We get a late start up to the school as Jason has come in from Arusha. He has with him his daughter, Mary who looks just like him. We have a quick breakfast and head up to the school to finish the classrooms before heading out to speak to women’s groups in the community. I am quite excited and curious to speaking to women in the community, as it will provide terrific insight in to their lives.
We head up to the school and try to finish as much as we can this morning in terms of the painting. Disappointingly, we don’t finish the second classroom – just one coat before we need to head off. Just before we leaving we find out that we will only be meeting Hafia, as it is a holiday for the remaining women who will be fasting throughout the day.
Hafia and her family live up the hill from the school in a simple home, where she is the first to create a sustainable farm and put in to practice more efficient and sustainable ways of living through her fuel consumption and water use. When we arrive, 3 very hungry children are eating lunch in the kitchen – all with mouthfuls of ugali too busy to even notice we have arrived. Hafia shows us the massive progress she has made in terms of how they live by using a fuel efficient stove, water tanks that she has designed to heat her water while cooking and a toilet system that can is recyclable. Her home is neat and pristine, where her garden similar to the school is designed to utilize not only all of the land but feed off each of the different types of plants and animals.
Before beginning our discussion, we eat lunch a homemade meal of ugali and beans. Ugali is the traditional meal had at both lunch and dinner. It is a hardened version of porridge or cream of wheat. You eat it with your left hand, rolling in a ball in your hand putting a thumb print in the center and scooping up beans. It takes a lot of practice and it is quite messy but very filling and good.
After lunch we start to build one of the stoves, which is done with a fitted crate, sand and cement. We mix the combination and fit it in to the crate with a hole that allows the air to circulate. Hafia’s husband joins us and we determine that two stoves can be made per day. Each stove is sold within the community for 7k shillings and so far 7 stoves have been sold around the community. The goal is for the rest of the women’s group to sell them in order to teach the village how to be more efficient in terms of working and saving money in firewood. As they have started to sell them, they have each raised several thousands of shillings and we discussed how we can start them with bank accounts to make the most out of their money. The biggest challenge is getting awareness out and transporting the stoves to each persons home. We discuss how to get the awareness out and determine that each influencer/leader should have one in order to get awareness and how to use them in to the village. A very insightful and good discussion. As we are speaking her two children work with their father on the ABC’s, which is amazing to see that two small children sit working on their blackboard. As we leave, Amelia the youngest can’t pronounce my name so my new nickname is NiNi.
We had back to school to finish the day’s painting and complete the second classroom. We also discover the plant that will help minimize new castle disease which is killing the chickens. We end the day, I say my good byes to Jason and Mr. Marceli and hope to see them soon.
As it is my last night, we head back to Mary’s for a great finale meal splitting a Kili beer among the three of us. The meal is great – sambosa’s, rice and a new vegetable – pumpkin. After dinner, we have our last round of cards which I loser miserably again. Ahhhh a great trip to Babati, I sadly hug Julian and Fiona and hope to be back before I leave if it is possible. Up early tomorrow, as I need to be on the 6am bus to Arusha to catch my flight.
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