Beth' story

My name is Beth Temple and I have just returned from six weeks travelling through Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda which included doing some volunteer work in Tanzania for the RWDA.

I have worked in Tanzania before and this time I was in a different village within the same general area in central Tanzania. The village was called Ilongero and was about 1 to 2 hours by bus from Singida. It was the rainy season and the road just kept getting washed away. (40 mins in the dry season). Singida has grown so much since I was there 4 years ago. There are a lot more sealed roads and mobile phones have arrived in force. Sometimes before electricity in the villages.

My day usually started around 5am with the morning call to prayer which I used as my alarm clock. I was involved with teaching English at the secondary school, overseeing the building of a hostel for accommodation for girls at the school, and picking up on a chicken rearing project. I tutored English in the evenings - so long, busy days.

Teaching English was a bit daunting at first but the kids were really great. Classes ranged from 40 to 70 students with ages from 14 to 22. A diverse group with some really bright students. It was great when they started asking questions and interacting more. There were a few challenges with trying to explain different concepts in my very limited Kiswahili and trying to yell over the rain on the corrugated iron roof. I happened to take some coloured chalk with me, so that was a real winner from the start. There were about 600 students in the school and just 5 teachers. Students seemed to spend more time cleaning the school and grounds then attending classes.

The hostel is progressing well with a great fundi (tradesman) in charge.
The hostel is badly needed and will hopefully be finished in a few months.

The chickens arrived for the chicken rearing project towards the end of my time there. So I was involved with mainly preparation work, roster meetings and it was great to see chickens actually in the kibanda before I left. It was lovely working with the women and trying to get to know them and their stories a little more. They were so happy to see the chickens arrive at last. Just waiting for ‘mayai, mayai’ now. (Mayai – eggs!) The chickens should start laying within a month.

I asked a couple of the ladies what they thought they would gain from the project.
‘The profit that we can make from the project can help pay fees for our children, help buy clothes and uniforms and to improve our health through eggs and meat’ Amina Ihuecha

‘We will start with 100 chickens and will maybe then increase to 200 chickens. We will benefit from the business and then our families will benefit.’
Asha Issa

Ilongero itself was a friendly little village with the usual hospitality of the Tanzanians with so many people wanting me to visit and have a meal with them. This is a very important part of their culture. There were lots of little challenges like learning to cook on a little kerosene stove and finding my way around all the paths and shortcuts in the village with no signs. It was very frustrating at times especially dealing with Government departments. But I guess that is the same worldwide! My Kiswahili definitely needs some work. I loved shopping at the local market, learning who supplied what and when and spending time with the children from the disabled centre across from where I was staying.

It was great to meet Gloria Nkungu, the driving force of RWDA at last and talk through the ups and downs of the RWDA with her.

After travelling onto Rwanda and having some contact with a lot of the bigger NGO’s I was even more proud and impressed with the grassroots work that is done by the RWDA and The Kanga Project. The projects are driven from the ground up, with community involvement keeping them running. I am already trying to work out when I can go back.

Leaving home again

Just when this place is starting to feel like a home, I have to leave. I left this morning among friends and family. I had people come to carry my bags, want photos with me, giving me gifts and wave me off on the bus. I felt so lucky and only just managed to hold back the tears. I was told by all to greet my friends and family, to have a safe journey and was assured God will be with me on my travels to my home. It was also mentioned that i musn't forget my people here in Africa and that i was welcome to come again. I was also lucky enough to have a small party with the women's group which included a lovely meal (chicken of course) and many kind words from the leaders. I was also given a Kanga from the group (with of course chickens and eggs on). i will miss this place very much and am sad I won't be there when the chickens come.

I took photos this morning of the chicken house as Joel Mbura had worked till late last night to finish putting up the logs for the roof. Great work. We have also almost finished the fence and the Iron sheets will go up on monday. We have put off the date of the chickens coming as we want to have the building perfect before they come. The issue of the local logs vs timbers was solved by Bonne who found a man with a farm willing to sell us good straight logs at a small fee. Good save and it enabled us to continue building.

The bricks for the hostel wall foundations have been completed and that project just awaits money and a good fundi to build.

Although I have left the village, I will still be involved with the Kanga Project and the Rural Women Development Association and I hope to continue helping them. When personal funds permit, I hope to return to see the projects thriving and peoples lives changed for the better. I have faith and so do they.

We welcome Beth Temple to Ilongero in January to oversee the projects and apply her skills to help the growth of the chicken business. She has experience in Tanzania (so knows some languge) and I think will be using this site also to update. Thankyou to her for showing an interest in these projects and more for wanting to help.

Please continue to check into the Kanga site and this blog site to see the progress of a little organisation with big dreams.

Signing off,
Janey

What comes first ?

The chickens or the house ?
Well for now it’s got to be the house. We are now on a time limit to finish the house as I have ordered the chickens for the 18th Oct and the house needs to be finished by then. Good incentive I thought.
At this exact moment people should be working on it while I am in Singida with three of our women's group members training in chicken keeping and rearing. We have two days training in Singida with a chicken expert at VETA (Vocational Education Training Authority) and then two days in the village with all the members. Doricus Mbura, Fatuma Ali and Mirium Monko are all great students and extremely excited about what they are learning and seeing; especially when we work out the money we can make. We have some theory training as well as some practical training. We have just completed our first day and are full of important information.
I will write again next week just before I leave this area to give a final blog in Tanzania. Hopefully I will be telling you about how the chickens are settling in and how lovely their house is. Thanks for reading.

Seeing is believing (especially here)

Well an exciting and dare I say productive week this week in little Ilongero. The women's group involved in the chicken buying and selling business are buying chickens and are just waiting to have enough to sell in Singida. They are excited about the big project of chicken rearing, and especially after our little field trip on Friday. I took six members of the group (some could not make it due to family and religious duties) to the project I saw in Ntonge the week before. We rang ahead to ensure we were given the grand tour. The chicken rearing team in Ntonge were extremely helpful to say the least and there was much asking and answering of questions (most I missed as all was in Swahili) but I could tell through the language barrier, that they were interested and excited. I believe having a visual of what is possible makes dreams so much more achievable, especially for our women who have little view of life outside their village.

The group learnt the important steps of chicken rearing and the correct process from egg to mating and selling. The group also said that VETA (see last entry) comes to them to buy their chickens so in effect they have a guaranteed buyer who comes to them, saving them travel costs and the possibility of not getting the price needed to make a profit.

We have all materials bar the local timber to finish the chicken house and, 'if god wishes' (one of the favourite sayings here) they will be waiting for me when I return to Ilongero. So chickens hopefully will be ordered and in their new home before the end of October.

We are continuing to make the bricks for the hostel and the locals join in as and when they can. But I can rely on them to water the bricks (not so they grow but to strengthen them) while I am away from the town. I have been away for the weekend to visit some friends on their volunteer project and am now in Singida to email and wait for Gloria to arrive on the bus.

Can't wait to see her and go through everything. She seems to have a knack of getting things done when she is around and is a bit tougher than I am, (she can afford to be as she is a local and knows the culture like the back of her hand).

So please keep wishing us luck and stay tuned for our next instalment. Anybody, feel free to message and ask any questions about our project. I am only here for about another three to four weeks.

Not such a dream after all

Over the last few days, I have learnt a lot about chicken rearing and building kibandas (that’s Kiswahili for a chicken house). But we haven't got any chickens yet or a complete building to put them in. We are so much closer to it though. Having Angelo and the car for two days was amazing. He is so helpful and motivated and has great ideas. I think between the two of us we managed to get much done. Poor man, he must have been so tired. And then had to get up at 4 this morning to go to work. So wonderful that he uses his time off to help the project.
As well as sorting out some materials for the kibandas we visited a place in Ntonge where a group is running a chicken business with an incubator and a kibanda and are using all the right feed and vaccinations. We realised we needed more ventilation in ours so am knocking down some wall. Sad but necessary. I do feel more positive about the whole idea now, having seen how well these guys are doing. What sounded a bit like a nice dream weeks ago when I first talked with Gloria seems more easily achievable now.

Angelo and I also visited VETA (Vocational Education & Training Authority) local branch, (my first time) and the chicken rearing expert gave us at least an hour tour of their set up. Very interesting and we learnt heaps about the processes involved in the rearing and vital things to remember at each step in order to get a high yield and avoid disease. Their set up is very involved and professional but there are ways of simplifying the process while still incorporating the vital stuff for our project. We may have the opportunity to have some training days for the women at VETA which I’d like to organise with Gloria when I find out exactly what they have been taught already. I have been informed they have had some training but have not yet found out exactly what. It would be really good for some of the group to see the VETA set up or at least the one in Ntonge. May be I will try to arrange a visit. The group is very nice and open about sharing ideas. The Ntonge business seems also to be working because the members are hard working, understanding that the chickens lives are their lives. Could even be an alternative to going all the way to Singida for training, travelling is so difficult in this region. Food for thoughts………..