Kilengapasi

Last year I went to Kilengapasi with Gary and Carol Langness on Easter Sunday.  When we pulled up I saw that the pastor was Aid Kasenegala who was a sponsored student of ours and it was a pleasant surprise.  I visited again last Sunday but Sue wasn't feeling the best and decided to stay home to rest.  I had planned to take a bus from Ipogoro to Kilengapasi, which is near Kilolo, but Aid thought better of that and arranged a car to pick me up.  It was a wise decision, the bus would have been more difficult than taking a bus to Ilula or Mafinga.

They had two full services and I caught the end of the first after having Chai in the pastor's house.  I think they extended the music program until we were done.

Aid with his wife Ester and daughter Holybless.

The pastor's family had the friendliest cat I have ever seen in Tanzania.  She was up on the chairs rubbing against people and ended up curled up in my lap purring at one point.  After the picture below was taken, she jumped down and grabbed the chapati on the plate and took it to the floor to eat.  Aid did not pay any attention to her so this was apparently normal.

Aid being hugged by his paka (cat)

Services were full and the gentleman in the colorful blanket I found out later was conscripted by the British in 1939 to fight in North Africa in WWII.  He said he served 8 years there.

Church was full for both services

Kilengapasi is also the only church I have seen that has guitars, they were there last year also.  They have an amplifier in the church that they can plug their guitars into and sound great.  Nice to see a little boy with a book, even if it is upside down.

Guitar singing after the service.

There were not many children at Church because it was market day and they were there with their families.  Villages have market day once a month when vendors come in with trucks and lay out a lot of merchandise.  This is also a good time for people to get together in one spot.  It is also a good time to butcher cows because there are a lot of customers and the meat must be used in a few days without refrigeration.

Youth practicing singing after church

  They have been building a bigger church and are already using it for weddings and baptisms even though it needs iron sheets for a roof and finishing.  They need a larger church because this area is growing.

Choir in new church building that needs iron sheets for the roof.

 Last year I learned that they did not have a good source of water and came back with Hanael and Peter from St Paul Partners.  We met with village leaders in the nearby community of Luhanga where St Paul Partners had drilled a well which had not been working for years.  Hanael encouraged them to collect fees and repair the well and I found out that they did this last August and the well has been working very well since.

Old St Paul Partners well from 2006

 The well is a good producer and has very clear water.  They are collecting 100 shillings (about 5 cents) per 5 gallon bucket.  The woman who is monitoring the well said people take about 40 buckets per day and they are collecting about 40,000 shillings a month so some people must not be paying, perhaps more needy ones.  The fees are to be used for future repairs and this is a good thing although some people are going to the river instead because they have little money.  Since the well is a good producer, I suggested they could charge 50 shillings and maybe increase use and still collect as much money.  Ester says that her family uses about 10 buckets per day and this well is still a good walk from the church.  The area farther out is growing and there is a need for another well close to the church.

Well is producing crystal clear water and never goes dry.

 The well is open at certain times and secured with a bike chain and padlock when no one is there to collect fees.  This is a nice example of what we want villages to do for sustainability of their wells.  It is especially nice that they did this without any assistance from us and found their own fundi to repair the well in Kilolo.

Well security to ensure payment for water taken.

Iringa History

Darlene Parker is a Canadian living in Iringa who has been researching the history of Iringa.  She has developed a nice walking tour pointing out many old German and British buildings from the colonial era.  You can see some of the information and photos she has gathered on the Iringa Walking Tour Facebook page.

The tour starts in the Commonwealth War Cemetery  which has 131 graves from WWI and one from WWII.  There are soldiers from British South Africa units and even 16 German graves, three of which were German Navy who ended up in Iringa after their ship, the Konigsberg was sunk on the coast in 1915.

Commonwealth War Cemetery

James McIntyre Fairweather from Scotland with the South African Motorcycle Corps.  My fathers name was James McIntyre

South African Rifles unit with the Springbok emblem, Springboks is now the name of the S.A. National Rugby Team.

The tour continues looking at old German buildings including this one which was a hospital during German occupation before WWI and became an administration building under the British.  This building is being restored and will be opened as an Iringa history museum later this month.  Darlene has other old photos for buildings that are still in Iringa including the main market building.

German Hospital Building

German Gun

The clock tower in a round about on the main road in Iringa has the torch of freedom on top which I had never noticed.  The torch was the symbol of independence in 1961.  Called the Uhuru Torch, it was first lit on top of Mt Kilimanjaro in 1961.

Clock Tower with Torch of Freedom

There were many more buildings on the tour including the Retco bus station which was the Regional Transportation Company descended from the East Africa Railway company which connected trains, buses and ferrys.

The photo below is a gentleman I met at the church in Kalengapasi who belongs on the history page.  I do not know his age (he might not either) but he was conscripted by the British in 1939 and taken to North Africa to fight in WWII.  He served there for 8 years.  There is a monument in the central park in Iringa with names of the Iringa casualties from WWII, all conscripted like this gentleman.

Ilula Nursing School

Sue and I have not hired a car except for the day we went to Kising'a so we took a bus to Ilula to see Dr Saga and the Nursing School.  The bus to Ilula is a nice coaster and a ticket costs 1,500 shillings or about 75 cents. The bus leaves when it is almost full and picks up more on the way. People also load it with goods purchased in town or things like bags of maize that they are bringing to Iringa to sell.  We were sitting in front and I helped pull an older gentleman into the bus who was unable to put weight on his leg.  He sat in front of us and handed me his phone and a voucher card so I could enter the code to add credit to his phone (I think this was difficult for him because of poor eyesight).  Before we left, a young girl, a secondary student, was carried onto the bus unable to walk.  Both got off the bus before we got to Ilula and the girl was put on a motorcycle to take her home.  They probably were returning home after coming to Iringa Hospital.  Happy, a nurse at Ilula who has worked there for 4 years, was sitting next to us on the bus and helped us know where to get off.

Sue with nurse Happy, her personality matches her name.

We had a nice breakfast with Dr Saga at his home.  Dr Saga is retired now and recovering from a very bad accident and is doing well.  His new wife, Anita, prepared chapati, eggs, and milk tea for us and we had a nice visit before going to the school.  He is still using a computer we left with him in 2010 and I helped him with the internet so he could send some emails.  He was unconscious for several days after the accident and he was very pleased to have remembered his email password.

Dr Saga in front of his lovely home.

 We toured the Nursing School and the facility is very nice.  Anifa is a teacher who was acting principal that day and took us around.  She said she did inspections of 5 nursing schools for the government and the Ilula Nursing School has the best learning environment.  The dorms and dining hall are bright and clean and they have a computer lab with 5 computers and a nice library.

Dining Hall at the Nursing School

Part of the Nursing School Library

 The school received some books from a Books for Africa shipment that went to the University.  Books for Africa is based in St Paul and sends millions of donated books to Africa in large shipping containers.  Many books from this shipment were added to the library but many were also deemed not usable for them and were left in boxes.  For example, I picked up one 600 page volume  from the box on Testicular Cancer dated from 1984. Shoulder to Shoulder has also sent books more carefully selected for the library and they have a very nice collection now.

Left over books from Books for Africa.

 A group of Nursing students from Concordia Moorhead had visited the school and brought materials for their training room.  A previous group brought the patient in the photo by bringing body parts in their carry-ons.  Not sure what customs must have thought in Tanzania.  Sue noted a list of a few things still needed.

Patient Model in training room.

Training room with Anifa, who is a teacher for midwifery who came from Ilembula Nursing School.

 Kari Hurley took nice portrait photos last year of each of the 13 nursing students and we brought the framed photos that people might have seen at the Shoulder to Shoulder fundraiser.  Each student got their framed photo with 3 smaller photos and an extra set of small photos was given to the school.  The students were very pleased to receive the photos and I imagine some of them might go to their families back home.

Nursing students with their framed photos we delivered for Kari Hurley.

 The hospital is a ways a way from the main bus stand and we took a three wheeled bajaji from the hospital.  There are a bunch of them running between the hospital and town and a ride costs 500 shillings (25 cents).  We even picked up two extra passengers on the way plus a pail of something going to market.  When we got back to Iringa, we met with Tuli and Rita for coffee.  They were attending a seminar and going to head back to Ilula the way we came.  They both are a lot of fun and I know the medical groups that come in January really enjoy working with them.  I bought a couple cinnamon rolls, thinking they would go well with coffee, but they were reluctant to try them because they thought the frosting looked like cheese.

Sue getting on a bajaji to take us to the main bus stop.

Back in Iringa we met with Tuli (on right) and Rita for coffee.  Both are faculty at the Nursing School.