Gombe Stream National Park

Despite how it may seem, we are not being sponsored by the Tanzanian Tourist Board…although we are open to payment! 

As proud products of the marvellous and free (yes, Mr. Trump, free) Irish education system, we boast that Newgrange is older than the Pyramids, the Giants Causeway the geometrical genius of an irate giant, our saints and scholars rival any others and that, on a good day, there is no land like Ireland.

However, Tanzania is proving to be quite the competition. Not in an emerald isle, cliffs and waves way…more in a giraffe and elephant, colossal mountains, picturesque beaches, gold and tanzanite way. Home of Serengeti, Kilimanjaro, Ngorongoro, Zanzibar as well as numerous East African peace talks, mines full of treasures and the largest volume of freshwater lakes in the world. In short, everyone should come on holiday here.

Gombe Stream National Park is Tanzania’s smallest National Park, situated on the banks of Lake Tanganyika in the west and only accessible by boat. This is where, 55 years ago, a young Jane Goodall went, accompanied by her mother, to study the behaviour of chimpanzees. Goodall’s studies in the following years proved to be groundbreaking and are still talked about in scientific circles.

Last week, we took the 10 hour drive to visit the park and its world famous chimps. The Park is still remote, welcoming only around 1000 visitors each year (compared to Serengeti’s 300,000+). It’s hot and humid and requires a long, long hike through steep hills to try to find a community of around 50 chimps.

So we hiked. And then hiked some more.

In school, all Irish essays seemed to revolve around the phrase ‘go tobann’. It has remained a staple of Gaelige leaving cert essays for generations; coming to mean much more than a simple ‘suddenly’. Never has there been a more apt moment than after three hours, we went around a corner and ‘go tobann’, there they were.

My dad is a big monkey fan. He’s been known to go to the zoo for his birthday. Just himself and my mum walking around a cold Dublin zoo in the middle of March. It’s always to the monkey house he wants to go, and I must confess I never got it.

Now I get it.

Watching these human-like animals play and jump and tease and groom, seeing frustrated mothers swatting away annoying young ones and older males surveying the scene from high up in trees, knowing we were probably as remote as we had ever been was quite awe inspiring. 

We sat and watched for an hour, the maximum amount of time you’re allowed to stay in close proximity. The comparison with humans is remarkable. The behaviour, the relationships, the reactions – all so familiar it was almost eerie. We took a lot of pictures, you can click here for the rest of them.

Gombe is less than 20km from Kigoma, the region with the world’s third largest refugee camp. People are pouring across the Burundi border fleeing what the UN has said could be a second ‘Rwandan style genocide’. It's a truly terrible situation.

Tanzania is a country of such contradictions. The country we live in is one of the most beautiful we've ever seen...and yet, its home to so many marginalised, hungry, homeless, helpless. As we come into our last few months here, this has been one of the hardest aspects of life to get our heads around. A friend of mine, after hours of 'solving the world' over a cup of tea, used to always laugh and say ‘Sure, what do I know anyway?!’. I suppose I thought after all this time I might know something, have some understanding of how all these contrasts and complexities can exist.

But so often, you find yourself thinking, what do I know anyway?

Invitation for Quotations

About two weeks ago, any Guardian (the Tanzanian version) readers will have been treated to a very special advert on Page 3...

After weeks of getting everything finalised, the water project Paul is working on was ready to start looking for a Contractor. To give the best chance of finding the right company, and to adhere to Tanzania's transparency laws, a small fortune was paid for prime location in the country's "most read English language" newspaper. It's a big milestone in the project and if anyone reading this is interested, please address quotes to PO Box 1195, Shinyanga...!

Old New House

Last April, when we thought we would be heading to another part of Tanzania, we moved out of our first Shinyanga house. We had paid for a year up front so were delighted when Koen and Jacqueline, a Dutch couple who also work with ICS, moved in and covered the rent. When we came back to Shinyanga in July, we found a house until December but arrived back in January homeless with out stuff stored in two different friends' houses.

So we have spent the past couple of weeks asking around and trying to find a house - not the easiest when every landlord seems to want a year commitment. However, in bad news, Koen and Jacqueline told us last week that they are leaving Shinyanga. They have become good friends and often bare the brunt of our frustrations and venting so we'll miss having them around. It does mean, in a true 'every cloud' scenario, that we can have their house - our house - back again. 

We've been moved back in for a few days and it's a little weird. Most things look the same. Even Alice's homemade wooden Christmas tree is still in the living room. To avoid repeating ourselves, here's our first blog about the house from October 2014...it's nice to be home!

Happy New Year!

After a busy but great time back in Ireland for Christmas and New Year, we arrived back in Shinyanga on Monday. A month is a long time but it flies by when you're catching up with family and friends, trying to get your head around Christmas shopping and eating as much turkey as possible! Thanks to everyone who made time for us, said hello, fed us and told us they read our blog...

Not particular fans of New Years resolutions, ours should probably be to keep the blog updated more regularly. Being busier here is great but it does mean less time to sit and type our general musings but we'll try.

As always, it will take us a few days to settle in and get used to being back...although things like haggling with airport taxi drivers is far more normal now than it used to be. Paul has a busy few weeks ahead as ICS go through the Tanzanian tender process to find a contractor capable of installing the water supply infrastructure. Alice will continue to work in Buhangija and has already been chatting to ASMK (the local NGO we partner with) about some potential future projects.

If you have any (inevitable) unwanted Christmas presents or are in the middle of the (also inevitable) January clear-out and would like to support work in the Shinyanga Centre for Children with Albinism, Swords Baptist Church are hosting another fundraiser later this month. The money they raised last year fixed the well, restored a rain water harvesting tank, renovated classrooms, installed a clinic and has paid for our nurse, Mama Felicita for the past 8 months...looking forward to seeing what this year will bring!

Buhangija Nursery School: An Update

It’s been nearly a year since we first visited Buhangija, experienced the unmistakable odour of suncream mixed with dirt, met Claire and thought that maybe there might be something we could do. We still get emails and comments about our first ‘Buhangija NurserySchool’ posting and thought, after all these months an update might be in order because there have been some changes…

The initial objective of simply keeping the younger children occupied and out of the sun for a few hours each day has developed into a full nursery school with 2 classrooms, teaching nearly 100 children every day. The students receive a snack, wash their hands with soap, sing songs, learn the alphabet, create art, learn science, play with lego and practise reading and writing. Now, from Monday to Friday the compound is typically filled with children singing renditions of ‘Elephant, Elephant’ or ‘Shaky Shaky the Mango Tree’ – two of the students, and we suspect teachers, favourite songs.

Last week, Alice was standing peering into the 2 classrooms watching the teachers telling stories to 50 tiny white heads. The students were sitting with their legs crossed, arms wrapped around their chests, listening intently. The love Janeth and Deborah show to the children is inspiring. They have been hit, spat on, shouted at and more and yet they continue to patiently correct, lovingly discipline with a cheerfulness that can’t always be easy to find!

The teachers bring in extra food for their classes. They clean up every mess that is made. A few weeks ago, they even organised for a group of the older children to go to a local church on a Sunday morning. They sang a song, talked about the school, and most importantly of all were made to feel a little bit like a ‘normal’ child. Deborah and Janeth really are two very special and committed women.

In very exciting news, we have our first class of 31 students graduating from our small school in January. These students will now be proudly walking the short distance to the local Primary School where they will enter Standard 1 – an accomplishment that seemed near impossible during some of the early days of chaos. It’s remarkable progress within a year and something that we are just delighted to be part of.

Swahili word of the day: Tunakwende shuleni (We are going to school)

Water Work

Paul has continued to be busy in work over the past few months. As well as specifying and overseeing a bit of survey work; the project budget has been re-worked, Monitoring and Evaluation documents compiled as well as meeting with local stakeholders. Getting the survey sorted was an interesting experience. In a country where you haggle and bargain over the price of a handful of tomatoes, it was no real surprise to spend many hours talking, arguing and pleading over costs. After finally coming to an agreement, we also decided one of the ‘Water Team’ should be with the surveyors at all times to keep an eye of them. Thankfully we had a work experience student with us who was an ideal candidate for that!

The villages of Maganzo and Masagala are located about half an hour drive north of Shinyanga, beside the main Shinyanga-Mwanza road. The communities are very close to Mwadui diamond mine and they do a lot of ‘local’ mining so you have to watch out for large holes when you walk and drive around the area. The target population of approximately 12,000 currently have no access to a reliable, clean water source. People can buy unclean water from small dams or shallow wells nearby but for drinking water, they go to a dam 6km away. There is no other water infrastructure of any sort in the area despite the houses, guesthouses, shops etc. – all water is collected in buckets and walked or cycled to where they are.

ICS is working closely with KASHWASA (Kahama Shinyanga Water Supply and Sewage Authority) who are responsible for taking water from Lake Victoria before treating and pumping to Shinyanga. The project will be taking water from their pipeline and supplying it to 25 public water points. KASHWASA are keen to see the project succeed and have provided technical assistance at various stages, sent Engineers to help with the design and given us over 3km of pipe to use wherever we need. This local participation is useful for ICS now but will also help the project’s sustainability due to the support of those who provide the water and maintain the system.

The project is currently in the detailed design phase so there has been lots of studying of the Tanzania Water Supply Design Manual and discussions about pipe materials, population figures, how many people will actually use our new taps and the like. For the past few months, we have been concentrating on office work because of the Election. Not as a result of any safety concerns, but because very few people believe that we are serious about providing them with a water supply system – they have been convinced we are politicians making empty promises. So the general plan has been to wait until the elections are over and then go back and tell the community we are still here - quite a simple plan really!

Swahili word of the day: Maji safi na salama (Safe and clean water)

Hapa Kazi Tu!

After weeks and even months of political conversation and debate throughout the country, the Tanzanian General Election took place on Sunday 25th October. 

CCM (Chama Cha Mapinduzi) or Party of the Revolution has, using various names, ruled Tanzania since it's independence in 1961. The party was started by Julius Nyerere, the 'father of the nation', who is revered throughout Tanzania and looks down on you from the wall of every office, shop and public building. CCM were the only legal political party until 1995 - although the addition of more parties has not changed the result of any election, with many claiming that the country knows who the new President will be before any votes are cast. 

This time, the major opposition parties joined together behind one candidate to try and wrestle power from the all-powerful CCM. It was felt that many people were ready for and wanted change, with the majority of younger voters vocal in their desire for change. 

On Thursday, four days later, the new President was declared as CCM's John Pombe Magufuli (Pombe being the Swahili for 'alcohol' and Magufuli meaning 'padlocks' which is the source of much amusement!). No real surprise but the announcement was accompanied by much grumbling and unhappiness among ordinary Tanzanians. However, police now swarm the streets with orders to break up any group of people greater than three members and with promises that any protest or demonstration will be dealt with harshly. The opposition has sent an open letter to the international community and The Hague but with the Tanzanian constitution stating that once a President is announced, the result cannot be overturned, the overriding feeling is that everyone will just have to wait five years and try again.

Looking forward, here is the BBC's take on what the new President of Tanzania needs to concentrate on over his term. Let's hope he can do a good job!

Swahili word of the day: Hapa Kazi Tu (Only Work Here - CCMs election slogan)