tomintanzania

Sunday 13th March

Sunday was another relatively easy day although I still had a steady stream of visitors to my house. One guy came to see me cos his wife has kidney problems. I gave some support last year and again supplied a little bit but only about 10% of what he needed.

I also had a very drunk guy come and try and get money – I outright refused. If he can buy drink he can buy food. He got quite intimidating and I was bracing myself to be attacked but he shuffled off peacefully in the end. Although I’ve never had any trouble here, I am conscious that I’m a target cos I have a small fortune in the house plus boxes and sacks of goods so my shop is as kitted out as any village shop. Tanzanians are by their nature a very friendly and welcoming people but all it takes is one desperate guy with a machete and it could be goodnight from me.

Abel asked me to bring out a digital camera. I got him a 1.3megapixel one and warned him it’ll be rubbish. .

I visited a woman to make a video for a school in London of how the local food is prepared .

In the afternoon I experienced one of my most surreal moments in the village – over the last few years I’ve helped an 80 year old blind man called Gabriel set up a chicken project which has grown and changed into a goat project. A friend gave me £50 to spend out here and as my friend is into spiritual and spooky stuff I decided to use it to help Gabriel as his son is a witchdoctor and he decided to use the money to expand his herd, sort out grazing for them and get himself food. Also, whilst Gabriel is a very poor man he is held in very high regard as an elder so he will use some money to get some clothes so he won’t have to wear his rags. It is just a small thing really but giving him the ability to get clothes is a big deal to him. Gabriel gets some support from his son and to thank me for the help I’ve channelled to his father he invited me over to visit him in his surgery. I have been before and wanted to take pics but didn’t want to look touristy so I missed the opportunity. This time around he asked me to bring my camera – result. The place is full of herbs and remedies. It is a very odd place. He presented me with a duck as a thank you. I’ve never held a duck before – but they aren’t much fans of being carried around and it flapped like crazy and crapped all over the place. The whole situation was very bizarre.

Sitting with Gabriel and his son in the witchdoctor’s surgery. There are also wards attached and he sometimes refers people in to mainstream medicine.

The presentation.

The duck was placed in a very practical carry case for me to take home .

On the way back to the school I got a kilo of BBQed cow to give to the kids. One boy had recently had a visit from his father and had a load of sweets and biscuits. I’d earlier asked for a sweet for a joke and he refused, so in turn I said he wouldn’t get any meat – which I didn’t mean but he then ran around everyone telling them I was tricking them and giving them roasted snake. It was really amusing. He eventually had some cow and soon shut up.

Giving some of the stuff out to the girls.

Some boys got toy cars.

Monday 14th March

I spent the day in town – I took 3 guys from the village with me. One of whom was the guy I mentioned earlier who I was concerned had wasted the money for his small business and his education but he showed me his bank account and although it didn’t have the full amount in it, it was mostly complete. So that was refreshing. I then hit the shops – I got 100 pants, 60 socks, loads of material and around 200 items of clothing. Buying stuff is not straight forward. Most shops don’t have things in any quantity. Also prices vary so much so you have to hunt around to find the best price and then get haggling. As a whiteman I don’t tend to get too much leeway given to me, but I can usually save a little. I’ve perfected my ‘kakaka’ throat noise which is what they do here when surprised by something – so whenever I’m given a price I use that noise and it gives me an avenue to shave off some money. I must remember not to do that when back in England in Sainsbury’s.

Coral’s new sponsored pro.

Sorting clothes into piles of gender and size at home, one of the guys decided to have a go at crossdressing. He seemed to enjoy it.

In the evening I had a couple of teachers over to eat the duck. He was a big bird though and it fed a further four people. It was very tasty indeed.

Tuesday 15th March

I headed to Hombolo which is a town around an hour away along dirt roads. There is a primary school there which has a small boarding unit for the blind. Currently they have 7 blind students but their capacity is far higher. Many parents are frightened of the motivations behind trying to get the kids into school and many other parents just don’t know that there is an opportunity to get free education for their visually impaired children. I’ve tried tackling this in the past and have got a few kids into the education system but it is so time consuming and can chew up cash if you don’t want to wait for the local governmental bureaucracy to kick in. Anyhow, the seven children there are often overlooked as all the resources for the blind comes to Buigiri as that is where the most need is. Over the past few years I’ve given the Hombolo kids some support though and the purpose of today’s visit was to distribute new uniforms and shoes as well as stuff like Braille playing cards, wind up radios, talking watches and then small things like toothpaste and skin cream. It’s not exactly life changing stuff for them but at least they don’t feel totally forgotten.

With the seven blind children of Hombolo School plus a matron and some teachers, one of whom is blind.

Unfortunately when we arrived at the school in Hombolo we had some terrible news. I was escorting one of the Buigiri blind teachers who is also the regional co-ordinator of the Tanzanian League for the Blind when he had a phone call – his father had suddenly died at his home around 5 hours north or where we were. We finished our business at the school but we had an appointment at the local winery – the biggest (and only) one in East Africa. I said we should head back to Buigiri but it was agreed the visit would continue but would be brief. In hindsight we should have just returned. We’ve all been to the vineyard before and it was only on the agenda as an entertainment stop. When we eventually made it back to Buigiri the teacher’s house was full of people paying their respects. It was very moving watching people with very little money each give a short speech and contribute what they could to enable the family to travel the 5 hours north for the funeral.

At the Cetawico winery.

Tuesday 8th March

Today was wash day. Cleaning oneself is not particularly easy – it takes about an hour to heat up the water over a charcoal burner to a bearable temperature. Whilst this was happening a couple of girls bought up the maize from the night before. I’m always shocked at how much people can carry without any noticeable muscle definition. I usually think of myself as pretty strong but am a weakling in comparison to them.

Shrove Tuesday is Chapati Tuesday.

I headed up to the Adult Blind Centre after breakfast for a meeting. It went on for 3.5 hours. We discussed various projects from years gone by and some had failed and some continued. There has been drought for a few years now and so these are lean times and not much money is floating around. One project I set up a couple of years back was to give all 11 families there a means of generating an income, so after various discussions we agreed on what they would be – two families were given ploughs to rent out, others had bicycles to transport goods and so on. The idea being that their expenditure on upkeep would be minimal and almost all the income would then be profit. However most of them are from the Wagogo tribe and one of the characteristics of being a Wagogo is you only think about today, never tomorrow. So if times are tough then you’d sell something for a low price just to make ends meet today without any thought to the impact it will have tomorrow. It can be hugely frustrating working with Wagogo and it is probably no coincidence that those who I’m closest to out here and who I use to run projects when I’m not here are from other tribes.

In the middle of the meeting.

We had discussed the previous year about setting up 11 chicken projects, one for each family. So they’d all get a brick chicken house with a tin roof and a fence, plus the chickens, chicken-food and medicine. I got the funding together during the past year for this so I gave it my stamp of approval. 80% of the costs will go on the buildings and so if they do individually decide to scrap their projects by selling all their chickens then only some of the original investment will be lost and it will be easy to get off the ground again. I also intend to set up a little competition to see who can have the best project running when I return next and the winner gets some cash or further investment.

I had to get back home for 2pm as I was meeting various school children and a tailor there. There are two primary schools in the village aside from the blind primary school where I’m based. I’d asked the headmaster from each to pick ten of the poorest children so they could get new school uniforms and shoes. I’ve used the tailor before and she is good. She is also the wife of a blind man so the money she gets will also generate other benefits. She is working for me flat out for two weeks. Whenever I see her kids I ask what their mother is doing and they always say she is making clothes. She might have just prepped them though!

I had a bit of a backlog of people waiting at my house to see me by this stage. Next up was Emmanuel – he is a blind shopkeeper from a nearby town called Hombolo. He is a hard worker and wants to be independent and self sufficient – it is something of an irony that for this to happen he needs someone to help him get up on his feet. In the past I’ve supplied items for his shop and given him things like a white cane and talking watch. This time he wanted me to build him a house – which I refused. He lives with his parents and wants to break away. Instead I gave him assistance in smaller ways. He has 3 acres of farm and as he is blind and unmarried he has no one to weed it. A poker playing friend who is also a gardener gave me some money to spend out here so I used some of it to help him with that problem and another bit went on making sure he has enough food until harvest. Next up to see me was one of the local leaders who needed some assistance to fund a meeting of the blind – I refused him though. It is only about £50 but my experience of meetings here is they are mostly a waste of time and I’d rather the funds I have to spend went on tangible things as much as possible.

With Emmanuel

Wednesday 9th March

I was up early for another trip to town – I got a ride on the back of a pickup which is my favourite means of travel cos you get lots of fresh air and there is plenty to see. Also the pickup was going into town cos a boy in the front had suspected typhoid and I wasn’t in any rush to share the same air as him. My first job was to buy seed for the Adult Blind Centre. The main crop is maize but they all have their own gardens for things like green peppers, onion, eggplant, chilli and tomato. They had all told me what they wanted and I used the same pot of money as I used for Emmanuel to fund it. I also went to the second hand clothes market and bought another sackful of stuff, plus I got 16 of the 20 pairs of new leather shoes for the kids getting uniforms in the village. I knew I was getting a lift back in a car and when that happens I try and get as much bulky stuff as possible. It can be a real effort trying to use the bus when you have baggage. We also went to the food market and I bought 440kg of maize for the 11 blind families which I distributed along with the seed at the centre.

There are always people around at food time. Funny that.

What will be growing in the gardens soon

The blind with the seeds they requested.

The blind with their maize

Thursday 10th March

I went back into town in the morning to get more second hand clothes and in the afternoon I headed on to a neighbouring town called Chamwino to get some of the items for the chicken project. The car belongs to the centre but the centre is run by a relatively wealthy guy and he treats the car as his own personal property. He really irritates me at times cos he is always trying to turn a profit. I’m doing stuff to benefit the centre and I’m quite happy to pay costs like petrol but he always tries it on. Chamwino is a ten minute drive in each direction and he told me I should give him 12 litres of fuel for this. Eventually he relented and said I could go for free but I later got 3 litres for it cos that is a fair amount.

We picked up 44 iron sheets, 750kg of cement and 6kg of hardcore nails. We have to wait for the rainy season to stop before they can be built. Of course, being Africa nothing runs smoothly though. Of the 11 families here, two are sighted helpers and they want their chicken farms built off site and there is another family who is about to leave as her husband was the blind member of the family and he recently died and she wants her project in a different village entirely. I’m going to be ruthless and tell her she won’t be getting a project as it will remain with the house which a new family will shortly move in to. That is not a conversation I’m looking forward to. I’ll offer to set her up with an alternative smaller project at her new place instead.

With most of the building materials for the chicken houses. 

In the evening I was presented with a piece of cooked duck. It had been burnt to a cinder but that was probably for the best.

Friday 11th March

The day started badly – I’ve sorted one guy out with a large amount of support over the past few years. He has had his school fees paid for by a friend and I set him up with a second hand clothes business plus supplied him with loads of small things like a kerosene lamp so he can work after dark, school books, food etc. Recently I’ve had a suspicion he has switched from being someone who gets support to enable them to progress to a person who thinks he is on a gravy train and the good times will roll on forever. Since I’ve been here I’ve heard some stuff about him and he had also been avoiding me. I finally spoke to him and he told me he has the capital for his business in the bank as well as money I’ve sent for his school fees which are due in April. I put him to the test and told him to come to town with me on Friday and show me his account. He said that was fine and I said that if there were any problems or if he had under 80% of what he claimed to have then it meant he had been cheating me. Sure enough he failed to show and when I spoke to him on the phone he said he hadn’t understood me the night before. I was perfectly clear with him and his English is excellent.

I took a guy from the village into town with me as I had a very long day ahead and needed someone to ferry things back to the village. First stop was the mobile guy – friends gave me 20 mobiles to bring out but they all need unlocking. So I went to collect them and pay the bill which involved some haggling. It was kind of funny cos his original estimate was 20% under what I was prepared to pay anyhow but I got him down another 25%. On the TV in the corner I saw the tsunami in Japan – it was all a little surreal being in a shack in Africa but seeing real time pictures of a disaster the other side of the world.

Next stop was the second hand clothes auction – everything is costing more this year because of the world financial crisis. Clothes are about 50% more expensive, but they are still pretty cheap. I pay on average 20p for a shirt and double that for trousers. I wrote a lot about the auction last year so I wont go into it again, but it is a crazy experience. I spent about £20 on maybe 80-100 items and the bag was groaning under the weight. Annoyingly the guy who was to ferry the bag then disappeared. I was getting really angry and I had to then lug the massive bag across town to meet some other people.

I met up with Christoph – last year I supplied him with food, clothes and medicine and this year I’d offered to do the same. He is a good guy who doesn’t cause trouble… so it is a bit of a contradiction when I say in a few days time he is to be sentenced to a prison term for theft from the Adult Blind Centre. Africa is a weird place.

Next stop was to pick up some signs I’d had made and then to visit Milembeli which is where many of the blind beggars live. Unlike in the UK where the beggars are (generally) homeless, here they may have homes but no source of income. Hence they hit the streets, often taking a child as a guide and so depriving them of an education. The homes are very basic and often you get numerous people sharing a small space. I’ve sorted out the funding for two complete houses with funding in place for a third and have also arranged the part funding of two houses.

Peter’s house which a friend’s fundraising helped build.

Peter and his family

One of the houses built with money raised by my old school

I often see beggars I know around town and I’ll go up and say hello and they’ll always greet me warmly, sometimes I get a hug and we exchange greetings and chat until my Swahili is exhausted. This always gets funny looks from passersby as the beggars are generally shunned.

I’d also arranged for a tailor to come out to the area and sort uniforms out for a bunch of the kids. These will get distributed during my next visit in ten days time. I then chatted with various people. Everyone is in need of something but I think the next thing I’ll do there is get a small house built to hold someone’s cow. One thing about being here is I am on a constant learning drive. I need to know so many details like the prices of foodstuffs, different styles of building, what type of cement is best, when to build stuff, how much labour costs, where is the cheapest place to buy maize and so on and so on.

We finished up and came back to the village – I was shattered and rather grumpy when people came over. My mood wasn’t much lifted when I climbed into bed to find it had a fly infestation. Nice.

Saturday 12th March

I had been working pretty hard over the past week so I decided to take it easy as much as possible over the weekend. The kids are not at school so it is a good opportunity to play with them. I organised a dance competition – they asked if they could have two separate ones – one for the visually impaired and one for the totally blind cos the totally blind have little perception of good dancing and therefore are at a disadvantage.

Mid way through the tournament.

The winners, Erasto for the sighted and Eric for the blind.

I spent some time chatting to various teachers and also had a visit from Mamma Happy who I supplied some maize and other items to. Another blind man also came along – he was a right pain in the neck though. I gave him 20kg of maize and he then wanted money. When he wouldn’t take no for an answer I had to kick him out of my house.

Mamma Happy and Magdelene with their booty

I joined a couple of the teachers for lunch at the butchers – a cow had been slaughtered so we had some of it barbecued. The shop is utterly disgusting. The meat gets weighed on an old fashioned kilo balancing scale and when it was well balanced the butcher turned away to get a bag and enough flies swarmed on to the meat for it to tip the balance. Yum. When it went on to the barbeque it was next to another piece of meat – I won’t say what that was but let me just say I’m pretty sure we were eating a bull. Not much goes to waste here.

Good morning world. And hello mosquito net. How I wish we didn’t have to sleep with each other.

First job is to get the fire going. Some embers from my neighbour makes life easier. I was never a boy scout so am rubbish at things like this.

On goes the water. Today is washing-my-body day. These are less frequent than I would like.

I find it amazing I can get online from the villages. It makes my life so much easier.

First time check. I was up at around 7am.

And now to wash…. the house has a shower and sink and cistern… but no running water or even much plumbing. I make do with tipping warm water over my head.

The night before I’d bought some 180kg of maize and these two girls were ferrying it up to my house. This’ll comprise around 15% of the food I will be distributing in my 3 weeks here. One kilo feeds about 5 people and costs about $0.25 USD

Meanwhile Mneno has arrived – she does my cooking and cleaning cos I’m lazy and with labour as cheap as it is I’d be a fool not to use someone.

The last of the maize arrives

Enoch pops around for breakfast – he should be at school but didnt go cos it was raining, which is a bit of a lame excuse.

Tea and chapati. I bought 3 similar themed mugs the other day – I like the idea of having Christmas themed stuff in a hot climate.

Children come to my house constantly to play. I am staying at a school for the blind which these two guys attend but they are the sighted children of school workers.

After breakfast I head to the Adult Blind Centre which is probably the main project for the blind in the centre. Ive been involved with stuff here for 12 years now. This meeting went on for 3.5hours and we discussed the outcome of projects I’ve set up in past years and we make plans for the forthcoming year. The main one of which is to build chicken houses for all 11 families so they can raise their levels of self sufficiency further. We also make plans to get them 440kg of maize plus seeds for their crops.

Timestamp from mid-meeting

I get a ride back to my house. Its only about 4km or so but firstly it is hot and secondly I am always pushed for time here.

Lunch consists of bread dipped in a yoghurt sauce with veg bits in it.

More children. Abdul, Morde and Halima. I always bring Bopits out with me as they are a lot of fun and also great with blind kids, although I think all the children in this ADIML are sighted.

Ive known the girl on the left since she was a new born. She likes to play silly games and it keeps me amused.

More visitors – my house is never quiet for long. On the left is the headmaster of a neighbouring primary school. I bought out a dozen Bristol City football shirts and a ball and we are making plans for a football tournament where the winning team gets the gear. Seated on the right is a blind teacher from the school.

Next up are two batches of 10 children. They come from two different schools and are some of the poorest there.

They have come to get fitted for uniforms. Growing up all my clothes were off the shelf – yet these guys get bespoke uniforms. Something seems not quite right about that. Anyhow, I’m also supplying them with shoes and socks. The tailor on the right is Mamma Degera and is the mother of the girl in green above. She will be working flat out for me for the next two weeks getting everything made up before I leave.

More fittings. This kid is called Barracka. It is a common name here and not surprisingly their nicknames are now Obama.

Next to visit my house is Emmanuel. A blind shopkeeper from a neighbouring village called Hombolo. I’ve given him some support in previous years to help his business along and this year I am helping with getting his 3 acres weeded during the rainy season and ensuring he has enough food to last until harvest.

This photo was a little random. This kid wanted to know what my tripod was so I did a demonstration on my camera.

Dinner time. It isnt hard to find extra mouths to feed. We had potatoes and goat mixed with tomato and chilli. There was no power, hence the candle.

Enock again. For pudding we had pineapple, banana and mango. One of the kids had bought me two mangoes and a weird looking pear as a gift. Its always really touching when people give me stuff.

Gaston crashed out on the chair with Weird Al Yankovich blasting into his ears from my iPod.

As the night arrives this little critter pops out. He eats the insects so he and I are friends.

Final time check and then to bed. Tomorrow it happens all over again.

I won’t repeat the back story of when I started coming out here and so on cos in all likelihood this diary will be pretty much a replica of last year’s as it is anyhow. If you are interested then just look on my blog exactly one year ago.

Thur & Fri 3rd & 4th March

The journey out to Tanzania went fine – it is a 9 hour flight then a 7-8 hour bus journey from the airport to the village. I’d arranged for my bus ticket to be bought in advance cos getting the right seat is important – too near the front and you get munched in an accident, too near the back you go flying all over the shop and if you sit on the right hand side then you’ll not see the mile markers telling you how far you have to go. Anyhow, you don’t really need to know those mundane details so I’ll move on. I got to the bus-stand and it is always a hive of activity but this time there was no one there, just five smashed up buses sitting outside. It seems within the two days of buying a ticket and me actually travelling the largest bus company in East Africa had collapsed. Good timing. I found another bus and the journey was comfortable enough – it even had a TV. They played The Hangover on repeat and at a volume which is too low to fully understand but high enough to irritate. This served to replicate the feeling of having a hangover.

I was met off the bus by one of the teachers and a gaggle of school children. Like last time it was a bit manic giving greetings whilst trying to get my bags without holding the bus up too much. My bags were very heavy and probably weighed as much as some of the children but they managed to lift them up and carry them up to my house as I sauntered behind.

 I had various visitors to my house welcoming me back to the village. It is quite a big event when a westerner comes here and cos I’ve spent so much time here in recent years I’ve got to know many people and they all want a slice of my time.

David invited me to his for dinner. Every year I kit the house out with stuff like utensils and every year when I return they have disappeared so it was a relief to not have to worry about cooking when I had neither fire nor food. After dinner we hit the bar – things have changed since last time as the place we drank before no longer sells beer which is something of a fail for a bar. The new place has neon lights, shelter and a TV so is massively more advanced than just a plastic chair on the side of the road. Whilst sitting around getting pissed is always fun, it is also an opportunity to talk to some of the local blind leaders and make plans. My trouble is remembering the following day what we agreed but somehow I bodge it together with just the occasional double-booking. It is fair to say I was shattered when I got home and I passed out straight away. The good thing about coming here at this time of year is the days are hot but the nights are chilly so sleep is easy.

Beer o’clock 

It is hard enough walking with blind people as it is but it becomes much tougher still when they are drunk in charge of a white cane.

 Sat 5th March

I was up first thing to unpack. In England I sleep til about 10am most days but here I struggle to make it past 7am as either there is someone at my door or a cockerel has aspirations of being an alarm clock outside my window.

What I managed to squeeze in to my bags.

 I went in to town to kit the house out with everything it needed. Usually I go by local bus which is hell on earth. However since my last trip David has bought a rather beaten up car. It costs about £8 in petrol and £2 for a driver but it is well worth it when buying lots of stuff. I stopped to chat with various people I knew in town. One described me as the ‘lost wanderer’. I got everything I needed like a charcoal cooker, plates and fruit and veg and cos I had use of a car I also bought a shed load of other things. Like last year, one of the things I want to do is equip all 100 kids in the school with clothes, a toothbrush, toothpaste, sweets, skin cream, shoes and other items. So the boot was soon filled with sacks and boxes of items.

I also managed to get a dongle for my laptop – every time I come here I long to have access to the internet in the village and now it is possible. In the past I’d go to town, try and get stuff done and be plagued by network issues or power cuts. Being able to log in and upload pics and so on from my house makes my life so much easier. The service is far from perfect and cuts out every ten minutes or so but I’m not complaining.

On the way back we stopped off at the Adult Blind Centre which about 2-3km away from my house. The children all came running out shouting my name which is always a pretty cool experience. I was only there briefly and went to arrange a meeting with the members for a couple of days time as it can be a little tricky doing it over the phone. I also got to see Emejohn, the baby named after my sister Imogen – though they have trouble with her name, hence the variation. She is now two and old enough to be frightened of new things so she bawled for Tanzania when I tried to pick her up.

Some of the children from the adult blind centre go crazy (in a good way) about having their photo taken.  

Meeting my sister’s namesake. Although in this photo it looks like she is crying cos I’ve punched her.

 I spent some of the evening playing with the blind children – they are very excitable yet very easily pleased. We talk about all kinds of rubbish but it usually centres around me being silly. The night once again involved a visit to the bar where more beer was consumed. I got most of them in – a round of half a dozen drinks costs about the same as one beer at home.

The photos I am in tend to be pretty poor but thats cos often the person taking it is visually impaired and very few people can comprehend how to frame a good photo.  

There are 4 albino kids in the school. Partly cos they tend to suffer from poor vision but also to protect them as many albinos have been murdered in Tanzania so their body parts can be used in witchdoctor medicine.

Sunday 6th

I slept in til 9am as was up way too late the night before. I was woken by children trying to peer through my window. A quick bark from me sent them scurrying away. I met various people through the day including Mneno who I am employing as a cook/cleaner. She gets £1.75 a day with a 50p bonus if she turns up on time and does a good job. I don’t know her though so I’m praying there won’t be an issue with stuff going missing from my house. I’ll be as careful as I can but I’m not here much of the day.

I spent more time with the blind children and I also met up with the last few people I was yet to see. I also showed some kids here their village on Googlemaps. After that we webcammed with my sister in England. She has been here before so they know her but it’s fair to say they were astounded with videocalling.

These are some of the brighter kids at the school – the one with the stick speaks excellent English which is something of a novelty amongst the primary school kids here.

Monday 7th March

I went back in to town but for the first time ever a random 4×4 stopped and gave me a ride so I didn’t need to endure the bus. I went to the clothes auctions and got a friendly wave from a couple of the auctioneers. I only stayed for 30 mins or so as it was boiling – the sales take place in a shed with a tin roof and it is absolutely jammed with people so gets very very hot, plus I had to carry what I purchased around town. I got maybe 40 different items. My plan is to get around 400, so I’m going to have to figure out how to speed the process up. I’ll likely just get someone to come in to town with me and they can ferry the sacks back to the village.

I also met up with an elderly Indian woman who has done me takeaways in the past which last several days. Although now I don’t have a fridge so that isn’t going to work. Instead she had made me some naan bread and a litre of not-quite-traditional tsatsiki. I also got to Western Union – I had sent myself out some money cos it is a right pain getting access to cash normally here. Often the ATMs don’t work and they will only give a limited amount of cash each day. The guy in the bank thought I was loony for sending myself money but it is one less headache to deal with. The biggest note is worth around £4 and it is rather fun having bricks of cash.

I met up with one of the blind teachers and accompanied him back to town. The journey was a little crazy cramped up in a bus designed for 15 but carrying twice that number. Imagine the Black hole of Calcutta on wheels. Fortunately it only takes about 40 minutes. In the evening I went to Mr Omary’s house. He appears a lot in my photos as not only is he a teacher at the school but he is also the regional co-ordinator of the Tanzanian League for the Blind and someone I do a lot of work with. His wife had cooked up a fine spread – the only downside was a massive scorpion scurrying across the floor but it was soon killed. The cockroaches were left to wander around at their own free will though. I also got to do a little business as his wife trades in maize. Usually when I buy maize I have to meet the recipients at whatever shop has some stock but this time I am keeping a supply at my house so I snapped up the 180kg she had left. Stuff like this gets funded by money raised through the raffle, through fundraising at a school in London where my sister teaches and from various friends who give me money. I’ll probably distribute 1500kg over the three weeks I’m here. Each kg costs around 18p and will feed 5 people. It is crazy how ridiculously cheap it is to survive here yet it is still a struggle for pretty much everybody.

Mr Omary and his wife. The men eat first and then the women and children sit on the floor and have whatever is left.  

The pots from LtoR are: Rice and peas, goat, chicken & potatoes.  

This is Mamma Aziza who was going house to house trying to find the £8 needed as a contribution towards her school fees. I have several pots of money to spend on this kind of thing so she had a stroke of luck bumping in to me.  

This little fellah only wanted to join our party but instead ended up in pieces. Poor guy.

The rest of the evening was once again spent in the bar – Mr Mwangela is a teacher at the school but he also writes text books for Oxford University Press and so is pretty wealthy. He likes to demonstrate this by buying me several drinks – an offer which would be rude to ignore. As such the plan to have one or two quiet drinks didn’t bear fruit and I got to bed far too late once again.

I’ve just had an email from Tanzania with some pics and a letter about how the money is being spent which some friends gave me.

This is Lucy, a blind girl from the nearby town who I met a few times last trip. Some of the money various friends have given me was used to establish a small maize trading business which she runs with her mother. This is the 13th small business I’ve started with money given to me and a further ten are in the pipeline. These are all sustainable ventures which will ensure each family becomes more able to stand on their own feet.

My old school carried out some fundraising last term on behalf of the blind in the region. This is being used to build three houses. One house will be given to George Chilongani and his family, who are in this photo.

Each house costs £350 to build. This is Daniel Mlugu and his family who will also be getting a house.

The third house will go Margaret Chilongani and her family. Currently these three families rent small rooms. Their new houses will give them more space, their own ablutions and they won’t need to pay rent, so it will free up money for other items.