Spectacular Mt Kilimanjaro from the plane window
Just over a week has passed since I arrived back in Moshi.
After 29 long hours hours, most of which was spent aboard the not so impressive Ethiopian Airlines, the view of the mighty Mt Kilimanjaro bursting through the clouds on approach to Kili Airport will never cease to be one of my favourite sights in the world.
It definitely does not feel like a year since I was last here, and not much has changed with the exception of a brand new Nackamutt Supermarket, which has revolutionised the shopping experience in Moshi – mainly for Mzungus (travellers/white people) as I doubt many locals could afford to shop there !
I went straight to visit Mr Massawe at school on Thursday, and was greeted warmly by both Mr Massawe and Susan, with an extra long hug from Talent, his youngest daughter who is now 4 !
The school is looking great, with the children currently on holidays this week, everything had been cleaned and new trees have recently been planted in the school yard which will provide some well needed shade during summer months.
Having only just eaten breakfast, I had to quickly make room for more food as it would have been rude of me to refuse the omelette Susan cooked for me to let me taste some of the 150 eggs per day our chickens are now laying.
The chickens are all very healthy and laying well, we have only lost 10 of the original 200 purchased.
I was saddened to see the impact of the current drought in the region, with only a very short raining season this year the Corn Maize crops have all died, and as a result there is a food shortage especially for the local farming community. This community rely on the annual crop for not only income but a substantial amount of their daily food. At this time of year Mr Massawe would usually be getting ready to harvest his crop and would get enough maize to feed the children and his family for the coming year – this year the silos are now almost empty and there is nothing that can be salvaged from the crops. Whilst I prefer and in all circumstance try to use our funding for sustainability projects, this year we will need to be buying additional corn maize to ensure the children can still get their daily porridge at school, which is now also supplemented with eggs 1-2 times a week.
I was however, delighted to hear that Mr Massawe now has another teacher working at the school. A volunteer from the USA is funding the salary to allow Mr Massawe to have 2 full time classes with permanent teachers.
As always Mr Massawe was very organised and had done a lot of work prior to my arrival to ensure we could hit the ground running. After breakfast #2 we had our first meeting to discuss our projects for 2012 and spent a lot of time talking about his plans for the future.
We quickly agreed on the key projects we were to get completed in the next few weeks – expanding the chicken project and investing in 2 new cows to start producing and selling milk.
After the huge success of last years chickens Mr Massawe was keen to expand, and with a little renovation work to some already existing buildings we will be ready to house another 200 chickens. Again Mr Massawe works his magic, and in a very non African fashion, work began immediately to complete the new chicken enclosures. FYI – nothing in Africa happens quickly, so to have construction starting in less than 24 hours after our meeting I was suitably impressed, and is a true indication of how important this is to Mr Massawe.
After 29 long hours hours, most of which was spent aboard the not so impressive Ethiopian Airlines, the view of the mighty Mt Kilimanjaro bursting through the clouds on approach to Kili Airport will never cease to be one of my favourite sights in the world.
It definitely does not feel like a year since I was last here, and not much has changed with the exception of a brand new Nackamutt Supermarket, which has revolutionised the shopping experience in Moshi – mainly for Mzungus (travellers/white people) as I doubt many locals could afford to shop there !
I went straight to visit Mr Massawe at school on Thursday, and was greeted warmly by both Mr Massawe and Susan, with an extra long hug from Talent, his youngest daughter who is now 4 !
The school is looking great, with the children currently on holidays this week, everything had been cleaned and new trees have recently been planted in the school yard which will provide some well needed shade during summer months.
Having only just eaten breakfast, I had to quickly make room for more food as it would have been rude of me to refuse the omelette Susan cooked for me to let me taste some of the 150 eggs per day our chickens are now laying.
The chickens are all very healthy and laying well, we have only lost 10 of the original 200 purchased.
I was saddened to see the impact of the current drought in the region, with only a very short raining season this year the Corn Maize crops have all died, and as a result there is a food shortage especially for the local farming community. This community rely on the annual crop for not only income but a substantial amount of their daily food. At this time of year Mr Massawe would usually be getting ready to harvest his crop and would get enough maize to feed the children and his family for the coming year – this year the silos are now almost empty and there is nothing that can be salvaged from the crops. Whilst I prefer and in all circumstance try to use our funding for sustainability projects, this year we will need to be buying additional corn maize to ensure the children can still get their daily porridge at school, which is now also supplemented with eggs 1-2 times a week.
I was however, delighted to hear that Mr Massawe now has another teacher working at the school. A volunteer from the USA is funding the salary to allow Mr Massawe to have 2 full time classes with permanent teachers.
As always Mr Massawe was very organised and had done a lot of work prior to my arrival to ensure we could hit the ground running. After breakfast #2 we had our first meeting to discuss our projects for 2012 and spent a lot of time talking about his plans for the future.
We quickly agreed on the key projects we were to get completed in the next few weeks – expanding the chicken project and investing in 2 new cows to start producing and selling milk.
After the huge success of last years chickens Mr Massawe was keen to expand, and with a little renovation work to some already existing buildings we will be ready to house another 200 chickens. Again Mr Massawe works his magic, and in a very non African fashion, work began immediately to complete the new chicken enclosures. FYI – nothing in Africa happens quickly, so to have construction starting in less than 24 hours after our meeting I was suitably impressed, and is a true indication of how important this is to Mr Massawe.
Work begins on the new Chicken enclosures.
Our second project involves cows – we will be buying 2 very pregnant cows which will produce approx 15 litres of milk per day per cow which Mr Massawee will sell at the local market. We went to check the cows over on Friday before we finalise the sale next week, and whilst I would like to say my years of being raised on a farm proved beneficial, all I can say is they looked fat and healthy and I wasn’t offended by the over whelming stench of cow manure.
Stay tuned for next chapter, I will share more about our plans for the future and cant wait till Monday when the kids are back at school.
Sara
Stay tuned for next chapter, I will share more about our plans for the future and cant wait till Monday when the kids are back at school.
Sara
One of our new cows - now named SYDNEY !!!
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