30.12.2022: Market day in Ngare Nanjuki.
Today, I´m going to meet my and my wife´s godchild. Every month, we trnsfer by standig order 65 Euro for eaqch child to the aid agency Africa Amini Alama, which pays for the school with full boarding in the secondary school (13 - 17 years). So, these childs who otherwise could not afford going to school, have a place to learn and to live and full board and accomodation.
Informations to sponsoring are here: https://africaaminialama.com/en/projects/social/detail/permaculture - id you are interestred in sponsoring a child, write to patenschaften@africaaminialama.com or call +43 677 62569893.
Mount Meru is free today.
And so is mount Kilimandscharo, albeit in dust.
Kilimandscharo
I am driven to Ngare Nanjuki.
Village streets are a bit natural finish to say the least. Tarmac on the street is only in larger cities and main roads.
Today is market day in Ngare Nanjuki, and here I meet Angel Nnko and Victor John Mbise. Both are very good pupils, Victor John with only grade A, he wants to become a lab techician. Angel does not have her recent grades, but she also alwasy has good grades; she wants to become a medical doctor. If possible, we shall support both further after school to achieve their goals. Only rich people can afford tuition fees, or they haev to pay back credits for many years.
We walk along the market stands distributed over large areas of the village. Both get 100.000 tanzanian shillings (about 45 Euro) for shopping. They however don´t buy anything when we are walking, because prices go up if a white man ("Mzungu" in Swahili) is around, and prices go down the last two hours of the day.
On the way back we meet these tomatoe pickers, which are busy with loading tomatoes on a truck, which then drives to Daressalam, where the tomatoes are sold at the market. They are very popular there because of their good taste, which results from the rich volcanic soil. I asked the driver: these people get about 4-5 Euro a day. This seems to be very low, but everything being much cheaper then in Europe, you can live from that - but of course it is not enough for school fees even for small children.
Every night there is a bonfire in the lodge, where a goat is grilled, the bones are cooked for soup. Informations about the Maasai are told - the staff jokingly calls this "Maasai TV" (MTV!)
