The Car

This past week has possibly been one of the most frustrating ones I've ever had in Tanzania. But it's Saturday now, and it's looking like it will all work out fine. 

I'll start with the car, then fill you in on some other things which I've been doing. Something I've been thinking about for quite a while is that I don't earn any money whilst I am in Tanzania. Not having an income is by far one of my biggest concerns. So I've thought for a while of something which I could do which would allow me to get an income and do the projects at the same time. I decided that I would buy a car, with the intent of using it for getting to the projects and also for renting it out to safari companies for an income. I spoke to some people to get advice on a good vehicle to invest in. Adam helped me out quite a lot. Eventually I decided to get a Land Rover TDI 300 pick up truck. It's perfect as I would be able to use it for the projects for carrying materials in the back, and it's also very economical, it doesn't use much fuel. Safari companies use trucks like these as 'supply trucks' for camping safari's. When they have a camping safari, instead of stuffing all of the camping gear, food and water etc in the truck with the clients, they have a supply truck drive it around and drop it off. It saves time and it's more professional. As I had to use quite a lot of money to buy the car itself, I didn't really want to do separate cash withdrawals everyday until I had enough cash. So, I transferred the money to Mike, which allowed to take it out in one chunk and just pay a small transfer fee. After a good week of waiting around, and people telling me that the car which I should buy would be coming tomorrow, I finally got it. 

To be honest, it wasn't in the greatest nick, but the engine is in perfect condition. I didn't realise at the time how much money I would need to spend to fix it all up and prepare it for safari's so I was quite surprised when I found out. I've probably spent just over another £1000 on fixing it all up, including insuring it and paying for the road license (which was out of date by two years so I had to pay penalty fines, as if that would ever be allowed at home). It's great now though, it's not fully insured yet but I've driven it around a few times, it's a really good car. It needs a few other bits and bobs fixing up but nothing big. The whole thing stressed me out quite a lot though. I spent a good few days just hanging around in the garage, being told what needed doing, and just handing out cash for it to get done. People work so slowly here, so it took a while to get it all done, it's so frustrating. It's worked out though. I have a meeting with a big safari company on Monday regarding renting the car out for the whole of the high season. Which is July until the end of August. I could get around $150 a day for it, which is great, I just hope the deal goes through. You might be wondering how I'm going to get to the projects if my car is rented out. Well, I already struck a deal to rent one of his pick up trucks for cheap whenever I need it. I'm also thinking about going and staying in Duka Bovu for three weeks whilst the next project is being done. It will be nice to get away from the city for a little while. It will give me a bit of time to relax and focus on what I'm here for. 

I remember that I promised to update you on Mama Mary's new fruit and vegetable business. Well, good news all around tonight, the business is going great. I wasn't too sure the first time I popped down as I was alone and Mama Mary was talking about wanting to sell cooked banana's too, so I was worried she was struggling. But when I visited on Sunday, Agripina was working at the shop, and everybody else was at home. When I arrived at the house, I noticed that all of the children were eating rice and beans. I was instantly happy. I'll explain why. Most of the time when I ever used to go around to Mama Mary's, if I hadn't given her any money for food for the week, they would all just eat ugali and spinach. Which is definitely the cheapest meal over here. Ugali is just maize flower cooked in water until it goes stodgy. It fills you up, but not for very long, and it has no protein or nutrients inside. It's definitely not something which growing children should be eating twice every day. So seeing them eating food which is that little bit more expensive really made me feel like I had achieved something. Beans are expensive here, and they are a good source of protein. I would much rather see the kids eating this every day than ugali and spinach! I hung around for a while that day, ate a little and then headed off to Mama Zulfa's house. Zulfa goes to Golgotha school and I have become very close to her and her mother over the past couple of years. Her mother is HIV+, which is extremely unfortunate, but luckily enough, Zulfa is negative. Zulfa has had a nasty cough over the past few months, and I had promised Mama Zulfa that I would take her to the hospital when I had the chance to get her checked out. I drove up to their house with Yvie, a volunteer who I had taken down to meet Mama Mary a couple of times, and popped in to say hello. Unfortunately for Yvie and I, Mama Zulfa had just finished cooking rice and fish, so we had to eat again. I was already stuffed from eating at Mama Mary's, so I found it really hard to eat anymore. Thankfully I know Mama Zulfa well enough to explain to her that we were both so full after eating at Mama Mary's, and we really weren't able to finish the whole bowl of rice. She was cool with it. After a little while, and waiting for Zulfa to try on about six different outfits as she new she was going into town, we headed to the hospital. I told Mama Zulfa that we wouldn't be long and that I would return her shortly. 

I took Zulfa to Selian Hospital. It's a Christian hospital, and is where Jennica had to spend a few nights last year when she was sick. I'd been there myself previously so I knew that it was good. We were seen very quickly (which makes a change here) and I spoke in length with the doctor about Zulfa and her mother's medical history. He checked her breathing etc and explained that because this cough had been going on for so long, and he could hear a lot of crackling on her chest, it was most likely that she had bronchitis. He gave us a prescription for a five day course of antibiotics, and some cough medicine to ease her coughing. We were out of there in record time, well under an hour, but I still drove back very quickly to avoid it getting dark before I drove Yvie home, I hate driving when it's dark here and the streets are still busy, it's a nightmare. After dropping Zulfa off and giving her mother some instructions for taking the medicine, I drove Yvie back home to Sakina, and then went back to mine. I knew that I was going to have a relatively long day the next day working on things in the garage, so I just went to bed early. 

Like I mentioned before, I spent the whole week sorting out the car, so I didn't have any time to organise anything to do with the projects, or even have time to pop down and visit Mama Mary. She has a phone and my number now though, and she knows that if she has any problems, she just has to call me. It wasn't until yesterday that I managed to get out and do something which I enjoyed. Adam, who I work very closely with, also works for another NGO based in Tanzania called Project Rehema. It is supported by a lady in the states, called Kelli. Every month, Adam does a food run to several families in the Monduli area. Monduli is about a forty minute drive out of Arusha, and is occupied mainly by Maasai. It's so beautiful in that area, and I jump at any chance to go over there. Firstly, Adam and I drove Bonge (my new builder) to the site where we will be building Mama Dora a new home. I explained to Bonge what I wanted doing, and he gave me a rough quote in his head. I explained that it was too much, and that he needed to write it all down for me, so that I could work out ways with Mama Dora to cut the costs of the project. We decided to drive to Monduli and drop the food off before talking to Mama Dora. We visited three families in Monduli Chini (Monduli down) and dropped off food and supplies. Project Rehema supplies the families with flour, rice, beans, cooking oil, sugar, baby lotion, soap, matches and tea. Some receive small amounts of money to help them as they have extremely low incomes. I especially liked Mama Godi, who was there with one of her daughters. She was extremely grateful for us being there to deliver the food, and was also very welcoming. I haven't mentioned yet but we have decided that in August, instead of building a house, we want to do something a little more different and supply five families with five new toilets. Bad toilets here can cause a lot of health issues, especially UTI's and similar infections. Mama Godi's toilet was on of the worst I have ever seen, and through Adam I explained that in August I would be building her a new one. She was so grateful, and welcomed be back. I look forward to visiting all of the Mama's again and having some food with them. One thing which Project Rehema has done which I was very impressed with is install solar panel systems in the houses where the Mama's live. I didn't realise how simple it was, and it got me thinking about doing it for Mama Dora, I think that we will. 

After finishing in Monduli Chini, we headed to Monduli Ju (Monduli Up) to drop off food to another few families. One of the families who we dropped off food to was the family which Max and I had visited when he came over. The Mama there has a big plot of land, and hopefully one day we will be able to build a compound of houses on there and re-locate Mama's from poor housing around the area into the compound. It's far away, but we'll get there. After that Adam decided to show me a beautiful view which he knew that was close by. We drove for ten minutes in the opposite direction to the way we had came. It was exactly what I picture when I think of Africa, a rough dirt road, with loads of low lying acacia trees, a beautiful blue sky and a view for miles and miles across the vast landscape. As we drove, suddenly to my left there was a stunning view. I was blown away, and told Adam to stop the car so that I could film it. We kept driving, and eventually got to the viewpoint. I can't really put it into words, but it was by far the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life. It blew me away how vast it was. What I was looking at was part of the Great Rift Valley. One of the wonders of the world, and definitely a must see. The oldest hominid footprints are found somewhere within this valley, and lots of people believe that it was indeed Tanzania where life started. I know it sounds corny but looking at somewhere like this, and thinking of our ancestors walking across it millions of years ago really gave me a strange feeling. I stared for a good twenty minutes, before Adam told me that we had to go. I wasn't too bothered, I knew that I would be going back soon now I had my car. If you ever want somewhere to take a girl on a first date, give me a shout, I'll show you the way. 

That's about it up to know, I'll post again at the end of next week to let you know how things go. I'm planning to start the project on Tuesday. I need to decide whether I will be staying in Duka Bovu or not. I would genuinely like to, but it could make some things quite difficult. I'll work it out. 

Business.

As usual, I am going to apologise for not posting for a while. I think it's been almost two weeks. There are two main reasons; 1 - Not that much has really been going on so I've found it hard to write, 2 - My computer has been playing up and hasn't been allowing me to view my blog.


The last week however, has been one of my busiest weeks so far. I'm out of my sling now, and I have no problems with doing anything physical. I can drive again, play football, pick heavy things up, and shower properly! What a relief. So, due to being fully fit, I got stuck into doing some work. The most important thing for me to get done was to set Mama Mary up with her small business. Adam and I discussed for a few days before we traveled there early last week with Bonge (who is the builder I am using now) and one of his fellow workers, I forget his name. Before all of this, as mentioned, Adam and Mama Mary had chosen a good spot for her shop, so we went there to build it. Firstly we picked up some large rounded timbers for the main support poles, and then drove down towards the site. My arm still wasn't great at that point so I didn't get stuck in with digging the holes for the foundations. It didn't really matter though, the guys got it done quickly and within two hours, it was finished. We had to buy some more timber for other parts, but it didn't cost too much. I think in total for the stand I paid around 100,000tsh which is about forty pounds. I had to be in Sakina later that afternoon, so we had to leave before we covered the top. I was going to the volunteer house to sell some bags made by the ladies working under Aubree's NGO. I didn't do too badly that night, I sold 11 of Aubree's bags and she was very pleased. Her women are making more at the moment and I will pop to the volunteer house every now and then to sell them to new volunteers.


A few days later, when the car was fixed and free, Adam, Bonge and I went down to finish the roof. We bought some tarpaulin to cover the top, this is to ensure that Mama Mary's fruit and vegetables are always sheltered from the sun and that it not too much of the wood gets wet in the night time. We finished the job off pretty quickly.


That morning and the previous few days, I had been speaking with one of the volunteers called Kennedy. She's teaching in a small orphanage in a place called Ungalelo, which is on the road leading to Moshi. Kennedy called me as she wanted some advice on building a wall and fixing a gate around the orphanage. The wall itself was already half finished, the foundations were done, and all that was needed was to finish laying some bricks and getting the gate sorted. I told her that the best idea might be to find a local builder, who was working in the area, and show him what you wanted to achieve. She did that, but when she called me that morning the quote that she had been given sounded very off. I was concerned, but not surprised, that the builder was trying to rip her off. He was trying to charge her 16,000tsh for each bag of cement instead of 15,000, and he was also telling her that bricks for 1000, they cost 700. It's a very small difference in small quantities but when you're buying in bulk you'll save cash if you were to find a better deal. I decided to take Bonge up to her placement with me, and see if he could give her a quote. We found some bricks for 750, including transport, lowered the price of the cement, lowered the labour cost, and also gave her an honest figure of how much materials she needed. We agreed on the prices, and the builders got to work the next day. I visited that day to see them start but I haven't been there since. It's finished now, but I would like to go and check it out to make sure that they did a god job. In the end, I saved them $350 or something around that. Kennedy mentioned that the girl who donated the money might be interested in donating the money saved to The House that Zac Built, but she decided against it. Fair enough.


Last friday, I visited Mama Mary with Adam, and took another volunteer with me too, a girl from London called Yvie. I wanted to show her the project. I spoke at length with Mama Mary about the business, and that she must no longer ask for support from me as I've given her everything she needs to be self sufficient. I think she got the point. She was also very excited at the prospect of having her shop start the next day. I gave her a small amount of capital, just 35,000tsh to start her business off. One thing that did concern me, was that when I went into the house, and I was showing Yvie around, there was a man asleep in one of the bedrooms. I've seen the father once before, and I'm pretty sure that it was him. I asked Adam to ask Mama Mary, she told me that it was her father and he had come to visit, but I didn't believe her. I told her that she needed to be honest with me. If you have read my blogs before you'll know that Mama Mary's husband is a drunk and has abandoned her and the children many times. I don't like him, at all, and I don't want him in the house. I built it for her, and the children, and it's not somewhere he deserves to stay. I realise that things are different here in Tanzania and if that he turns up Mama Mary doesn't really have a say in the matter, but I need to do something about it. Another problem was when I visited Mama Mary's business yesterday. Everything was going well, her shop looked relatively full and she had been getting requests already from locals to buy different things which they would like. After I left and had arrived home, she called me and asked for 3000tsh for rice. This worried me as if things were going as planned with the business she should be able to make more than this in a day. I asked Adam to call her and explain that we cannot support her anymore, and that she has the resources available to make the money. I think that the husband is around, but not showing his face much, and taking some of the money which Mama Mary is making to buy alcohol. If so, and I want to get to the bottom of this, I'll be kicking him out of the house with my own hands.


There's a couple of other things that have been going on but nothing too interesting really. I have spent the past couple of weeks looking for a car here. I decided that we need a pick up truck. They cost quite a lot of money, but they will save so much in the long term as we do more and more houses. I've had to borrow some money for it, but I will pay it off by renting it out to safari companies for a few days a month, you can make good money doing that. Things in Africa work very different to at home, when somebody says tomorrow, they mean the day after, or next week, and when somebody says meet at 10 o'clock, they mean 12. It's something which is difficult to get used to but I'm just waiting patiently for the car to arrive which I want to buy so that I can have a look at it.


Unfortunately for Adam and his family, Matasso (Adam's brother) is in prison at the moment for shooting somebody. Luckily he has a family who are well off, especially Mike, so he is taken food every day. I've been with Adam a few times to the prison but I've never gone inside. I'm not sure if I really want to. Like I said things are different here, so Adam's family has managed to arrange a deal with the guy's family who he shot. He should be out of prison soon. How about that for corruption?


Another bit of news is that we have our first fundraiser coming up next week at L'eglise restaurant in Hove. Max and his Dad have organised a deal whereby it's two courses for twenty pounds, and each ten pounds goes towards the charity. It's a great idea, and we are hoping to do similar things with restaurants all over Brighton and one day hopefully all over the country.


I'll leave it at that for now. I'm getting my car in the next couple of days, so Project Dora will be under way soon, I'll let you all know about it.

Like I previously mentioned, I really haven't done much since I've been back in Tanzania, but I'll fill you in on a few things which I have been up to. 

I've only been down to see Mama Mary twice in the two weeks which I have been back. The first time was early last week. I managed to get the courage to hop on a couple of dalla's with my arm in a sling. It wasn't too bad, just a bit painful on the bumps when we got to the bad road. However, it was definitely worth it. I always love going to see Mama Mary, she's so welcoming, and seeing the house there is nice too. They are all doing well, Vicky and Agripina are still in school and their English has improved! They need some new school jumpers and shoes though but I will buy those for them this week. Mama Mary of course wanted to cook for me but I explained to her that it's not a problem and that I would get some food at the school. I took the short walk down towards Golgotha after saying I'd see Mama Mary later on. I limit my time visiting the school nowadays, I find it quite stressful. There's simply to much to do, and without the help from the director anymore it's too hard to get it done. I couldn't take on the stuff that needs doing there with the other work that I'm doing so I find it easier to just go down every now and then. It was nice though, and I spent an hour or so with class three and taught them how to write letters. They each wrote me one saying how sorry there were about my collar bone and asking me how England was. They are all lovely things to have and I will treasure them. 

Today was the second time that I've been to see Mama Mary. I tried yesterday, but I couldn't get a car so I gave it a miss. Oh yes, I am driving now, my collar bone has been much better recently and I can do pretty much everything now without any pain! Luckily when I woke up this morning the car was free. I asked Mike if I could use it for the day and he was cool with it so I left shortly afterwards. I took it to the petrol station first and filled it was 20,000tsh (about £9) worth of diesel. I got about five minutes up the road before I was stopped by a police check point. I knew I was going to have to pay a fine but I wasn't ready for quite how much. The car I borrowed from Mike is a Toyota Landcruiser pick up truck, and it's not in the best shape. It's missing one wing mirror, it has no seatbelts, a cracked windscreen and numerous other issues. The policeman picked up on all of them, including the fact that I didn't have a fire enxtinguisher. I tried to offer him to solve the problem there and then i.e bribe him a little bit to let me go, but he wasn't having any of it, and he said that we need to go to the police station. I decided that I wasn't going anywhere without any help from some local friends so I called Adam to come and help me out. He came along pretty quickly with some other friends and they spoke to the police officer for a while. They managed to persuade him not to fine me for each offence but just for one, which I was sort of OK with, bare in mind that it's not even my car! I drove the police officer and Adam to the police station. We handed over the keys to the watch guard there whilst we went inside and paid the fine. It all went pretty smoothly but I definitely wasn't in the best of moods. When they asked me for the money I threw it down on the table and gave the corrupt officer and nice stare. She wasn't best pleased and asked Adam why I was acting like this, I didn't say anything. Just as we were about to leave, Adam started to panic and told me that we needed to leave quickly and that the head police officer was coming to check the cars. I reversed out of our space, slammed it into first but before I could get anywhere the police man shouted at us and told us to stop. I knew we were in shit when I saw him. Big old  boss bollocks strutted his stuff around the vehicle and started shouting at us immediately in Swahili. I couldn't understand a word that he was saying apart from license so I pulled it out. I hated this guy immediately. He was the typical power tripping corrupt police official wanker. He shouted at me for not having an international license, whilst Adam stood in front of the non-existent wing mirror so he couldn't see that it was missing. He told me that I would have to pay another fine on top of what I'd already paid, I couldn't do much but say yes and get on with it. But then Adam decided to go and have another word with him, he explain to him that I'd only been driving in Tanzania for a couple of weeks and hadn't realised that I needed a international license. He was a bit nicer with him, but explained that he wanted to see my passport so he could be sure of when I had entered the country. I called Jason up he was at home, and he drove over with Aubree and her sister Kelsey to drop my passport off to him. We had to wait a while, but eventually we got it done, and we were able to leave. I didn't go on with Adam, I let him take the truck home, and I went with Aubree, Jason and Kelsey for lunch. I was too pissed off to be driving anywhere. 

Once I got home from lunch, Adam was there, and we decided to go down to see Mama Mary. The main reason I wanted to go down is because I want to get Mama Mary a small business started so that she can support the family without depending on hand-outs from me. The most important thing after having a secure home is being able to support the family with food and water etc. Mama Mary decided that she would like to start selling vegetables, and have her own small shop close by to the home. We spoke about any good locations, whether there was much competition and whether Mama Mary thought she would be capable of keeping her books and making sure that she gets her margins right. She spoke about a spot which she new close by, so we decided to go and check it out. Adam advised that I didn't come, as it was likely that he would have to negotiate with somebody about renting the small bit of land, and if I was there they would have upped the price by a lot because I'm white! The spot was good, and Adam agreed on 20,000tsh for three months of rent for the small bit of land. We're going to try and get the table built tomorrow, and get down to Mama Mary's as soon as possible to get her started. I will be investing a total of about 100,000tsh in setting up a small business for her. I hope it works out! 

 

I really haven't done much else at all. After Mama Mary's today I drove with Adam to meet a lady who is supported my Project Rehema, a local NGO, and see where she lived. She's HIV+ and supports two kids. She's not very well so Adam likes to pop in to see her when he gets the opportunity. It was crazy driving there, the roads are so bad, and I've never done driving like it before. It was exciting but pretty difficult to control! No mistakes though which is good! 

I'll update you all in a few days and let you know how setting up the business goes. I'll be visiting Mama Dora again soon and possibly getting some quotes for the build of the next home. Please donate if you have the time!