Walky Walky

Tuesday 25th August – Sheila

Today after breakfast we met a guy in reception, who was going to walk us around the area surrounding the Moivaro Coffee Plantation Lodge, where we are staying.

His name is Safari!  He started off by showing us round the Lodge’s kitchen garden, which I found really interesting. There were banana palms, but under them were growing neat rows of exactly the same kind of vegetables, that one might find in an allotment at home – plus a few more. There were lettuces, cabbages, leeks, chard, carrots and onions – but also peppers and aubergines. The herb garden had parsley, thyme, sage, basil and coriander.  I was very impressed by how healthy everything is – possibly down to the total absence of slugs and snails!  Safari was surprised to hear about the rampant ones in my garden at home.  It is all completely organic, being fertilised only by ashes from fires and cow dung.

Safari was extremely knowledgable about all the trees and plants we passed and knew the names of the exotic birds.  We saw mango, lime, peach, fig, and avocado trees.  Oscar’s favourite was the “sausage” tree.  Apparently the sausages are not used in Tanzania, but are used in Kenya for making beer.

We walked through the coffee plantation.  Neither Oscar nor I had known how coffee grew before. You have to pick the beans – which grow on shoulder high bushes – once they turn red, and new beans only take four days to grow. People were wandering through the trees picking the beans which had ripened, and do this every day.

We talked to Safari as we walked.  He told us that he hadn’t been able to go to school until he was eleven, as his family needed him at home to care for their cows.  Oscar and I have seen lots of small boys at roadsides holding a stick and keeping control of herds of cows on the verges. Safari said that he just took himself off to school as he wanted a better life and by 18, he had completed primary school.  He told us that he had failed the exam for secondary school, but wanted to try again.  I had assumed he was about 20, but when the topic got round to age, he said he was 37!  He said he had learned English on a three month course in Kenya – only very basic English had been taught in his primary school. His ambition is to be a safari guide, but reckons doing walking tours around where he lives is useful experience.

We talked to Safari about everything under the sun.  He was very shocked to hear that we have no religion – he said everyone here believes in God and that the world was made in seven days.

We agreed about politics. Elections are coming up here soon and he is for change and for human rights for all.  He wants rich corrupt politicians to be swept aside. We talked a lot about poverty and about the fact that wealth doesn’t make people happy – we saw a lot of very poor but apparently happy and welcoming people during our meanders.

We had brought a bag full of colouring books, pencils and sweets along with us and Safari said we would take it to his local primary school to give them to the teacher, as she could give them to the more needy children.  However, when we got there after walking for two hours, it turned out the school was on holiday for a month.

So Oscar and I started to hand out the odd item to passing children.  Most were very pleased, saying “thank you” in English and giving enormous smiles. However we came across one little girl who looked about three – though was probably older – holding a bar of soap she may have been sent out to buy. When Safari asked if she wanted a chocolate bar, she was horrified, saying her father would beat her.  A lesson well learned there: don’t take sweeties from strangers!

We went to visit a family and their two daughters, who brought out a stool for us to rest on.  There were hens with tiny chicks running around and the family cows were penned up in a small area. The girls were pleased with coloured pencils and a colouring book with instructions for the little one and dot-to-dot with colouring for the older one.

When Safari suggested a photo of us all, the mother refused to be photographed. I wanted her in too, so eventually, after doing herself up by going indoors to get a bright skirt to wrap over her grey one, she agreed. Girls are the same the world over!

We walked on and came to a building where Safari said they make beer from bananas. He said it would cost one US dollar to get a bottle. All three of us agreed that we didn’t drink beer, but would pay the dollar just to look.  Oscar – as a vegetarian – was appalled to discover when we entered the yard to find that they had killed a pig that morning, and all the parts of it were artistically laid out on a table. Flies were dotted all over the meat – the parts all separately lying there – liver, kidney, chops, cheeks, tail, etc.  We went the other way quickly into a little room, where we were shown a bottle of their beer. It said on the bottle that it was made only with bananas, sugar, lemon juice and water and that it was 10% proof. The woman flicked off the lid and poured some into a big green mug. Both the guys refused even to sip it, so I felt I had to. I had one mouthful – it tasted to me like normal beer – no banana flavour.

As we walked on, I asked Safari if he didn’t drink alcohol at all. He said no, then yes, then that he hadn’t drunk any since 2005.  I asked if he’d had a problem and he said he had, so both Oscar and I congratulated him on ten dry years.

Safari said he had taken photos of us during the walk with his phone and asked for our email addresses. We wrote them in a rather swish notebook I have been making notes in during our trip and handed him the book, expecting him to take the page. He thought I was giving him the book, so I took it back, tore out the used pages and handed it back to him to keep.  He was very chuffed, walking round with it on display and was pleased when I said he looked like a real professional.

So we had a real insight today into life in this very green and fertile area and the people who live here – so much more interesting than any sort of official group tour in a vehicle. Actually, pretty much the only vehicles we saw at all were motor bikes – the tracks were too rough and uneven for anything larger.

Oscar and I are making the best of our time here: we are crossing our fingers for Jae up the mountain.