Half way

 

Now I really am half way through my assignment and we’re trying to figure out how we’ll fit all the things we wanted to achieve into the remaining 13 weeks.  We won’t get to do the Mt Kili climb!  I will use up all my “annual leave” with the trip to Kenya and then Serengeti with Liz and Sophie so we’ll be restricted to weekends.  There are no public holidays I can take advantage of and we fly to London on Easter Monday.

Kenya was a very successful excursion - spectacular scenery and interesting animals.  Steve’s Blog will tell you all about it.  It was great to be able to walk in the forest at Castle Forest though we did have to keep an eye out for elephants!  The waterfall was pretty.  And wherever the British go in the highlands of East Africa they leave hydrangeas and fuchsias behind!   

Ashnil Lodge Samburu at Buffalo Springs NR was very nice though it reinforced the thing I dislike most about travelling in Africa - the tipping culture.  I never know how much is too much and how much is not enough.  I always feel as if I’m disappointing someone!  I saw all my favourite mammals and most of my favourite birds.

I found it interesting to look for similarities and differences between Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.  One that stood out to me was the number of churches in Kenya.  The Roman Catholics and the Anglicans have mainstream religion sown up though the Methodists have a bit of a stronghold in northern Kenya. The RC and ACK churches and cathedrals were obscenely huge and ostentatious when compared with the very modest homes and schools around them.  Both seem to be in the midst of an ambitious building program.  The number and variety of pentecostal and evangelical churches was astonishing.  Most were a combination of Full Gospel, Deliverance, Healing and Transformation with a bit of Grace and Redemption thrown in and were clearly of the prosperity theology persuasion.  Huge tents for many of the pentecostal groups made me (uncharitably) think it was probably a circus inside!  The “Jesus Winner Ministry” was quite widespread but Glory Christian Church in Nanyuki was perhaps my favourite - who wouldn’t want to belong to a place for winners below the slaughterhouse and next to the prison farm.  I was also taken by a tiny corrugated iron shed that called itself the “Mega Church International” and another that was a “Faith Impartation Centre” rather than a boring tabernacle or cathedral or Kingdom Hall (yes, there are JWs as well as SDAs). The religion industry is doing very well in Kenya!  There were fewer mosques than we were used to and the Lutherans were nowhere to be seen but no-one was going to miss out on the chance to worship on any day of the week.

The only disappointment was on the last day when we were exploited (robbed!) because of the colour of our skin.  The caretaker of the public toilets near the bus station in Nairobi charged us Ksh100 ($1.20) each to use the facilities when I know the going rate is Ksh10.  And the taxi driver who brought us home from the bus station in Arusha charged Tsh50,000 ($30) when the Tsh20,000 we usually pay is generous!  The irritation this causes me is silly - we can afford to pay - but the attitude that we’re fair game for milking doesn’t sit well.

For me it’s back to work tomorrow.  I have 3 months to encourage / cajole the teachers to have their curriculum and assessment documents up to date and accessible on the centre’s computer and to have the Business Management lessons and resources squared away.  Other tasks will no doubt crop up but the  ones I need to get finalised are the ones on the assignment plan so everyone can be satisfied it was a ‘successful’ assignment.

The short rains have been poor in many areas around Arusha and my organisation is helping several hundred families with money to buy food.  Any crops that have had sufficient rain to grow won’t be ready to harvest for at least two months so the need is ongoing.  I have been able to help with the administration of the program - using Mail Merge to make labels for envelopes.  I have to type the Maasai names letter for letter as they are beyond my experience.  Here is a sample!

I am also working on a request for a possible AVI remote vol placement to help a hospital near the Ngorongoro Crater improve its fundraising capacity.  There is just not enough government money to satisfy the need and Endulen Hospital has been particularly badly hit.  So if you think accessing international philanthropic organisations could be your thing let me know!

We are so excited to have Liz and Sophie visit next week!  It should be the subject of my next blog.

Belated best wishes to everyone for the New Year,

Love from Jenny 

Two months in

Last week we ticked over the two month mark which is one third of my assignment, though it feels in some ways like half way as I’ve put in 9 weeks at work and will have only a further 10 weeks working next year.  I have one more week of this term before the Christmas break but I can feel things winding down. 

Making liquid soap involves a lot of stirring!

We do continue to be busy. Friday just over a week ago we had an unplanned and un-forewarned visit from a Lutheran Church team to teach the making of liquid soap as a possible entrepreneurial activity.  That took up most of the morning and unfortunately coincided with a (planned) visit by some Canadian occupational therapy trainees who had arranged to do a tour of the centre.  Oh well, we have to be flexible and chaos is the default.

Lunch at Four Points Sheraton

Monday last week was International Volunteer Day.  We had lunch out with the local Australian Volunteer staff and representatives from partner organisations.  The AV staff came for a visit to Olkokola as well to see the library and gym that AV grants have funded.  It was their first time to see the library even though it has been in operation for a few years as covid regulations have restricted their work related movements.  I’m pretty sure they liked what they saw!

Visiting the Gym

My tasks for this AVP assignment are well in train.  The agriculture leader has taken on the Business Management Training enthusiastically using the resources I’ve prepared and the trainees are enjoying the lessons, some with great success and some not so much!  They will all have 6 months next year to continue working on the program so I’m hoping they’ll all be well prepared for the challenges of running a successful business when they graduate.  The focus is mostly on money and record keeping 

Learning basic accounting

I have just added a lesson on ‘Quality Control’ to the syllabus.  A Tanzanian friend, half joking, told me there is no Swahili for that!  I could use this ruler to show that it can be a problem in many businesses but some would not be able to see the issue.  The tailoring group have been making more menstrual pads to a changed design which I hope we’ll be able to successfully market.  It meant a trip to town to find fabric and the tailoring assistant and I eventually found something that will do the job at the second-hand market behind the main shopping strip.  Between her directions (she doesn’t drive) and the horrendous midday traffic in the CBD I was forced into several illegal acts in completing the journey!  I still say it’s the traffic that will kill me - it won’t be the electricity as we rarely have any these days.

It still gives me a straight line I suppose

Friday on the drive to Olkokola Steve noted how quiet the roads were and the absence of school children anywhere.  We arrived at the centre where there was a definite festive atmosphere - I’d forgotten the public holiday for Independence Day so no work for me!  It turned out a bonus as we did the shopping on Friday and spent yesterday in Lake Manyara NP.  It was a lovely safari though with the lake so high at the moment some of our favourite spots are under water.  The Hippo Pool is gone.  The highlight yesterday was this beautiful Maasai Giraffe.  The patches are more incised than usual and really do look like snow flakes.

Beautiful!

Speaking of snow, we again saw Mt Meru with a decent dusting last week.  It doesn’t mean it was cold here (it hasn’t been!) and we also have not had the rain we desperately need.  Many families are in dire circumstances and the Olkokola Mission where I work is giving food aid to about 150 local families.  Even if the rain comes this week the maize and bean crops won’t be harvested for three months so the situation is ongoing.  At least the tourist industry is back in full swing so some families are experiencing better times.   

We've seen this a few times now

Today I am relaxing.  I need at least one day a week to sleep in and recharge my battery.  Like all rechargeable it is failing with age and doesn’t hold its charge as long!  I think this will be my last full-time work placement.  Much as I enjoy the work, the physical demands are a challenge.  

One week until the holidays start then full on planning for the Kenya trip and Liz and Sophie’s visit.

Happy Christmas to you all and very best wishes for the coming year.

Love from Jenny 

Getting sorted at work

 

I’ve had a month at work now and it’s going well. There are things happening on the curriculum front and more plans in the pipeline.  This new group of trainees are getting to know me and my ‘Mzungu’ ways. They were thrilled to know that I also am Maasai.  All sorts of other possibilities are opening up too so life is exciting.

My primary task in this assignment - apart from the never ending task of being less task oriented and more people oriented!! - is reviewing the curricula documented when I was here in 2020/21 and updating it.  Trainers are already coming to me with changes they want so that is going well.  They are not running a mile when they see me heading in their direction with notebook in hand!  Plans for Business Management training are also underway.

The carpentry boys have been busy making furniture for The Plaster House, a rehabilitation centre for Maasai children who have come to Arusha for surgery and need time in a safe place to heal with less risk of infection.  Here they are with 40 wooden stools completed a week ago.

The tailoring students have been assembling the new sewing machines they will be taking home when they have finished the course.  That was cause for celebration with smiles all round.  They have also started making the washable reusable menstrual pads that are so important to help women of limited financial means manage menstrual hygiene.  It should have happened months ago - note: When a man is in charge things important to women can get lost!  We have provided the materials needed to make the pads and each female trainee will get 5 to keep for herself.  Some that the trainees make will be donated to organisations that support women and there is also the possibility of collaborating with an organisation where an Australian Volunteers Program volunteer has been working over the last few months.  Some also will be sold from the centre's 'shop' to fund buying more materials.  We do have to have a sustainable business focus.   

In 2021 the Australian Volunteers Program gave a grant to the Olkokola Centre to enable the creation of an exercise room with gymnasium and physiotherapy equipment.  I have made this video for AVP and DFAT public diplomacy.  I was very happy with it and Sereya’s smile always makes me smile too!

Currently we have a visitor from The Netherlands staying at Olkokola Catholic Mission.  Anna is a pilot with KLM holidaying here to rest and recuperate after a difficult 2 years but also to visit a primary school in Tengeru she set up and funds.  On Friday I showed her a set of The Kagera Reading Program we have in the centre library.  It is a set of 60 laminated reading cards each with a story in English and comprehension questions.  It is like the SRA reading cards we used at school in the 60s (and something similar is still being used at Baimbridge now!)

Anyway Anna’s teachers were very excited and now I have to make three sets for her.  I’m sure the creator David Jackson will be very pleased when I tell him! 

On visa news, my visa application has been approved but I’m still waiting for my ‘Alien Card’ and passport stamp.  Steve will need to pop across the border in January to get a further 3 months tourist visa.

We have 4 weeks until the Christmas break.  Expect an update in early December by which time I hope we’ll have our holiday and visa renewal plans for Steve sorted.

Love from Jenny 

And we're here

 This blogpost will be about life here; it’s strange coming back to somewhere that has been ‘home’.  So much is different but so much is very much the same!

Me NOT buying curios

We are back living in Oliver’s Compound in Kiranyi village, Arusha.  A week before we left last year we had moved from Bamboo Cottage to The Loft and it is to The Loft we have returned.  It’s a big open space with an adequate kitchen and a bathroom down a treacherous staircase.  It has the wonder of hot water in the kitchen!  There is no functioning oven so Steve made us frying pan pizzas.

Our car has returned to us in excellent condition and now after two weeks is as filthy as it’s ever been with the dust.  The short rains - usually October and November - which allow two harvests a year have so far failed to arrive and people are starting to worry about food security.  If rain doesn’t come soon it will be a disaster far bigger than a dusty car (ndiyo, chafu sana as I said to the small girl who scrawled gari in the dust on the back window) and my choked sinuses.

I am not yet able to work - my visa has not been finalised - but I can visit the Olkokola Centre and talk to staff and students.  My friend Sr Jacinta at the Archdiocese is on the job and is insisting to the immigration office that I am here to do God’s work so why should they stop me! I hope it will be sorted soon so I can do more than ‘visit’.  I did go with the centre staff and trainees to Sanaa, a social enterprise organisation that makes beautiful things and where people living with disabilities have the dignity of work and earning a living.  More about Sanaa here and pics of our visit here.  

Things both beautiful and interesting!

What is abundantly clear is that I need to work on my Swahili.  All conversations in the workplace are in swahili and although there is plenty of goodwill and patience there is also an element of frustration.  I also need to work on my social media skills and make a small video about the exercise room that Australian Volunteers funded and is now up and running with a very competent Maasai physiotherapist Lengay who I finally met on Friday.  He had organised this volley ball game.

In the compound there has been a little change.  The staff is much the same and Gladness, the housekeeper, was pleased to have us back.  I don’t know that Rooney and Socksi, the dogs, remembered us but they’re used to us now.  Where there had been a huge clump of bamboo in front of our previous cottage there is now a frog pond and that adds to the variety of sounds.  We have the Evangelical Shouty Man at 5am followed by the more harmonious call to prayer from the mosque at 5.30.  The birds hit their peak at 6 am with Rüppell’s Robin-Chat most prominent.  During the day there is plenty of traffic in the newly named Bendera Street with evangelical shouting, particularly towards evening and on weekends, and regular calls to prayer. In the evening the frogs start at about 6.30 and they are LOUD.  Over night it is mostly quiet though occasionally various dogs in the area get excited and raise a ruckus.  We have squirrels which can be noisy on the roof.  Yesterday there was a wedding somewhere close with interesting musical choices.  We don’t come here for the peace and quiet.

We do come for the chance of wildlife watching.  Last Sunday we had a day in Arusha NP.  When I entered our names in the park register I was directly below the only other entrants for the morning - another Australian couple in a private vehicle!  This was quite weird.  So I spent as much time trying to spot them as I did giraffes and birds until we located them near Small Mondella and had a good chat.  They were a couple from Queensland, a bird watcher and her partner, holidaying in Tz for a month.

As I mentioned earlier, our street now has a name.  All the streets and lanes nearby have been named according to Apple Maps and the dry creek bed that runs the one and a half kilometres up to our place is Sakina Avenue! There are street signs going up everywhere and houses and shops are being numbered.  We are number 8.  I wouldn’t get too excited though - I don’t think home delivered post is going to happen and I doubt that if I told a boda rider I wanted to go to Bendera Street Kiranyi that he’d have any idea.  Still, I can put it on the official forms Australian Volunteers sends me as my residential address instead of the Farm Plot number I used to use.

Sakina Avenue

Those of you who see my fb posts know that Australian honey and Vegemite are freely available.  What is not available is muesli.  We used to buy a South African brand for about $6 for a 500g bag.  It was very nice.  It was in the big two supermarkets and a few of the smaller ones including two we go to regularly.  Now it is just not available.  The manager at Image Supermarket says they’ve tried but it’s not around.  Someone last night suggested that the increase in Safari traffic means the lodges have bought it all and the wholesalers haven’t caught up. Anyway, there is only Dorset brand (owned by King Charles’ Duchy of Cornwall) for 26,000/= (~$18) for a 400g box which is outrageous!  We did have a win with a 20,000/= toaster which works very well after jibbing at paying 160,000/= which is what Shoppers Supermarket wanted for a similar model.  I can make do with toast and jam for breakfast.

Pikelets for a treat on Saturday

I hope my next blog can be about work - that’s what I want to be here for - and you’ll all know soon how it goes; also keep watching for a blog from Steve with his perspective!

Love from Jenny 

ps Flying over UAE in the predawn I managed this shot through the plane window.

Return to Tz

After 17 months at home we will return to Arusha on October 8.  I will be back at Olkokola Catholic Mission as a volunteer with the Australian Volunteer Program funded by the Australian government.  Steve will be a man of leisure.

I will endeavour to post regularly to keep you up to date with our adventures.

Jenny xx

This is me with Sinyati in 2019. We'll be working together again. 

And that's Oldonya Lengai in the background.

Quarantine detention

Returning to Australia, quarantine detention is unavoidable and was something we were dreading.  But is was something we could never complain about as we had chosen to go overseas against Government advice and were choosing to return knowing there would be complications - likely cancellations, passport issues and the one you didn't think of. (It's always the one you didn't think of!)

Steve had joined a Facebook group* called Melbourne Hotel Quarantine and knew the difficulties (horror stories!) of other returnees.

From the time we booked our tickets in April I had been expecting to be 'bumped' or cancelled. It was a narrative that fitted well with my ambivalence about leaving early. I was telling anyone lamenting our leaving that it probably wouldn't happen.  I was saying 50-50 even as we climbed into Abraham's taxi.  And I'd paid Abraham extra to hang around in the airport carpark until we were safely through immigration.

We knew of people with onwards flights from Doha who were rerouted or postponed and had ended up with layovers there of 36hours+ so we'd packed an extra change of undies in the backpack and were resolutely prepared for anything!  And every time nothing went wrong we breathed a sigh of relief and approached the next milestone.

The flight from Kilimanjaro to Doha is an overnight flight but was fairly full so we were sleeping in our seats.  We had to entertain ourselves at Doho airport from 5:00 am until boarding at 7:30 pm.  It's when you ignore currency exchange rates and just buy the croissant and juice (breakfast) and Burger King meal (lunch) without thinking about what that number of Qatari Riyals means!  

The flight from Doha to Melbourne seemed ridiculous - fewer than 40 passengers in a plane designed for 400.  So although we were all in one section of the plane we could all stretch out over a bank of seats to sleep.  I don't think I've ever been so excited to see the Western District and suburban Melbourne from the air.

Arriving at Tullamarine was a totally different experience to the usual.  We spend a long time waiting to disembark but there were no crowded aisles and waiting while others fetched down their carry-on luggage from crowded overhead lockers.  We were very orderly and kept the required 2 metres distance from every other human.  We were sanitised frequently and had several changes of disposable mask.  In the bureaucratic process of getting through immigration and customs we were asked at least four times if we'd been in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh in the previous 14 days (no we hadn't) but not if we might have been with people who had (probably yes as there is constant traffic between Tz and India for health, education and trade).  We ticked the Yes box for bringing in wooden objects and plant based materials and having been in rural areas but for a change no-one was interested in looking at my curios or shoes and AQIS just waved us through. It's lucky I know by now what I can and can't bring in so I probably haven't imported any pests or diseases.

The longest wait was sitting on the Skybus waiting to be taken to our detention hotel - close to an hour - when I was again thankful not to be travelling with children. 

Again, we were very lucky.  We had seen photos from families of three, four or even five people in one standard hotel room with barely space to walk around for luggage.  We had seen unappetising food delivered cold in plastic containers and heard of detainees spending fortunes on Uber Eats and Deliveroo to get food they wanted to eat. We heard stories of people having a view of a brick wall and being unable to even get UberEats or Deliveroo because they were stranded out at Tullamarine.

We have a corner suite right on the Yarra River at South Wharf.  There is plenty of space and though no windows open the air quality is fine.  Food is delivered three times a day (There's a knock on the door, we sing out "Thank you" then wait 30 seconds.  One of us dons a mask, opens the door a very little and fetches the paper bag in) and though the food is in plastic take away containers it has been hot, varied and appetising.  The amount of plastic waste is disheartening but probably unavoidable.  The precautions being taken to make sure there is no transmission of virus are stringent.  

We have a bird's eye view from the 11th floor up and down the Yarra and around to the Bay.  There is always something to look at.  There are helicopters buzzing through at eye level and all manner of boats on the river.  Yesterday we watched an old steam train hauling red rattler carriages go through Spencer Street Station.  Of course having binoculars helps!  When the Traffic report on 774 says there are delays on the Bolte Bridge we can check that he's correct.  Steve is of course doing a bird list and has found a new species most days - he has 18 but still no magpie.

Steve has spent his time continuing his review of senior secondary mathematics.  I have done a bit more family history research.  Trove - the digitised collection of newspapers and other documents kept by the National Library -  has been a wonderful source of information and entertainment.  The news articles of the time show how language has changed!  We don't read of "little street arabs" or "nymphs of the pave" these days.  The family notices have been a good source of information too that is not in the official registers.  

We still have two more days to survive but I'm hoping our luck holds.  On Monday morning we will be released from detention and drive home to Hamilton. (Thanks Jeremy for delivering the car!). My new passport is somewhere between Nairobi and the Melbourne passport office.  No rush on that but I will start thinking about our next adventure.

* Yes Steve is on Facebook, it's the only way he can get the birding information he needs and is in 13 groups, but he has resolutely refused to have any 'Friends'.

West Usambara Mountains

Last week we had a five day excursion to Same and the Magamba Forest above Lushoto.  This was essentially a birding expedition to increase Steve’s Life List but I found plenty to entertain myself as well!

We went with a Norwegian friend (who is far more familiar with Tanzania’s birds than even Steve) and a Tanzanian friend.  We had two nights in a hotel in Same and two nights camping in the forest.

Same is the town close to the Mkomazi NP and the birding we did was in woodland close to the park boundary.  Steve had a list of ‘targets’ but I was happy to see a couple of my favourites - the African Hoopoe and the Abyssinian Scimitar bill (these photos are Steve’s but not from this trip), a very interesting plant (Caralluma speciosa) and some industrious dung beetles.

The more interesting part of the trip was the time we spent in the forest.  Magamba Forest is a government forest reserve in the West Usambara Mountains.  The road up to Lushoto from Mombo is steep and windy.  It was built pre WW1 and is called “the German road”.  Lushoto was where expats went to escape the heat and humidity of the coast in colonial times.  The road is tarmacked and in very good condition.  Culverts and bridges are in bluestone with pretty arches.  It just shows if something is made properly it will last!  The down hill side of the road is lined with eucalypt trees - blue gum, spotted gum, swamp gum - all the way up.  This was supposed to stabilise the soil and prevent land slips and it seems to have worked!  At each hairpin bend there was a gushing waterfall - some muddy, some crystal clear, depending on the land use above them.  It rained all the way up the mountain and I was silently contemplating the folly of camping during the rainy season.

The road from Lushoto up to our camp in the forest was steep, wet and very muddy.  Slipping into the gutter would be disaster! But luckily it didn’t happen thanks to an ancient LandRover and some very competent Norwegian driving.

Our camp was in an abandoned sawmill so theoretically we were protected from rain but as we were in the cloud it was damp everywhere.  Getting a fire started took remarkable persistence  - no one had thought to pack firelighters, or even dry paper and corn chips!  It really was a very comfortable camp and despite the Forest Department officer’s concerns that we’d be cold - she sent a pikipiki rider up from the reserve’s headquarters with a bag of old curtains to use as extra blankets! - we stayed warm and dry.

 

The sawmill has been non-operational for several decades but in its heyday it must have been something special.  There was the mill building (where we camped) which still had some of the machinery. It had been powered by a steam engine undoubtedly fed with wood waste and saw dust.  There was a large shed stacked with sawn timber, now well and truly cured!  It is a resource that should be used by whoever has ownership.  Then there were the administrative offices in a solid brick building and still with all the filing cupboards and office equipment in place.  There were many residences I guess for the bosses, not the ‘workers’.  What we presumed to be the manager’s house was quite a mansion complete with swimming pool and magnificent garden.  There were assorted other, mainly weatherboard, cottages in various states of disrepair.  All had English gardens.  There were hydrangeas, fuschias and roses along the road and into the forest as well as arum and other lilies.  It was quite magical!

 

The ‘birding’ consisted of walking the road close to the camp.  The forest was too wet and too thick to venture too far off the road.  Birds are hard to hear and even harder to see.  It’s a job for which I have neither the patience or perseverance needed.  So I just enjoyed the walks!  Steve at one point tried to get a photo of the river we could see rushing below us and nearly ended up in it. His fall was arrested by a chameleon (the West Usambara Two-horned Chameleon) which didn’t seem to suffer too much from the experience.

Steve had to return to the scene of the crime to retrieve his binoculars

The Usambara Mountains are part of the eastern arc mountains that run from north to south in Tanzania.  The natural biodiversity both plant and animal is astonishing.  There are still new plants and animals to be discovered by those intrepid enough to try.  We know a herpetologist, a neighbour here in Arusha, who has identified many new species of frogs and toads just by going in to the forests and having a good look. He camps for weeks at a time in the forest collecting samples.

As well as, or even possibly despite, the natural diversity there are invasive species in the forests in both the Usambara and Pare mountains.  Locals like to plant eucalypts which are fast growing and have no natural enemies.  There are also pines, which along with eucalypts and Australian acacias, have ‘escaped’ from managed plantations.  It is sad to see them but I don’t think the native trees are suffering too much from their presence.

As we plan for what may be our last week here in Tanzania we can reflect on having made the most of our time and maybe we’ll sneak in one last trip to Arusha NP before Friday next week when we are due to fly home.  Fingers crossed that they’ll be no last minute SNAFU though as the acronym makes clear they are ‘normal’ especially in this part of the world.   

 You’ll all know soon how it goes, keep watching for a blog from Steve with his perspective!

Love from Jenny