So good to be back in Tanzania – we have heard that Mnase village have had the best harvest for 8 years! It will be amazing to be there for the first time when they have an abundance. Every other trip has been when they were in a poor situation concerning crops. The land looks so green for June – amazingly beautiful.
We have some exciting news …. the medical dispensary that is being built in the village of Mnase, Tanzania has now been completed. After finishing the water well renovation the village asked if we could help with the building of a dispensary. At the moment the only medical help is a visiting doctor, once a month, for pregnant women and children under 5. Men, children over 5 and all other women have to walk or cycle 10km to the nearest small dispensary. Inside the new unit will be a waiting room a doctor’s room, an inoculation room and dispensary hatch, a store room and 2 small bedrooms for men and women.
This new building will be a huge benefit to the village … we hope to go out this year to celebrate with the people.
Sing to the Well is a CD recorded in a rural community in Tanzania. The only documentation we had found of this instrument was a 3 string version so you can imagine our excitement when we met this player who plays a 10 string Zeze.
Sing to the Well is a CD recorded in a rural community in Tanzania. During our time recording we spoke with many of the older people in the village showing them pictures from an old book I had discovered on traditional Gogo instruments. One old lady knew where someone played this strange instrument called the Donondo … so of we went searching …. 2 hours later surrounded by a maze field we found this man.
Our journey started from snow covered Northumbria, skidding down the narrow icy lanes towards the A1 and ended 3 days later (after various forms of public transport – car, plane, taxi, dalai, coach and three wheeler cycle!) in hot and humid Dodoma which is situated in central Tanzania.
Tanzania, although one of the least urbanised, is East Africa’s largest country. With a diverse landscape of savannah, bush, lakes and highland plateau. It is renowned for its wild life, game reserves and Mount Kilimanjaro, (the highest mountain on this continent). Its 126 different tribal groups, each with their own heritage, are welded together by the Kiswahili language, a mix of Arabic and old Bantu originating from Zanzibar. Before 1972 this diverse group of people had no cohesion and lived in scattered pockets throughout the country. Between 1972 and 1974 under the Presidency of Julius Nyerere the Government forced these pockets into village formats. Read More
Next stop was to see the progress of the medical dispensary. The building project has brought jobs to men from Mnase and an adjacent village. At the moment the only medical help is a visiting doctor, once a month, for pregnant women and children under 5. Men, children over 5 and all other women have to walk or cycle 10km to the nearest small dispensary. Inside the new unit will be a waiting room a doctor’s room, an inoculation room and dispensary hatch, a store room and 2 small bedrooms for men and women.
Seeing the renovated water pump working was very moving and hugely exciting. A dream in 2005 had become a reality. The village committee had decided to charge 20 TZS for a container of water (about 0.1 pence), this enables someone to be employed to look after the pump, pay for the fuel and allow people from the 4 other satellite villages to collect water.
We have put together a short video using pictures and video snap shots of the unfolding story of water coming to the village of Mnase in central Tanzania.
It was a full house as we showed some of the video clips and pictures from our recording trip in 2005. Initially we had decided to show the clips outside under a corrugated iron roof – but there was such a huge crowd (the news had got out – even though we had only told a few people) that there was a fear that the roof and structure was going to collapse when we started playing the music. We had to quickly stop the showing and run!!! There was much laughter later with the elders of the village, as they joked about possible news headlines – white people kill half the village of Mnase!
When we regrouped in a smaller venue with restricted numbers – we had an amazing evening. People were laughing, screaming and pointing as various members of the village were noticed in the photographs. The first time that any of them would have seen themselves on a computer screen.
Early this morning we set off to Mnase village in what can only be described as a metal moving object crammed to absolute capacity with people, chickens and general household objects. This picture gradually got worse as people finding no room through the doors started climbing in through the windows ….. and every once in a while there would be startled looks at the realisation that there were Msungu’s (white people) on the bus! Read More
We had breakfast with the Minister of Infrastructure for Tanzania today, the Hon. Hezekiah Ndahani Chibulunje (we had met him in 2005 when the Government had sent an envoy to meet us and hear about the Sing to the Well project). 2 years ago the World Bank offered finance to help remote villages in the Dodoma region with drilling wells. Read More
As you can imagine there was much joy when we were able to pass on a gift of a keyboard from a musician friend in the States to our friends in Dodoma, central Tanzania. The interesting story was getting it into the country ….. when we arrived a custom official tried to pocket 200,000 TSH for us to bring the keyboard into the country. When we said we did not have that money on us … he gave himself away by replying “How much can you afford?”
Sadly this was not the only story of corruption during our trip to Africa. We called his bluff, and finally after the usual waiting game … he got fed up and let us go through!
Rebekah and Martin will be making a return visit to Tanzania in February to visit the Gogo people whose music was recorded on the Sing to the Well project. To remind you all ….. here is a short video of the Tanzanian village as they celebrate with music and dancing.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL
We are off to Tanzania again in Feb and we are hoping to take a keyboard out as a gift. Anyone got one they are not using and want to donate? You’ll love the request we got ….. priceless English!
tHANK YOU FOR ACCEPTING TO FIND YAMAHA KEYBOAD FOR ME,PLEASE TRY TO GET GOOD ONE WITH MORE THAN 500 PSR,HARD TIPE,WITH TWISTABLE PEACHES(A THING THAT A PLAYER CAN USE TO TWIST OR SHAKING THE KEY BOADY VOICES WHILE PLAYING)
Twistable peaches mate every keyboard should have them ….. I think we know what he means.
If anyone would like to donate towards this gift that would be amazing.
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