Places Then and Now.

It is 17 years since Malcolm and Irene left Mvumi in Central Tanzania. Last week Malcolm returned for the first week of his 8 week trip to Tanzania. Previously Malcolm and Irene worked for 2 periods of 6 months, April to September, the ‘Dry Season’ at Mvumi Hospital; this time Malcolm visited Mvumi Secondary school with the Chairman of the UK Trust and former headmaster of Mvumi Secondary School, John Clark. Malcolm is also a trustee of the Trust which gives bursaries to poor but bright students to attend the school, and to visually impaired students  to attend a special Unit at the school.

 

Mvumi is a large, but remote village in the centre of Tanzania, about 20 miles south of the country's capital city, Dodoma. (Note: Contrary to common belief Dar es Salaam may be the largest city but is not the political Capital). When we worked here access was by rough dirt roads and almost all the houses were simple mud or concrete block buildings often without electricity or running water.

The first change was the growth of Dodoma. It is gradually becoming the active Capital of Dodoma, with a new Parliament building, Government Offices, ‘posh’ hotels, a university  and expanded airport which we used to travel from and to Dar es Salaam. The rail service from Dar es Salaam has also improved from a slow and unreliable diesel service with only 2 trains per week to a modern electric service with new tracks and 4 trains a day each way reducing a 9 hour coach journey to 3 hour by train.

Another change meant I was also surprised not to see many other ‘white’ people in our several visits to the city as 18 years ago there was a thriving expat community.

The road to Mvumi was the next change. We had grown used to the bumpy dirt roads from Dodoma which seemed to take forever to travel the 24 miles to Mvumi. Most of that road still exists, but is gradually being replaced by a smooth, wide, tarmac road.

Above is a video of the dirt road

Mvumi itself has also grown with new schools and modern house with smart, rather than rusty steel roofs. The hospital has new buildings for the School of Nursing (now a Health Training Institute) and administration block However, despite the changes, I managed to find the houses we had lived in.

Because we had only previously visited in the dry season we had never seen rain in Mvumi, and in 2009, because the February rains were very poor, the crops had failed and sun flowers, millet and maize had died before harvest. There was therefore severe food shortage for the community that relies on their crops. They required emergency supplies being brought in my the Government and Aid Agencies.

 This year we were pleased to be blessed by the continuing heavy rain which meant that the countryside we had only seen as barren with dried up rivers and lakes was now well watered, green with excellent crops which should provide the community with adequate food for the coming dry season.

Our objective at the school was to meet a range of people: the local representatives of the Trust, Joy and Dickson, the 100+ students funded by the Trust, the Headmaster, the Bishop of the the Diocese, the chairman of Governors and John met old friends who worked with him as teachers when he was headmaster.

 

The students thought it particularly very funny when Malcolm tried to say good morning in the local language, Cigogo. Sounds like 'Mborkweni'.

In between meetings we did a fair amount of walking around the village. On Wednesday late afternoon we walked to see the sunset and happened to pass the church, St Andrews, Irene and Malcolm used to attend – all services being in Cigigo / Kiswahili! It happened that it was practice night for one of the young people’s choirs so we were warmly welcomed and the choir sang for Malcolm and John. We also met Mama Asante, who had kept house for Malcolm and Irene 18 years ago, and her husband.

On the return Malcolm lost the way and we were very late back for dinner!

On Friday we said farewell to Mvumi. Malcolm parted from John and travelled on to Arusha for his assignment with a developing workshop called SAFI (See Ability First International) which is also a marketing outlet for adults with physical and other disabilities 

Safari njema, Malcolm (Have a safe journey in Kiswahili)