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.

Enkiloriti School, drought problems, an infected leg

Friday 10th July Nice weather today.  We went to Enkiloriti school, first stopping at Saruni’s house as he wanted to meet me.  We had chai + rice and an interesting conversation. 
He's keen to sell his remaining cows to buy a 50 x 100m plot in town, to build a complex of 4 shops in front, + a house behind.  Here it costs 2 million Ksh, & would be rented out for 20,000 KSh/month; in Nairobi the cost would be 5 million to gain 40,000 Ksh/month.  He hasn't decided which town to build in: Ewaso has electricity + water but no good road access; Suswa is on the Narok road, has water but no electricity; Duka Moja is also on the main road – but has no electricity or water!He’d also buy a plot to live on & farm, he still has 20 children to educate!  There are 15 families around him each with 30 acres.  He told us an Mzungu wants to buy a plot on the mountain to build a tourist hotel – getting them to stay out in the wilds could be a problem!
We were told how some of the old men just can’t cope with losing so many cattle.  One had sent his 134 head up into the highlands with a younger relative as he couldn’t take them himself.  When only 25 returned, he asked: “Where are my cows?” When he was told the rest had all died, he fell face down on the ground in a faint, & every time he hears or thinks about his loss, he suffers some kind of fit.  Another old man ran off, others have even considered hanging themselves – unheard of in the Maasai.








When we arrived at the school, we waited in the small makeshift office, partitioned off from one of the three main classrooms, and signed the Visitors’ Book while the students assembled.  We spent a short time with them: they sang us a song of greeting; I sang them one in Kiswahili which they knew so they all joined in, then I shared briefly about NZ then Bruce encouraged them to study hard. 
Some of School Board were there: Ezekiel (treasurer), John Nkalo (chairman), Pastor John ole Punyuk (Harvest Church), Pastor Moses ole Kishau (Festival Harvest Church, he'd been one of the speakers at the seminar). 
Ezekiel shared how the school began in 2001 as a joint project of Festival Harvest Church & CCF Australia, who built the main building + provided some water tanks.  He was the first teacher (untrained), and taught them all he knew of English and maths.  He was very  relieved when a government teacher turned up! 
John Nkalo shared re the school’s problems – out of 220 students, only 120 are still attending - but there were only 70 today.  Some had stayed home knowing the two government teachers weren’t going to turn up!  As there aren't enough S7 pupils to start the higher classes, they go to Ole Sharo or repeat S6!
Rosa, the cook, told us how she started working there to try to earn some money to help her family – but she hasn’t been paid all term.  She wants to help the children but without being paid, her own children suffer.
Some of the students shared how they are being affected: one boy, in his mid to late teens, shared how desperate he is to proceed in his education, & how frustrated he is, repeating S6 for the 3rd time!
Pastor Moses prayed for everyone, then the students went for lunch: a cupful of ugali + beans, provided by the government.  I think they also get some chai.
We walked round the school, talking with Ezekiel and the three Johns.  A couple of Ezekiel’s children came up to greet us and to walk with their father.  Nine of them attend this school, but the eldest goes to Ole Sharo and there are still two at home.  The main building consists of three well-built stone classrooms with concrete floors.  There is a separate iron building with dirt floors and no glass in the windows: it was supposed to be the staff room & student common room, but has to be used as classrooms.  The teachers’ accommodation is a two-room metal shack – about garden shed size – with no kitchen or toilet!  One window has a hole in the mesh large enough for an elephant’s trunk to reach in!  There is no fencing anywhere on the grounds so it is open to wild animals.  We then went to look at the clinic (right), started three years ago, but unfinished due to lack of funds.
Ezekiel listed the school’s problems as follows:
1  Water  The plastic tanks are now split, the stone tank contains just a little green water.  The large reservoir dug by bulldozer in 2005 by the government is used by elephants - the children are too scared to use it.  The broken-down bulldozer is still there, it hasn’t been repaired.
2  Fencing  The school grounds need fencing, any wild animal can enter – the chief danger is from hyenas.
3  Teachers  There aren't enough for all eight Standards, so students who want to go to High School are repeating S6 or have gone to Ole Sharo.  They need at least two more teachers, Maasai dedicated to the community, as well as better housing (outside teachers are unwilling to live there).
4  Classrooms    They don't have enough, & the two dirt-floored ones without glass windows or shutters are bad in windy, wet weather.
5  The clinic  It needs funds to complete the roof and plaster inside so it can be used.
6  The Cook  She's been unpaid for a whole term - fewer fee-paying students means trouble for her as well as the teachers.
Shumbai came up as we were leaving, limping badly, telling me how sore her leg was – so I promised to see her back at the manyatta.  I was really worried thinking about blood poisoning/osteomyelitis etc. + how she’d get home.
We had chai at John Nkalo’s and talked about the food aid: even if someone had only received a cup of flour, they were very thankful.  One old man wanted to give us a goat to bring back home to slaughter but we had to explain it wasn't possible.We had lunch at 4 with Ezekiel & the 3 Johns.  Pastor Punyuk had some interesting questions re the Bible - the significance of Mt Sinai, Christ’s infant dedication & why God was called “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”.  Bruce explained their significance, assuring him that Christians don’t have to follow Jewish practices. It’s easy for people to get ‘hung up’ over the Old Testament and to want to follow Jewish ceremonies which are no longer necessary.The pastor told us he’d never before seen any Wazungu ready to go into Maasai houses and eat with them, they just come to look around, then go away again.
We were given a large watermelon by John Nkalo on behalf of the School Board, Ezekiel gave me an ndege (beaded ornament representing the Holy Spirit) and Bruce a belt.  Pic: one of his wives + child, Pr Ponyuk, us, Ezekiel, John Nkalo.
Back at Luka’s, we were invited to Susannah’s hut: she was cooking ugali and gave us a taste - it's very different from other types we’ve had, being quite dry & crumbly, + they add beef fat & sugar!  It's actually very nice and tastes rather like bread!
I eventually found Shumbai just before dark – so had to use a torch to look at the wound.  Unfortunately the skin was getting quite discoloured around the wound, + the lower leg was very painful to move.  Bruce cleaned it out again, rebandaged it, then we prayed for her healing, telling John if it got any worse she needed to see a doctor immediately or go to hospital - not easy in these parts.
We had a lovely time of fellowship after tea, people squeezed into the living room: children on the floor/chair arms, adults standing or on chairs.  There were some touching farewells, I got hugged by most of the mamas too.