and I had a migraine.