My Top 10 Most Fantastic Moments at Kesho Leo

by Hannah Anderson

The search for the amazing ‘Kesho Krew’ 2011 is on and so thought I’d take the opportunity to brag about some of the fantastic moments that I’ve experienced as Education Manager in 2010.

I’ve been in Arusha for 8 months now and can honestly say that the role has been my most favourite and challenging so far… Although much of the hard work of setting up the Kesho Leo Education centre had already been done by Helen in 2009, I was lucky enough to be given the freedom to develop the different Education programs on offer. The mix of pre-school, primary tuition and adult education has given me some fantastic experience in different areas of Education and it has been really enlightening to learn more about the local primary system and the services on offer by different NGO’s in the area.

It’s been difficult to narrow it down to my top 10 (despite discussing them over a beer or 2) but here goes…

1. Seeing the education centre be transformed from a single large hall to 2 separate classrooms with book corners, posters and cushions galore.



2. Having the opportunity to teach one of our Kesho boys in Class 5 (who attends school every day) to recognise his letters and begin to read and write.

The Sartorialist in Sinoni

Africa is a fashion adventure, particularly for those accustomed to office-bound colleagues wearing demure suits. In addition to the traditional, brightly-coloured African kangas that the women wrap around themselves, we see plenty of second-hand clothing from the West.

Every week, containers full of second-hand clothes arrive on African shores from the US, Europe and Australia. These containers are then transported to various towns around Africa and their wares sold at local markets.

Here's a selection of what's being worn in Sinoni at the moment...






One of our day askari supporting breast cancer research.






Our best dancer proudly wearing a glitzy jacket from Sandra Brewer's Dance Studio







Sunday finery... (with the exception of the dude in the back right corner)





This mama belongs in Vegas, not Sinoni...






I don't know who Alex Ferguson is, but he's a champion!





More support for breast cancer research.





America's favourite son is proudly worn on the chest of our cook extraordinaire.

John

John is the fws Farm Manager and one of the nicest people you will ever meet. John lives near the Volunteer Village and was first offered work on the fws farm when Eve, a former volunteer, saw how well-tended his garden and crops were. Today, I got to see why; John invited me to see his home after work.

John at home with his watoto (children)

John, like many of our workers and the broader Sinoni population, is a Maasai. So when John collected his children from his mother’s nearby and I greeted her in Swahili, she said, “Sijui” (I don’t know); John’s Mum only really speaks Maasai (many locals can speak Maasai but it is not often used). His extended family lives about 50m from his property in a fairly traditional “Boma” set-up; a few huts/houses set around a communal livestock area.

The area John lives in doesn’t have the same irrigation as our land just a kilometre away, and is mostly grassland used for livestock grazing. But John’s small block of land sticks out for all the vegetation: mostly banana trees and sugar cane. John has quickly adapted to organic farming, which the community were initially quite skeptical of, and has used incorporated many of the practices into his own property.

A neighbouring property with a traditional Boma set-up

John’s apologised that the place didn’t look as nice as it should and he didn’t have any fresh chipati to offer as his wife is away visiting family at the moment. But his brother brought us some sodas anyway. Zacharia, just 18 months old, was very happy to see that I’d brought some eggs with me. And Magdalena, who goes to the fws chekechea (kindergarten; free for all fws workers’ children), proudly showed me her day’s work: a drawing of flowers.

John is saving to build a new house, as he doesn’t like the traditional mud-brick place he is in. He would also like to have three rooms instead of two.

John is 31 years old - the same age as me.

A Tractor for Africa

By Don Lotter, 2010 Kesho Leo Farm Manager

This isn't directly about Kesho Leo but it is about something important to Africans - the desire to have a part of the pathway to development that they can call their own. That something is a tractor that was invented for African conditions and would be manufactured/assembled in Africa.

When you hear the name of the inventor, a Scotsman by the name of Roger Stephenson, you may think "What is African about that?", but the future of Africa (and many regions of the world) is about people immigrating and bringing ideas that mesh with the local culture. And there is no idea more powerful here than Africa producing its own machinery for its own development.

Roger and the chassis of his "Tractor for Africa", back in February.









I have watched Roger's tractor being built here in Arusha for the past eight months, and then watched it unveiled at the national trade fairs in Dar es Salaam and Arusha. It has generated a lot of excitement. (He built one in the UK first and shipped it to West Africa.)

How would this tractor compete with the likes of Massey-Ferguson, Ford, John Deere, and the many other tractors made by Asian, European, and American companies? Because it is designed for the African farmer, that's why. The average owner of a small to medium-sized African farm who can afford a vehicle, a growing sector of the population, can buy either a car or a tractor - but not both. The RS-22 goes a long way towards filling both needs. It has a high speed gear box that will allow use on roads and in town, a bucket seat for driver plus 2, a trailer for hauling, plus a suspension to make it ride more like a truck (it has been called a "trucktor") yet still do tillage.



Don Lotter and Roger's assistant engineer, Noella. Noella was indispensable in the making of six tractors for display at the national trade fairs in July and August.








Additionally, the RS-22 has power attachments at the back that will fill a number of needs in rural Africa, i.e. a flat-belt pulley for driving milling machinery, a generator, or a water pump. All of these things are much in demand in rural Africa. The tractor also has the standard power-take-off (PTO) for tillage implements and an air pressure connection for spraying.

The 22 horsepower engine by Lister-Petter is one of the most common engines used in rural Africa for generators and mills. Other parts are standard off-the-shelf items. The RS-22 can till an acre of land with less than half of the fuel used by a standard tractor here, plus it is well-equipped to help pioneer the zero- and conservation-tillage practices that research shows is much needed here.

Roger, who has been a tractor engineer his entire career and has worked in Asia, Europe, and Africa, initially came up with the idea 35 years ago.

See more at this web page I did for Roger to help him get funding to demonstrate the tractor.

I wish the best for Roger and for the Africans in progressing towards producing their own agricultural technology.








Half-way done, in April.









The flat-belt pulley is the round flat object.