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.

A trip to Isanzu

Thursday July 23rd The day started slowly, bibi was cooking rice for breakfast, and Michael catching up with his washing. As the house floors looked very dirty, with lots of puddles of wax and scraps from tea, I decided to do some sweeping - and for once, no one else had the grass broom! Once that was done, I found a twig one for outside, happy to relieve Michael of that chore to spare his sinuses, but it took ages, 1½ hours! Bruce was collecting & chopping up firewood for bibi, but as they don’t store it till it’s dry, the fires are terribly smoky and inefficient. Bibi reckons it’s the smoke that’s damaging her eyes, every so often they get very sore & weepy & she can’t see very far. Some passers-by were amazed to see us working, so bibi told them, “They’re the children of the household.”
One day she said if I was Michael’s mother, then I was her daughter & Bruce her farmer! She’s even offered us a piece of land to build a house on! Michael wants us to build a BIG house with four bedrooms so all our children can stay – but we said we like little houses, or could build a big one so he & his wife & children could live in it with us, but he didn’t seem so keen on that idea! Lots of people have asked bibi to sell them a piece of land but she’s keeping it for the family. If she dies, Mama Joyce will oversee it as oldest surviving child. Each member has their own portion to garden but any one of them can build a house there & live on the shamba, including us!
Whilst Bruce was away bathing, I took a photo of little Michael, Ibrahim, Jeremia and Michael outside the old house. Enock turned up just as Michael finished in the bafu. I sat in the back with the two Michaels and Jeremia, Bruce in the front. It's only about 1/2 hour to Isanzu by car, it's the other side of Nzega. I was glad that Enock was the only driver, the car seemed to slide a bit in the dust as he veered around the obstacles, tooting his horn to clear the way!
Isanzu is a tiny collection of dwellings and a small duka or two. Babu Mathias and Bibi Belta live on a shamba down a short track off the 'main' road. There are several traditional huts dating from the time all the family lived there. Babu is one of Michael's great-uncles.
Bibi was practically jumping up and down to see us, exclaiming, “It’s just like a dream!” over and over again. She was absolutely overjoyed to see Michael again, he is much loved by many people. We were taken inside a hut and sat together in one of the two rooms. The home-made wickerwork chairs only just squeezed through the doorway! After a nice chat with babu we ate lunch together.
They have five children: Rachel is Pastor Jonas Kulwa's wife, Musa is a carpenter, Zahabu is another son, Esther works in Dar and Neema is married. Bibi came from Mwanza originally, so Babu has been to the Sukuma-style Catholic cathedral there. After lunch, we talked about the Sukuma language. Michael found a hymn book and New Testament that had an extra portion including the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostle’s Creed and the Ten Commandments. He read them out & I copied - fun! Then he wrote the Lord’s Prayer on a piece of newspaper, I tried reading it out loud by myself apparently quite correctly - everyone was amazed, they find it terribly hard to read Kisukuma, they’re only used to speaking it, early schooling is done in Kiswahili.
Later on, we sat under a large mango tree chatting before going for a little walk through part of the shamba, which produces peanuts, maize and sisal. There are also mangoes & various palms, including dates & one with fruit resembling large coconuts that contain a large edible seed full of oil. The well was dry but Bruce thinks it just needs digging deeper. Nearby was a clump of straggly rosella plants.
Back at the mango tree, we were shown the long poles in its fork bearing maize cobs - a traditional method of storage. Nearby, sisal leaves and fibre were in various stages of preparation for weaving into rope or making other things.

Pics: left = Baba Enocki, Babu Matthias, Jeremia, Bibi Belta, Michael, little Michael, and Bruce outside one of the huts; right = Jeremia at Isanzu;
On the way back to bibi’s mid-afternoon, we stopped at the attractive-looking orphanage to meet the children plus another staff member. Unfortunately, little Michael didn’t want to get out of the car to play with them.
Back at bibi’s, we were given a large bag of peanuts to shell – I found it quite difficult, only doing one nut to Michael’s five, and my fingers got really sore! After a short break, Michael showed me how to do it properly & suddenly I could almost keep up and didn’t get sore at all!
L = ‘Michael in the bush’ (the bougainvilleas at bibi’s).
Eventually he decided he'd had enough, so after taking a photo of him 'in the bush', we walked up to the large rocky hill in the distance, where little Michael had had fun the day before sliding down the rocks.
It’s a little way from the shamba, down the Tabora road, and is quite impressive – the rocks rise up sharply off the plain behind a collection of a few huts and a couple of dukas.
It was a bit of a scramble to reach the top, but once there, there were lovely views over the surrounding countryside - bibi’s is way in the distance just past a dust cloud on the left of the road, top right!
As dusk was coming, we climbed back down an easier route, returning to the road via a different path to enter the shamba via the short driveway behind the new house, edged by attractive native trees that babu left when he cut down the rest that were growing in this part of the shamba; Michael says they look lovely when they flower in the wet season.
Shelling peanuts continued even after dark, sitting round on stools outside the porch of the old house, where bibi was preparing rice. Mama Lucia’s oldest girls turned up a bit later.
We had quite an interesting and varied conversation – Michael said he’d tar-seal up to bibi’s house & put in pipes running with milk if he became an MP!!! Bibi said her 12-15 goats won’t be enough for the bride price for five grandsons, but I said there were only two really needing them: Michael and Jeremia as they have no parents. Also the other three are a lot younger, although the 3rd Michael (yes, another one!), Mama Regina’s oldest son, is in Form 4.
After a rather late tea with all mama Lucia's daughters, their mother, and a young Uncle John, we had a short time of fellowship together before going to bed around 10. However, I was kept awake by the guys shelling peanuts in the sitting room – still! I thought we’d finished them!

Harvesting rice

Wednesday 22nd June Michael swept the area around the houses today, and I’d never seen it so immaculate! Bibi said she only had a little work to do so didn't need my help, so I sat outside with Bruce who was working on a message for bibi’s church in Nzega – we’d been asked to go there in the afternoon as we hadn’t gone on Sunday. We were surprised to see some mamas going along on the path near the house, carrying small dishes of white stuff - Michael told us later that it was flour. Someone had died in the village and it was time for people to pay their respects. One lady came to get flour from bibi, then another one came by to invite bibi to accompany her. Breakfast was buns and chai today, then Michael and I looked at photos indoors, from when his grandfather was a young man to Michael's time in Bukoba at Harvest. It was interesting seeing more pictures of Michael as a baby, his baptism age 15, working in a store after he left school. There were a few from his time at Biharamulo Teacher Training College. Only three of the students were men, the rest women, who wore a uniform of pale blue skirt and white blouse; the men wore a blue & white striped shirt over whatever trousers they had. It was interesting seeing the dolls & Ludo boards they had made. There were some nice photos of Michael relaxing on a rock near the school, also one of his first class of five little students at Harvest, Bukoba. I recognised two of them who I'd taught on occasion – a very difficult job! Bibi came in, urging him to hurry up as he was needed to supervise Ibrahim and little Michael, who’d gone to the rice shamba. She looked surprised when I went with the men, perhaps she'd hoped I'd stay and help her or chat. On the other side of the Tabora road, a footpath wends towards the paddy field past a short path to the village pump. Rice is grown in small rectangular plots surrounded by thorny, weed-topped mud walls. Ibrahim had already cut a few bundles using a small sickle, but Michael took over. Little Michael was just messing around!Bruce had a brief turn at cutting the rice, but found the bending too much for his back. Once there was a big enough area cleared, we laid a large tarpaulin down, lining up the cut bundles along one side. Threshing is done by picking up small bundles and hitting the heads against the tarp or a stone to dislodge the dry grains. Ibrahim used another method, laying several bundles head to head on the tarpaulin, then beating them with a large stick. Once we’d finished the first bundles, Ibrahim was kept busy collecting them from Michael, bringing them over to us to thresh. Little Michael ran back off to the home shamba, although he could have made himself usefull carrying bundles or chasing the neighbour's straying calves away. 1½ hours later, we'd cleared two plots and needed to return to bibi's as we had a lunch engagement. Shaking the grains into the middle of the tarp, we skimmed off the rubbish before pushing the rice into a sack for Michael to carry on his back, it was about 15 kgs.Bruce went over to the pump to see if he could help the youngsters drawing water, he thought they weren’t pumping it very well – but soon found the seals were too worn to pump any other way. The mamas at the intersection greeted us, commenting about how tired we must have got from all our work in the fields - but I said it was very enjoyable! Bibi also thought we’d be tired, but really we were fine! We had got pretty hot though, so were glad to bathe before going to Paulo’s. I had to laugh, Michael trotted out just in his shorts looking slightly embarrassed – briefly! Paulo’s is only a short walk away. The big wrought-iron gate opens into a small courtyard between the house & other buildings. We had a lovely time there, good food and good conversation! Mama had made a very tasty mchuzi and a delicious side-dish of ground peanuts/tomatoes/salt. She'd prepared both ugali & spaghetti, perhaps fearing we wouldn't like ugali, but we quite like it!
Afterward, we chatted with Paulo, Michael chatting with his aunt. Paulo says if you put the two of them together, it’s hard to stop them talking!!! He used to clean and maintain the swimming pool at the Swedish school until it closed, working every day from 7 a.m.. Alternate days finished at 2 p.m., the other by midday. The one hundred students were taught in Swedish, but they picked up Kisukuma playing with the local kids - it’s a Sukuma area. The adults also picked it up instead of Kiswahili, causing a few problems for those working at the hospital - some of the other staff plus patients were from other tribes!
The pool now only gets used by visiting Wazungu, Africans don’t normally like to swim – probably a modesty issue re togs, although the men seem quite happy to bathe in a river in a secluded spot! Woman aren’t allowed to show the thigh or midriff though. Paulo picked up Swedish so well that visitors often ask him when he’d visited Sweden! He now works as a Bible College watchman, having on a rotating shift: Day 1: 7 p.m.-7 a.m.; Day 2: 7 a.m.-3 p.m., Day 3: 3 p.m.-10 p.m. He also sells phone vouchers from home and at the bus stand, making about 20% profit. His children help, he says it’s good training for them to take part in a small business; too many young people are becoming lazy, sitting on benches drinking & smoking, saying there’s no work! In the old days, that’s what the old men did. He says the young ones are drinking their strength away, so if they do find work, they can’t do it anyway! He says there’s plenty of work if you go out & look for it.They only have two children, Happy (Form 2) & Matthew (S6). Happy didn’t want to go to Nzega Day School, so they found her a place at Umoja Sec, 100 kilometres away in the bush. She didn’t want to go there as she’d heard tales of lions, snakes & hyenas!
She phoned up after just a week there, wanting to come home: there were wild animals, and she had no friends. But she’d never actually seen any wild animals, just heard a hyena one night! She agreed to finish the term.
They discussed it again in the holidays – by which time she loved it – great teachers and great friends! However, her brother wants to go to Nzega Day, he thinks they study too hard at Umoja! Paulo wanted to know if we’d like to use the sauna - they all laughed when I said I thought it could be dangerous, one could get too dehydrated, and also I don't like the idea of dripping with sweat! It might be one way of keeping warm in a cold climate though, but Africa is too hot!
We had to be back to bibi’s by 3 so that we'd be in time for church at 4. We were met by another visitor, Michael's younger brother, Jeremia, who gave us both big hugs. He’d come on the bus from Igunga where he lives with Aunty Joyce. Aunty Lucia there too, telling us Uncle Enock would take us to Isanzu tomorrow.
After getting our Bibles for church, we waited outside for bibi, who came dressed in a fancy blouse. I must say I was a bit shocked to see Jeremia start to unbutton it, especially as she had nothing on underneath - but he was only trying to help, she hadn’t done them up properly!!
We got to church on time, but of course it left no opportunity to go to the net. Poor Bruce had got overheated AGAIN, so Michael went off to buy water while we waited in the church office for the service to begin. Some of the elders greeted us and we signed the visitors’ book; the pastor was away visiting a bereaved family in another village.
The service started 40 minutes late as no-one turned up apart from the elders till then, so we could have gone to the net after all! The elders quipped that they should only wait ½ hour then lock up & go home - that’d really confuse the latecomers!
The new church is really large but isn't finished yet. They say it is full on a Sunday. The old one is only used for Sunday School now. However, only about 20 turned up for the mid-week service. Naturally it’s hard for workers to get there, so most were elderly like bibi.
The teaching on prayer was excellent, given by one of the elders, a school teacher, as part of a series. He translated the odd phrase for us, I quietly did the rest for Bruce. At one point, he used Jeremia in an example of the believer’s close relationship with Christ, walking arm in arm around the front of the church - Jeremiah (Jesus) even stroked his face and shoulders! It was quite funny!
Bruce was given a short opportunity to share, I tried translating, but the teacher chipped in to hurry things along, going away like a rocket! I would have preferred him to have done it all really!
We greeted everyone afterwards, including a blind evangelist, whose prayer isn’t to receive his sight, but rather to be used more by God.
It took an hour to return via the dirt roads; the dust upset Michael’s sinuses so he had a rather disturbed night. Little Michael got into big trouble from bibi for something later on, I think he'd been playing with the candle indoors.
Once it got dark, we were asked to wait indoors while Michael went to Mama Lucia’s to see how much Baba Enocki would charge to go to Isanzu, but the shrieks and laughter from the girls outside made me wonder just what was going on, and I think he was a little late leaving - although of course it could have been Jeremiah that was causing all the commotion! I wasn’t sure if we should go out to join the fun or stay in, it was pretty boring inside!
Michael was just back in time for our late dinner, saying we’ll only have to pay for seven litres of petrol, half the cost of a taxi. He said we could all take turns driving as we all could drive!
Michael of course had done a one-month course last year, and Jeremia a six-month one some time ago. I must say I didn't really want to – but driving on rough roads veering round potholes, livestock, cyclists, pedestrians and the occasional car, bus or truck – no way!
We were a bit shocked to find out that you can get a licence just by paying a fee, without having ever driven, had lessons or studied the road code! No wonder there are so many accidents! Jeremia would like to get a commercial licence but it costs 100,000Tsh and Michael thinks it’s too dangerous being a taxi driver anyway, lots die every year especially in Dar from hijacking – I was thinking they just died in accidents!
We found out that Michael hadn’t started primary school till he was nine, which is why he finished so late aged 16. In the year 2000, the government developed a new scheme of special schools for such late starters, so that they could complete an abridged syllabus in just two years, instead of the normal seven.
We were interested to hear that Jeremia can play the piano & loves classical music, he plays keyboard at church but of course has no instrument at home to practise on. He'd like to find his own place in Igunga. At present he's at Aunty Joyce's, where he’s started a chicken farm with 100 hens (local & European) that are laying well. He started it there rather than Tazengwa because there are more opportunities to sell eggs. We were all disappointed that we didn't have an opportunity to visit it.

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.

A day in Kiswani

Tuesday July 14th It was hot today!  We went outside at 7.30 to wait for Michael, sitting on top step watching the passers-by, mainly children going to school.  When I heard Michael’s door open, I went inside to let him know where we were and received a lovely warm greeting.  We went to mama's for chai & bread after being told to sit in the porch in the early morning sunshine to get our Vitamin D!  While Michael went off to fetch water from the nearby stream, we sat outside with Rosa, who told us a little more about the family, and Michael's sickness last year.
Michael's grandparents, Michael and Maria Kikumbo, (bibi and babu) had lived with their seven daughters (Maria, Joyce, Lucia, Regina, Rebekah, Rosa and Upendo) in Tazengwa (Nzega-Tabora region). Only five are left now: Michael’s mother Maria died in 2000, and Rebekah died of snake bite last year, aged 33. She was still at bibi's, having never married, due to being mentally handicapped and epileptic. 
Rosa moved away ten years ago when she got married, Regina lives in Singida, Joyce in Igunga, the other two are still in Nzega. 
Last April, just one week after starting his English course in Moshi, Michael was taken to hospital.  After a day there, he was transferred to the large Christian hospital, KCMC, where he had a hernia operation.  When he phoned his aunt, she was SO upset to hear his quavering voice saying, “Mama, I’m so weak” – this really upset me too!  She went by bus to Moshi to try to find him, it took all day!  It’s a very large hospital, over 1,000 patients, with many wings & floors, and is built into a hill with entrances on at least two floors, which caused confusion when people tried to give her directions.  She was just about to give up & go home when she decided to try just once more time – success at last!  Michael was SO pleased to see a relative, although the director of his school had been looking after him. Over there you need people to bring you food and to wash your clothes, hospitals don't do this as a rule, although they found out that KCMC will provide some services for a fee. As it wasn’t too expensive, they made use of this.  He was there for two weeks, then spent a month at Rosa’s before being well enough to return to Moshi to start his course all over again.
One of her husband’s first wife’s sons (aged in his 30's) had died when Michael was in hospital, and is buried in the nearby public graveyard. Rebekah also died about this time, so it was a very difficult month for the family.
Michael returned, saying we could do our laundry. He and Bruce started washing outside, I washed our undies inside throwing the dirty water down the choo. I was pleasantly surprised to be told I could hang them outside, as usually you put them in your bedroom, it's offensive to air them in public! The guys were still busy soaping up when I went back outside to hang mine on a clothes line near the cattle pens. I was slightly embarrassed but also amused to see that Michael was washing all my clothes, not Bruce’s!  When I joined in, we formed a production line – Michael sudsing, Bruce doing the 1st rinse, myself the other two!  We had fun measuring our hands against each others’- Michael’s are just slightly larger than mine, but Bruce’s are much larger than both! Michael refused our help with his washing as he only had a few to do. 
Whilst lunch was being prepared, we sat outside chatting about the political systems of Tanzania & NZ – challenging talking re proportional representation in Kiswahili!  At once stage I completely lost my train of thought, it took a while to find where I'd got to again! Very embarrassing!
Some monkeys started jumping and swinging through the trees towards the stream, the old male coming last - they were fun to watch but were very obscured by leaves & branches so I didn’t get the camera  – then one walked near our tree!  GRR!
Lunch was ugali, mchuzi + sukuma wiki – a kind of kale cut up very finely - followed by oranges. The topic was the drought in Kiswani – some people are eating uji once a day like the Maasai.  The rains started as usual so they planted maize; then the rains stopped and the maize withered up once it reached 1'.  Some people are getting food in the mountains, but it’s too far to take the cattle: they cut/carry from the bush.
After lunch, we talked politics again indoors, then outside under a tree we talked about the different foods grown in NZ & Tanzania.  One grown near Tazengwa has a leaf that elongates greatly if you roll it between your hands.  As there's only one rainy season down there (Dec-March), they have to preserve food well to last till the next one.  Sweet potatoes are cleaned and peeled, boiled, then sliced up very finely before being dried in the sunshine. They are stored in the dark in sacks.
Later on, we went for a walk, but couldn't use the stream-crossing near the house as some men were bathing there. Michael had suddenly turned back, saying we’d better go another way because some men were bathing and "I wasn’t used to it!"  Too true!  Crossing the stream higher up, we followed a track leading to the dirt road up the mountains - Michael mdogo’s school is up there, passing tall trees + bush. It was nice & green up the mountains, but the flats were dry.  Michael pointed out some of the more interesting types of tree including a kapok tree.  He used to collect the huge seed pods in Tazengwa when he was young, filling sacks with 10-20 kgs of down to get 200 Tsh; it takes a very long time and is very bad for the lungs.  Date, oil & coconut palms grow here, Bruce was very surprised to see coconuts away from the coast.
We didn’t manage to get high enough to get a good view of Kiswani, Bruce got puffed before we cleared the tree line. On the way back down, we took pics of and from the rice paddies.
We met little Michael & Frank on the way home, dragging an old tyre that they’d been playing with.  Michael wanted to hold Michael's hand, but annoyed him by dawdling, and ended up holding mine. I praised him for being so well-behaved, he gets told off so often as he tends to get into mischief, his hands are always busy! It was nice he was feeling friendly today, the day before he'd been so shy he wouldn't come close.
We went through the village to visit Michael mdogo’s aunt, then his grandfather – but he was out.  His grandmother was too sick to be visited.  I greeted some mamas plaiting hair, they wanted to do mine too! 
At the bridge, Bruce was pestered by an old beggar & a strange-looking lady who got annoyed because he wouldn’t answer her.  Just as well he didn’t understand, she wanted to go home with him or have him go to her place!
Outside the guesthouse, we greeted a young Maasai we’d seen the day before. Unfortunately it soon became apparent he was drunk and also sniffing something off his fingers!  He invited us to have a soda, so I went over to Michael, who was sitting on the steps watching, to tell him what was going on. He came over, stressing that we only drink soda, not beer.  He went off, saying he’d be back soon.  The miller came over, inviting us to his place - but we didn’t get a chance to go.  He showed us the dried cassava he was making into flour, I thought he was grinding stones!  In the mornings we would see schoolgirls dropping off small bags of grain or cassava. Some had bikes and would leave them in a rack there.
I was very glad when Michael said it was time to go to bathe & still no sign of our Maasai friend! 
We were met by a young girl near Rosa's, she went off with Michael & he came back carrying a ladder. The fundis had arrived to fix the electricity! It seemed rather late to be climbing up in the semi-dark - it was nearly 7 p.m. 
Michael went to the jiko to discuss something with Rosa, then came back to tell us the news - he was so surprised when I said I’d already understood, as they’d been speaking in Kisukuma not Kiswahili! No wonder I’d been a bit puzzled about some of the words!  It caused a lot of laughter!  They’d decided we should take some hot water over to the guesthouse to bathe as the water there would be too cold. They wanted us to be able to see what we were doing!
Well, our power went off just as I finished dressing in the bafu. Fortunately I was able to find the bed without tripping over. The lights soon came back on so Bruce was able to bathe without any problems at all. 
Michael was most concerned when he came back in case we’d been inconvenienced, then asked us to wait on the sofa. At 8.45 along came Michael & Rosa bearing pots of food + a large basket of plates.  But they’d forgotten water, a stool and a table!  It was very nice: rice, chicken, bananas & spinach; Michael loves rice & bananas!  We talked till Jeremia phoned at 10, we went to bed so Michael could ring him back.