Meant to write all about Floresta in this post -- but will just say to check out their link that I have included in "for more information". We went to a Village Cooperative Bank meeting in Mwika and it was so inspiring! The villagers who are members of the bank cooperative, have developed a sense of independence and responsibility; they are all able to access the Bank funds for micro loans and projects. As well, they have a communal project in purchasing and raising pigs. Edith, who is TZ coordinator for Floresta and her intern Gloria are professional and direct. They make me want to work for Floresta. I might have mentioned in my last post that after visiting with them and participating in a VICOBA meeting, I am ready to go back to work full time -- for Floresta!
We left Mwika to return to Moshi Wednesday afternoon -- whatever that date was. Spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Moshi, checking out gift shops, meeting up with old friends, and trying to assimilate all that we had learned during our time in Marangu and Mwika. We have been walking to the highway market, Rosaki's, every evening to purchase beer, since there is no alcohol served at this hostel. It actually isn't really allowed, so there is something vaguely high-schoolish about smuggling in contraband and drinking it out of a paper bag on our verandas :-) hahahahahaha I love it. But the place is comfortable; sometimes there is hot water; sometimes the plugs work for charging cameras and phones; sometimes there is ginger tea for breakfast; sometimes the sky is clear in the morning and Mt. Kilimanjaro is there in front of us in all its magnificence.
And then we have spent the past 3 days visiting all of our micro-loan recipients and other Asante projects here in the Moshi/Machame area. More amazingly atrocious tracks masquerading as roads, but that's all part of the adventure. Visited the primary school in Sere, which is by far the saddest and poorest one yet. Our involvement with them is that Asante purchases fabric for uniforms; the fabric is sewn into uniforms at Kotela Vocational School by their tailoring students as part of their curriculum; the uniforms are then donated to HIV/AIDS orphans at schools selected by Asante's employee here in Moshi (who, along with her sister, started the Michii Women's Group.) Sere was selected as on of our recipient schools because of the depressed economic conditions there. The school used to be a large residential middle school; when coffee market here in Tanzania crashed, the economy of the Sere area also crashed.
We visited the school in Shiramatunda which also receives our uniforms. As well, for the past 2 years Mary Ann Sheets-Hansen's (she is founder of Asante Network) brother Glenn, has supported a school lunch program at this school. In general, primary schools depend on parental contributions for school lunches. If students come from families that can afford to provide food, they are expected to share with students whose families can't afford food. So the lunch program may or may not be consistent; it is traditionally ugali (corn meal grits cooked to a much thicker consistency) supplemented with veggies from the families who can provide veggies. Glenn's contribution to Asante has provided lunch every day of ugali with beans; rice with beans one day/week. Doesn't sound like much,but it makes such a difference that school attendance increased significantly during these past 2 years. The lunches are cooked in little tin roofed sheds over little charcoal fires; the students must bring their own bowls from home; lunch is served and eaten outside under the trees. After lunch, kids gather around the one faucet that provides water for the entire school, to wash their bowls.
We have been working with Shiramatunda for 2 years, preparing them for the time that Glenn's support would no longer be available. They have attempted to put in a vegetable garden, which needs help as well as water! But they were so very grateful for the help these past two years, and I know they are working hard to get the garden going. So much to do and so few resources and people to help them do it.
We visited Milisita Catholic Vocational School (a residential girls school) to see how well their biodigester works -- it is a big tank in the ground, supplied by sluice with all the cow manure which then is 'digested' into methane. The methane is piped to the little gas stove in their kitchen shack and amazingly enough, provides enough methane for the breakfast to be cooked. I think they are working on somehow processing all the pig manure so it also can be shunted into the biodigester. Much of the chicken and pig manure is used on their large vegetable garden. I am amazed, actually, by how many of the schools have animals and gardens -- and all the manure from all the animals is used in the garden. The pigs and cows are fed banana leaves and maize meal. It's all really small scale, but it works. Certainly more 'organic' than our huge feedlots in the States, and much more environmentally responsible.
Then on to Lambo which is this year's recipient for Glenn's donation of school lunches and also a recipient for school uniforms. Lambo is perhaps the most economically depressed area we have yet visited -- maybe second to the Maasai. Lambo Estate was a huge sisal plantation owned by foreigners. I didn't quite get the whole explanation of why it isn't in operation but I think it has something to do with (of course) exploitation of the local labor force by the owners; a semi-nationalization of the estate; the marginal parceling out of plots to villagers and then the abandonment of the only income base in the area. Most of the kids in the primary school are economic orphans -- their parents have moved to the urban areas for work leaving the kids to be raised by grandparents or the 'village' as a whole. We were able to photo them preparing and serving lunch; Kathy and I squatted down with the cook to help serve -- rice from a huge pot on the ground is dished out using a plate as a serving utensil; beans are served from another large pot on the ground; sauce is ladeled out from the third pot. The kids all line up so politely and nicely; when the first little tiny kids went through I thought for sure they were being served waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much rice and beans, but nope! Every plate was literally licked clean by the end of the lunch. The kids who help scrub the cooking pots are allowed to have seconds.
The school at Lambo has a garden which is laid out and ready; they just don't have any water right now to water it with. This is the end of the dry season and the very beginning of the wet season, so rain is scarce. Stored water is very scarce. We talked a little about water reclamation -- that is my next direction. If all the schools would gutter their roofs and channel the water into cisterns as well as put buckets beneath the faucets when they wash their bowls, it would save so much!!!
We were invited to lunch with the staff and were treated to ugali, some kind of meat stew, cooked bananas and greens. Somehow, all the stews we have eaten over here, on every trip, have been delicious. Then the speeches and the songs and the prayers, which I have come to cherish. We made it clear that the money came from Glenn and not us, but they were just grateful that we had visited them to provide them the opportunity to say thank you. All the schools have written us lovely letters to take home.
Oh, did I mention that when we were in Ketumbeine with the Maasai we had tea made with camel milk! It was so good -- rich, thick and creamy. And the tea at the Babylon in Marangu was made with goat milk. Too bad I can't get good goat milk at home.
OK, that's enough for now. Yesterday spent the day at Janet's helping her serve and entertain a large contingent of women here from Nebraska. They came to tour her batik workshop; Kathy and I helped her serve lunch, explain the batik process and show the Miichi products. I actually managed to have a full conversation in Swahili with a couple of her Tanzanian visitors -- how fun is that. And, they complimented me on my pronunciation! I always knew I should have been a linguist . . .
Today we leave for the Tanga region and 3 days rest, relaxation, swimming in the Indian Ocean. We will be in the Pangani area; don't have a clue about anything there so don't know if internet is available or not. So, I'll be back when I can be. Thank you all for your encouraging comments and support for this blog. I appreciate knowing that it is read!
Ubarikiwe -- Go with God
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