tomintanzania

Thursday 14th

We had a leisurely morning with just a few visitors with various problems that needed remedying. I think the highlight of the morning was Shane asking me a question about the previous day’s trip to the witchdoctor. When we were visiting him I explained to Shane that the witchdoctor has 3 wives but until recently he also had a fourth. At that moment a duck and her ducklings sauntered past and I couldn’t resist telling Shane that he had turned the fourth wife in to a duck. I thought nothing more of it until Thursday when curiosity clearly had gotten the better of Shane and he asked me if it was really true about the duck.

I spot these two children wearing shirts from the school my sister teaches at, which she distributed last year.

We provided some assistance to these three women who each had different problems. The woman on the right is holding a photo of her severely disformed grandson who she needs a large sum to help remedy. I suspect he is beyond help though.

The journey to Mpwapwa was surprisingly good. The town is three hours away and the road is untarmaced. We arrived and found our guesthouse. By western standards it would be shocking, but it had a hot shower which felt like heaven. On the bus I decided it might be nice to visit a couple of blind kids who go to the secondary school there. One had been at Buigiri and the other in Hombolo, both of whom I’d gotten to know over the years. Each year I come here I find various children have progressed from the blind primary school to mainstream secondary school and I rarely get to see them again. Thus it was decided to have a go at Mpwapwa Secondary. The flip side was the bureaucracy. We really should have had formal letters of introduction and gone through a small ceremony with the headmaster but this was all a little last minute. To start with we were told that the children were in prayers and so we couldn’t see them but eventually the teacher on duty relented and we got to see them. Jose, who was at Buigiri, had the biggest grin on his face as we greeted each other. The school is 4 hours from his home and he might only return once a year, so to have a visitor who could pass greetings on from his brother and from other friends was fantastically well received. When the teacher had his back turned I palmed both kids 10,000tshs so they can have some pocket money and then we headed off into the night in search of a good meal.

And a good meal was discovered. Including a nearby pool table. The waitress was miserable though. I was challenged to make her smile and I’m proud to say I managed it.

Paolo and Jose at Mpwapwa Secondary.

Friday 15th

I came to Mpwapwa once before in 2010 and this trip was to be much the same. The local leaders had selected 20 families and after the introductions we handed out maize, soap, beans, bananas and onions to each family. A few individuals also received white canes or a phone. Although the food is largely a token amount, it might feed their family for only a week, it is extremely well appreciated. I go as a representative of the Tanzanian League for the Blind and it reflects well on them too that they are concerned with the blind people who live away from the main city and roads.

In lieu of an easter present, my Mum gave me £20 to give to some mothers. These are the lucky recipients who each received 10,000tshs

We had a pretty good system set up to distribute the food. I was in charge of maize and soap.

Shane had the beans and onions covered

Here are most of the recipients together. The bags in front will go to those who live far and couldn’t make it.

I buy these canes from the RNIB in Bristol. They also collect odds and sods throughout the year for me to take for free. Ive given many canes out over the years and these guys had admired someone’s RNIB cane when they were at the same meeting earlier in the year. They had broad grins when they discovered they would also have the same type of sturdy folding cane.

We also handed out two mobiles. The woman on the left spent the rest of my time there repeating the words ‘thank you, thank you, thank you’.

We just caught our bus back and somehow we found the energy to have a rather late night in the bar. Anna often locks up at 11pm but through the liberal distribution of alcohol we did not leave until 3.30am. I suspect it will hit me in the coming days, but it was good fun.

Our neighbour came to see us. She has stomach ulcers and needed help getting to a doctor.

We attempted to educate some local friends about the game of poker. The glazed expressions from some and the snoring from the others led us to believe it may not catch on in the village.

Saturday 16th

We had made plans the night before to meet with some teachers and share some meat over a leisurely 10am breakfast. Not surprisingly, the teachers had overslept so instead I spent the time overseeing the children being fitted for uniforms. The plan was to do about 50 uniforms. That sounded a lot at the outset, but that group comprises people from four different areas, so I suspect the number will creep up a little. When the teachers appeared we sat around and munched on liver. It is delicious when barbecued and dipped in salt.

The beginning of the bespoke uniform process

Next up was the annual school dance competition. I have refined this perfectly now. We had four heats of dances and then a final, with radios given out to the best blind and the two best sighted dancers. The blind children then took part in a quiz with rounds including ‘name premiership teams’ and ‘name countries in Africa’.

The dancing mid flow

The boy in the red top is wearing a Bayern Munich shirt which my flatmate gave me last year

In the evening we headed to a new huge bar in the village. Back when I was a lad, the biggest bar here consisted of a shack with a fridge outside it. Now there is the Angel Bar which has a fully stocked bar including cider and Smirnoff Ice, plus a large nightclub style dance floor.

Myself and Kieran, who came here in 2011, set a guy up with some capital for a business. It now consists of two pigs, one of whom is about to give birth. So I paid them a visit to grunt hello at them.

The journey out here was long but otherwise uneventful. It makes the 27 hour door-to-door journey go much faster. It is always good to return to Buigiri – as although I often think about Tanzania when I am in England, it is hard to picture the exact feel of the place and the people.

The annual photo of what I brought with me

The first night was spent greeting various people in the village and introducing Shane to everybody. It can be information overload as there are so many people I interact with here and Tanzanians sure do love their greetings. After a kind invitation to dinner of roasted meat, rice and potatoes, we found our way down to the bar with some of the teachers. There I met Anna again who tried to marry me last year by slipping a ring on my finger when I was unawares. She is always entertaining although I’ve now acquired a sixth sense watching out for her creeping up on me.

The bargirl Anna giving an evil laugh as she plots our marriage

Monday 11th

The first full day is always spent planning the future events. Shane asked before we got here what we would be doing each day and I never know for sure until I arrive. The time quickly fills up though as I try and tackle a long list of tasks. We visited a few of the leaders and loaded up on cash from one of them as I had sent it out in advance – relying on cash points when based in a rural village has been the bane of my life in the past. We visited the Rehabilitation Centre and had a meeting about what we would be doing with them this year. Fortunately I have refined their meeting techniques somewhat, so we were only in there for an hour or so. We also got to see some of the chicken farms I have set up for them over the past two or three years.

The meeting at the rehab centre felt a little like being back in the classroom

Jared is the chairman of the village and at the front is Emejohn, named after my sister Imogen

The very first thing a boy said to me this trip was ‘can I play the game?’. He meant my iPad. It is hard to get it off them at times.

Tuesday 12th

We headed into town on the Rehab centre’s pickup and brought some flour for them. Each family received 25kg. My original plan had been to get it the following week but there is much hunger here and they asked if it could be done sooner. It means I get to cross a job off my list and get a ride in to town. As we had a vehicle we made sure it was loaded up with items for other projects and then it left for Buigiri leaving us free in town to finish a number of jobs. We made the most of the wifi in the smart hotel. Technology is coming along a pace in Africa – each week I get another friend request on Facebook from someone here. Most of their access it via a 2 square inch mobile phone screen, but somehow they manage.

When we returned to Buigiri we went to the centre to hand the flour over to the families and to collect our items. As expected we had some people outside our home waiting for our return. We had bought medicine in town for one woman who has had a skin condition and each year I supply her with what she needs. Hopefully this time it will clear up, but then I say that every year.

The rehab centre and their maize

Esther with her fresh stock of skin medication

Wednesday 13th

This was our busiest day by far but we managed to get through it in good spirits. Early in the morning we headed to town by bus. Having tried to manage Shane’s expectations about local buses by saying how miserable they are, we in fact had a very good journey. We brought lots of clothes for the village and chalked a few things off our long list of things to also get. After a quick lunch and a trip to get medication for a woman who broke her leg the year before we decided to cop out and get a taxi home. It costs £10 rather than the 50p per person the bus costs but sometimes temptation becomes too great. Along the way we encountered a police checkpoint and it transpired our driver shouldn’t be behind the wheel because we headed off road and bypassed the police by driving through the farms.

We had a number of appointments in the afternoon in Buigiri, but first we had to plough through the visitors to our home. We had two blind women who had travelled some distance to see us and they were after assistance for all manner of things. We helped with uniforms and food and sent them on their way. Others came to collect things like medicine and then we managed to slip away and visit the houses of 5 people we had planned to meet. The first house belonged to Hogra – I was given £35 by a friend to use for a family affected by HIV. The father had died a number of years ago from the disease and the mother was infected. I have used the money to set them up with a small business selling tea and buns on the roadside. It isn’t enough to get a full blown gastronomic operation set up but she has been able to buy the flour, sugar, tea, coffee and other items she needs and she can build the business from there if she works hard.

Hogra and her 3 children with the beginnings of a mighty food empire

Stella and Maggie are two blind women who came to visit us. I complimented them on their colourful clothes.

We also visited Joel’s shop which I set up in 2008 and which grows each year – although it is still pretty small. He is a hard working blind man who wishes to maintain an independent life with his family. Well, as independent as you can get whilst being helped to get his business up and running. It means he can avoid living in absolute poverty, although times are still hard.

Another person we visited was Mr Kusenha. He is in my photos from last year collecting the iron sheets for his roof. His house looks great now and is dry all year around. Unfortunaly Mr Kusenha has not faired so well. He has had a stroke and he spends his time on a soiled mattress in a small room in the house. It was difficult talking to him without showing any emotion. It is such a depressing existance though as every day of his life will now be miserable and full of pain.

Kusenha’s shiny new roof

We then visited 2 more people where we distributed medicine or helped in other areas. I bumped in to Mr Maswaga who has an uncanny ability of always finding me in the village. He must be in his 80s and he has glasses thicker than milk bottles. Every year he invites me to his house and every year I find an excuse not to go because I know he wants me to build him a new one and I can’t do that. He made me feel guilty for always postponing my visits, and rightly so. However that didn’t stop me from saying I had to dash off but this time I was sincere as a car was waiting to take us to see the witchdoctor.

Jenny in her home. I provided some food but she also needed some planks of wood to repair the beams in her house. I had to decline as I have a little less money to spend on these kinds of things this year.

The witchdoctor’s father is a blind leader who I support. I have helped him start a small animal project which began with 8 chickens worth around £40 and now consists of 3 cows with a calf on the way which are valued at around £800. Not a bad investment though not one I can make a withdrawal from. His son the witchdoctor houses them at his house. Last year he names a cow after my sister and this year he has named the other two after myself and my father. The unborn calf is earmarked to be called Shane. The witchdoctor had organised traditional dancing for us, plus we watched a children’s choir who I supported last year by supplying them with a tape machine to sing along to. This is my third visit to his house and he is always so hospitable. He gave us sodas and also a giant live duck to take with us to eat.

Some traditional Ngoma dancing by the Wagogo tribe.

Their choirs are a little different to most UK choirs – I’m surprised they don’t tire themselves out too much to sing.

The presentation of a duck to us by Daodi the witchdoctor.

Imogen, Thomas and Giles. Don’t we make for a great family photo?

I head back to Tanzania on Saturday for 3 weeks. I’ll be doing much the same as I have done in previous trips. The final week is always such a bore as I have dozens of small tasks to do. The main one amongst them is packing – each year I ask for phones, glasses, cameras and football shirts from friends and each time I ask, I think I have exhausted my supply and yet each time I end up with more than the previous year. This trip is no different. Some friends have put notices up at work and collected on my behalf. I’ve just been given a bag full of goodies from the finance department at Bristol University and last week I was given a huge load of items from the guys in Admissions at UWE.

Another fantastic source is the school my sister teaches at in London. Not only do Our Lady Queen of Heaven ensure my luggage is bursting at the seams, but they also fundraise for the projects in Tanzania. Last weekend 160 people connected to the school met up early in the morning to walk around Richmond Park. The money they raise will be used for the projects in 2014. Without their help I’d find myself kicking my heels for 3 weeks with few resources. The children also collect money through the year and every penny gets put to good use.

Thank you to everyone who has given money or items. I explain to the recipients where it comes from and they are always asking me to thank everybody in the UK and that’s the purpose of this post. I will hopefully get my first proper update on this site in the middle of next week and so be prepared to be bombarded with hundreds of photos and overly verbose writeups.

During my trip in April, I decided that this year’s main project would be supplying desks and chairs to Uguzi Primary School in Buigiri Village. Although my past main projects have been concerned with helping the blind, it is good to provide benefits to the wider community as there is also much need there. Previous projects include building 3 houses for the families of urban blind beggars, setting up income generating projects for 11 families (eg a plough rental scheme, a grocery) and building a dozen small scale chicken farms. Each project costs roughly £1000 and have been funded either by Ampleforth College in Yorkshire or Our Lady Queen of Heaven Primary School in London.

I visited the workmen at SIDO in Dodoma to get an idea of the prices of the different types of desk and chair. Further research confirmed these were fair prices rather than ‘white man prices’. When I returned to the UK I left it in the capable hands of Mr Omary to organise and a few months later they were built and delivered to Uguzi. I have said it before on this site, but desks and chairs are very important. The alternative is you sit on the uncomfortable floor and you don’t learn to write properly. It also helps instill a little bit of pride in the school.

How the children usually sit

The desks and chairs arriving from town on the back of a truck

Waiting outside

In all their glory

After the photo was taken, they were divided up between two classrooms.

I’m on my way to see Mr Fwejeje, a blind teacher whose wife has been making me dozens of school uniforms. The deadline is today so he has been roped in to sewing on buttons.

I head home with a sack of uniforms and spot this little guy on my house

At 10am I head to Uguzi Primary School to hand out a set of new football shirts. They’ll now be playing in the colours of my home team Bristol City

One of my projects this year is kitting the school out with desks for around 100 children. Most classes are like this one where the children sit on the floor. It is not only uncomfortable, but also difficult to learn how to write.

This is what I’ll be getting made. Each costs around £30/$50 and seats 3 or 4 children.

I head home to find Mr Kusenha waiting for me. I treat him to a soda. He is an elderly blind man who is after corrigated iron sheets to finish building his roof.

His four children turn up to help carry the sheets.

Off they go. Home is a few km away. They’ll be shattered, but they will at least have a dry home when the rains come.

Next stop is to the adult blind centre. A collection of 12 families, 10 of whom have at least one blind adult, plus two helpers and their families.

They’ll be getting lots of clothing, toothpaste, school books, pens and other things

The children get some of the uniforms I collected earlier from Mr Fwejeje

Meanwhile the adult blind get enough seeds for their gardens and medicine for their families to see them through the year until my next visit.

Last year’s main project was the building of 10 chicken houses. 8 of which are now up and running and 2 are in the process of being finished. The money for these was raised by a sponsored walk by the children at the school my sister teaches at, so I have had a sign made.

Jared and John. The baby is named after my sister. The plants behind them are grown with the seeds I gave out last year. I think the left hand side is chilli and the right is green pepper.

Next stop is lunch. The only place to eat in the village. I have a chip omelette.

Next visit is to Teck and Alan’s house. They live in a crumbling mud house and yet are always clean and well presented. My sister and I are funding a new house for them which will be built in a few months time.

This is where they sleep. Their clothes hang on a mosquito net which in turn hangs above the sack they sleep on together.

I head home and spy these children playing a form of hopscotch.

I arrive home to find the village photographer waiting for me. I had promised him a digital camera a friend had given me in the UK.

A teacher then visits so I can help him apply for his visa to visit the UK. He is coming to see if anything can be done about his rapidly failing eyesight.

After one teacher leaves, another comes. This is Mr Omary who is one of the top leaders in the blind community. He is picking up white sticks, talking watches and mobile phones I have brought out and they will be distributed to blind people across the region.

With 30 minutes to kill before dinner I head to the school to distribute the final items from my house. These albino girls all get factor 50 sun cream.

These are the last shirts from my house. I have handed out maybe 25 football shirts this trip, not including the school visit earlier in the day.

The blind teachers come for a dinner of beef with potatoes and pilau rice.

One of the guys gives me this slightly modified card. A few years ago I set him up with a small shop which makes him just enough money to get by.

Evening time check

Every night I feed around ten of the local children. This evening they have been displaced by the teachers. Having asked my cook to make enough food for about 15, there was barely any left though so I sent them off for chip omelettes.

Meanwhile the teachers were getting more and more drunk. Although they are wealthy by village standards, they cannot really justify drinking wine in any great quantity, so as a thanks for all the work they have done for me, I got them all extremely sloshed on vino.

Meanwhile the kids are back from their omelettes and are still hungry so they polish off the remaining rice.

We then head down to the bar.

Sometimes it is hard to tell when blind people fall asleep. In this instance it was fairly clear.

And another one off with the fairies

As it is my final night I paid for drinks for everyone at the bar. Total bill was around $20 for 28 drinks. I love African prices.

The bargirl Anna decided we were to be married. Few people formally wed here but to mark a union a ring is exchanged so Anna kept sneaking up trying to force this ring on my finger.

My only appearance in this DITL. That is me looking terrified.

I head back home with three of the guys. They all crash in my house because it is late and it is a final night treat for them. It is now 3am and I am up at 6.30. Yikes.