tomintanzania

Monday 15 March

I went into town and got a few things for the village. I also met up with Christoph who used to live in Buigiri but now drives a bus in town. Even with a job, things are still a struggle so I sorted him out with a bit of food, drugs and clothes – on the way back to Buigiri I had my first nasty experience in Tanzania. I went to the bus to get on board and a man came up to me and opened the back of the bus for me to put my bags in. I boarded the bus and he demanded 1000tshs from me, about 50p. I refused and asked why and he said he had helped me, so I pointed out the fact that I was already at the bus and all he did was open the door which I was perfectly capable of doing. I knew I was in the right but he started squaring up to me – I probably should have just paid it to avoid the hassle cos you hear about people who get knifed over sod all money and wonder why they bother, but I was kind of hoping others might step in if it got nasty. As it happened he eventually backed away.

Christoph in the market

At home in the evening I hit upon an idea that I cant believe it took me so long to think of – rather than use mozzie spray I pay the kids in sweets to kill them – one sweet per three cadavers. It is cheaper than using spray and better for the environment, although maybe not so for their teeth.

Tuesday 16 March

My house felt as bit like a conveyor belt – someone would come and talk to me and then they would leave and someone else would come in. It started at 8am as Mamma Happy and her daughter paid a visit. They used to live in the rehab centre but had to leave a few years ago for some unknown reason. She is probably amongst the poorest people here and thats is quite a feat. Her husband is a right pain in the arse but I try and help her when I can. I kitted them out in clothes – people joke that my house is like many shops rolled in to one – it certainly feels like a clothes shop as I must have 300-400 items piled up everywhere.

I headed up to the rehab centre for a meeting and to say hello to two goats I’d bought and on the way back I went to meet nine families at a maize shop. Amongst them were some blind who live in the village but outside the rehab centre plus others with disabilities or who are in particular hardship. They all got 20kg of maize which will last a few weeks, so its a bit like putting an elastoplast on a gunshot wound, but my budget doesn’t allow anything more.

RIP

Getting maize for the other people in particular hardship in the village. Mamma Happy is near the middle with her daughter in front of her.

I then went with Mamma Happy and sorted her out with shoes and a couple of other things and then went to collect some uniforms I’d had made for some children. On my way home I chatted to one of the teachers from the non-blind primary school here in Buigiri as he has broken his glasses, has low vision and finds it very difficult teaching and so on. I think the cost is too high for me to deal with at £45 so I gave a small contribution as money is running low. Hopefully he can find the rest – he gets a salary as a teacher so it should only take him two or three months.

In the evening a couple of teachers came to see me but they came in the guise of working for the Tanzanian League for the Blind. I’m a little opposed to helping the organisation cos although I know they do good work, if I pass resources along to them then everything has to be decided by committee and in my experience committees don’t work in Africa – you need someone who can take charge and get a job done without creaming anything off the top for themselves. I’d rather just keep working alongside them as I currently do as that seems to work for now.

Wednesday 17 March

I think I’ve mentioned before about Gabriel Msaka and his chicken/goat business. He now has two goats which is all well and good but the income they generate gets swallowed in his living expenses and so he will find it tough to expand much more. I agreed to give him a boost by adding a third goat to the enterprise – he had proved he can run a small business so its pleasing to be able to give him a little more help. He cant stand his wife so everything has to be kept secret from her. They’ve probably been married for about 50 years and so the whole situation is somewhat comical.

I then had a visit from a guy called Emmanuel who is a blind man and runs a small shop in a nearby village. He needed a little help with capital to buy sugar and such like. I very rarely hand over money but decided to in this case – he will report back to a teacher who will then let me know how it is going. It is only as small amount of money – £15 but like with Msaka it could give him an all important kick start and help his business grow a lot more.

I then had more visitors – some to just chat, others to collect things like white sticks and others to discuss their problems. I rarely have even 10 minutes from sunrise to sunset when people aren’t in my house or wanting to meet me some place.

Peter with his very shiny new stick

The next group to come were 6 school children. I’ve found sponsors for 8 children this year and these 6 are amongst them. There are 4 girls who are all orphans and live a pretty hard life. Seven of the eight are doing well in their class – one is top from 80 and the other is 8th in his class.

With 6 of the children being sponsored

A short chat with Amin, one of the 8 students friends in England are sponsoring

The next port of call was to meet Msaka and Omary for some meat – they love meat here but most cant afford it – when they do get it it is like an orgy – we had half a cow’s liver and a kilo of meat barbecued for us which we tucked into inside the butchers – its all pretty disgusting to be honest, but it tastes so good that it is worth it.

Once you get over how utterly disgusting the conditions are, you can appreciate just how good simple BBQed meat is

I then met up with a girl called Flora who attended the blind school but had to leave when she got pregnant. She is just 15 and her baby is a year old and also blind. I sorted them out with clothes and food, but like with the other cases, it is hardly a long lasting solution. Her life is pretty much screwed already – not a bad achievement for someone barely in their teens.

Flora with her baby and Emmanuel

In the afternoon I oversaw a phone call between a boy in the village and a class of school kids in London. One of the things I did last trip was set links up so that the children could learn about each others lives – consequently I found myself standing in a primary school class in England before I left answering lots of questions about life in Tanzania and the children got to show off that they had been learning a little Swahili. A few letters have gone back and forth and it’s generated a little fund-raising which has been put to good use out here and hopefully that venture will continue.

In the evening I went to the bar and drank far too much seeing as I was tired already and had an early start the next day. I don’t drink much out here cos I tend to be pretty knackered in the evenings and beer sends me to sleep. I did note though how stupid I can be – even now, after spending a lot of time around blind people, in the evenings I will still shine my torch at their feet so they can see where they are going in the dark. I do other dumb things also like use my hands to point.

Alfa’s father did a runner and his mum died last year. All the local non-boarding kids at the school get extra tuition in the evenings at a cost of £1.50 a month and he is the only one who can’t go.

Thursday 18th March

I headed into town first thing as I had a busy day ahead. I went with Omary who is the regional co-ordinator of the Tanzanian League for the Blind. We got a taxi and filled it up with rice, fruit, school books and other items. It was a bit of a struggle cos I like to do things quickly and efficiently but that is not the Tanzanian way – they like to amble along, stop and chat to people, have tea and then continue.

Pascal with some schoolbooks

Our destination was a place called Milembeli which literally means ‘two miles’ as it is two miles from the centre of town. There are around 35 blind families living there, many of whom are beggers but some might have simple jobs such as making brooms or baskets. I’ve got to know some of them quite well as I’ve visited their homes maybe four or five times now. Some of the money raised by the school in London was spent in Milembeli on things like food, uniforms and building/repairing a couple of houses. After distributing the items we’d brought, as well as some white canes, talking watches, mobile phones and cameras from England, we visited a couple of homes. Our final destination was Idi’s house – he and his wife had kindly invited us for lunch. We had rice with meat, coke and bottled water. It is really touching when people make this kind of sacrifice for me.

With the blind in Milembeli

Eating with Idi and his family. They live in this one small room.

A quick tour around Daniel’s house in Milembeli

A letter read out by one of the blind

Friday 19th March

The day started badly – in town I told someone where to go but I knew she couldnt speak English so wouldnt understand. As fantastic as it is being out here, Africa can be hugely frustrating at times. Things go better in the afternoon as I was off on the lash. First though I had arranged for 110 sodas to be delivered to the school for the children. Some of the young ones have never drunk from a bottle before and it was moving watching their friends teach them.

Soda time. Giving blind kids a sugar rush en masse is possibly a bit dangerous

Once that was over it was beer time. One of the teachers has a car and 6 of us piled in and went to a village about 20 miles away. Chalinze is a centre for cow trading and is renowned for its meat. We spent 5 hours gourging ourselves on beer and cow. The quantities Tanzanians can eat when given the chance is utterly phenomenal. Their stomachs must be made from elastic. We started with 1 kilo of roasted meat between us. Then we had two kilos and finally three kilos. That’s a kilo of pure meat per person.

We all had a plate each – plus two further smaller plates of meat.

Fake sleep pics FTW. One of the few things I dislike about being out here is having to sleep under a mozzie net.

Time check. I get woken early each day by the chickens outside. More about that later. I had to get up early today to go to church. I’m an atheist/agnostic but church is a big part of life out here and it seems silly to not experience it.

Another thing I dislike is having to wash in cold water using this method.

I quickly wash some clothes

And sort out some money – I know there will be collections and so I like to put different denominations in different pockets so I can easily fish out the appropriate amount.

I’m based at a school for the blind and Nico and Saidi had promised to escort me to church.

On the way I swung by the dorms and distributed some football shirts friends had given me in the UK. During previous trips I’ve been trying to teach people about teams outside of the big four, so this time I brought some lower league shirts. I’m from Bristol in the UK, hence there being two Bristol Rovers and one Bristol City shirt.

We mill around for a bit and then head to the Anglican Church. Things got a bit awkward at one stage cos new people have to stand up half way through and introduce themselves. The pastor was new and didn’t know I’d been a few times over the past decade or so but I resolutely refused to stand as he stared at me.

There were four choirs present – the local tribe is renowned for their music and it makes the whole service so much more interesting.

3 hours later I make it back home and crack open a Coke. I live off the stuff here.

Hello

Emmanuel is always at my house asking to play this game. Boppit is a brilliant game for the visually impaired. It also helps them learn English numbers. The headphones came courtesy of British Airways.

And now to the dance competition. The kids all love dancing and it is all a lot of fun to watch.

The winners – Jose won and got a wind up radio and Saidi came second and got a talking watch.

I play a bit of frisbee with the kids – this is a good one cos it is soft and so when my dreadful throws hit a blind kid square in the face then it doesn’t cause any damage.

I join the kids for lunch – meat and rice. This is something of a treat for them as they usually just eat ground maize with beans.

I return to my house and get told there is an infestation in a disused lightswitch outside my door. The kids are more frightened of these specific insects than of scorpions so I quickly ran inside and then sent one of the boys out to do my dirty work for me. I’m so brave.

Time check from a sunburnt arm.

I’m involved in a zillion micro projects out here and some people like to thank me for the help I give them by giving me gifts – this is today’s haul. I always feel uber guilty though cos they come from the poorest people but I have to accept them.

I fire up some wrestling. These children couldn’t tell you the capital city of England but they can rattle off names like John Cena.

I find I become a canvas for a budding tattoo artist.

The children take off their shoes when entering my house. Its amazing watching the blind ones hunt around to find their shoes when they leave – I reckon they rely on the sense of smell.

I fall asleep on a rock outside for 20 minutes and wake to find my camera has not been so idle.

So to those chickens who wake me up – I think I’m having the last laugh here! This is Penda, the woman I employ to cook and clean for me. In the past ive always cooked for myself, but it takes so much time and I’m only here for a few weeks and my time is better spent elsewhere.

I then head to the dam with one of the guys from the village and we get followed by ten or so local kids. They’re all really nice and play at my house every day.

This is the guy i went with – we found a frog to use as bait but the only thing we caught were frogs. The same happened last year. Perhaps next year we will use fish as bait and see if that works.

I give a quick demonstration of what I hope the fish will do.

These are the soles of the shoes of one of the boys. Talk about getting your money’s worth! Actually it was money given to my by friends during my last visit.

I wish my camera was better in the sunlight as this could have been a good pic.

Hello again

We head back to the village and the children hop around like mountain goats. Not at all like me.

Penda always cooks me too much food and so it gets spread around several people. I really should tidy my table.

After dinner I head out and stop at the dorms to give some batteries out to the kids who’d asked for them.

We get to the bar and I catch up with Amini. When I came out here in 2008-2009 he worked on a milling machine but I’ve linked him up with a sponsor and got him back to school. This year he’ll be taking his national exams and is hoping to become a doctor. He’s a top guy, works hard and speaks very good English and its really satisfying giving people like him a future again.

On my way home I see Mr Omary – he is a teacher at the blind shool and also the regional co-ordinator of the Tanzanian League for the Blind. We stop and talk for a bit as this week I’m doing all kinds of things with him for the blind outside the village and everything takes lots of organising to prevent mistakes from happening.

I stick some images on my laptop and hit the sack as I have another early start in the morning.

Wednesday 11 March

I went into town in the morning to get a few items and I met up with a guy from Buigiri who now drives a local bus in town. I bought a fan for my house and when I got it home I realised that the gaps in the metal grill are far enough apart to get your fingers through – possibly not the best thing for a house where blind children walk around with their hands extended. I also saw in town a guy wearing a t-shirt with ‘B.I.L.F.’ on the front – somewhat unfortunate I thought.

I love the interior design here – a blend of Bin Laden and children who are missing limbs.

When I got back I met with Thomas who is an albino child who has just moved here from Hombolo. When I was here last year I visited Hombolo as I had heard there was a unit for the blind at their primary school which took the kids who couldn’t get in to Buigiri. He is a bright kid who is always clean and tidy. I gather an American passed through some time ago and left some funds for sun tan cream for him – albinos burn up and they are all covered in black marks from the sun. Due to his sponsorship he is in a better state than most, but he still needs help. I’ve given him a stock of hats to wear, including a couple of rather fetching fishing hats.

Thomas

In the evening one of the blind teachers and his son came to visit me for dinner. He is the guy who set the rehab centre up but we dont exactly see eye-to-eye if you pardon the pun. He gets money from a school in Blackpool but it all gets channeled into big projects like they just recently built an office inspite of not having anything to do in there and they also have a large pickup truck which sits idle for most of the time and is only really used when he wants to go in to town. Meanwhile the inhabitants live hard lives and all they really want are things like seeds for their gardens or medication when they are sick.

After dinner I went to the bar and then caught the first half of the Real Madrid vs Lyon game but was so shattered I went home to bed at half time. I think Im going to need a holiday when I get back to England just to allow my body to recharge.

Thursday 12 March

This was quite a busy day as I went in to town to get a few items and I got dropped off on the return bus right outside the rehab centre – it isn’t that far to the centre from my house, only maybe 3 km, but there is no shade on the route and so if I can avoid walking it then I appreciate it as it syncs in nicely with my general laziness. I went to the centre to finalise a few things with the leaders about some things I have lined up for the coming days. I then headed to a nearby maize merchant’s business with the blind and bought 440kg of maize for them. I left them to lug it back on their shoulders or on bikes – did I mention my laziness? I then headed to a nearby shop run by a blind man called Joel. I set him up with the stock for the business last year. Running a shop is a tricky business as it requires many more skills than you might expect but he impressed me in several ways – namely he could rattle off the wholesale prices from memory and most importantly was prepared to contribute some money himself. It was only a token amount but I find it to be a good indicator of who wants to progress with their lives rather than just look for handouts. I was pleased to see the shop still going – it is never going to make him a fortune but it provides just enough income to top up what his small farm produces.

Joel and me at his shop

The blind from the centre with their maize

On my way back home I came across a woman who came to see me last year with a skin complaint and I helped her get to a specialist in a nearby town. She is now healed and again it is refreshing to see a problem get solved as all too often you enable people to sort their issues out but they screw up in a myriad of ways.

In the evening I went to see the grandfather of one the guys I hang around with. His daughter had a masectomy last year. The treatment was free but he had to sell all his livestock, effectively his life’s savings to cover the transportation and other costs involved. She needs to return to Dar es Salaam for a check up next week and he was trying to raise £63 to cover all the costs. Within a day he had found £15 donated by around 35 people. I find it tough here deciding who to help as my resources are obviously limited, but when people try and solve their own problems before going to see the whiteman then that tends to get my approval so I gave a contribution but did not supply it all as I think it is important that they continue to solve their own problems – yet on the other hand I do think it is a bit tough not helping someone to the max when all they want is to survive cancer. Its a bit of a moral conundrum I face quite often here.

I bought out some toys, including this braille tile shifting game.

In the evening a I upset a boy who plays at my house. He showed me a model of a house made from paper that seemed to be a piece of scrap. I handed it back to him without realising he has bought it from someone as a gift for me. Fortunately someone whispered in my ear and I sorted things out. It is a bit strange when someone gives me gifts here cos I feel guilty taking them. Another time a boy gave me a guava and yet I know his family is down to eating just one meal a day now – it means a lot to give away something like a piece of fruit so I have to accept it.

My new house

I also found some time to play with the school kids. Its odd cos in England I dont have a clue what to say to most children, but out here I can find ways to entertain us for hours on end whilst having limited language skills.

Chatting with the kids on the dormitory steps

Friday 12 March

I headed over to a neighbouring village early in the morning as Buigiri Secondary School were playing them in netball, football and volleyball. Alas we lost in everything but it was a great experience just being there – sports days in England seem so dull in comparison. When things had finished I had lunch with a few guys from Buigiri and we played some pool. I couldnt work out why I was playing so poorly until I rolled my cue across the table and realised it bent in every way possible.

The winning supporters kept running around waving flags and cheering.

The day was a bit of a chill out day – I typically wake around 7am and seem to be doing stuff right through to midnight, so it is good to sometimes get away from the village and put my feet up. In the evening a teacher came for dinner. He is the regional co-ordinator for the Tanzanian League for the Blind and also the guy I get to do stuff for me relating to the blind for places within the region but situated outside of Buigiri when I am not in the country. We had a lot to discuss and it was a productive hour or so.

Saturday 13 March

I spent a long time just chatting to people – I got to expand a couple of people’s knowledge of English with the phrase ‘Mates before muff’ as a teacher had isolated himself from the others cos he spent his life jumping into bed with different girls. AIDS is a big problem here but even educated people just can’t keep their zips done up.

These are the children of some of the blind teachers – they all live near my house but are wealthy in comparison to the blind kids.

The kids run around without much thought for snakes or scorpions – so when they stop dead in their tracks due to certain ants I know they are potentially very dangerous. Unfortunately for me they keep invading my house, so I go out hunting with some of the boys to make sure none are going to nip me in the night.

I held a dance competition, but it was mainly a trial run for the main one I had planned for Sunday. The local tribe is famous for their music and dancing and the kids love every opportunity to dance. I took part for a laugh and made it through my heat but I suspect I was voted for as a piss take.

The kids are pretty resourceful when it comes to making entertainment out of other people’s rubbish

Fri 5th March

The plane touched down in the early morning and I hopped straight on to a bus for an 8 hour journey inland to Buigiri. On the way the woman next to me bought some roasted corn and shared it with me – this typifies how the people are out here, they share what they can and even talk to others on public transport. We stopped for a 5 minute break on the way and I saw someone who recognized me from my last trip. Small world. When I arrived in Buigiri I was greeted off the bus by a bunch of children from the school – apparently they have spent since May asking the teachers when I’m returning and when they were told I was coming they thought it was a joke, so I got mobbed when I stepped down. The rest of the day was spent unpacking and greeting various people.

Arriving on the bus

The various things I brought with me, most donated by friends.

Sat 6th March

I was up at 7am as there are cockerels outside my window and so I don’t get the luxury of sleeping in. I went to see a boy called Tech who I spent a lot of time with last trip and asked if he wanted to come into town with me. We were also joined by another guy who used to be a porter in the town’s bus stand, but he is ill, almost certainly with AIDS. His wife has already died. I like the guy cos last time I was here he never asked me for anything and that’s something of a novelty amongst the poor here. I bought him lunch in town and he put half in a bag for his kids so when we got back this to the village I got him 20kg of maize. I have a war chest of £877 to spend on things like this – mainly raised from a raffle I did at the end of last year and around £140 from my flist. 20kg costs just under a fiver and 1kg will feed four people.

I met up with some of the teachers in the evening and went to the local bar which is nothing more than a few plastic seats outdoors and a fridge. There used to be a pool table and last time round I played so many games of pool there at 10p a game that I effectively paid for the table. When I left there was noone who could afford to play so it got sold. It was really good to flitter between the boys playing pool and the teachers drinking beers or sodas as it gave me the right balance between chilling out and having serious conversations. Now I just have the teachers for company in the evening.

Sun 7th March

I’ve always cooked for myself in the past on a single electric hob, but that is no longer here, so I have employed a local girl called Penda to cook on a charcoal stove, clean and fetch water. I pay her the princely sum of £1.50 a day, which is a good wage for her. She came in the morning to make arrangements for how things were going to work. I then put her to work making me breakfast. A boy called Amin came to see me – he is a bright bloke who speaks excellent English and for the past couple of years I’ve arranged for someone in England to sponsor his education. Along with the other poor people here he only eats one meal a day so he wolfed down most of my brekkie which was fine by me as Penda made way too many chapattis.

Enoch then swung by and the three of us headed to the rehabilitation centre – the rehab centre sounds like much more than it is. It is simply a collection of 11 homes. 9 of the families have at least one blind adult and the remaining two families belong to sighted helpers. The rehab centre gets a bit of support from overseas but I think this money is misused by the guy who runs the centre. During the last trip I bypassed him and meet directly with two or three of the guys within the centre – it is a general theme of the stuff I do here that I piss off the people in charge cos they like to be the ones who control my movements, actions and spending but I don’t let them and it is quite common for them to see me as an enemy, but I know that is just a product of the tribal culture here so I shrug it off. The leaders who run things like the rehab centre or wealthy and they just take a chunk of the money for themselves. Ive had my fingers burnt in previous years. I therefore often find myself walking a diplomatic tightrope between maximizing what my resources can achieve whilst not totally alienating the top dogs who could cause me hassle.

I arrived at the centre when most people were in church – it gave me a chance to talk to the important people though without being mobbed by kids straight away. The meeting lasted two and a half hours and was productive – it clarified in my mind where to direct some of the money I have.

I also got to see baby Imogen who was born last year when I was here and was named after my sister – the naming of children is about the only honour they can bestow on you by way of saying thank you. Before the baby was born I was told if it was a boy it would be called Tom, so it was a bit of a shame when a ‘she’ popped out! I think my sister is amused by it though.

Meeting some of the blind

I spent a fair amount of time talking with John Kapingo – when I came last time he was in hospital in another region as he had a growth on his head which was full of dead tissue which stunk and was full of lots and lots of maggots. I spent a long time with him fruitlessly going between hospitals trying to first get a diagnosis before treatment. Most medical care here is free for the impoverished but everything just takes so much time. I ended up getting an American missionary doctor to test and diagnose John with Squamous Cell Carcinoma – the whole process took just 10 minutes. Then it was back to square one in that we then had to try and get treatment. The machine which clamps the blood vessels in the head and which is necessary for the op was broken, so over the past 18 months John has had to make perhaps 6 trips to a hospital 8 hours away. Although the treatment is free it is out of the reach of many who cannot even afford the shoes they’ll need to walk around a city in, let alone the bus fare, guesthouse, food and other charges involved with being away from home for a period of time.

In the middle of the afternoon I returned back to the blind school where my house is and I played with the blind children – during my first trip here I totally ignored the children. I think being only 18 at the time meant I wanted to seem grown up and just mix with adults. Things are different now though and I mix with everybody. It took about 2 months last trip to break down all the barriers between us – mainly me being white but also being in my late 20s when they are conditioned to be polite and treat older people with respect. Now we play lots of games and do silly things together and probably my favorite moments in Tanzania are when it’s just me and them and as my language skills improve we get to do a lot more stuff.

Chilling with the kids before class

In the evening Penda cooked me rice with potatoes in a tomato sauce. Again she made way too much. Tech’s brother Alan was outside so I invited him in to share my food. He said ‘no’ and I could tell it was just politeness so I asked him again and he said ‘ok, just a little’ and proceeded to eat 3/4ers of it all. I have no idea where Africans put all the food they eat – I’m three times the size of him but was stuffed with the bit I had.

Monday 8th March

Peter, a helper from the rehab centre, woke me up at 8am with various lists of stuff I’d requested to help me with some projects I’ve got lined up for the centre.

I then went to see Mamma Nyema – her husband was employed as a helper at the rehab centre but he became a pisshead and lost his job after accusations of theft which he vehemently. He has just got a 5 year prison sentence for stealing from elsewhere. I’ve given them a lot of support in the past but I withdrew all help last trip cos he started abusing the situation. Now he is out of the picture the help can resume. I went to the local shop and got her 40kg of maize and 10kg of sugar which she will trade and generate some income with. She has three children: Nyema and John are at school so I kitted them out with uniforms, school books and clothes and her third child is called Sara, named after my mother, but she is still a young baby so didn’t need anything aside from a couple of small shirts.

Nyema and John with their school books

Getting fitted for uniforms. Each costs around £4.

Aside from being just a good shot of my bald head, this is the only way I could think of to get a shoe size for someone who doesn’t own shoes.

As I headed home I saw Gabriel Msaka. Gabriel is in his 70s which is not bad for a poor blind man in a country where the average age is on the underside of 50. During my first visit he was regional chairman of the equivalent of our RNIB. Last year I set him up with a small chicken farming business and now instead of chickens he farms goats – its cool seeing him progress like this as goats are quite a step up. Too often you give people here the opportunity to better their lives and they waste the chance. It can be so frustrating at times, so it makes me happy to see people who succeed.

Msaka and a red me at the bar

This is Salim. Last year I spent several days in Kondoa District, around 5 hours away but it is still in the blind school’s catchment area – although no children ever went to Buigiri from Kondoa, mainly because it is a muslim area and the parents are suspicious of christianity. I went with a muslim teacher though and we went out to the villages to find blind children as they are often kept away and hidden. We also met with the District Education Officer who agreed to fund the transport of 5 children to Buigiri. Although since then there have been problems, which is almost a certainty in Africa, and only two have made it to Buigiri, but it is a good start. Salim is extremely poor and wears rags. I’m kitting him out with all the things he needs and hopefully he will thrive.

Tuesday 9th March

I was up early and got a ride into town on the back of a pickup. My first job of the day was to buy lots of clothes. Rich people go into regular clothes shops, poor people buy clothes from the market but I go right to the source and buy them from where the market traders go. It took me a long time to discover the place last time but it is a fantastic find. It is all somewhat daunting though – clothes arrive from the west in 220lb bales. Merchants buy them without knowing what is inside. They then get opened up on the tables which line the sides of the shed and then perhaps 30 men stand on the tables and are handed items one by one and they shout out prices. There is an art to it all and it took me some time to figure everything out. I’m something of spectacle there though as no white people ever go there and I’m also a foot taller than everyone else. Also, other people might buy a few items to sell-on but I’m there with big bags buying perhaps a hundred or more items of clothing. I make sure I pay a fair rate and that can mean sometimes I don’t get something I want even though it is only an extra 5p. Typically I pay 50p for trousers and 20p for a shirt.

Here is Juma, one of the auctioneers. It’s a shame I didn’t have the nerve to take a photo of the chaos behind me

When the auction finished I got chatting to one of the traders and went with him for some food at a place owned by his wife. I have no qualms eating street food but this place was probably the worst dive I’ve eaten in. Amusingly the cooks were all wearing bright white catering clothes whilst stirring pots surrounded by dirt and flies.

Juma and his wife at their restaurant

After food I went to visit a chemist – my hope is to set up a small medical dispensary at the rehab centre. Nothing too advanced, but with perhaps 15-20 of the main types of drugs. You can get everything over the counter in town without prescription and one of the lists Peter brought me the previous day was all the names of the medication that the centre wants. I bought as much as my budget allowed – I think Ive got around 5000 individual tablets of one thing or another plus some syrups and inhalers. The main problem is going to be working out a distribution system. I haven’t got a clue how that is going to operate but I’m sure I will figure it out.

I got a ride back to the village perched on the back of a rather full truck. Buigiri is 32km from town and the sides of the roads are filled with people going about their business. I think every single one of them was laughing at me as it is so unusual to see white people riding in the back as though they are a labourer.

In the evening I realized there was some confusion with Penda – she was unsure how much food I eat and as I’d finished everything the previous couple of nights she kept cooking more and more as she didn’t realize it gets shared out. As such there was enough potatoes and meat to feed not just me but four other people. I don’t think I’ll correct her though.

Some of the kids helping me with my dinner.

After dinner I went down to the local bar with the intention of then catching some of the Arsenal Vs Porto game. A guy here has a workshop and in the evenings he charges boys and young men 10p to enter and watch films or sport on his telly. It is quite an experience sitting amongst everyone. Unfortunately I was so shattered I went home just before the game started. There’ll be more matches though.