tomintanzania

My old school recently raised £850 and I received it 10 days ago. It was for the rehab centre so I had some meetings with the family heads and we decided that the best use of the money would be to give each of the 9 families a project to generate income.

I asked them to submit their ideas on paper and then either accepted or rejected them. I rejected two – one was a clothes business which was destined for failure for several reasons and the second proposal was to rent out the equipment used to make illicit homebrew.

One guy is just not able to run a small business so instad he is getting a new bed and some cooking utensils later in the week.

John with his ox driven plough which he will rent out during the rainy season. When I was with his family in Mpwapwa at the weekend he looked really proud when he was telling them that now he owned a plough.

Joina also wanted a plough. During the rains she can rent it out for around 5000tshs a day. A reasonable salary for someone who, say, works in a bar is around 20,000tshs a month. So it could be a money spinner.

Emily wanted a bike so her son can do a 4 hour round trip to a large dam to bring fish to sell in Buigiri.

Charles’s wife makes some money selling tomatoes and suchlike around the village and now she can get about much quicker and make more money.

Yusuph and his still boxed sewing machine.

Eliza wants to rent out her machine which’ll get her 5000tshs a month, just enough money to feed her family.

The boxes on the floor contain things like rice, beans, soap and sweets. This’ll be the stock Leah uses to kickstart the small shop she’ll run from her house with the help of her daughter.

Jared asked for large pots and cups and plates to rent out to weddings and other large gatherings.

The bag contains the clothes I got at yesterday’s auction. I’ll go again later in the week.

What 1000kg of maize looks like. The very dog-eared book contains my accounts.

The maize gets distributed using a formula I devised largely based on family size.

Not a single kernel goes to waste.

An early start for me was made earlier by a dog kicking up such a racket I was worried someone was trying to break into the guesthouse I was sleeping in.

I passed 30 minutes by watching an episode of Weeds.

The shower was basic but amazingly it had hot water. In my house I tend to wash using a bucket so this was a luxury, despite the lack of plaster.

My friend was sleeping in the next door room and was running late so to kill time I read some of the New Testament in Swahili. The Gideons get everywhere.

And here is Omari. He has appeared in at least one previous ADIML. He is the regional co-ordinator for the Tanzanian League for the Blind and he helps me find the people who need help.

I really liked Mpwapwa. Its a decent sized town and yet still feels like it is in the country. As I took this photo a beggar came up to me, she had old burns all down her arms and legs and what I could see of her neck and torso. She also pointed out a giant gaping wound on her ankle. It was disgusting. I’m a mean so and so though and didn’t give her anything.

I had to change money in the bank. It took ages and so I went outside to sneak in a photo. Some bandits had recently raided the town and so I had to be covert. Seconds after putting the camera away an armed policeman came up to me. I thought I was in trouble but he just wanted me to buy him some tea.

Then we went shopping. We hired a taxi for the morning which was a great help.

And here is the Mpwapwa branch of the Tanzanian League for the Blind. I had met the leaders the evening before and arranged for a dozen blind to gather in the morning.

These two helped me distribute some maize flour and beans amongst the blind.

I also had some white canes to give out.

And some talking watches. There is also a timecheck in there.

I don’t seem to be making many appearances in my own ADIMLs, so here I am.

At the end everyone gathered outside the office for a photo op.

And on to the next destination.

Fuzzy timecheck.

We went to one of the seconary schools which has a unit for the blind. There are around 50 blind students there, a third of whom went to the primary school I’m living at. I chatted to a few and gave out a sack of soap powder and then headed off to my next destination.

The guy in black in the front is John Kapingo.He lives in my village and we’ve been friends since my first visit in 1999. When I got here in October he had a really nasty cancerous wound growing on his head. I got a missionary doctor to get him a diagnosis and then sorted out the treatment. His family wanted to meet me to thank me and that was my main reason for visiting Mpwapwa.

Hello again.

Lunch. Coke gets everywhere on the planet.

We then went to catch the bus back to Buigiri. That’s our bus in the background.

It’s a bad photo due to the dirty window, but it gives you some idea of the semi-arid landscape in this part of Tanzania.

John on the bus with Omari behind. Fortunately we had seats for the return journey – I was standing on the way. It takes around 3 hours on dirt roads to get to Mpwapwa.

Back at my school. These two were playing ‘goalball’ which I guess is like softball. Not that I really know what softball is.

I look somewhat gormless here.

Erasto. He has had some nasty disease thing eating away at the skin on the top of his nose and on his upper lip. Almost every blind kid has some kind of non-eye issue like skin disease, dodgy organs or even AIDS, though generally those with AIDS die before reaching school age.

Stefano and Jose. I wear a talking watch and Stefano is totally blind yet his fingers always find their way to the buttons on my watch.

Nico. Ive never seen a child using a stick before out here as they know the layout of the school but Nico was using one on this day. Last week I ran a sweepstake for the Arsenal Vs Man Utd game and he won it and got a Coke and bar of choccie.

They like to see how many of my knuckles they can make click.

Although you cant see it from this picture, Laurent is holding a propellor that was spinning in the wind.

I then headed down to the shop and played a few games of pool. Each game is 200tshs (10p or 17c) but cos the rains have failed there is no spare money and I’m the only one who actually pays for the games.

I pass some of the local sighted children on the way home. This is Samson and he always grins.

I hear some music and look in on the choir rehersal.

I’m outside my house here. I had a mango which was about to go bad and I knew I wouldn’t eat it and it very quickly found a home.

Best outfit ever. Well, in Buigiri.

Nom nom.

Timecheck

I fire up my DVD player. That is Barracka on the right – he had his very own ADIML some time back.

And whilst the children watch the film, I cook. I had some left over bacon as two nights previously I had given someone a full english breakfast (followed by jelly and ice cream) as he wanted to taste English cuisine and that’s the easiest thing for me to cook on my single hob. And yeah, it’s disgustingly dirty, but it is a heck of a lot cleaner than when I arrived.

Can you name the film? The kids loved it.

After the film I sent one of the children to fetch me water. I pay them 200Tshs (10p, 17c) for a bucket which is good business for them as this guy’s dad probably earns triple that for a full day’s work. Does this count as child labour?

And now it is evening.

So I head back to the bar and meet Tech on the way.

My camera always gets plenty of attention.

The pool table slopes, seemingly in all directions, so we tried to correct it but without much success.

I head back for an earlyish night around 10pm

Tech

I’m a giant.

Final time check and bed.

I went to the nearby Dam yesterday to try a spot of fishing

We couldn’t find any worms (it took me some time to understand what we were looking for as the guy I went with kept talking about ‘meat of fish’). I eventually spotted a frog stuck in a hole and so we (well, he) pulled it out and we used it as bait.

Poor Mr Frog

Dead frogs have comedic tongues.

We used branches for rods

And attached the string, hook and float to the end.

We picked up some spectators who had been swimming.

I did an excellent job of catching frogs. I guess if you use frogs as bait then that is what you get. My tally included 5 frogs, 1 crab, 1 stick and 0 fish. In fact none of us caught any. Maybe we should have stayed out longer but I didn’t bring any drinking water or a hat it was hot hot hot.

Although at least I managed to hold on to my rod.

Although Swahili is the main language in Tanzania, it was only adopted 40 years ago and so the older people largely speak in their tribal tongues. I’ve recently learnt a greeting in the Kigogo language and this morning I got to use it when two old women wished me good morning. Their faces lit up and they flashed toothless grins at me as I replied in the same language. I scampered off before they could say anything else which would only leave me looking dumb.

I hit a kid the other day and it’s not something I’m particularly proud of – he is only 4 but it can’t have been too hard as he didn’t cry or otherwise react other than to step away. I was giving out fruit and the kids were barging into me. I told them to stand back as I was sitting on a step and feeling claustrophobic and then this boy accidentally whacked me in the face so I shoved him back without thinking.

Oh, Teresa got a 5 year old to start smoking which is impressive. She looked out of my window and saw my young neighbour had picked up one of her cigarette butts and was imitating a smoker. Earlier Teresa also jokingly called me a shitbag and suddenly found the same girl instantly repeating ‘shitbag!’.

I think between my physical abuse and Teresa’s lessons on smoking and bad language, we have gone some way to increasing the delinquency of the nation.

One of the children found a broken radio and a broken speaker and managed to get them working. Perhaps one of them is a budding?

This is what many children use for a football. Plastic bags are bound up with string and it makes a pretty effective ball.

And still on the football theme – Simon brought out a genuine Man Utd shirt which just about made Mika’s year. We picked him to get it cos he could name the squad.

And more football. On Sunday I went to Polisi Dodoma Vs Simba. Dodoma have already been relegated and Simba needed a win to secure the equivalent of a Champions League place. At least 95% of the country support either Simba or another team called Yanga and so it was a little odd watching Polisi Dodoma play at their home stadium and yet have the crowd be cheering for the opposition.

I went with David, Israel and Luoga. The children in the village voted which two kids should come and these two won.

I’ve mentioned before about Joseph who has the mind of a child. This is the picture he drew of me which I’m really impressed by. I’m not sure from where he came up with the idea of giving me a 1940s style pencil-thin moustache but I think it adds gravitas.

This would have been a better photo had I ever actually bothered to clean my windows. I have two lizards who live in my house. They eat the bugs and so are my friends.

This boy is proudly showing his booty (and by that I mean treasure rather than his arse!)

Yesterday I held an impromptu sports day. The children had to jump from one side to the other like frogs and the winner got a tangerine. The other events included:

Tug of war. Trying to drag me away from the wall. I won.

Push-ups. Saidi won with 26 in a 30 second period.

And finally jumping. I called a halt when after 15 minutes two boys were still jumping on the spot. I didn’t really want two deaths from exhaustion hanging over my head. I find it surprising just how easy children are to entertain – given my limited knowledge of the language and my lack of experience being around children I’m yet to be bored in their presence, we always work some kind of game out.

Peace and quiet has returned! Imogen flew back to England last Monday and I travelled from Dar back to my house. On Monday, Teresa and Simon arrived for 3 nights. Imogen and I had spent a couple of days with them on Zanzibar and Buigiri was the final-ish leg of their trip. They are now on the Dar bus and will spend a couple of days on a beach before flying home.

Sipping Mojitos on Zanzibar

Where we stayed. I think Teresa and Simon have stayed in 10 different places over 14 days which is pretty impressive.

The sunset from Zanzibar’s west coast.

Joining in during a football game. I made a brief appearance where I scored a penalty. I distracted the boy in goal by telling him there was an elephant behind him and then the ball hit one of the many bumps and lept over his outstretched hand.

Spectators

The children love being spun around. The only problem is it leaves you so dizzy you can barely stand and then you have to endure a dozen kids clamouring for their turn.

Heading back to the house. Teresa was ill, I suspect she caught too much sun and over-exerted herself. That is why she is absent from many of the photos.

Teaching the children a cardgame on my porch.

I wonder if he had heard of a glass.

I had 3 of these beasts outside my house this morning.