tomintanzania

I’m back from Kenya. I was only there for a few days but it was really great having some home comforts. Nairobi is like a European city in many ways. OK, so London, Paris and Brussels don’t have shanty towns, but Nairobi has a CBD as well as shopping malls and multiplex cinemas. In the latter of which I spent a fairly considerable amount of time watching Quantum of Solace (pretty good, but not quite up there with Casino Royale), Body of Lies (a slightly forgettable Iraq war film with a good cast) and The Day The Earth Stood Still (Very forgettable. Rather silly and with more holes than something holey).

Chez Tom.

An orphaned elephant. It’s probably still pondering which is worse: losing its mother to poachers or being patted by.

So many shops! I got to buy loads of things Tanzania just doesnt have like a potato masher and sardines.

My new friend.

Here is a typical day in Nyemo’s life.

It’s 6.30am so Nyemo is less than active.

Time stamp. This is the only decoration within the house.

Breakfast consists of Uji (gruel). I didn’t think gruel existed outside of Charles Dickens novels, but I was wrong. Here is Mariam, Nyemo’s 22 year old mother with Sarah, her 9 month old daughter. She already has 4 children!

Kenneth is Nyemo’s Dad. He is hoping to end up with 10 kids!

Nom nom nom! I had a small amount of gruel and it’s fair to say it was disgusting.

After breakfast the family collects water. They pay 50p (80c) a month for use of a standpipe. Fortunately this gives them unlimited use as I distracted Nyemo causing the bucket to overflow!

Even five year old Willy gets roped in to help. He is on the right hand side.

Thomas the Tank Engine, FTW! This is Emmanuel, Nyemo’s 3 year old brother.

The mornings are the coolest part of the day and so it’s the best time for farm work.

I joined in, but found it hard determining what was the crop and what were weeds so I gave up before I caused too much damage.

The younger children draw in the sand. I guess they have little need for pens and paper.

After work, we head back to the family house.

This is a scorpion hole. The ground is littered with them and they terrify me.

Nyemo relaxes at home…

…as her mother sets about preparing lunch.

Maize is poured into this giant pestle and mortar…

…and then battered the heck out of until the husks separate from the innards.

I turned my hand at it, but wasn’t much good.

Meanwhile Kenneth went off to get some other food. Here he is plucking leaves off a tree.

Timestamp. It is still way too early but the food takes a long time to prepare.

Once the maize has been smashed up, it is then separated out by tossing.

The large bits are then put back into the grinder and pummeled once again.

Rather than each family keeping a fire lit all day, they simply borrow bits of lit wood and charcoal from their neighbours.

Nyemo and Willy crack on with their chores.

Nyemo’s aunt helps prepare the leaves. Here she seperates them from the stalks.

These chickens cracked me up. The cock stood tall and proud in the middle as his trio of babes formed a protective ring.

The family is very poor and so there is no money to get toys. As such the kids show their resourcefulness by making their own toy cars.

Vroom vroom!

Tasteful timestamp!

The leaves are boiled with water to form a paste which closely resembled slime.

Meanwhile the maize flour is boiled up to form ugalee. Cooking takes place indoors in a room seperate from the main house and it was so smokey I could only stay for a couple of minutes. God only knows what her lungs are like.

Handwashing time again

The ugalee is rolled into a ball and then dipped in the slime. I didn’t try any but I think I can guess how it tastes.

After lunch Nyemo looks after her sister Sarah.

Whilst Emmanuel and two friends pretend they are riding a motorbike.

Timestamp.

Nyemo’s grandmother swings by with a pot. She started speaking to me – I think she wanted me to go and visit her house, but I really didn’t have the energy and so feigned ignorance.

The children play a game where broken ceramics are placed in a circle and they have to use stones to knock pieces out. Im amazed by the ingenuity of children to find ways entertain themselves.

The sun is starting to set. As the house has no electricity, their day ends fairly soon after sunset.

Nyemo is back in charge of her sister.

Timestamp.

For supper the family eat the lumps of maize which are a byproduct of ugalee.

Maize is 15p (25c) a kilo and on this day three kilos provided 16 meals.

Here are the four children of Mariam and Kenneth together.

Final timestamp.

Nyemo shares this bed with her two brothers and they sleep in their clothes.

Barracka’s home. His father is a teacher and writer and so is relatively wealthy, putting the family firmly in the middle class. Regardless, by western standards living is basic – ten people call this small building home.

At 6.30am, Barracka is unsurprisingly not the most cheerful of children.

Like good children, Barracka and his sister Dolini (pronounced Doreen) brush their teeth

Barracka’s older brother Nicholas looks on.

The mother of the family: Pendo

Barracka and

The first time stamp of the day and way too early!

Barracka took this one. A sign of the Mangwela’s wealth is the fact they have electricity and a television. There is no lightbulb in the living room so in the evening the TV is used to see.

Breakfast. This consists simply of sweet tea

Timestamp

Barracka gets down to a little school work. Although it is the holidays his parents make him look over his books.

Barracka is in the pre-school of a primary school. Here he is mastering letter combinations.

After school work, Barracka helps on the family shamba. A shamba is a small farm and pretty much every family in the countryside has one, regardless of wealth. The rains are just starting and so it is a busy time. The family is growing two crops: Mahindi (maize) which is later ground into flour and then boiled to make ugalee. The second crop is Karanga (ground nuts – when baked they become peanuts). If you are old enough to walk then you are old enough to help on the shamba.

Timestamp

Cooking takes place in a room accessed from outdoors. A simple charcoal burner is used.

Today rice is on the menu.

Whilst his mother cooks, Barracka plays with a wheel.

Again, like good kids, the children wash their hands before eating.

The large pot contains wali (cooked rice) and to the right is nyama (meat) in a tomato broth.

Nom nom nom!

Time stamp.

Barracka joins some friends outside to play.

The family keeps these birds. I think they are pigeons or doves or something. They arent pets – they are food.

Nicholas hides indoors from the heat. Here he is reading an English-language bible.

Time stamp.

Two friends, Marium and Savella pop by.

Barracka standing on the wall outside his house.

Other children swing by.

Barracka shows off his cartwheels.

The sun is starting to get low in the sky.

Play continues.

It gets dark around 6pm.

This is a neighbor called Mbogo. I’m pretty sure Mbogo means ‘vegetable’ in Swahili.

Here I make my second and final appearance.

Barracka’s brother Nicholas gave them some bubble gum. Each piece costs 10Tshs (2000Tshs=£1=$1.50).

Supper time. Now they have Ugalee and meat. Pretty much everybody eats Ugalee every meal in Tanzania.

Nom nom nom! Again.

Final timestamp.

Barracka is looking tired so I left the family and went to my home. He goes to bed around 9pm.

Yesterday I handed out some clothes which were a gift from my Mum. I also showed some of the children of the rehab centre a couple of episodes of Mr Bean. As there is little dialogue, it is perfect for the wee nippers. Some of them laughed and laughed whilst others just stared blankly. There was one scene from a dog show (Mr Bean wins the agility section by entering his teddy bear and then pulling him around the course)(no sniggering at the last parenthesis please). The children were in awe of the different types of dogs as over here the only dogs are semi-feral mongrel mutts.

This lizard was trapped in a window

Mr Bean

I came into town yesterday and stayed overnight. I bought one of the young guys from the village in and packed him off on a bus in the evening. He got to experience ice cream and computers for the first time. Sometimes I wonder if it’s fair giving these people little treats cos it makes them more aware of what they don’t have, but at the same time they seem to enjoy it.

The rains have started. There arent regular seasons here like summer, winter etc – there is a wet season and a dry season and both are clearly defined. It doesnt rain at all in the dry season and the ground is sandy. In the wet season it tips it down for hours each day and everywhere quickly becomes green. It also somehow multiplies the insects, arachnids and reptiles. I have no idea where they go in the dry season – can they hibernate?

The animal that most terrifies me is the scorpion. There are thousands of holes in the ground near my house where they live. I’m convinced they’ve camped out near my place just to terrify me. The locals kill them when they see them, but they are underground most of the time (the scorpions – not the locals). Seeing a boy stamp on one with flip flops on (the boy was wearing the flipflops, not the scorpion) (I must stop these unfunny gags) was terrifying – I’d only stamp on one if I was wearing kevlar boots.

This is the biggest scorpion I’ve seen to date. It was around 8 inches in length.

I hang out a bit with two brothers, Tech and Alan, they saw me shriek when I saw a scorpion and now when we walk along they’ll pretend there is a big one by my feet and then go into hysterics as I jump in the air. Two days ago I was admiring a massive line of inch-long ants near my house. My admiration evaporated when I realised they were in fact moving house. Their new residence is a crack in my wall. I went to war and used three types of insect spray and filled the hole as best I could. I then tried blocking the entrance by using the wax from a candle – only the candle ignited the spray and there was a WHOOOSH and a puff of air and flame shot out.

This is only a part of the line

In rather surreal news – one of the families who live in the rehab centre has had a baby girl this week. I saw them on Wednesday and they said in order to thank me for my help they want to name the baby after my mother. They didn’t have a clue what my mother’s name was so lucky for them she wasnt called Chlamydia or something. Anyhow, there is now a baby called Sara. I’ve emailled my mum about it and I expect her to be rather amused and embarrassed by it. I think its funny and sweet.

Mamma Neema, Isaiah and baby Sara

In news about John’s cancer – as I write this he is on a bus bound for Dar es Salaam. He has a referral letter and enough money for he and a relative to stay there for around two weeks. There is an issue about funding the treatment as the healthcare is funded regionally and they don’t have the equipment to deal with his problem in this region and can’t fund treatment in another region. The place is way too bureaucratic, but that’s how it is. He’s keeping in touch with me by phone and hopefully he’ll get his treatment free.

I found myself in a strange situation the other day. I bought a couple op shirts for a local boy who has only one shirt which dwarfs him. One was £2 and the other £1.50 which is nothing. Anyhow, I just asked in passing how much it came to. I can obviously do the maths but here they like to use calculators for everything and its part of the buying process to let them add up. She then looked at me and said ‘How much do you want to pay?’ so I found myself bartering for something which I was happy paying full whack for.

In fact the whole money thing is strange – as most people are dirt poor they will go massively out of their way to get things cheaply. As such I find myself about to buy something in a shop and the person I’m with will say something like ‘let’s not get this here, its alot cheaper down the road’. When ‘down the road’ is a couple of miles and ‘alot cheaper’ is often around 5p. It must seem like I’m extravagant throwing these 5pences away!

Time to stop writing and do a picture dump:

Here I am with Tech outside his house

And with his brother Alan

They breed birds for food

Which I tried eating slightly raw

I quite like the colours in this one

Cue jokes about being a tosser

Say no biscuit, see no biscuit, say no biscuit

I seem to be playing more pool than ever before

Thomas, Emmanuel and Kenny after eating. There isnt much food left on the plates.

Around one person in 80 in Tanzania is albino. This past year 20 have been killed so their body parts can be used in witchcraft

The blind children have gone home now for Christmas. This was taken on the last day. On the final two nights of term they came to watch Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Even without vision it is exciting hearing the music, cars, planes and guns. I also plied them with fizzy drink, lolly pops and biscuits. It was fun.

The boy is getting me a couple of papaya. These are some of the trees I planted in 1999.