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.

A walk to the church and a death in the neighbourhood

Friday April 1st
The day started off quite windy which made it quite cold. It was really gloomy, wet and thundery from early on till about 2 pm. This made it hard for mama to get a fire going in the jiko, so we didn’t have breakfast until 11 am. It was the usual cold rice and hot chai. I first noticed a rather large yellow stain on the big bowl of rice in the middle of the table, and thought that either mama had used the mchuzi spoon to get it out of the pot the night before – or perhaps there was a more sinister reason. I made sure that I selected rice from another part of the bowl. However, I didn’t notice something rather nasty until I looked down at my bowl, ready to eat. There were mouse droppings in the rice! Bruce noticed my reluctance to start eating, and threw one of the offending items out the window, unfortunately drawing pastor’s attention to the problem. I left a small portion on the edge of my plate containing another unwanted addition to my meal! I must admit it was rather hard to eat the rest!
Once the weather cleared in the afternoon, we did our washing and then walked up the hill to the church to have a look around. I was really glad that I had enough energy to climb the steep hill – I had thought of trying a short walk on the flat the day before but a good opportunity hadn’t really presented itself. We went round the back of the new building to where the old one used to be, and found the site completely overgrown, covered in young trees, cassava and passionfruit vines.
The new building has been surrounded by young pine trees to act as a windbreak, but we thought they had been planted far too close to it for safety. They say that the winds can be strong enough to lift off a roof if you build on the hilltops of Bumbire, but you don’t really want the branches close enough to touch the roof or to fall on top of it.
As we turned away from the site, we were amused at the antics of a long-tailed bird we had observed on previous occasions, but never so close at hand. It has quite a small body, but has the longest tail i have ever seen on a bird that size. It uses it to counterbalance itself when feeding on the tops of the long grass stems that can grow to nearly 2 metres high. It flew ahead of us along the church’s drive to the main path along the crest of the hill, but then turned away. We were quite disappointed, but really thrilled to have seen it so close to us.
There seemed to be many birds out and about today. We have often been amazed at the sheer variety of birds in Tanzania, and some are really spectacular or have rather unusual calls.
We had lunch at 3.30 – matoke, fish, rice and supu. Danieli came round later on, and said that he had really bad toothache, and in fact, his face was quite swollen on one side. We had brought some antibiotics with us that Bruce had been given but not used as they had to be changed to another kind to treat an infection he’d picked up in NZ, and so we were very willing to give Danieli the 5-day course. He also complained of his little children (the oldest two are aged 7 and 8 years, the youngest is only 18 months old) coughing at night, till they almost vomited. At first we thought of whooping cough, but as he said they were really well during the daytime, we decided it was probably due to the cold nights sleeping on mats on the floor. Meshaki also had this problem which cost him a lot of sleep at times.
We were talking outside the jiko, and I noticed just how precarious the whole structure looked. Bruce had helped pastor with part of the framework four years ago when it was being built as an alternative to the rather cave-like structure that mama was cooking in. Now after such a short time, it is becoming unsafe, and pastor is worried lest mama gets buried under the building should it decide to collapse. At present, one of the walls is propped up by a strong branch, but that only supports part of the wall, and when the roof is wet with rain and the walls take on water too, it becomes much more dangerous.
We received news from Fideli’s house – his mother was really bad now. She had been unable to move at all the previous day and could no longer speak. Obviously her trip to the clinic had come far too late to save her, and our prayers for her healing and recovery were not answered. Pastor and mama decided to visit and spend some time with her.
Whilst they were away, Fideli’s second son, Meshaki I, came down to let us know that his grandmother had gone home. He’s the boldest of the five, and would often come to the house and, when I was lying sick on the bed, greet me through the net curtain that covered the doorway. When the front door was open, it was possible to see right inside the little bedroom through this curtain, it was no barrier at all. One had to be really quick in the mornings to get dressed before anyone else came into the living room and out the front door!
The Mugaruras returned a couple of hours’ later saying that she had passed away whilst they were there after they had prayer for her. They had stayed to help bathe her body and clothe it in clean clothes ready for the funeral the next day. The church had been open for prayer when we visited it earlier in the afternoon, but now it had to be closed again as there would be no mkesha – an all-night prayer meeting. Danieli went off up the hill to do this. Instead, people would go to spend the night with Fideli and his family.
Pastor and mama had returned to Fideli’s house, at first saying they might stay the night there. However, they came home around 9.15 and we had a dinner of cassava, rice and fish. I was able to eat a good meal this time, my appetite had almost returned to normal. Danieli was still around and about, and brought us two guavas – we decided to eat them for breakfast although they looked rather green.

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.