No sleeping in today! I woke up early at around 6:45am and quietly got ready. When I was finished I walked over to Roza’s house to go to Justin’s farm! Eli was already there and I joined him on the couch. Miraclin woke up a little after and came to sit with us. We talked about the morning and enjoyed each other’s company. It was quite cold this morning and we were pleased to see Roza bringing out hot porridge for us to eat. We drank/ate the porridge from mugs and assumed we had little time to finish. It was unclear when Justin was coming by to pick us up so we had to be ready at a moment's notice.
Eventually 8:00am rolled around and Roza told us to go outside as Justin would be coming soon. Since its cleaning day there were tons of students burning piles of leaves they had swept up (lots of smoke!). There was one unattended fire in front of Roza’s house so we all stood around it for warmth. The fire went out and when Eli restarted it, I accidentally kicked too many leaves onto it, smothering out the fire…
Soon enough, Justin’s car pulled up in front of us and we all hopped in. I sat in the back with Miraclin and Roza while Eli sat in the passenger seat. Just like all of the cars here, the driver’s set is on the right side! The interior of the car was quite clean and overall was a nice Toyota. Justin started driving and we talked about how we’ve enjoyed our stay so far. He's a very warm and welcoming man! It took about 20 or so minutes to get to his farm and there was a lot of beautiful scenery. As we got closer to the farm there were several nice Toyota trucks coming from the opposite direction. It would be cool to know where they were coming from!
We pulled into Justin’s farm and drove by rows and rows of avocado trees! The straight lines of trees were mesmerizing and looked cool against the backdrop of a massive electric substation. After a bit we parked the car near a small building and got out of the car! What commenced was a couple hours of walking around and Justin telling all about his farms, his plans for the future, and everything in between. To start, it’s imperative to know that avocados are green gold! 1 kilogram of avocados sells for 3000 shillings. It was unclear if he was talking about the farm we were at or all of his farms, but he’ll harvest anywhere from 3000 to 5000 tons of avocados. Therefore if you do the math, a single harvest yields around $50,000 USD and there may be several harvests in a year. The farm we were at was growing avocados for export and had trees that were four years old. Here avocado trees only need three years before producing full sized fruit!
As we walked by the trees you could see dozens upon dozens of fist sized avocados hanging from the branches!
Further into his property, Justin showed us a foundation for a house he’s planning to build that overlooks the surrounding area. It has a beautiful view and is a great place to build. From the vantage point Justin pointed out more land that he owns and it’s astonishing to see the amount of property he has. There’s already a house on the property (not sure the purpose) and we walked to the back of it to see some sheep!
Justin is planning on fencing off a large part of his property and housing dozens of animals to sell and eat. Near the house there is also a little valley that Justin is damming to create a reservoir for himself to water his trees! In fact, after our tour of the farm, Justin has plans to meet with an excavator operator to start constructing the dam!
We continued to walk more and we passed by his friend's avocado farm plots and his neighbor's tree farm. There were big signs at the tree farm that threatened a 500,000 shilling ($250 USD) fine for trespassing!
Cows are very destructive and can easily destroy a plot of trees. The walk was lovely and the weather was perfect. It was in the mid 60s to 70s with a light breeze. We walked to another plot of land he has started to grow more avocado trees at (this plot wasn’t doing as well as some of the saplings were bad). It’s clear to see how lucrative Justin’s investments are! Additionally, it’s easy to see Justin’s impressive generosity as well. He gives a lot of land to friends and colleagues to start their own farms and investments. Roza’s plot of land that she harvested all the maize we’ve been shucking was given to her by Justin!
As we got to the end of the tour, Justin told us that we would need to walk back to Bukimau! The meeting with the excavator operator was very soon and there was not enough time to bring us all back. However before we left, Justin wanted to give us a bag of avocados. We walked all the way back to the start of the farm tour to get the avocados. While we waited for one of Justin’s workers to pick some for us, we talked, admired the avocados trees up close, and took sticky seeds off our pants. Miraclin’s skirt was covered in seeds and looked like a lot of work to get off.
Justin showed us one last well that was recently dug before giving us the bag of avocados and starting our journey (a little over an hour to get back to Bukimau). Roza knows this area like the back of her hand guided the way. We started our walk around 10:00am and Eli carried the bag of avocados. On the main road we passed by another one of Justin’s projects (future housing and restaurant). We wanted to look at the construction so Eli set down the bag of avocados to see the small site. After seeing what we needed to see, we were on our way but not before Roza took the bag of avocados and set them on her head. With ease she balanced the bag and began walking with us! What an amazing skill to have!
On the road motorcycles zoomed by and we waved hi. With some more walking, the substation that loomed in the background of Justin’s farms was now in front of us! It was quite the construction operation as there were houses, office buildings, and the massive substation all being put together by large crews of workers. Some of the electrical equipment was incredibly large and I’m excited to learn more about this side of electricity when I’m back at Mines. When we passed by the main entrance, we saw an informational sign describing the project. It’s a project for Zambia and has a ton of international organizations involved (Europe, India, China just to name a few). It’s clear that Tanzania is developing fast and has an amazing future.
After the substation we took a turn onto a smaller road that headed towards Bukimau. Miraclin played music for a bit while we enjoyed the scenery. Once we got on this road, we hardly saw anyone and seemed to have the area to ourselves. Eli had to pee and ran off into someone’s tree plot before returning back to us! Eli and I walked about 20 ft in front of Roza and Miraclin and talked the whole time. We had some great conversations and were frequently interrupted when Roza had to yell at us to turn! I found it funny that we were leading when we had no idea where to go. We passed by lots of nature, farm plots, and tall concrete transmission poles, before randomly coming out to the soccer field of the school.
I was bewildered that we were suddenly back in Bukimau as I didn’t recognize the area at first! However, now that we were finally back it was time for cleaning. As I walked past the VST houses it was fun to see everyone else cleaning: clotheslines filled, people sweeping, and water being pulled up from the well. It’s a whole village effort! When I got home I asked Joseph if we wanted to clean and he told me he’d wait for next weekend. Apparently he didn’t have enough clothes to justify the work. I wanted to clean my clothes so I got out the buckets, water, and soap at the front porch and started scrubbing.
As the washing continued and I grabbed more water, I actually started to run low. Unlike Paul’s house which effectively had unlimited water, I had to be conservative here so I didn't have to fetch more water from the well (I do hope that I can fetch water here). In total I washed all of my clothes from the week and some shoes. My volleyball shoes were disgusting and my slides needed a good scrub so they stopped reeking. As I finished washing, I threw my bucket of water in front of me not remembering the shoe laces I left in it! I had to rewash them since they got all muddy.
Soon enough I went to Andrew’s clothes line and hung up all of my clothes. The line was almost full when I came by, but Andrew was nice enough to move around some clothes and give me some space to pin up my stuff. I also set up my shoes on the side of a nearby house and hope they dry well!
When laundry was finally over it was time to go to Roza’s house. I hung out there for a bit and learned that we were eating dinner at Justin’s house tonight! Eli hadn’t shown up yet so I walked to his house to find him taking a nap. I left quietly and got back to Roza’s to find that Miraclin was making us lunch. She was hoping to make spaghetti and eggs, but needed more eggs for the meal. She gave me a 10,000 shilling bill to get eggs and crackers! I was on my way to the shop when Roza stopped me so she could go with me (she didn’t want me to be confused with Swahili again). When Roza and I left, Eli was on his way to the house (I woke him from his nap) and decided to walk with us to go get the eggs. The nearest shop that had eggs was only a couple minute walk from the house.
On the way, we passed by one of the hostel’s and the owner was out front. Roza said hi and talked with him for a bit when he invited Eli and I to eat. It was lunch time at the hostel and he wanted to welcome us to a meal. Eli and I couldn't say no, so we sat down on a stump and were served scorching hot beans and ugali. We also were given an avocado to eat with the meal (Roza found us some salt to put on too). The portion was large and took a while to eat! Roza was talking with the head guy and watching us eat until I told her that she needs to buy the eggs before Miraclin needs them!
As we ate the hot food, tons of students walked by with their own plates to get their serving of food. Roza has told us that beans are typically only eaten by students as it’s the only thing that’s served for lunch and dinner for their entire time in school. By the time students graduate, they are so sick of beans they never want to eat them again! Overall, the meal was good! It can be an odd sight to see us mzungos eating ugali and we get lots of stares from students passing by.
When we were just about to finish the meal, Roza came back with some eggs. The shop keeper from yesterday also happened to walk by and Roza laughed when talking with her. Here we also learned that the shop area is called “The Complex” and is all owned by Justin! When we were finished, we walked back to the house. Since we were gone for quite a long time to get eggs, Miraclin thought something happened to us! Lunch was almost ready and since Miraclin still had not gotten her crackers, Eli and I walked to a nearby shop and bought her some. We also used the money to buy a small U-Fresh apple soda bottle for Eli and I to drink as our payment for the cracker delivery. It’s only 200mL and only big enough for a couple of sips. When we got back to the house, it was time to eat!
At this point it was around 2:45pm when we ate our second lunch! Even though my stomach was full from the ugali and beans, the spaghetti and eggs were too good to say no to. When we were done eating, we were all full, exhausted, and wanted to nap (the carb comas hit hard out here). I was just about on my way to go nap when Andrew came in and asked me to supervise him setting up Kolibri! I couldn't say no to an opportunity for Kolibri learning so I got up, grabbed my things at the house and went with Andrew to the office close to 4:00pm. When I went to the house to grab my stuff, there were people cooking in the hut out front which is something I’ve never seen before. When I went inside, Joseph inside relaxing on the couch and was surprised I was leaving to go work on a Saturday
When Andrew and I got to the office, there was no power to set up Kolibri! Thankfully it came back on a short while later, Andrew was able to set things up with ease. He did a fantastic job and I only had to intervene a couple of times to help. While he got things set up, I blogged and chimed in with tips and tricks if applicable. Perhaps Andrew is the one with passion that we need all along! Eli showed up and was editing videos on the other side of the office (Miraclin was in her own room in another part of the office).
After he finished, I answered some of his questions about the program before I got to work on my mega Kolibri guide. I continued the same work of editing screenshots as Eli played smooth jazz from his phone. We were working on different sides of the office for some reason and I enjoyed the music even though it was quiet. I ended up getting a lot done during this time and got to see one of Eli’s finished products. The video was good and I think his project has a lot of potential to help science teachers have fun science lessons!
It was around 7:00pm at this point and Eli left to get ready for dinner that was allegedly at 7:30pm (Gracie, who’s staying at Justin’s house, told him). I finished up my work, grabbed Miraclin, and went back home to put away my stuff before going to Roza’s. I made sure to check on my laundry and it was almost dry! I think the reason why my clothes didn’t dry well today is the fact that it wasn’t windy here for once. When I was hanging up my clothes earlier today I realized that there was complete silence for the first time ever! Not a leaf was moving!
After checking my laundry, I walked to Roza’s house to wait for Gracie to pick us up. Eli showed up shortly thereafter and both of us were wearing some nicer clothes to show respect for the invite. Miraclin thought that we were overdressed but our jokes about her lack of nice clothes got her to change. We waited for quite awhile and Godfrey showed up for a bit. He talked about the movies he’s watched and he’s quite the fan of American action movies! During this small conversation I was killing ants in the house against Miraclin’s wishes. In my opinion ants don’t belong in the house and are a pest that should be removed!
Once Godfrey left, I had a realization that I forgot to record the music video with Leonard today. I promised him earlier in the week that he could use my phone and I completely forgot. He even came by today as I was washing, but I completely dismissed him! I’ll make sure to make it up to him tomorrow and record everything he wants!
Eventually Gracie came and picked us up a little after 8:00pm! We walked to Justin’s house and prayed before sitting down to eat. The inside of Justin’s house is nice and you can tell he has a lot of money! There was palow (seasoned rice), fish, potatoes, and watermelon. The food was amazing! The fish was fantastic and the rice had wonderful spices in it. Gracie made all of the food and we were incredibly impressed. The meal was incredibly filling and it felt like we were at home!
We enjoyed each other’s company and talked a ton about everything. Gracie is very good at English and it just feels like talking to any other American. Her and Miraclin are great friends and it’s fun to see them get along so well. When we were eating the watermelon, Eli and I ate so much of it and made sure not a bit of pink was left on the rind. When Gracie got out a knife to cut some more she sliced her finger! It was a decent cut that bled a lot but thankfully nothing bad.
We were supposed to wait for Justin, but Gracie insisted that we don’t since the food would only be getting cold. It was a good thing we didn’t wait for him as he didn’t end up showing up for another 40 minutes! You could tell that he was sad that we didn’t get to eat with him, but he was still very welcoming and kind. Since the meal was over and we were just talking, we decided to go back to Roza’s house to be loud (we wanted to respect Justin).
At Roza’s we listened to music and sang some karaoke! It was mostly Disney songs (Love is an Open Door) before Gracie needed to leave. After listening to a couple more songs, Eli and I leave too and go to our own houses. I get ready for bed, blog, and fall asleep! What an amazing Saturday
That was sure interesting to learn all about the avocados!
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