Christmas greetings from Dodoma

Hi everyone, its now over half way through December and it doesn’t feel like Christmas is coming. I have seen two Christmas trees though Dodoma has its own Krismasi trees with bright red flowers this time of year. Also until the rainy season started last weekend it had been about 35°C. The rains finally started last Saturday night after a week of some rain and then a couple of weeks of sweltering heat. There has been torrential rain everyday this week and thunderstorms, though mainly all at night. It’s turning everything green and completely transforming the landscape. I thought I had finally learnt the route to Membe to find the route looking completely different! The rain is also making driving more interesting, with huge pools of water on the road and having to decide how to drive through them. Justin typically starts a day in the field by asking if I’m ready for a challenge and has warned us that after Christmas we will be getting stuck many times. Still Justin is good at directing and apart from a few scary moments we haven’t got stuck in mud yet! Work has been very busy over the last few months (thus this update is long overdue) and many changes taking place. In October, we welcomed Anna to the team as the new Project Development Officer and this meant that in November, we said goodbye to Victoria who will be missed. The projects are progressing well and it is good to see some of the hard work paying off. The DEP III pilot has been running in Membe and three Dodea villages. We trained stove builders from each village to build the rocket stoves we observed in Kenya. It was very encouraging to see the enthusiasm of the builders and how everyone got fully involved with building. This was also a good chance to practise my Swahili as I took one group for the practical sessions. Following training we held meetings in each village to explain about the stove and try and increase demand. The event in Membe was particularly good, with a traditional dance group having composed songs especially about the new stove. Coming to the end of the pilot phase and there are at least 70 stoves in the 4 villages and generally of high quality. We had a successful launch of the programme in November in Membe with traditional dancing and stove demonstrations. We were also presented with a list of 19 residents of Chamwino village who would like a stove, helping us to choose chamwino as the next village to work in. Our initial meetings in Chamwino have also proved successful, with strong support from the village leaders and 8 leaders adding their name to the list of those who want stoves. The Landcruiser has to be returned before Christmas after being particularly helpful for our work over the last year. Mr Mbenna has been as supportive as ever and we have just received the good news that he has found us a replacement vehicle. All being well, Anna and I should be driving the Toyota Hilux back from Dar after Christmas. The New Year holds much in store for STT including having two new employees and several new villages to work in. That all for this update – happy Christmas and best wishes for the New Year!

Leslie

Photo: Christmas Tree in Dodoma

Leslie joins STT

Hi everyone, let me first introduce myself. My name is Lesley and I started working for STT at the end of June as a replacement for Cat. It was a little daunting at first especially considering the high standards set by Cat and Victoria, but so far I have been made to feel very welcome and have now settled well into living and working in Dodoma. I previously lived in Tanzania, in 2003 as a volunteer with Student Partnerships Worldwide. While I had not previously been to Dodoma, this experience meant I had some understanding of Tanzanian culture and Swahili. My Swahili was very rusty at first, but has steadily improved and it has definitely helped to have been in Tanzania before. I was introduced to Dodoma by Cat and my induction to life here included dealing with bank queues, computer break downs and driving practice. While, driving here is not as scary as I expected, I managed to get stopped twice by traffic police on my first day driving. They checked my licence and the tax disc and let us go on. Fortunately, we had organised my Tanzanian driving licence the day before!

After two weeks here, Justin and I went to Kenya for training from a successful GTZ stove project. We had an excellent visit and learned a lot from our very generous hosts. We learned about a new stove design and construction as well as the whole project process. Kenya was a great experience, not least for the luxury of hot showers in Nairobi and one night’s five star accommodation at the Holiday Inn, courtesy of Kenya Airways and a delayed flight. It has given me a good basis to start work for STT. On our return to Dodoma, I was thrown straight into the busy work life, reflecting on the lessons for STT from Kenya and getting stuck into to stove building, so Justin and I could perfect our skills and get very muddy feet!

Other news from Dodoma; we have four students from the Institute of Rural Development and Planning (IRDP) working with us on placements. They have been assisting us in collecting baseline data to inform DEP III. This is an opportunity for them to experience working in villages, including the hazards involved, like the car breaking down. Luckily, Action Garage lived up to its name and went quickly to the rescue, twice in one day, after a series of punctures! We have also been researching three new villages in order to choose one to start working in. We aim to establish tree nurseries in the community and school and build and test the stoves we saw in Kenya. These visits have also not been without incident after I got the car stuck in deep sand and had to be dug out with the whole village primary school watching! Still luckily the villagers and Justin came to the rescue! Best wishes, Lesley

From old friends to new

What can I say.

Goodbye Cat, you will be sorely missed and thank you for your hard work with STT. Yep, Cat has gone – left on the 1st July and Lesley her replacement has arrived, is settling in well and not long after arriving has gone to Kenya with Justin for 10 days. I for one am very much looking forward to the new stove design that they will bring back with them. Also have to say a big CONGRATULATIONS to my very best friend here Dr. Eunice as she is leaving Dodoma for very new and green pastures studying a postgraduate in paediatrics at the prestigious Makerere University in Uganda – CONGRATULATIONS EUNICE.

I said at the end of June, I really wanted a holiday before July and yeah! I have had a couple of weekends away to Dar es Salaam to visit my friend Eunice’s parents. However, I have also had some official work trips to Dar es Salaam which have not come at a good time considering the all that is happening at the moment. Fortunately I have managed to balance things at work. I had to go to the Prime Minister’s Officer to make an application for ‘compliance’ so that STT can comply as an NGO under the new NGO Act. All NGOs have to do this exercise! Must say a big THANK YOU to Patron of STT Simba Mbenna who has helped enormously by directing me to the right offices and Ministerial buildings. June has also seen me working with Trustee Bridgette Bridgewater on sourcing insulation material for a potential urban HRC project as well as pricing. The types of material we are currently looking at are foam, polystyrene, and dry grasses as well as plastic bags. Foam is turning out to be quite expensive while the cheapest material seems to be dry grasses. Justin and I took a trip to a village called Swaswa known as the major source of dry grass in Dodoma. And sure enough when we go there dry grass was all over the place – what we need to find out is if poor and middle class households are willing to buy a product which uses dry grass as an insulation material. The four placements came at the beginning of July rather than the end of June to sign their programmes for their six week placements. They will start on the 23rd July, the week STT begins its new baseline research into the DEP II stove project – the findings will help inform the design of DEP III. All seem very keen and ready to get stuck and do lots of hard and physical work. They will also get involved in stove building – which will be very dirty work! Well better get back to things here. Take care and see you all next month!

Changing places - visitors and staff

Hi again, or in Kiswahili Habri gani. Hope everyone is well and good to see you have returned to read the latest happenings in Dodoma. Well after the hectic month of May things are as always hectic and busy – but organised. After the visit of the STT Chair and Treasurer in May Cat and I have lots to do and prepare for particularly Cat as her contract will be ending soon! The Chair has given us lots to act upon such as organising stove training for our technical officer and the new PDO with GTZ in Uganda or Kenya. STOP PRESS – just been informed that they will be going to lovely Kenya for a tough 10 day training in Kissi. I’m now on the case with trying to organise their travel arrangement, transport, accommodation, finances and itinerary. On the 19th June we had more Trustee visits this time from the Bridgewater’s – Mike and Bridget, their annual visit to the programme is always very useful and productive, capitalising on their years of experience in Tanzania and involvement with STT. They often provide essential support and training in key STT areas such the stoves. I am hoping Bridgette will support me with lost of her knowledge and experience in my research on a potential urban intervention with the Heat Retention Cookers (HRC). Initial scoping has finished and I am writing a methodology for the next phase of the research. It is also holiday period for many Dodoma professionals so my liaison officer at the Dodoma Municipal Council (DMC) who I work with is on leave until July. Good to see that the Bridgewater’s will be staying with us for a while – a whole six week! We are sure to keep them busy. It will be all action here in the office in June as we will be overflowing with staff, me, Cat, her replacement Lesley, Justin, the Bridgewater’s and x4 students that will be taking with STT as placements from the local and well known Institute of Rural Development Planning (IRDP). They will work with STT for six weeks and will arrive to the office at the end of June to discuss their work programmes. This placement comes as another step towards collaborative working that we have tried to establish here in Dodoma building partnerships with organisations that are well rooted in the community and the field of environment and community and rural development. Looking forward to their arrival – but think I will need a holiday before they start work as things will be getting even busier here if you can believe that. Okay. Well see you all next time.

Field research and fuel consumption

March has been another busy month of finishing off our field research, which we started in February, comparing the fuel consumption of our improved stoves to that of the traditional three stone (open) stove. As well as putting together a programme of training of schools about Mycorrhiza inoculation (a fungal technology STT implements as a means of raising draught resistant tree and crop species, which is vital for semi-arid and draught prone regions such as Dodoma). This knowledge is disseminated to project villages in rural areas and one method of doing this is through schools outreach to spread the knowledge through the next generation. The implementation of that programme will begin in late April. We were also very busy this month preparing for a visit by the Regional Administrative Secretary for the Dodoma region. This is a key visit to highlight to local government the use of energy efficient cooking technology and tree planting as a means to combat deforestation and in a broader sense climate change – a hot topic globally. That visit is scheduled to take in the coming months. March also saw the rains begin to subside with the slow creeping toward the dry season. This means the familiar dusty Dodoma atmosphere is set to return. Thankfully, Cat and I have managed to avoid contracting malaria, which is rampant during the rainy season. The STT team also held its second quarterly partner workshop which was lead by the STT team and involved both partner organisations (DODEA and MIGESADO). These workshops are a new feature of STT’s working style and practice and hugely embraced by our partners. This closer working relationship, knowledge and experience sharing is having a real affect on improving how the projects are implemented and building the capacity of all three organisations. The workshops focused on accomplishments and achievements of all the partners since our last workshop in November 2006, and various participatory activities were conducted. However, events were marred by the theft of the workshop budget at the event. This obviously heated up proceedings as the police were called, staff at the venue searched as well as workshop participants (and STT are grateful to them for their understanding and cooperation). Unfortunately, the money was not recovered. The workshop had to be suspended and statements made at the police station. Needless to say, STT have learnt its lesson and will be much careful with how it handles funds at such events. On a positive note, the management at the workshop venue accepted part responsibility for the theft as staff had not informed the STT team of the venues safety precautions. As such the cost of event was cancelled.

Victoria

Field studies and ugali

The last few weeks were spent recovering from the stove efficiency field study, which meant picking up on many of the tasks that we had to put on hold, as well as catching up on some well-needed sleep! The upcoming Accomplishments and Challenges quarterly partners’ workshop is something we have been planning, and will happen next week. We intend to use participatory tools with diagrams to categorise our findings, a seasonal calendar to better understand the activities of the partners, and sufficient brainstorming and group-work to enhance discussion and reflection. The preparations have involved producing flip-charts to present our own accomplishments and challenges since the last workshop in November and creating our own seasonal calendar of activities. After being occupied by the field work over the last month it was a welcome change to be thinking of things other than stoves and fuelwood consumption! We really look forward to a productive and informative workshop next week with both the partners. This week we have been asked to do a follow-up field study, testing the efficiency of the ‘Lorena Rocket’ stove, which is a newer and potentially more efficient design. I will be writing up the methodology for this, which should involve households in three villages where these stoves were built last year during a visit by two STT trustees (Mike and Bridget Bridgwater). I think that by the end of this stove testing field study I should be a master in the preparation of ugali (maize meal stiff porridge) and sauce, after having watched it being made so many times! Both Victoria and I are also looking forward to the Easter break, during which I will be heading to Zanzibar with some friends. Being an Aussie, born and bred on the coast, I really do miss being by the sea, and what better place to rejuvenate than a tropical island in the Indian Ocean. That is all from me this fortnight, I hope to have many more pictures of the workshop, field work and maybe even some Zanzibar palm trees in the upcoming blogs. Best wishes, Cat

From Nairobi to Dodoma...

Hello again, here’s the next instalment of my fortnightly blog. Well, much has happened since I last wrote. February has been a hectic month, but still enjoyable nevertheless. It started of with me going to Nairobi for a few days where I visited a Kenyan friend who is researching for his PhD and this afforded a good opportunity to see the metropolis that is Nairobi. This is a large, modern, efficient city and highly multi-cultural, but like most major cities in the world of complexities – a tale of two cities (the haves and have-nots). But if anyone out there gets the chance Nairobi is a must to visit as there is more to Kenya than just wildlife! I was also able to take advantage of this visit to collect some work materials for STT that my friend had transported from London. After my short and speedy time in Nairobi I returned to Dodoma with brand spanking new equipment for the office. Our team were then thrown into the thick of conducting major research for STT looking at the fuel efficiency (energy efficiency) of the stoves we implement in villages. Working together and with STT in the UK we put together a research methodology and set out to compare STT’s improved stoves with the traditional three stone (open) stove – referred to as the mafiga matatu in Kiswahili.

All three of us Cat, myself and Justin our agroforesty (technical) officer, went on a three week field research in a village called Kikombo. We conducted stove testing using scientific methods, interviews and workshops with local women, local government representatives and project related staff in the village. All was going well until I suffered heat stroke – not a pleasant experience! For me this meant painful headaches, fever and throwing up. For the team, this meant a mad dash back to Dodoma to make sure I was suffering heat stroke and not something more serious like malaria. Thankfully after a days rest, constant fluids and a change of scene from the rigorous routine in the field I perked up. For me this meant no headaches, no throwing up and no fever. For the team this meant another mad dash to return to the field to resume our work.

Victoria

Ibihwa and Mkatika - 2nd monitoring

Recent activities in February have ranged from general running of the Dodoma office, to the beginnings of a sizeable field study. Justin and I went out to Ibihwa and Mkakatika for our second bout of the monitoring programme, which so far has proved enlightening. This trip, however, did show up some of the difficulties inherent in working in rural areas during the rainy season. In many of the houses we attempted to visit, the householders were out working on their shambas (small plantations of mainly maize) and were not able to talk to us or show us their stoves or planted tree seedlings. Due to the nature of monitoring, we are not able to warn the villages too early of our visits, so it is often a process of hit and miss, during which we make an effort to visit as many households as we can. Our search for available project ‘beneficiaries’ did, however, allow Justin and I to have a well-rounded tour of both villages and I feel that I was able to get to know the Village Project Coordinators more thoroughly. At one point we reached an impassable point in the road and I found myself walking barefoot across a warm and sandy stream, sandals in one hand and clip board in the other, and it certainly made us all laugh. The regular village visits, which can often be long, are one of my favourite aspects of my job. In late February we embarked on a 3 week field study, which meant spending a lot of time getting to know the village of Kikombo, its people and its local government, as well as sitting with local women as they cooked their two meals a day. I wanted to write about one particular woman named Neema, who I spent a day with as she used her ‘Lorena’ stove. Neema showed real entrepreneurial spirit when, after becoming the sole bread-winner for her and her 4 children, she began a successful business in breeding and selling pigs. She also has plans to start a business selling second hand clothes with the help of a local government loan, and all this to ensure that her children receive quality primary and secondary school education. Neema’s independence, initiative and drive were inspiring, and I look forward to meeting more women like her in the future. The field study also allowed us to familiarise ourselves with the various local government representatives in Kikombo, and find out their opinions on deforestation, cooking practices and fuelwood use in the village. This gave us a broader and deeper picture of the environmental changes over the last generation and their impacts on cooking practices and life in general, which was all extremely useful. The stove research continues and will be concluded with a final report in the coming months. Best wishes to all, Cat

Stoves, trees and floods....

After the excitement of being in England over Christmas, Victoria and I have both well and truly settled back into the pace of life in Dodoma. The surroundings are still green and flourishing because of the heavy rains experienced since November, and the maize in the fields has grown to at least 6 feet tall. This fortnight we secured the use of a Landcruiser 4x4 vehicle, so STT is now mobile again. The vehicle belongs to the Regional Administrative Secretary (RAS), who has lent it to us for a whole year! This means we can make headway on our monitoring and evaluation programme, and Justin’s contact and mycorrhiza support with the villages can increase. We can now also have better communication with villages and DODEA are able to use the vehicle for their own monitoring and implementation needs. I have had to relearn the ins and outs of manual transmission and driving a pick-up, but it is all good experience! During talks with the RAS in November, we invited him to visit some of our project villages so that we could demonstrate our work. This week, Justin, Victoria, and I made two village visits to select the best quality DODEA villages for both elements of the intervention – stoves and trees. Two Project Officers from DODEA accompanied us on these visits: Mr Sudda (stoves element) and Mr Bendera (tree-planting element). The villages selected for the RAS visit were Nghome, Manhumbulu and Nghulabi.

During the visit to Manhumbulu, Victoria interviewed a project beneficiary family for the STT newsletter. The family uses the Lorena stove and has planted tree-seedlings around their plot of land. Mr Sudda helped with the translation into Kiswahili and Kigogo, and the interview proved very insightful. We look forward to its publication in the next edition of the STT newsletter, which Justin will translate into Swahili so that the family can receive their own copy.

Due to heavy rains, the roads on the way to Nghome were flooded in patches, leaving huge pools of water where the road once was. The learning curve was a steep one, especially when our vehicle became stuck in one of these pools for 2 hours! Thankfully, teachers from the school we had just visited came to help, by digging a channel which would drain the water away, while the students were busy trying to push us out.

Other news from the STT office is the recent establishment of the STT Monitoring and Evaluation programme, which is scheduled to begin in a week’s time. This will ensure that the targets of the STT intervention are being met on the ground and will also mean that STT has a stronger presence in the villages.

That is all for this fortnight’s blog, so until next time!

Catherine.

Victoria joins the team....

Hello everyone, hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year and are ready to start 2007 afresh. Last year you received our first fortnightly instalment from my colleague Catherine, this time it is my turn, and what a fun way to begin 2007 by updating you on events here in Dodoma since the last blog.

As Cat told you my name is Victoria and I started working with STT here in Dodoma last October. So all in all I suppose I have been here two months now. And I must say, it has been enjoyable working with another social development professional, our bottom up approach to working in Dodoma with the DEP and tree planting project is paying off dividends with our partners. They have really welcomed the new professional style STT is demonstrating. Concerning me, I am no stranger to being in Africa as I am from Sierra Leone myself and have worked in Ghana as a Development Planner. But, it was my first time to be here in the East coast and it has been quite interesting observing the similarities and vast differences between Tanzanian culture and that of my home country. Although I came without any Swahili, I have had intense Swahili lessons which are paying off handsomely. In only two months, I can communicate with people quite well, which is a necessity if one is going work effectively and build up the trust and confidence of local people, including our partner organisations. Our partner organisations DODEA and MIGESADO have often complimented me on my effort. Although not having Swahili is not really a barrier, it does serve as an added advantage and shows respect for a local culture if you are willing to learn the language, especially as one should never assume that people will speak English. I will continue learning and who knows maybe my next instalment will be in Swahili! Since Cat’s last instalment a lot has happened which I hope you will enjoy reading all about. Cat left Dodoma on the 8th December and it was quite a hectic event as Kenya Airways told her at the last minute that her flight had been cancelled. So Cat was in panic trying to sort out an earlier flight and when she eventually did she had to leave Dodoma in a whirlwind. One minute she was here, the next minute she had gone. It was sad to say good bye, but I knew she was heading for a good holiday in the UK, what with her graduation, UK Christmas experience and travel to Switzerland – phew! I thoroughly enjoyed my time here in Dodoma during Cat’s absence. It was an opportunity to see how I would cope having to manage the office, our local partner organisations and the house on my own and try to be understood in Swahili without Justin or Cat as a backup. On the whole I don’t think I did too badly. The partners’ funds were disbursed on time, MIGESADO’s outstanding reports were submitted to STT, I created with Justin new stove and tree posters to go up in villages and I attended a networking workshop which was conducted all in Swahili. The workshop was organised by an environmental networking organisation called DONET which STT regularly write articles for. It was a focused on their strategic plan and was a great opportunity to meet other organisations working in the environment sector in Dodoma. I was impressed by the gender equality and intergenerational make up of participants. Justin Chidawali, our tree and agriculture expert came along too and due to his long standing relationship with DONET he introduced to me to a number of DONET staff and member organisations. My time here also involved having to organise my permit papers at the last minute (which had to be done in quite a hurry before I left and was quite a hectic experience). I moved forward on the Urban Appraisal with a planning meeting held with the Chief Community Development and Social Welfare Officer of which I prepared a briefing paper for him and we agreed my work plan for his Extension officer who I will begin working with on the 10th January. So as you can see it was still a very busy time right up until I left. Oh, and not forgeting one of the main drama’s of my past two months in Dodoma. I also had an issue with a snake! What I thought was a Black Mamba had made its way into our house one morning and I noticed it just as I was getting ready for work. However, our cleaning lady Mama Elisa (who is like a mother to us really) tackled the fiendish creature and trampled upon it. The whole incident happened in a matter of seconds. Brave Mama Elisa came to my rescue. Despite its wriggling and writhing it could not withstand the might of Mama Elisa. Although the snake was no longer than and thinner than a pencil, it was still scary! Since then we have had three more snake incidents, so much so that our gardener Ima found a nest and has cleared it. Hurray! I eventually established that the original and subsequent snakes were not a Black Mambas has I had thought, but still one does not want get too friendly with the local snake varieties if you know what I mean. The day I left Dodoma on the 19th the weather had turned bad, it was raining all day. For local villages this is excellent news as it now means Dodoma has exited its 24 month debilitating drought and farmers are in hope of cultivating a harvest in 2007. The rains mean that Dodoma has transformed from a dry, dusty and windy town to a lush, green oasis. In many villages what had become an empty river bed has now changed into a surging river, full of nature’s goodies. One hopes and prays that the rains continue steadily until the end of the raining season which is in April. Although some places have been flooded, having the rains is overall very positive. However, what it meant for me was that I was leaving the rain behind in Dodoma to return to raining dark London. It’s amazing how people survive under such long periods of darkness! Anyway, Cat and I are back in Dodoma and it is great to be here. Work has started off at a pace with lots to do. And new and exciting work to begin, but we’ll let you know all about that in our next instalment. Bye for now folks.

KWA HERI!