Lyamungo and Miliesita

Today we visited the Lyamungo area, which is in the foothills of the mountains.  The area as a whole receives more water than the Moshi region, and is much more lush with vegetation, ravines and hills, banana groves perched on steep slopes, coffee estates and research areas, and more tiny little shambas (farms) than one can imagine.  The region is beautiful, with stunning vistas of the higher mountains.  It is also pretty impoverished.

First stop was Miliesita Primary School where we sponsor a lunch program.  The school has 393 students.  Asante is able to afford to feed these kids ground corn and beans 4 days a week, with rice and beans one day a week.  The rice day is the most popular, and if the kids know in advance which day is going to be rice -- there are bno absences!!  So the headmistress serves the rice randomly, which keeps the kids coming every day, in hopes they will be lucky.

The ground corn is like dried corn that is crac ked or crushed rather than ground into meal.  Thje cook at this school, who has been here for 20 years or so, can't properly prepare the ground corn meal (ugali) which cooks up into a thick porridge.  She cooks it all in one big pot and uses a rough-cut paddle to stir it.  She just isn't strong enough to stir the ugali.  So they use the crac ked corn.  The mixture of corn and beans is a nutritious one -- grains plus legumes -- a complete protein.  All the corn is cooked in one large kettle, on a wood or charcoal open flame fire.  The fire is built directly on the ground and is encircled by 3 bricks placed in a triangle.  The pot is balanced on the bricks and wood is added or removed from the fire to control the temperature.  Beans are also cooked on a second fire in a large kettle.  Sometimes they are able to add greens from the school gardens, but right now is planting season, so there aren't too many greens available yet.  They have the additional issue of neighboring livestock getting into the garden, so we are exploring how to raise some money to provide fencing to protect their crops.

After we left the school, we climbed up and down the hills to reach the micro loan ladies.  First one is a knitter; she was awarded the contract to provide sweaters for the school uniforms at the local school, but she didn't have the capital to purchase the yarn necessary to fulfill the contract.  She used her loan to purchase yarn which she can now knit into the sweaters and sell to the school to fulfill her contract..  Second woman used the money to purchase chickens to raise -- both for eggs to sell and to increase the number of chickens in her flock.  Raising chickens is an important source of income for many of the people in this region.  Even the folks who  have jobs in town will keep chickens and raise bananas.

We also had the opportunity to stop in and say hi to Janet and Julie's dad, who is 92 and still a practicing physician in the village clinic.  He is quite remarkable!  His lab consists of a small rickety table with a microscope.  He has a small examing room and an assistant who helps with injections and dressing wounds.

Whjen we returned to our hostel, we hiked up the hill a couple of miles to the El Rancho restaurant for . . .. . Indian curry!  and COLD beer.  It was quite deliciouis.  Tomorrow, more micro-loan ladies and another school lunch.