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.

Strange English, bibi's house, God's protection

Tuesday July 21st I felt really tired in the morning, it'd been hard to get to sleep, and I woke too early. I was also disturbed during the night by someone else having trouble sleeping, their bed creaked each time they turned over! However it was a nice morning, a bit warmer as there was no cold wind.
After a breakfast of peanuts + chai, I briefly looked at 2 English books Michael’d been given a few years ago. The first was written by a Kenyan Rastafarian and had Kiswahili-style pronunciation guides for each sentence. I tried reading one out loud and sounded rather African! The second was written by a Tanzanian in supposedly American English, but had some very strange phrases, such as: “Would you mind standing in camera?”!
Michael helped me understand some Kiswahili words I'd been having trouble with using his dictionary; he’s a good teacher. Bruce was busy reading the CHE book. Soon it was time to farewell Mama Joyce + Maria; Mama Lucia came to say goodbye too.
Michael showed us around the old house, he’d like to renovate it to use it as his own home. It'd be too expensive to knock down + rebuild. He actually helped the builder build it, acting as his navvy: fetching water, mixing clay plaster, carrying bricks.
Past the porch where bibi cooks, you enter the living room. A bedroom is on one side. A second door leads into what was a food preparation cum dining room and another bedroom. The door to the now-vanished outside kitchen has been bricked--in, as has a window. A long narrow store room stands between the old dining room and the main bedroom, which also has another store room on one end.
Some of the walls have huge cracks running through them, others have been filled with plaster. The aluminium roof has huge holes in it (it replaced the first roof when that started to leak). It'd be a big job to renovate it!
Before having a small lunch of ugali and mchuzi at noon, we looked at a model family tree to discuss names. Michael said we would eat two dinners later on!
Michael took me to the pool at the far end of the shamba near the damp depression where babu wanted to dig a well so I could do my washing. Bruce stayed behind, but little Michael tagged along, not wanting to play with the neighbours’ children. As he hadn't brought his dirty clothes with him, 'our' Michael had to go back to get them! After I finished our clothes, I washed their trousers whilst Michael did their shirts!
We met Bruce on the way back, he must have been wondering what had taken us so long! He’d been planning house renovations, so we went back to have another look before he put them on paper.
We were surprised to be offered cucumber + bananas at 4, thinking of our 2 dinners that were coming up, but ate them all the same to keep bibi happy!
Our first engagement was at the Kulwa's, but pastor was resting in a singlet! He'd had malaria for a week & his wife came home with it too. She’s on hospital medicine, but he’s taking papaya seed tea, a local remedy.
We looked at more photos, and talked a lot over dinner. He invited Bruce to teach a 5-day seminar on our next visit, and he'd also like a church team to come to do village evangelism, there are lots of unreached places near Nzega.
We were surprised to hear it’s unsafe for Wazungu in many parts of Tanzania these days, even in Ipilili after dark! We'd thought it was only in cities like Dar & Arusha, or near the borders with Rwanda, Burundi + the DRC.
He told us the following story. In June, he invited a man into his home as he said he needed to talk. He and 3 others had planned to raid the house in April, when the Kulwas had Wazungu guests. One was armed with a rifle, another with a pistol & they were prepared to kill someone if necessary.
As they approached the house, they heard the sound of people marching towards them, so they ducked round the corner. Everywhere they went, the sound followed them, so eventually they ran away. This man had been so upset that he eventually decided to confess to the pastor, & to ask about who was protecting the house.
Jonas told him there were no bodyguards, only God. The man wanted to know more, and ended up becoming a Christian. He's now an active baptized church member, and led one of the other thieves to the Lord who'd been imprisoned for another crime. Now the other prisoners are hearing the gospel!
Jonas was amazed hearing Michael speaking a little English, and gave him some simple greetings to translate for Bruce. He was so successful that we told him he’d soon be translating in church!
On the way to Mama Lucia's for our second dinner, we visited another pastor’s house. As he was out, we chatted to the two men sitting outside: another uncle + a friend of Michael’s, who said that Michael’s his pastor! Bibi had told me that lots of people call him that because he studied the Bible so hard by correspondence that he was able to advise & counsel many people in the village.
It was dark before we arrived at Mama Lucia’s so Michael helped me again, the pathe was really stony. We met her husband Enock Kakole for the first time. He works at the new orphanage opened in June by the Mission; before that he worked with the children at the Swedish school for 15 years, then at the Bible College for 5.
We watched news on the TV for a while, run by a small solar-powered generator, then we discussed the best way to get to Isanzu in two days time to visit Babu Matthias (a great-uncle). We wanted to walk to save money; Michael had said it was only 12 kms, and would cost 20,000 Tsh to go by ca, but bibi had been horrified and said it’d take 3-4 hours! We thought if we left first thing, we could arrive by lunchtime, & get a car back – BUT there are no vehicles in the village. Enock said he might be able to take us, and would let us know the next day.

Divine appointment in Nzega

Monday July 20th  Windy/cold at first, hot later.  Michael showed us an old letter he'd been sent by a USA Bible College re a pastor’s course.  Even back in 2003, the fees were a total of USD 14,000 for one year live-in, with only 10 hours' guaranteed teaching time per semester!  Overseas students in difficult circumstances could do it by correspondence as long as their home church would guarantee the tuition & book fees.  Then he showed us his chekechea teacher-training certificate from Biharamulo.  He studied there from 2005/6, a Swedish missionary paid his fees.  He also showed us last year’s one-month driving course certificate.  He'd been a bit disappointed by his results, but we told him it’s hard to learn to drive in such a short time.
Mid-morning, we walked to Nzega through lovely countryside, passing an English Medium Primary School in the town outskirts.   We met lots of Michael’s old school friends, and sat in the shade of a veranda outside a guest house owned by one of them.  It was being renovated so they had no soda to offer. 
We were surprised to be waved at by an Mzungu in a passing Land Rover which then stopped.  She came over, asking Michael in excellent Kiswahili who he was, before introducing herself as the Finnish missionary who employs Mama Lucia as cook and housekeeper!  As they hadn't been in Tazengwa for very long, and only stay there for breaks from their work 100 kms away, Michael had never met them.  We ended up being invited for coffee at 5!  It was truly a ‘divine appointment’, they’d only got back the night before & were to leaved again the next day!
As we were feeling thirsty, we went to have soda + buns at a cafe before going to the internet.  We met a young boy on the way, who looked about 8 but was 11.  He spoke really good English, and asked Bruce SO many interesting questions!  Great fun! 
Unfortunately I'd accidentally left my notebook in our room, so couldn't upgrade our seats as I didn't know our Skywards numbers.  We were able to read some emails at last as I eventually managed to find Xnet's new webmail address.
We then went to book seats for Friday, but only paid half the fare: if you pay it all, they might resell the seats!  After that we went to the Post Office to buy post cards – but they don't sell them!  Bruce was suffering from the heat again, so we didn’t want to walk back through town to find a bookshop and to go to the market (soko) to buy bibi some fruit and vegs. 
We heard whistles being blown & marching - along came a team of women dressed in bright uniforms, advertising a concert.  They were all smiles when I greeted them in Kiswahili!
On the way back, we eventually found a roadside stall where we bought some tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, onions + bananas.  Further along the way, we bought a huge pawpaw, then at a kiosk, we bought Michael a new toothbrush, some toothpaste and candles.  He'd accidentally left his toothbrush and toothpaste at Rosa's and had used up our spare airline set.
We reached home at 3 and had lunch an hour later, a good thing we'd had a snack in town!  After a brief break, it was time to go to the Swedish Mission.
The first Swedish missionaries arrived in Tazengwa in 1932 and started a school for Swedish missionary kids from all over Africa.  It closed 5 years ago, but reopened as a Bible College for training African pastors up to degree level.  It's now solely run by African staff.We passed Michael's primary school, which is two blocks of classrooms set in sandy land - one block is shown in the photo (top left).  The monument (above) across the road is in memory of the first Swedish missionary, and nearby is the FPCT church (left) where babu was the 2nd African pastor.
The mission compound is surrounded by a tall netting fence, a thatched kibanda houses a security guard just inside the large gates.  The grounds are attractive, and you follow a broad, smooth, sandy drive towards the large thatched house. 
No-one answered our calls at the front door, so we went round to the back.  The noisy generator had drowned us out.  Hanna Väyrynen + Lucia were in the kitchen, but sent us back to the front veranda to eat & drink together: home-made Finnish yeast buns, spicy biscuits + real coffee (Kenyan) or tea if you preferred. 
We had a lovely time with Markku + Hanna, who practiced her English so Michael felt a bit left out.  Bruce said now he’d know how he feels!  We were surprised to hear that Finnish is quite similar to Kiswahili so they pick it up fast; they find English very hard to master.
We shared about our backgrounds, families and work in Africa.  Hearing about the Maasai’s problems, they lent us a book on a Christian community development programme (CHE) that they use.  It's used in many countries and seems to be really effective.
It was lovely to find people with hearts like ours, and who see the problems of the typical African mindset of depending on outside help, and wanting to have bigger, ‘better’ churches – i.e. more Western-style, instead of being content to use what they have/can afford. 
We went home via another babu’s place.  As a retired Primary School teacher, he has good English.  He thanked us several times for helping Michael study, saying the family wants to help but don’t have the resources. 
I was really touched when Michael took my hand on the way home, leading me round the stones and dips in the path - it was dark, we had no torch, and I don't see well in the dark.
It was a big gathering for tea, including Mama Lucia + her girls.  We had rice, curry, bananas + cucumber, then a time of worship together.  Pic: Mama Joyce, her daughters Maria & Editha, little Michael.

Pounding rice and the Ipilili Centre

Sunday 19th July We helped bibi prepare rice for breakfast, the products of Martha's hard work had all been eaten. We took turns using the large pestle and mortar. Once it was cooked, we ate it with bananas.
We had a nice walk through the countryside to Ipilili Centre where Pr Jonas’ church is. Part of the area looked like sand dunes near a beach, so I said the sea was “just over there!”
I enjoyed dancing African-style during the songs, remembering the words after nearly 2 years! Bruce preached, I translated, which was hard work as I was a bit out of practice, but it eemed to go very well. Michael told me people kept asking him how many YEARS I’d lived in Africa!
Bruce and I sat under some trees afterwards, waiting for a church board meeting to finish, chatting with a few people including Pr Peter from near Singida, who'd taught Pr Jonas at Bible School. He was very happy to visit him and his church for the first time, and wasn’t worried to see how few people were in church, saying what's important isn’t the size of the building, its appearance or how many people turn up, but rather it's the evidence of spiritual life and outreach. This church has started two others in neighbouring villages.
He spoke in English, slowly but well, which was nice for Bruce. We walked in the now-hot sunshine (we had to wear sweaters in the morning!), looking at the new chekechea building started 2 weeks earlier. One block had its walls up, but already was showing some serious structural cracks! The other two blocks were only at foundation stage.
I enjoyed watching Michael chatting with his friends; I love the way they all laugh together, slapping hands when someone says something funny! They were discussing why Tanzanians are so slow to learn English, & overseas people so quick to learn Kiswahili!
Eventually we were welcomed back into church, and introduced to some of the board, but some were away. Apart from the pastor, there was the treasurer, secretary, and an elder, Silas (another relative of Michael’s!). They told us about the projects they’re doing, such as the chekechea and village outreaches.
After a rather filling lunch of rice, mchuzi, Fanta and pieces of banana, we all went outside to look at the church property, peeping through the windows of the old building, now a Sunday School, before passing through the chekechea site and inspecting the fields.
They increased the land by 2 more plots this year, adjoining the present land behind the kindergarten. One was given by the government, and as it's next to a mosque , the locals want a police station in between! The Christians say it wouldn't be them that would casue any trouble! Maize is being grown at the moment, but the land will be used for the chekechea and also to build a primary school.
We walked back to bibi’s, and I got sunburnt – ouch! - I'd forgotten to put on sunscreen! We were so tired, we went to bed to rest. Bruce & I got up at 5, Michael was still asleep, but got woken up by bibi for peanuts + Rosella tea.
This is made from the petals of Rosella flowers, and looks & tastes like rosehip syrup! We had a nice chat, and found out that Michael can study in a library for a small annual fee – a real benefit when text books are so scarce. They don’t loan books over there, there is too much dishonesty.
We noticed there were more siafu outside, some trying to come in, so Michael tried burning them up with bundles of grass. Bibi got a bit cross at the waste, and her precious pot plants were catching fire! She nearly set fire to Michael's trousers before sweeping up the remains, a bit scary!
I suggested moving the pots away from the house for a few days, they were attracting the ants because the plants were being watered. It kept us all busy for a while, also sweeping up debris from underneath and burning up any ants that didn't escape underground.
We then walked to Pastor Jonas’, and were taken on a tour of his house, which was started in 2001, but is still unfinished. He and his wife Rachel (who's the eldest daughter of one of Michael's great uncles) had 5 sons, but the eldest died as baby. Nathan (15) is in Form 1, Joel (12)in S6, Ezekia (9) in S2, Erick (8) in S1. Erick loves electricity, and makes things that use batteries. Mama had arrived back in Nzega from a 6-month chekechea teacher training course in Korogwe the same day as we did, but she'd left Arusha on a different bus which arrived a bit later! If we'd known we might have been able to have travelled together!
Jonas gave Michael a letter – oh, what familiar handwriting – it was from me! I'd sent him one in early January, not realising he’d returned to Kisiwani to stay at Mama Rosa’s, I thought he would be in Tazengwa until February. It was good he could at last read it and look at the photos I'd sent!
Jonas showed us lots of family photos including some of Michael helping him build his house. There were even some of Jonas at a Bible College in Sweden, where he'd studied missions.
Michael was anxious to leave although we'd been invited to tea, but the meal hadn't even been started & bibi was expecting us back.
We were almost full after eating ugali and cabbage when the girls brought in rice & beans which we couldn't eat! After a nice chat, we went to bed, but the cousins were eating & chatting heaps, so it was hard to get to sleep. We were glad the strong winds had died down, but a mosquito woke us in the night, so I had to get out of bed to put on repellent as the net hadn't been put up.

Tazengwa at last!

Friday 17th July  We woke up far too early at 3.30!  We'd just finished getting ready when suddenly, loud cries rang out: “Mwezi, mwezi” (Thief, thief!).  My blood ran cold: if a thief gets caught, they are often stoned to death! Michael turned up soon afterwards, & went to find out what had happened - the thief had used a wire to open a window & hooked out some money + a cell phone.  He hadn’t been caught.  We were glad we’d put our things well away from the window, we’d locked it but the bars were rather far apart.
We weren't pleased when the taxi driver charged double because it was night.  We could easily have walked but it isn’t safe; even taxis get held up, especially when carrying Wazungu: we show up like beacons!
The bus was in a poor state of repair: our seats tended to recline if someone put a hand on the back.  My seat cushion wasn’t fixed in either, so I had to push it back every so often to stop being squashed into the seats in front; the men behind us had their feet under the seat!  At least we were able to all sit together this time!
We set off at 6 sharp, but after an hour on tarmac, it was bumpy roads. We stopped at a petrol station in Singida for 20 minutes, just time for a comfort stop and to buy some food and water.  It was expensive: takeaway chicken/chips was 3,000 Tsh, twice the price and half the quantity of our tea - so we ate buns! An earlier toilet stop had involved using the roadside, not so bad for men, but no good for the ladies, unless you have the right kind of skirt!  It pays not to drink very much on bus trips so that you last out! 
We arrived in the dusty bus park at Nzega at 2.30, then took a car to Tazengwa a few kms away, turning off down a wide sandy track - the main road to Tabora - before leaving the road for an even-smaller one winding between trees past a couple of houses towards 2 entwined bougainvillea trees, 1 orange and 1 purple, in front of bibi’s house. 








Well, she actually has two houses now: the old house (left, front entrance) is only used as a store as it’s getting too broken-down to sleep in, + the newer one (right, back entrance) was built about 5 years ago (or less) with the help of missionaries when they saw the condition the old one was in.
After greeting bibi, who was just as I'd imagined her, except shorter!, our bags were put into the new house, then we went for a little walk with Michael round part of the  shamba, which is partly native vegetation, & partly ridged for cultivation.  The remains of maize, beans, + cow peas were dried up & breaking down. 
At one side of the old house is the ‘bafu’ (bathing shelter) made from branches covered with long grass, but as it was rather broken down, it would be our job to repair it the next day. We were told we'd go to Mama Lucia’s to bathe this time. 
Further over are the remains of the small 2-roomed house where Michael lived with an uncle, (well, a 1st cousin once removed – but most relatives your parent’s generation are ‘uncles’ or ‘aunts’ – apart from your mother’s sisters who are mamas, & your father’s brothers who are babas!)  After the back wall fell down it was used for goats, but these are now in another village. 
A section further on has been set aside for a school or another project.  At one side is where his mother & Boniface lived before she died - now it’s just scrub!  Returning towards the old house we turned left past the brush-walled pit toilet: the curtain door is a bit low down & is a bit tricky when it’s windy – but at least the neighbours are some distance away! 
Closer to the main track is what remains of Michael’s little house. He made his own bricks and built it with the aid of a fundi.  He was so sad, when he came home after being away for more than 2 years, to find it had fallen down: he’d obviously been very proud of it, he kept saying in English, “Good house, good house!”  Cheeky me said it couldn’t have been that good, or it wouldn’t have fallen down!  He moved into bibi’s new house after that. 
Bordering most of the paths is a succulent hedge that he planted, it needed pruning, but you have to be very careful, the sap can damage your eyes: the antidote is milk from a nursing mother!
I was interested to hear that he’d been born near Shinyanga, but a year later, his grandfather moved the family to live next to the Free Pentecostal Church of Tanzania (FPCT) in Tazengwa, he’d been called to become its second pastor.  They went to the shamba later on when he retired and another pastor took over.
We sat down on chairs outside the old house, then some of Michael's cousins turned up – they were happy to greet him, but not us, preferring to stand behind the porch giggling!  So he put a small stool on the ground (just a few inches high, used for sitting on when you’re cooking over the open fire), said it was the welcoming seat, & made each sit on it in turn & greet us in English!  It was very funny! 
Mama Lucia also came to greet us briefly, saying she’d return later.  Her husband, Enock, had gone with some other village folk to a neighbour’s funeral in Bukoba.  They have 4 daughters: Martha (19), Maria (15), Magdalena (10) & Margaret (who’ll be 3 in November). 
‘Uncle’ Paulo arrived later on – first we were told he’s babu’s sister’s son, but later on that he’s Michael’s great-grandfather’s first wife’s sister’s son – no blood relationship at all as babu was one of the second wife’s sons! Confused yet?There was a bit of a lull in activities: Michael went indoors presumably to sort things out for later on, the cousins lounged around outside or helped bibi cook, so I spent a little time playing soccer with Michael mdogo.  It was quite fun and eventually Bruce joined in too.  We were glad to have some ugali + chicken mchuzi after a while, very welcome!
Mama Lucia came back to take us to her house to bathe and to put on clean clothes – ours were filthy after the dusty trip!  I got worried when she told me she wanted me to dress in two kangas (a rectangle of cotton) afterwards like the local women do!  They don't seem to like to change into their clean clothes in the bafu, I don't know why!
I don't mind wearing a kanga as a skirt with a T-shirt on top; it was wearing just a piece of cloth on top that bothered me, it leaves your shoulders and half your back bare!  Being so pale I felt a bit like a beacon, and the bafu was between their house and the neighbours'!  I was glad no-one was outside, but felt really embarrassed to see Michael looking at me from the sofa as I dashed past to reach the safety of the bedroom! 
After bathing, we returned to bibi’s, but Michael stayed behind. He soon appeared with a small procession of cousins bearing a bedstead, mattress, mosquito net & bedding.  We went inside when it got too cold, but as everyone seemed so busy, I didn't want to bother them about trying to find our sweaters.  Instead we sat all alone in the gloomy sitting room, which was lit only by a candle, until all was ready – then we had peanuts + Fanta before going off to bed.

Off to Arusha

Thursday July 16th We were up at 7 and went outside to wait for Michael as usual, then Ntarula came out, hearing us talking, and told us Michael had already gone to Rosa's, so we went together to look for him. He was outside cleaning his teeth!
At breakfast, we were joined by another of the Mzee’s brothers, Saidi’s father, who’d come down the mountain for the day.
We went to the bus stand around 9, Michael had wanted to leave earlier, Rosa wanted us to delay! We were to take Michael mdogo with us too (pictured with mama + Bruce)!!
It seemed a long wait before we left in a battered old landrover. First Michael had to bargain over the price: the driver wanted to charge for little Michael, although small children normally travel free as they sit on a lap. It's always a bit nerve-wracking waiting, they keep on tooting the horn like they’re ready to go, then drive away to make a circuit of the village to try to find more passengers before returning to the bus stand. Our luggage stayed up on top without being tied on for ages, but once it was fastened, it was REALLY time to go.
We drove off the road into part of the village criss-crossing a drain + squeezing between trees to pick up a passenger from his house. Back on the ‘main road’ – a dirt track wide enough for 2 vehicles - we stopped to hoist a motorcycle onto the roof, it almost didn’t make it! We ended up with several people on the roof + hanging off the back door!
We'd been told Same was only 1/2 hour away, but we Took 1 ½ hours! It was a very rough road, the countryside a mixture of lush, wetter areas & dry thornbush-covered land. Little Michael was very proud to be coming with us, not at all concerned to be away from home, but he soon thought we’d already arrived!
Once in Same, we travelled down the dusty streets to gingerly cross a drain on wooden boards to arrive outside a mechanic’s workshop to drop off the motorbike. It took a bit of manoeuvring to reverse the Land Rover back onto the street, there was no room to turn round!
It took a while to find a bus with enough spare seats going to Arusha at the bus stand. We'd decided to stop there for the night instead of Moshi, to be able to visit Michael’s sister Evelina. We bought some bananas, biscuits, juice & water while we waited. Bruce + both Michaels sat in the back seat, but I had to sit by a rather sulky lady + young baby. It was nice to have tar-seal roads, although shortly after reaching a large town at noon, the bus broke down, just 28 kms from Moshi - a broken tie-rod.
Many got off the bus or stood up during the 25 minutes it took to fix it. Unfortunately my neighbour spilt juice on my seat, and I started to wonder if it was ‘accidentally on purpose!’ as she didn’t even want me to sit on the edge of the seat.
I was very pleased to be able to change seats after Moshi, where a lot of people disembarked, and Michael even came over to sit next to me and chatted the rest of the way to Arusha!
I was very impressed by Moshi, it's very clean & beautiful – the only part of Tanzania to have anti-litter laws! This region is lush & green, there are lots of good crops & trees, very unlike many other parts we passed through.
We arrived in Arusha about 3.30, and Michael left us with the bags + little M to buy tickets to Nzega + find a taxi to take us to a guest house. We then went to a nearby ATM, as we didn't have enough cash for both the tickets + a guest house. The glass cubicle was guarded by an armed man sitting inside a small room with a roll-up door. As the taxi was waiting, I only briefly checked the money, and later on found the last 3 notes were only 5,000 Tsh each instead of 10,000!
The guest house was nice, quite close to the bus stand in a very quiet street. We were glad to put on our sweaters before going by daladala to Eve's. The busy streets were lined with people selling wares, and we even saw 6 Europeans!
Once off the daladala, we walked along a narrow, raised dirt pavement alongside a deep drain, and stopped at a small shop to ask where Evelina was; Michael had expected to see her selling corn but she’d gone home early.
We went through a dirty alleyways, stepping over a smelly drain to enter a gate in a tall mud brick wall. Eve’s was the last on the left in a small alleyway between 2 buildings. 2 small boys, Joshua & David, came out from the opposite curtained doorway to greet us, then Mary (Evelina’s step-mother - Boniface has remarried) invited us into her small living room: a bed on the right, 2 sets of chairs with a low table in the middle (not much leg-room!) + a large wall unit on the left. A second curtained doorway leads into another room. It's typical rental accommodation: you rent 1-2 rooms in a house and share an outdoor kitchen, choo & bafu.
We sat on the chairs, Michael on the bed, listening to Mary. She’d just got over being sick for a month, firstly a lung infection then a painful stomach. Eve entered without greeting us properly, rather reluctantly sitting next to Michael, who eventually got her to greet us in English, even to answer a couple of questions + count to 100! She likes school & is in Standard 4.
She was sent back out with the 2 boys to buy soft drinks; Bruce had fun trying to take the tops off with no opener! Betty (Mary’s teenage daughter from another marriage) came in with the pastor’s eldest daughter who's 19 and has excellent English. Her mother came round with her youngest son Tito (6), inviting us over for a chai afterwards, although her husband was still at church.
Boniface turned up later on his bicycle, he’d had trouble getting back from work as the roads were so busy. He’s a salesman. He’s very nice but isn’t a Christian, unlike his wife.
We all went to the pastor’s for chai, and were told it was the first time they’d had such visitors, other Wazungu have refused to come! How rude!
I tried to take a photo of Eve, her father + the rest, but the battery went flat & the spare one was in the guest house! That was sad, our only opportunity.
Both families accompanied us out to the street, we caught a daladala with Boniface back to the guesthouse, then he left us at a nearby café where we ate chicken/chips for tea – yummy! Little Michael ate an omelette with his & whilst we were waiting, we played with a marble on the tabletop! But it escaped & got lost!!!
We went to bed about 9.40, arranging to meet at 5 the next day for another early bus.

A quiet day - family history, interesting people & a soccer match

Wednesday July 15th Cloudy, not so hot today. It was a quiet day, we felt lazy! An elderly man came up to greet us as we sat on the steps waiting for Michael, telling us that he was off to the hospital up the mountain, and needed money for medicine. I didn’t know how he’d get there, he was so frail, although matatus do climb the hill. We had no small change to give him.
When I heard a noise inside, I went in & got a lovely smile from Michael who was tidying up his room. He said he’d been up a little while!
We had a nice breakfast of boiled eggs & maandazi (square doughnuts).
Afterwards, we looked at family photos. There were a couple of Michael aged 9 or 10, he looked SO different! There was also one of his mother taken in the early 90’s when she worked as cook for Swedish missionaries in Tazengwa. Before that she travelled around, giving birth to Michael in 1980 & Jeremia in 1984 to unknown fathers, leaving them with her parents. She eventually married before giving birth to Evelina in 1998. A couple of years later, she got sick with a stomach ulcer, but they couldn’t operate because she was pregnant again. After asking for the pastors to come to pray for her, she lost the ability to speak, then died - so they don’t know whether she’d become a Christian or not. Evelina now lives in Arusha with her father, Bonifac, who's a businessman.
Babu died on Michael’s 18th birthday (20/9/98), it was a severe blow to the family. He’d biked up country to take some seeds to his younger brother, and seemed fine until he entered the house, when he was hit with severe stomach pains. They called the local missionary who got him to hospital, where they were told that if they’d been half an hour later, it would have been too late. They operated, but he remained very sick, and eventually was sent to a larger hospital. A 2nd operation uncovered a pair of scissors left behind from the 1st! Unfortunately he never recovered, and after having both legs amputated, he died. He told Michael to look after the family being the oldest male descendant.
We were shown some photos of him, one when the new church was opened in Tazengwa – he was its 2nd pastor. We looked at another book but it was mostly of Rosa in different outfits - we teased her about that!
Michael got out his English course certificate from last year, he was sad to have only got C’s, he wanted A’s – but as he averaged over 60%, (GOOD), I gave him my hearty congratulations!
We walked to Saidi’s place later, he's one of the mzee’s nephews, & sat in the shade drinking weak tea. His wife is from the same tribe & village as Michael so they get on pretty well. We talked about the drought and how dried up the fields are. They are looking after a child with severe tongue-tie from an area suffering severe hardship, and also have two others, aged 5 and 6. The little girl was SO scared, it was a real shame!
We walked back through the primary school grounds, lots of boys came over to say hello, and didn’t want to stop shaking my hand. They kept asking us to come back when we carried on walking!
Lunch was at 3: of ugali, yummy mchuzi, bananas, avocadoes & oranges. We got full up fast as we had 2 cups of fresh fruit juice first!
We watched an interesting TV documentary about wildlife problems caused by climate change as a result of deforestation. It covered a whole year in a river catchment in Tanzania. It was fascinating to see a brown trickle meandering down a dry river bed shortly becoming a raging torrent, sweeping large section of bank away, but it was sad to see the wide-spread death of wildlife in the floods and also in the dry season.
We went for a short walk to visit Saidi’s old aunt briefly, then watched the first half of a soccer match between two local teams, played on a bumpy sandy pitch. One team was much better than the other (won 7-0), but the ball would shoot off at odd angles, and once knocked a spectator off his chair, which everyone thought was veyr funny! There were no nets, just goalposts, and the lines were marked with silver sand. We were surprised to see an armed soldier patrolling the grounds; a group of ladies were rather cheeky to him so he only passed them once.
Back at Rosa’s, we watched some of the Tour de France on TV, then a music channel. Poor Frank slept on a sofa for two hours after school!
I was told the squeaky noises on the roof were rats not monkeys, so I was glad they weren’t visible!
We bathed at the guesthouse, before eating fried salt pork and mashed potato sausages at the restaurant with Fanta to wash it down.
After tea, we went into town in the dark to visit the mzee’s mother, who’s over 100 years old! We were shown into a room in a large house by one of her daughters:- the tiny lady was top n’tailing with another of her daughters. A friendly little boy came into the room too.
She’s very frail, only sitting up with help; her hands are deformed & crippled by arthritis so she has to be hand-fed - she can just manage to hold a cup. She has to have throat massages + sips of water, that she tries to gargle & spits back out, trying to remove phlegm.
A short walk away is her husband's house, he's an elderly Muslim. He'd been out the day before. We were told by three men sitting outside to go in and wait, so we sat down on the sofas. I had to reach past Bruce to shake his hand when he came in, and got quite a fright when he seized my arm & dragged me forwards to face him! However, he was really very friendly, and loved talking to us!
Afterwards, we said goodnight to the 3 men sitting outside in three languages – Kipare (the local tribal language), English & Kiswahili - it did make them laugh!

Part Five: Tanzania

Sunday 12th July It was too cold to sleep after half six, but as no-one else was up apart from Agnes, we went outside to look at the sheep and goats. It seemed a very slow morning, eventually we had cocoa and bread. The thermos ran out whilst Elizabeth was pouring Bruce’s second cup, and she refilled the thermos with tea then topped up his cup with it - a strange concoction! We had cup of 'real' tea with Nicholas later.
John showed us the clothes that had been made for my parents: he made me put my mum’s on! I think dad’s shirt is too big, they thought he’d be big like Bruce! Pic: my parents wearing their beautiful Maasai garments in NZ.
We took some photos just after nine, prayed for each other, then left for airport. Nicholas was rather upset to be stopped by police, who fined him 500 Ksh for ‘carrying passengers in a dangerous manner’ – John, Joseph & Moses were standing on the deck. I’d been more worried about Maurice standing in the cab!
As only passengers are allowed to enter the departures' terminal, we said our goodbyes outside. You pass through security just inside the doors.
After filling out the departure cards, we weighed our bags on some old-fashioned scales, the attendant writing the weights on a card. Check-in was very quick, so we went upstairs and dozed a bit. We were surprised to hear our flight being called for boarding an hour early, at 11. It may have been because three different flights were due out of our gate within fifteen minutes of each other!
The plane left on time, and they quickly served chicken pie, cake + juice during the hour-long flight! We were the first off the plane, but not the first to get visas!
Part V - Tanzania
After filling in the forms, we took them over to an official near the offices. He took our passports, forms and money, telling us to wait with all the rest of the people there - what a VERY long wait! Unfortunately a group of Japanese tourists from our plane hadn’t got their visas at their embassy before leaving home, this caused quite a fuss! An American couple became quite frustrated with the delay, and weren't very amused when I quipped that the staff were just giving them their money’s worth, USD 50 must be worth some time - however, they told us they'd had to pay 100 each! Everyone else waited quietly, apart from one man who went to the offices himself instead of waiting, then when he was given change, he started to argue as they'd given him some old notes - a lot of places won’t accept USD from before the year 2000 or even later. He ended up being escorted away!
A whole hour later, we exited into the roped-off meet/greet area - no sign of Michael Kikumbo, the young man we'd worked with during our year in Bukoba. He'd become rather like a son to me so two years apart seemed far too long!
Oh, there he was - over by a group of taxi drivers, arranging transport! This rather abbreviated the greetings - no hugs possible, as we had to take our bags to the car. I was so pleased to see him, I didn’t take much notice of where we were going on the drive to our hotel, I was far too busy talking in the back seat! I did notice the big, busy soko (market) in Manzese on the way. Michael directed the driver across the dual carriageway, entering an alleyway and coming round by a back entrance to park beside a small guest house. However, Michael decided to take us to a larger place across the road, so we had pick up our bags and look for a good opportunity to cross, leaving the taxi driver to find his way out of the side street.
After being shown up to our room, Michael left to get the bus tickets for the next day, without saying when he’d be back. After having a shower, we slept till 4.30, then decided to wait for Michael, watching the little TV. By seven, he still hadn't appeared and as we were getting really hungry we went downstairs to the little restaurant. He arrived just after we’d ordered our food, but as he'd already eatern, he only wanted some juice. We only had an hour together, as we needed to be up at five to go to the bus station, the bus would leave at 6.30 & arrive in Same about 3 p.m. It was lovely to hear him trying out some English!

Return to Luka's via a fancy house and Maasai medicine

Monday July 6th We were up just after six, and after a big farewell, we had breakfast with Moses before walking for over an hour to his deceased eldest brother's manyatta. We went with John and a young teacher (another Moses).
We were most surprised to see a large city-style stone house with solar panels on the roof (to run a light), a generator (for a small TV), and an outdoor kitchen sporting a chimney! It was strange to see iron-grilled windows, plastered internal walls, and even ceilings out in the bush! Most African homes don’t have ceilings so you have to be very quiet at night! We were impressed to see a larger rainwater tank by the kitchen.
It was nice to bathe in a concrete-floored bathroom, easier to keep the feet clean than on a dirt floor, although you still wear. We were asked at Paulo’s why we don’t splash water everywhere like they do – an advantage of using flannels!
We spoke afterwards with four women: Rebekah, the widowed 2nd wife - Moses' brother died 14 years ago (9 children), Esther (5 children), Helen (3 children) and Grace (2 children). Helen & Grace are Rebekah’s eldest daughters. She has had to do the work of a man on the shamba, even going to the markets to buy and sell stock. The first wife has now died & the third wife lives with her eldest son.
They are struggling to get enough food, they only have 30 cows left and a few sheep/goats. The relief food helped for a while. They can’t send the children to school, so they just stay around at home or go out with the stock. They'd like to start a small business selling sugar & oil to locals. Another idea is to rent a field in an area with better rainfall to grow maize; they’d just take the flour home. Their nine acres of beans all died.
One of the little boys had to have a heart operation in Nairobi, a serious problem was discovered after he collapsed during a soccer match. The hospital has their title deeds because they haven't been able to pay the bill! One little girl has a deformed, contracted hand from severe burns, she’s learning to write left-handed.
After having some refreshments, we were given some gifts, then walked around the compound talking to teacher Moses, waiting for John to finish talking to the womem. Some signs of property damage: one small building had lost its iron roof in a gale; the old outside toilet is now unusable, it started collapsing into the pit in an earthquake! They just use the bush again! We were surprised to see that even 6-month hoggets had been left behind in the pens instead of being taken out to graze. There were even a couple of cats there – an unusual sight.
Moses has been teaching at Enkiloriti school for 6 years, one of 5 teaching 6 classes of what should be an 8-standard school. Only two are paid by the government, two by CCS Australia, & Moses by the parents. Kenyan schools only go up to Form Four (O-levels), for F5-6 you have to go to Uganda, or else go to College in Kenya. Government teachers earn 32,000 Ksh/month (~$800), NGO’s pay about 6,000 Ksh, Moses has no guaranteed salary.
Poor Bruce found it a bit hot walking back to Luka’s. On the way, we met an old man in the bush who tried greeting us in English, laughing to hear himself speak! He laughed even more when we replied, congratulating him on his excellent English!
Another old man arrived just after we got back, thanking us for the relief food. It was hard to persuade him not to slaughter a goat for us!
We wanted to wash our clothes, but were told to wait for clean water from the church water tank! I had a bit of an audience at first, the mamas kept advising me to add more water – but I was soaping up the collars/cuffs well before washing properly. I was glad when they left!
My turn to milk tonight, Bruce had already milked various animals, including a reluctant goat and a sheep. The grey cow in the picture is very quiet, I filled my cup from just one quarter – most are only giving half that! The young suckle one side while you milk the other, the yield is so low that you milk 1 cow, 2 goats or 3 sheep for a cupful. We never knew what kind of milk was in the chai!
Afterwards, I spent some time chatting with the mamas, who thought we must have been very tired after walking. I was then called to our hut, Bruce had been taken ill, I'd wondered why Bruce suddenly disappeared after milking a goat. He vomited for over 2 hours until he took some Maasai medicine (powdered bark mixed with water). It tasted vile apparently but worked really well until the early hours. We had to postpone our dinner engagement with Susannah.
In the morning, I gave him Gastrolyte + charcoal tablets, but I actually had an excellent sleep, wasn't disturbed by his early promenade at all!

A seminar and Moses Teeka

Saturday July 4th We had an early breakfast of chai/chapattis, then had time to bathe + wash my hair, waiting for Ezekiel to come. It was a bit embarrassing having a big audience of mamas and children when I went outside to comb hair in the breeze - one mama had a go too!
We left at 9.30, carrying our day packs, to attend a seminar at Nalepo Baptist Church. On the way, we visited a family badly affected by the drought, and had chai in the mama’s hut, listening to their story. One son owes 10,000 Ksh school fees, so he can’t get his Leaving Certificate - which means no work or college prospects. Bruce shared a word about having hope: the mama started crying, so I stayed in the hut to pray with her; we had a tearful hug.
They had 400 sheep/goats & 300 cattle, but now only have 200 sheep/goats and 30 cattle. 2 sons took us round the manyatta, some corrals are not even used now, although all used to be full.
We were all told to go to the toilet in the bush before reaching the church – no facilities there + the seminar would have NO breaks!! When we arrived at 11, it had already started. As it didn’t finish till 5, we were glad of the frequent opportunities to stand and sing between speakers. John & another man took turns translating into English. We enjoyed the messages apart from one. The preacher was repeating a message he’d heard in town: the drought was God’s punishment on the Maasai as they hadn't been giving to Him; they needed to give Him everything, especially their best. He also said their church was too small so they should build a big stone one! It's true there were over 400 packed into the iron building, but a lot were from other churches!
The 2nd speaker was good, sharing from 1st/2nd Timothy, firstly about the need for wives to be obedient, and not want to emulate women in other places who strive to be church leaders. Instead, they should set a good example for the other women. Men and women are equal but have different roles. He encouraged the men to ‘fight the good fight’, i.e. to be diligent in the faith and not give up.
When the meeting ended, we were told to stay inside to eat with the pastors: potato stew, chapattis & beef -it was so tough I finished ½ hour after the rest!
After 1 ½ hours' walk, we reached Moses' manyatta just before dark, to be greeted by many people. One baby had a pale swollen face – malnutrition? - but I didn't get another look at it.
We sat chatting with Moses in the hut we were to stay in. There are 20 primary school children + 15 pre-schoolers on the manyatta. Soinkan, John’s full sister, is the only one at High School, she's in Form One at Najile, and has been chased away for owing fees. John’s youngest sister, Pirisat, changed primary schools this year as the teachers were absent so often her studies were affected.
Only 3 of Moses’ 5 wives are still living here, John’s mother is at Luka’s to get feed for John’s stock and another is with her eldest son.
Moses had 300 sheep/goats and many cattle, but now has only 60 sheep/goats, and a few cattle. As a fat sheep is now only worth 1,000 Ksh instead of 5,000 (over $100!) he’d have to sell 20 to be able to send all his children to school!
It was hard to get to sleep as dogs were fighting outside our hut until very late; one of the young ones kept getting picked on, making me jump with its sharp yelping.

A day in Nairobi

Wed July 1st It was a cold morning, grey and cloudy, but it got hot later when the sun came out. We were up at 7, I was feeling VERY tired and scratchy, which made reorganizing & repacking my bags very slow. Chatted afterwards with Agnes and her oldest child, Maurice (4), also with Emily, Agnes’ younger sister, who has very good English – although she doesn’t think so! She’s in Standard 7, so should finish Primary School next year.
After breakfast of bread & chai, we started towards the city centre by ute. Bruce drove at first, but they thought he was going too slowly on the dirt roads! The next problem was not giving him directions in time! Maa instructions were shouted by those on the deck to John who was sitting inside, so by the time he'd translated them into English it was too late to take the turning! We were very glad when one of them took over! We were dropped off at a petrol station to take a bus to Barclay Plaza to the Precision Air office.
The most wonderful lady, Sarah Wachira, helped us, she deserves a gold medal! What we’d thought would be a quick job turned out to take many hours! Each time she tried the on-line payment system: “Transaction declined”! The proble: a missing office code on our voucher which hadn't been issued by Precision Air after all but by the travel agent. She said it might be possible for us to give her the voucher + the balance of the fare to send Arusha: a ticket would be issued manually from there! Oh dear, we know the African postal system is rather dodgy! However, we agreed to go away for a few hours so she could get it all sorted.
After lunching in a cafe, we spent over an hour in a taxi trying to find the Amex office to report the loss of the travellers’ cheques. We'd been told to go to Upper Hill, and that it'd be easy to find the office there, but no-one knew where the office was when we got there!
Some fun encounters in the city: 3 guys in a truck gave Bruce a thumbs-up, totally delighted when he returned it. A motorcyclist gave him a big smile and was overjoyed to have it returned. A lady in a phone card shop was really excited when I greeted her in Kiswahili!
We were very surprised to only see a total of 6 Wazungu during our few days in Nairobi. On previous visits there have been lots! Perhaps they were all on safari or keeping away after last year’s fighting.
Public toilets are a bit different: you pay the outside attendant 10 or 20 Ksh (20 or 40 NZ cents) & get some toilet paper. After using the squat toilet, you flush it with a couple of dippers of water from a barrel outside the door. I was pleased there was also water for washing your hands too, sometimes outside.
As we arrived back at the Plaza we were thrilled to see Sarah just outside the main entrance – no need to leave Bruce’s passport at the desk this time in exchange for an ID tag! Back in the office, she gave us a huge smile, handed over our tickets and we paid the balance, which was much cheaper than the amount I’d been told on-line. So it was smiles and thank you’s all round! It was so good to get all that sorted out, we couldn’t leave it till our return to the city as it would be at a weekend, and no offices open. We cashed up the extra 100 USD, so we could buy supplies and pay for transport over the next week.
We were surprised to be taken to an up-market supermarket, but it was good to use some clean Western-style toilets. When Nicholas turned up, he treated us to huge lattés in the nearby cafe – I’ve never seen such stiff foam before! The severe headache I’d developed eased off a little.
Back in the Maasai shopping 'centre', we stopped to greet a pastor who has a church there called Harvest, he wanted us to visit him after tea.
Our tea was different: ‘Nescafe chai’! It was strange that it was still called 'chai' even though it was made from coffee, not tea!
I tried to phone Amex using John's cellphone, but got no reply. John was too tired to visit the pastor, so we stayed at home talking to a young teacher who had come to greet us. He teaches a class of 70 Standard 3-4 pupils!
We had more chai at 9, dinner at 10: cabbage, potatoes and chapattis, but couldn’t eat very much! I was a bit disturbed when John told me we would be discussing transport arrangements the next day, we'd thought it had already been sorted!
Had a few hours’ good sleep once the talking stopped, we'd been given 2 blankets this time!