To help balance the many difficulties of living in a developing country with its different culture, language and life style, come moments of sheer beauty and delight; one such was our day at Ruaha National Park last Saturday. 10 of us rose early to catch the plane from the Mvumi (international) airstrip at 7 and again attracted a crowd of cheering children giving us a royal send off. The flight of 45 minutes was comfortable and uneventful, the pilot circled the landing strip at Ruaha to frighten off any wandering animals, and landed as smoothly as a commercial jet at Heathrow’s terminal 5.
The scenery was stunning with hills in the background and the large Ruaha river in the foreground,. Not for nothing is it known as Tanzania’s secret gem; the area is one of the least visited national parks in the country, and definitely one of the most beautiful. The silence was punctuated only by the sounds of the insects and we felt as if we were the only people there.
We clambered into high open sided jeeps and went off on our safari, within minutes we spotted a pride of lions, 4 or 5 females with a splendid lounging male and continued on to see elephants, giraffes, many different species of birds, zebra, hippo, crocodiles and the rare Kudu deer. We lunched in a lodge beside the river and finished the day seeing another smaller pride of lions with 2 lion cubs, and a recent kill at their side. We returned to Mvumi hot, tired and very happy after a wonderful day which will remain in our memories for a long time.
Although we were concerned that John, the schools headmaster, said he had been bitten by a snake whilst watching a football match, when he said it was about 3 inches long we decided he must have been bitten by a worm!
On the walk back from the airstrip we popped into Frank’s house to discuss gathering the catechists together to plan the dissemination of the hunger fund money. Frank is our church secretary and his command of English is sufficient to enable him to act as an interpreter for us. We found his wife sitting intricately weaving grasses together to form wide strips which will be made into mats. His sister in law was also in the house and on being introduced to us she spontaneously presented Irene with the beaded necklace she was wearing as a gift; such is the generosity of people here.
One of the tasks we want to carry out is to assist some of those who are suffering from the poor harvests. This has resulted in the price of maize tripling in the last year. We met with 12 ‘catechists’ (lay workers in the local churches) on Tuesday evening, and explained that we would have enough money from churches and individuals in England to provide food for the most needy in each church, (81 families or individuals in total) for 6 months. Although this is not enough to get to the next major harvest next February / March it should help. Each can be given about £5 a month (about 2 days pay at the minimum wage), enough to buy about 25 kgs of maize. Because of their local knowledge the catechists will identify those in most need in their churches.
At work, Malcolm had to face a meeting of about 20 staff complaining (understandably) that they had not yet been paid for April. Fortunately he had managed to find some money and all staff were paid by the end of the week. Roll on May’s salaries. His work computer also had a disc failure – fortunately he had backed up most of his files so lost some time, but not a lot of data. He also had to appear at magistrates court to complete the case he was involved with last year by the 'National Insurance' provider suing the Hospital for non-payment of salary deductions. Unfortunately he discovered too late that as well as the official fine of 100,000 Tsh (£50) the court clerk also charged an unofficial fee of £50 to the hospital cashier for 'conciliation'- a bribe for nothing. A tragedy for a place like Tanzania is that corruption seems to be endemic, which drains the trust of citizens in the institutions that are meant to defend them.
Finally, an update on the hens. This Friday we succumbed to local advice and acquired a cockerel to encourage our hens to lay. Our internet research says that chickens will lay quite happily without a cockerel but people in the village think one is needed to ‘encourage’ them. We will wait and see if he proves his worth, if not there’s always the cooking pot! He is a large delightful looking male, costing £3.50, whom we have named “George” (having recently re-watched “Roots” with a character called Chicken George!). The latest economic update is 11 eggs for an outlay of £31.50 - £2.87 each. Come on George – do your stuff (or get your stuffing)
Our concerns for next week are:
- a weekend in Dodoma and a Scottish Ceilidh
- Malcolm spending a lot more time investigating a financial problem at the Hospital
- Will George earn his keep?
The scenery was stunning with hills in the background and the large Ruaha river in the foreground,. Not for nothing is it known as Tanzania’s secret gem; the area is one of the least visited national parks in the country, and definitely one of the most beautiful. The silence was punctuated only by the sounds of the insects and we felt as if we were the only people there.
We clambered into high open sided jeeps and went off on our safari, within minutes we spotted a pride of lions, 4 or 5 females with a splendid lounging male and continued on to see elephants, giraffes, many different species of birds, zebra, hippo, crocodiles and the rare Kudu deer. We lunched in a lodge beside the river and finished the day seeing another smaller pride of lions with 2 lion cubs, and a recent kill at their side. We returned to Mvumi hot, tired and very happy after a wonderful day which will remain in our memories for a long time.
Although we were concerned that John, the schools headmaster, said he had been bitten by a snake whilst watching a football match, when he said it was about 3 inches long we decided he must have been bitten by a worm!
On the walk back from the airstrip we popped into Frank’s house to discuss gathering the catechists together to plan the dissemination of the hunger fund money. Frank is our church secretary and his command of English is sufficient to enable him to act as an interpreter for us. We found his wife sitting intricately weaving grasses together to form wide strips which will be made into mats. His sister in law was also in the house and on being introduced to us she spontaneously presented Irene with the beaded necklace she was wearing as a gift; such is the generosity of people here.
One of the tasks we want to carry out is to assist some of those who are suffering from the poor harvests. This has resulted in the price of maize tripling in the last year. We met with 12 ‘catechists’ (lay workers in the local churches) on Tuesday evening, and explained that we would have enough money from churches and individuals in England to provide food for the most needy in each church, (81 families or individuals in total) for 6 months. Although this is not enough to get to the next major harvest next February / March it should help. Each can be given about £5 a month (about 2 days pay at the minimum wage), enough to buy about 25 kgs of maize. Because of their local knowledge the catechists will identify those in most need in their churches.
At work, Malcolm had to face a meeting of about 20 staff complaining (understandably) that they had not yet been paid for April. Fortunately he had managed to find some money and all staff were paid by the end of the week. Roll on May’s salaries. His work computer also had a disc failure – fortunately he had backed up most of his files so lost some time, but not a lot of data. He also had to appear at magistrates court to complete the case he was involved with last year by the 'National Insurance' provider suing the Hospital for non-payment of salary deductions. Unfortunately he discovered too late that as well as the official fine of 100,000 Tsh (£50) the court clerk also charged an unofficial fee of £50 to the hospital cashier for 'conciliation'- a bribe for nothing. A tragedy for a place like Tanzania is that corruption seems to be endemic, which drains the trust of citizens in the institutions that are meant to defend them.
Finally, an update on the hens. This Friday we succumbed to local advice and acquired a cockerel to encourage our hens to lay. Our internet research says that chickens will lay quite happily without a cockerel but people in the village think one is needed to ‘encourage’ them. We will wait and see if he proves his worth, if not there’s always the cooking pot! He is a large delightful looking male, costing £3.50, whom we have named “George” (having recently re-watched “Roots” with a character called Chicken George!). The latest economic update is 11 eggs for an outlay of £31.50 - £2.87 each. Come on George – do your stuff (or get your stuffing)
Our concerns for next week are:
- a weekend in Dodoma and a Scottish Ceilidh
- Malcolm spending a lot more time investigating a financial problem at the Hospital
- Will George earn his keep?
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