Moshi, mango wine, power, and permaculture

Moshi

To learn how to document everything a PCV does we had to go to a training. The PCVs in our region went to Moshi for the M & R seminar. There's no way to get from our town to Moshi in a single day so we spent the night in Morogoro and met a few PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees). We bought our bus tickets and headed to a part of the country I have never been. As I enjoy seeing new places, I forced myself to stay awake during the seven-hour bus ride. The environment changed from lush green tropical vegetation to grasslands and less trees as we climbed in elevation. As we entered the Kilimanjaro region I kept looking out for Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest point on the African continent, and then I saw it. Kili was among other mountains with the only difference being it was much taller and had some snow. The glacier on top looked as if someone dribbled white chocolate sauce on it. Once Russ and I thought we'd climb to the top but time, money, and training have kept us from it. Not to worry - we have other things to do.

Moshi was not the bubbling tourist town I had imagined, it certainly was not pedestrian friendly. People tell me Arusha is more the touristy place as the safaris and Kili climbs all start from there. But Moshi had a few good restaurants. Some of us PCVs started to go to dinner the first night by walking to town. We walked for ten minutes before the rain started to fall. It was getting harder so we walked faster and eventually hopped in a daladala, which only took us two blocks before the end of the line. We got off and walked the rest of the way to the restaurant in the down pour. When we arrived we ordered red wine and pizza, which warmed our bodies. We returned to the pizza/Indian food place again the second night. What a treat!

The seminar was helpful as the forms we receive from PC are not the most straight forward. We learned how not to double count participants and the dates of PC's fiscal year. I've already filled out my EOTR (End of Term Report) for PC and handed it in so I can say the seminar was worth the trip to Moshi.


Mango wine

So, since mango season has begun we thought about what to do with the abundance of this divine fruit - wine, of course! There was a recipe for wine in a previous newsletter so we pulled it out and followed the directions, changing amounts here and there to suit our tastes. We chopped up 15 mangoes and put the pieces into a clean 10-liter bucket. Then we added 2 kilos of sugar, a tea bag (to mellow the wine), water until the bucket was three-quarters full then 3 tablespoons of yeast. We gave it a stir and loosely covered it. The mango wine sat undisturbed for 3 weeks then Russ strained it into another clean 10-liter bucket and presto: mango wine! It tasted more like mango schnapps as the alcohol content was quite high. The directions said to let it sit for another 3 weeks for the wine to mellow out a bit. And after one week we could already taste the difference - it was more mango-y and tasted more like wine than a shooter. We've started another batch that will be ready by the holidays. It will be one very merry Christmas! Other wines on the list to try: passion fruit and banana.


Cheese

Russ went to a local carpenter and asked if they could build a cheese press together with scrap wood. He brought along pictures and measurements of the cheese press and finished in an afternoon. Now, the problem was milk. Since we're in the dry season, there are no greens available for cows to eat so they are not producing milk. But Russ asked around town and someone said they would ask the local agricultural college, which has plenty of animals and water so it would make sense if they also had milk. A few days later M.'s dad had gotten us 5 liters of fresh milk. We followed the directions on how to make cheese (Russ can elaborate on this more) but the cheese became moldy. We're currently looking for other cheese making recipes...


Shadowers

So we had shadowers again. This time they were education folk, Conor and Jennifer, which was shortened to Conifer when referring to the both of them. They were good sports and enjoyed our quiet, peaceful home and warm bucket baths. We did the usual stuff when guests visit: TTC, secondary school, town, and meat market. We cooked, over a few days, pasta, pizza (they brought cheese per our request), bread, banana bread, brownies, and peanut butter cookies (which were burnt to a crisp). Our mzee house help cooked some nice curries so they got to experience different foods while at our home. Conifer enjoyed the meat market and the half goat we ordered but didn't finish (we gave the leftovers to our Tanzanian friends who thoroughly enjoyed it). While we were drinking beers and waiting for our cooked goat meat to arrive, Angus brought out a yo-yo. Kerry (a British GAP year student working at the local clinics for a few months) knew some tricks so she wowed all the Tanzanians (and us) with her mad yo-yo skills. Others gave it a go but couldn't get the yo-yo to come back up. M. tried but got too frustrated. Then Conor put the loop around his finger, wound up the yo-yo, stood up and swung his hand down. The yo-yo flew off his finger and right into Russ's knee. Everyone, including myself, burst out laughing. I was laughing so hard I started to cry. It was really the funniest thing I've seen in a long time - and so characteristically Conor.


Power, or lack thereof

The rainy season is almost here and it will bring with it power outages. Since there was a drought last year there was very little water to create electricity with from the hydroelectric dams that power 80% of Tanzania. There is power rationing across the country and the outages are different depending on where you live. In Dar es Salaam the power is cut almost daily from 7 am to 7 pm. Traffic can be horrendous when a police officer has to direct vehicles daily because the traffic lights are not powered. For us, the power is cut every other day from 7 am - 10 pm. I've heard in different parts of the country the power is on only two days of the week.


Permaculture workshop by us

We've been putting the information gathered at the permaculture workshops/seminars to good use by teaching others. We have gotten to know a local CBO (Community Based Organization) - like an NGO - called Shidepha. It is a support group for PLWHA (People Living With HIV and AIDS) and every member is positive. On the first day Russ and his counterpart who he took to the Permaculture seminar gathered the group and explained the importance of double-digging, demonstrated how to do it, and had the members try themselves. I took pictures to document the workshop. The members asked questions and were eager to start the next step - planting. The second day, and last day, of the workshop I brought seeds (the members said they would bring some but didn't) and explained the spacing of the plants. The roots for each type of plant take differing amounts of horizontal space and can be planted so the plants do not compete for nutrients but you maximize the space you have. For example a green pepper plants should be spaced about 12 inches from each other where as carrots can be spaced 3 inches from each other. We thought the workshop was successful and we will keep in touch with Shidepha to see how their vegetable garden is doing.