By the way, I'm not sure what the next 48 hours or so holds in terms of either travel or internet access, so I may be offline for a little while.

The Mtwara trip is almost over. In theory our flight leaves today around noon, or at least that is what is printed on the piece of paper which is ostensibly my ticket. Since this trip has been so far fraught with a number of travel incidents, I am holding my breath.

But it has been a good week. Exhausting and long days, but we've learned so much and I think we have at least a start on getting a good perspective on what role we might play here. My Tanzanian colleagues have been great, and on many occasions took the initiative when I couldn't. This is the first time I've done a new program exploration with others, and so prior to the trip I was a little apprehensive about whether things would go smoothly or not. One of the best things was one evening when the three of us were sitting in a restaurant and a local cashew seller came around our table with his tray of small bags of freshly roasted cashews. He was just trying to sell us maybe 50 cents or 1 dollars worth of his product, but it soon turned into an in depth interview of small scale cashew processing and marketing, and he ended up sitting at the table with us for probably an hour. He seemed quite willing to share info, and even pleased that someone was taking an interest in his vocation. The conversation was entirely in Swahili which means I was following very little. I really appreciated how my colleagues adapted to the chance opportunity, and turned it into a small gold mine of useful 'data'.

So there's been one concrete outcome at least from our visit here in Mtwara. We met with an organization which has asked our staff here to help them build some rain-water harvesting tanks, a technology which we promote in the area where we are working in northern Tanzania. So our country director here agreed to send a technician who would help build one or two tanks and the organization here in Mtwara has agreed to cover the costs. An un-expected outcome, but a satisfying one nonetheless.

I think the worst kind of road is the kind where it is relatively smooth for moderate distances but then occasionally pocked by axle-cracking potholes, strategically placed like sand traps on a golf course. This allows the driver to approach highway like speeds under non-highway like conditions. One gets fairly adept at anticipating  the bumps and tucking one's head and bracing for impact with the roof. This effect is particularly exaggerated in the far back seat of a 4 x 4 vehicle. Not sure entirely why but it probably has something to do with basic geometry. Anyone sitting between the axle has their motion somewhat moderated, while anyone sitting beyond the axle base is like sitting on a see-saw. This means you get slapped like a pancake if the bounce is hard enough. This particular road yesterday seemed to stretch in a remarkably straight line cutting a swath to the horizon and off somewhere into the interior of southern Tanzania.

It's hot here in Mtwara. I got up just after 6 this morning, when it is dark and should still be cool and it was already hot. Even if you move really slowly, you heat up quickly.

I wish I could show you a photo of the streams of women labourers leaving the cashew processing plant this afternoon. I just didn't have the heart to take the picture. It was literally like a human river flowing out the company gate. Literally thousands of humans flowing down side streets and paths heading home in the rain.

I'm almost out of battery so I better make this quick. Weve spent the whole day visiting cashew factories and talking to cashew processors both large and small scale. It is definitely the lifeblood of this area. Whether we as an organization have a role to play here in helping production, or diversifying production or something else is still hard to say, but we've had alot of interesting discussions and learned a tonne. For example, cashew oil can be used as brake fluid and wood preservative, and cashew husks can be extracted for use in makeup.  The plant we visited this morning is the first in Africa, and the largest in the world. Unfortunately I was not able to take a picture of the 1200 women working on shelling the raw cashews. It was quite a sight.

Mtwara

So here we are in Mtwara, two of my Tanzanian colleagues and myself to meet cashew farmers and others in the cashew industry, learn about what is going on, and to exchange ideas about future collaborations. This 'first contact' in a new region is a critical moment in time, a sort of tipping or balancing point when the new contacts don't know you and you don't know them, and every single minute everyone is assessing how much they might trust or distrust the other party. It is sort of an exciting process but also a bit stressful. I find that one also tends to collect information about the situation and make assessements based on all kinds of inputs tangible and intangible. We've got 5 days here to make our initial call. I'll keep you posted of course.

By the way, I was obliged yet again to check a bag and it did arrive and is here with me safely at the guesthouse. This drops my lost-bag percentage probably to somewhere around 50%.

Coincidental Meetings

My travel schedule requires me to stay in a small town outside Arusha last night and tonight. I booked into a local guesthouse which offers clean but small rooms and breakfast for 5000 Tanzanian shillings (about 4 USD). These kinds of guesthouses are not frequented by tourists or even NGO types, so it was a huge surprise to me when I walked into the lobby and ran into an old colleague Charlie Forst. Some of you may know Charlie since he is somewhat famous in ag development circles and worked for ECHO for many years (www.echonet.org).

I had the privilege of working with Charlie in Haiti in 1996, and it was an opportunity for me to learn and be challenged. Really, Charlie is a genius. One of those people who applies himself and excels at everything they turn their mind to. He has lived through wars, embargoes, and generally extreme situations in some of the poorest parts of the world. I would guess Charlie is now at least in his 70's if not his 80's and is still going strong, working on water and agricultural projects here in Tanzania. Again, all these years later, I have so much to learn from Charlie and it is inspiring to have a chance to pick someone's brain with so much knowledge and experience. Everywhere Charlie has gone, Haiti, Peru, Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, the US, he has made a positive difference for individuals and communities. He even met then Senator Obama on his African tour. There should be more Charlie's in the world. I feel very fortunate to have run into him again, completely by 'accident'.

Today's travel tip

Should you find yourself in a mosquito infested area with no proper window screening or mosquito netting, you can use a sheet tucked in around the sides, and then wrap the top around your head like a mummy sleeping bag so that only your nose and mouth are exposed for breathing. This will not eliminate bites altogether, but will greatly reduce your exposure and at least allow you a semi-decent sleep. Not great in really hot climates, but it's a trade-off between comfort and malaria.

another travel tip

I've tested many different types of travel towels over the years, you know, the ones that dry quickly and pack small? But I would have to say that the one I would recommend the most (don't laugh) is the sham-wow, the one you see the ads for on TV. Seriously. Many of the other travel towels either don't lather soap well, or don't have the required scrubbing action, but the sham-wow does, surprisely. It's my latest discovery.

Well, I can say, that after trekking up and down farms here for the past 2 weeks, that people are definitely planting lots of trees, and the trees are doing well. It is a little harder to separate how much tree planting is just normal tree planting, and how much has been influenced by our program. We do try to collect data to show the the program is having an impact, but based on what I've seen with my own eyes, I would say that farmers have been encouraged to plant more trees. There are new trees (1-5 years old), on almost every farm we visited. In fact, for the carbon program we are hoping to implement, this is ironically a problem, since farmers are filling up every available space, and on some farms there may be no new space for carbon planting. We are trying to work on a design which will not penalize these motivated and forward thinking farmers.

Some of the many new trees that I saw on farms during the past 2 weeks

I've noticed a couple of times now while we are doing tree inventories on farms that collection of wood seems to occur almost without thinking about it. It is probably worth pointing out that taking a tree inventory involves walking all over the farm, around the outside, and back and forth across the middle a bunch of times, so I'm sure that the farmer is thinking, that if these folks are going to be doing all this walking, I might as well make good use of the time and pick up a few pieces of firewood. I would love to know what people are thinking about what we are doing, since it involves so much walking and no visible end product. Just a few sheets of paper with some numbers scralled on them. At least the farmer comes away with enough kindling to start tonight's meal.

Here's a photo of my kilo of organic coffee beans purchased directly from the farmer (could there be any fairer trade?). Just as proof for those of you doubters who think that a purchase made in the market sight unseen would actually result in a successful transaction. The beans were delivered by someone the farmer and I know in common who happened to be passing by Mshiri (the farmer's village) in the morning, and passing by the Floresta office this afternoon.

Today around noon our motorcycle got a flat tire. Convenient, since we could drop it off at the local tire repair, and walk 5 minutes to one of the favourite lunch spots in the market. When lunch was over we returned to the tire repair but since the repair was not quite finished, I ducked into the shop next door for shade. It happened to be a tailor shop, and I had just noticed walking over that my travel briefcase (REI no less)--in which we were carrying all our survey gear, had a design flaw. Hard to explain, but I realized that a few quick stitches would fix the problem, and since I happened to be standing right in a tailor shop at that moment, I asked if they could make the improvement. Which the tailor did immediately and it took him about 5 minutes. I should patent the idea and sell to REI. The tailor didn't even charge me for the work. And while this was going on, I ran into a farmer who is growing organic coffee and had agreed to prepared 1 kg of green coffee beans for me last week. We were able to finish our transaction, and arrange for the beans to be delivered to me within the next day or two. At about that same time the tire repair was done, and we hopped on the bike and headed back to work. I love it when things seem to work together like that. Only in a third world market, I think

How to eat ugali

If you've done a web search and are hoping for advice you are out of luck. I have been trying for some time to figure out how to eat ugali properly and still make a mess of it. Ugali is the thick porridge eaten commonly here, and is usually made out of corn flour, or sometimes cassava, or even wheat. It is eaten with the hands, actually just the right hand, and you take some from your plate, make a ball, and then dip or scoop your sauce, meat, or vegetables. I can eat a meal of ugali, but I always manage to get food all over my hand, whereas my eating companions may have a bit of food on the tip of their fingers, but generally they are much tidier. I've asked several people what the trick is, and tried to watch how others are eating, but there seems to be some subtle thing that I'm missing. If there is anyone out their who knows what the secret is, I would be grateful. As it is I eat like a five year old. Which really, being in another culture is often like being a child over again, talking like a child, eating like a child, having social graces like a child.

Today was Sunday and I did go to church. There's an Anglican church in Moshi called St. Margarets, which I used to attend regularly when I was here in 2003, and have been fortunate enough to get back to semi-regularly over the years. Now sadly, the pastor and his family are leaving for the UK. People come and go in the ex-patriot community, and there is hardly a single ex-pat, here that I know that was here 5 years ago. So to see this pastor and his family, whose friendship I have come to appreciate, go, is, well, sad, and a sign of the transient nature of our culture. Yet another symptom of globalization.

On the down side, I should tell you that there is some tension between the staff here and the first community where we started working. Back 5 years ago, we invested a lot of time in meetings, planning, and general discussions with this one community to get the project going. We did spend time making contacts and meeting organizations and community leaders all over Tanzania, from Babati and Arusha in the north, to Iringa in the south, and from the Vice-President's office to farmers. However, our very first activities on the ground were in this one community, and it seems that some in that community have interpreted that as meaning the project belongs to them. This has resulted in some bad feeling and some uncomfortable meetings in this community. It makes me feel bad personally, because I was involved in that initial stage and surely contributed to the misunderstanding. It also makes me feel badly for the staff since it creates additional anxiety for them, and I feel badly for the community since false expectations may have been created.

Community development is not easy, full of disappointments and set backs, but in a sense, it is kind of a good sign that this particular community wants to claim this project as their own. If we were being ineffective, or worse, having a negative effect, I would expect people to react with indifference, or even to try to distance themselves from the project.

While sitting outside at a restaurant at lunch today with my co-workers, an older gentleman, apparently a Masaii traditional healer/shaman approached our table and with a bag over his shoulder and a wooden staff. He started to explain his profession, and showed us a piece of paper with various medicines and their prices. After some discussion, he claimed that he had identified a couple of health issues that I had, and then offered to prepare the necessary treatments from the bag he was carrying. But before this could happen, he asked that our one co-workers who is a woman, to leave the table, because he could not discuss one of my apparent problems in front of her. After some discussion, Eva graciously left the table, and the healer then pulled out a couple of different powders, which looked a lot like sawdust to me, and mixed them in a small plastic bag. After spitting on the bag, he then handed it to me, and said the dispensing fee would be 3000 Tanzanian shillings (about 2.50 US). I did not actually buy the product, in case you are wondering.

The main purpose of my visit here this time, is to complete a tree inventory from a sample of the communities where we are working here, and to complete a household survey of usage of the improved stoves which we are promoting. As a result, the staff agronomist here, Albert Mwambo and myself are travelling from community to community, meeting with farmers, and taking an inventory of their farms if they give us permission. This also gives Albert and myself a lot of time to talk, and he has shared numerous stories about the work that is going on in general here in the program. The story I would like to share at the moment is about one of the savings and loans groups which has had a group nursery for sometime and with Floresta's help was able to access funds from the Kilimanjaro National Park to start a second nursery. They have also invested their own resources, for example to build the fence that you see in the photo. The group plans to operate the nursery primarily for sale of seedlings and hopefully make a profit. As you can see from the picture, taken today, the nursery only has a few seedlings at the moment, and no one was around to ask, but my guess is that they have to potential to produce between 20-25,000 seedlings at any one time. For those of you "in the know", this is an enterprise of the Kokirie group, Tumaini, of which Bariki Tarimo, the one who bought the truck, is a member.