Mulala Village

Peter, our guide, picked us up with a driver and vehicle for a visit to Mulala Village.  We began by driving out of town and winding our way into the hills at the foot of Mt. Meru.  This was a new low for Tanzanian road quality and that is saying something.  Peter called it “African massage.”

 

 

Grading... same everywhere

Our first stop was a middle school.  While it was really interesting to see, it was also a little awkward.  We walked in to a room full of teachers grading exams and Peter asked if we could take a photo.  They said we could “since you are a teacher too,” but it felt really intrusive to do so (though we did snap the photo). 

A teacher then wandered down to a classroom and we quickly realized that the 7^th graders had been called in from recess for us.  The awkward situation continued as they then sang a song that was many versions of saying “we are so happy” and “welcome.”  We snuck a few photos from the hip, but couldn’t bring ourselves to bring a camera up to our eye despite the invitation to do so. 

Not too bad for a hip shot.

After the classroom visit, we stood and spoke with the teacher and learned that the classroom we had just visited had been built through donations from Dutch tourists and a half-built, new building was from American donations.  Basically there is very little school funding and even a public school like the one we visited was reliant on donations, primarily from tourists.  This made the visit seem a little less awkward.  For Adrienne, it felt as though it was a version of the capital campaign going on at Cal Poly-- show off for big donors, hope to get money.

Peter & stingless beehives

The Agape Women’s Group, part of the Mulala Cultural Tourism Program, grew coffee, made cheese, and raised bees for honey.  The profits were split between the unmarried women in the group, orphans who needed basic supplies such as uniforms to attend school, and the school itself. 

The cutest resident of the farm

We had the opportunity to see all the processes going on at the farm, eat from food grown there, and try our hand at things like carrying bananas on our head.  It felt a little contrived with lots of singing and dancing that catered specifically to tourists.  

Dina & Peter on the hike

The best part of the day was the two to three hours we spent walking with Peter around the larger village.  We saw a great deal and Peter kept a running commentary covering everything from internal dynamics of village conflict management, plant identification, bird identification (there were lots of gorgeous birds), and Kiswahili lessons.  He also spoke at length about the various tribes and/or villages in Tanzania and the 122 languages.  Adrienne would ask how to bid children that would approach them goodbye and he’d give us the Kiswahili and then correct himself and say that the young ones wouldn’t understand and give us the Meru language version.  He would often go on to provide Maasai and other options, but we would lose track soon after the Meru word was learned. 

 

Dina, still making friends

Beer bananas

A few fun items from the day…

• There are 7 types of banana – 3 for cooking, 3 for eating, and 1 for beer. 
•  The beehives for making honey are hallowed out logs that are then hung from a tree, side of the house, or similar.  There are two types of bees: stingless and killer bees.  Can you guess which hives are hung on houses and which ones are nestled far from the village and high in trees?  He carefully explained the harvesting process for both. 
• Coffee is everywhere.  We picked some and experimented with how hard or easy it was to get the bean out.  Aside from Adrienne shooting hers, it was fairly easy.
• Potatoes were blooming.  Many of the fields were separated by pine trees that used for timber and cooking or by peace plants.
• Women are strong and do much of the work in an agricultural community.  We watched one woman casually walk down a rough dirt road with 3 gallons of water on her head and another 3 gallon bucket in her hand (seriously!).  We also observed both men and women hand-tilling the soils in the field.
• We both stink at carrying things on our head—especially carrying things on our head while dancing.

About that dancing while balancing things on your head...