Siku ya Kuzaliwa

During the week we went on a farm visit as part of a field day to visit the USAID TAPP project which stands for Tanzania Agriculture Productivity Plan and is part of a global ‘Feed the Future’ initiative.  We got to see what a successful project looks like. We first visited a passion fruit farmer and saw how his fruits were being farmed using the techniques and training provided by the project. TAPP is currently working with about 380 farms across Zanzibar. Next we went to a pineapple farm where the farmer showed us two different pieces of land – before and after. One farm used the farmer’s original farming techniques with 4,000 pineapples; the land next to it used the farming technology and techniques taught by the development project and had a whopping 17,000 pineapples in it. That’s over four times the output!

Pineapples at the pineapple farm

  

The farmers and us at the pineapple farm

A number of times I have heard of loans and inputs provided to smallholder farmers that are not making the best use of thm. They are not hardworking and do not spend time on their farms, in turn requesting more supplies and assistance. However, farmers that use the technology provided to them and maintain their farms are rewarded with more produce. This project did just that. It didn’t just provide farmers with aid, but educated them on best practices. In addition, they monitored these farmers to ensure they were willing to do the work to improve their land and productivity. Once this had been established, they were given better technology, such as drip irrigation systems for the land and additional resources for supplies.

With the production manager Omar, after the speeches

 The biggest challenge now faced by this particular pineapple farmer was theft. People continued to steal his produce and there was nothing he could do about it. There are no proper measures taken from the government to protect farmers from thieves even if the culprits are caught. Another challenge on the horizon is that once they produce the fruit and vegetables, the farmers need a viable market for the produce. There needs to be enough demand from consumers for the produce being grown by the farmers. So, it is a matter of linking the tourist industry with the farmers in order to sell locally grown produce.

The farmer, explaining his successes and challenges

On the weekend, I celebrated my siku ya kuzaliwa (i.e. birthday) with a few volunteers in Zanzibar.  We started the evening with henna at the old fort. Henna is quite common in Zanzibar, especially for brides, so we thought we would give it a try. We sat on straw mats in the middle of the old fort, giddy with excitement for henna hands. After that we proceeded to lazuli restaurant where we enjoyed some milkshakes alongside our dinner. In Stone town, the power goes out every day from 6:30pm to 7pm – it’s some sort of maintenance thing. Anyway, it turns out that this restaurant didn’t have a generator which is surprising because almost every restaurant (even the local ones) have generators. So, we sat there for about 25 minutes chatting over candles, it was a five star experience. When the power came back, our meals were prepared and we had a feast. After dinner, we proceeded to the Serena Hotel where we listened to live Taarab music which is the local music of Africa after which the waiters threw on a little party of their own which included cake for all of us. It was very entertaining and definitely unexpected, but a treat nonetheless.

  

 

Dinner time!

Surprise! It's a party!

 The next morning we went to a tour called Safari Blue. As the name suggests, this is 'Blue Trip', which means, we were on the Ocean all day! We started off on a dhow (a wooden boat) with the name Lindi with a captain named Simba. We traveled to Kwale Island where we picked up our snorkeling equipment and then proceeded to two gorgeous areas in the ocean where we went snorkeling and saw all kinds of bright colorful fish and coral. After swimming with schools of fish, we decided why not have some for lunch? So we feasted on a buffet of seafood where I ate my weight in lobster, octopus, calamari, and of course fish. Who said I’m not a seafood person?! Tropical fruit tasting was next with a never ending assortment of local Zanzibari fruit – from dates to passion fruit and everything in between.

After that we went swimming in the mangrove lagoons and went sailing in a boat made out of just one trunk of a mango tree – so it was basically an open tree trunk floating in the water. It was amazing how fast we were going solely on wind power, it felt like we were going to tip over, but there were bars at each end keeping the balance. We then climbed an ancient baobab tree that had fallen but was still growing as its roots were still in the ground. On our way back, we spotted some humpback dolphins swimming in the bay (that was the highlight of our day), had coconut juice and headed home. Our ride home was the staff truck with all the supplies in the back and us sitting on top of the supplies. Way better than a taxi, don’t you think? We ended the night with sundowner at the maru maru rooftop overlooking stone town and then dinner at forodhani gardens where I enjoyed some local urojo. Exhausted from a packed and adventurous day, we called it a night. I will always remember by 25^th birthday!