Local Village Tour

Africa » Tanzania » North » Arusha
February 19th 2015

Published: June 28th 2017

I got up at 6, the same time as I had done previously and went over to the same pond for some birding. New species that I hadn’t seen previously were an African harrier hawk soaring overhead and also a fairly large group of spur-winged geese flew over. I then had breakfast as usual and then was briefed of the plan for the day. This was to do a village tour to see various things such as farming, housing school etc. We then got into jeeps and got taken to a centre where the tour would be organised from. The village was near the foothills of Mount Meru and also fairly near to Arusha National park, in fact the road to Arusha National Park went through the village. This centre was run like a charity and it was trying to teach the locals better farming methods. This included how to farm the steeply sloping land without losing the fertility to erosion and also the centre had organised a small number of cows that produced high amounts of milk to be distributed to a few people with the agreement that every other calf born would be given to a neighbour so that all of the community would eventually get the cows. We were told about all of this in the centre and then we were assigned a guide to take us for a walk around. First we looked at the centre’s ‘model field’ which was one field that had been set up perfectly with the correct farming methods to show as an example. It was a fairly steep hillside so it had been terraced and then a type of grass was grown at the edge of each terrace to prevent soil loss through erosion. Then on each terrace a different crop was grown and there was a rotation so that the land could be used fully productively year round and a variety of different things could be grown for the family who owned the land. There were also some other farming practices such as leaving the roots of some plants in and not removing the plant completely so it could be used as fertiliser. After having a look at this field we had a small hike up a hill. This was about 500 m up quite a steep slope and this was at an altitude of around 1700m so it was a bit challenging but doable. There were some really nice views over the surrounding landscape which were over small fields dotted with houses with Mount Meru and Arusha National Park nearby. Up the slope of the hill, it was dotted with pine trees which were being grown for wood along with the occasional coffee plantation. At the top of the hill was a huge fig tree which we were told was sacred to some locals who still had pagan/animism-like beliefs. It really was an impressive fig tree with the great view around making it an impressive site. After looking at the tree we headed back down the hill a different way, towards a village. This descent was along a much gentler slope and along the slope were lots of fields of corn, they were long thin rectangles in shape and each field (separated by a sparse line of trees marking the boundary) we were told was owned by a different family and the field would be split evenly between the sons of a family when they were married. There were very clearly some issues with sustainability here and some of the fields were already looking quite small due to being divided up so much. There were also a few traditional looking houses dotted around and with each house having a small patch of various vegetables. After the walk up the hill, we visited a traditional healer. She had various bits of leaves, seeds and bark lying on the table along with plastic bottles containing funny liquids which were apparently boiled forms of the leaves. It was then explained what each one supposedly did, how it was prepared etc. and then we were able to try some of them. There was a spicy chilli which seemed to serve no purpose and some chewing leaves which were supposed to cure a blocked nose and according to someone who had a blocked nose, they somewhat worked (though how much of a placebo, I don’t know). There was also a horrible smelling drink that was offered around that was supposed to cure diarrhoea, I didn’t try it but some did and apparently it tasted terrible as well. After looking at the traditional healer, we visited a school; it was very similar to the school talked about at the end of post #34 so I won’t go over it again. After that, we went up for lunch back at the centre where this village tour was organised from, this was a mixture of traditional rice, vegetables and meats in a kind of buffet style thing. In the middle of lunch there was a small interruption due to the arrival of a Kilimanjaro two-horned chameleon being spotted in a tree. Various people picked it up and held it until it started acting threateningly and it was put back in the tree. After lunch we went to have a look at a traditional hut which was a circular building made out of a frame of branches plastered with a mixture of mud and cow dung and then with a corrugated iron roof on top (this would traditionally be grass but apparently the tin roofs are chosen because of durability). Inside the huts were very smelly due to the family cows being kept inside at night and very hot and smoky due to a fire inside and no ventilation at all. There were also some smaller buildings around which were built in the same way as the main house and some large sheets laid out where corn was being dried. After looking at the house, we walked back up to the centre to have a look at a biogas generator that was installed to provide the gas for cooking. This was a machine that had cow dung and urine put in and converted this into enough gas for a stove to be on for a few hours a day. While we were looking at the system, a person with some overpriced beaded souvenirs was trying to sell them to us and despite the fact that prices ranged from 3-25 US dollars (this is 5500-46000 in the local currency of Tanzanian shillings so were really stupid prices) some people bought them. After that, we headed back to the main camp with the jeeps for the evening and when we got in, we found that some souvenir sellers had been allowed in and were selling things for much cheaper than the place by the biogas generator. There was a fair amount of free-time that evening so I had a shower and then went to look for some birds. I saw many of the species that I had seen previously but also saw a large group of red-billed quelea (though not huge like I have seen in pictures and videos) and also what I believe to be a cape crow. Afterwards I had dinner and then had another early night

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