#4 The big migration

beetogether6
25 jul 2017
4 minuten om te lezen

Wow, time flies when you’re having fun and more importantly, when you’re making lots of progress ;)! We know you’ve all been counting the days since our last blogpost, so get comfortable and brace yourselves for the third-week update of our Tanzanian adventure!

Up until now, we’ve been staying at the Mzumbe University, but since six of our beekeeping groups are located in Turiani, a small village on a two-hour drive from Mzumbe, it was time to change things up. We travelled here on Tuesday (the 18th) of last week and will work from here for the following two weeks. Immediately after our arrival in this sun soaked, hilly town of which the outlines are blurred by the dusty air, we visited the collection house to check the progress. Unfortunately, as we had already been told, the local craftsmen dug into an inconveniently placed aquifer (an underground water pool) while laying the sewerage. Luckily, they overcame this obstacle by pumping the water out, giving this aquifer a second life a few meters further. By now, a week later, this issue is officially solved and the sewerage is installed!

Having approved the steady progress of our investment, we moved on to the local carpenting group to order the needed parts for our home-made honey press. While our three engineers were buzzy discussing the appropriate sizes of the different parts, Tine and Jonas grabbed the opportunity to play with the shy, but cheerful kids in the neighborhood. School was out and they were all curious about what these five mzungu’s were doing at their home.

The next morning, we rose and (doubtfully) shined way to early because we were all excited to do some manual work at the collection house and contribute our physical stone to the building! The day was all about filling and transporting buckets of sand and gravel and, most of all, it was a real eye-opener towards all the heavy work people (in this case women) in Tanzania are currently still performing. The women shoveling gravel into buckets with only some pieces of clothes wrapped around their hands left a deep impression on our team. It’s an excellent example of all the broadening experiences we’ve all had the privilege to witness here in Tanzania.

Now the progress at the collection house was boosted by our own blood and sweat, it was time to carry out some other items on our to-do list: making the honey press and painting the hives with the names of all our kind sponsors. Our engineering team headed to the local carpenting group to have a play day with their machinery while Jonas and Tine unleashed their inner Piccaso’s.

As was agreed, the needed parts for the press were taken care of by the local carpenters and we were very impressed by the quality of the local hard wood. It is the kind of wood you’d love to be sitting in while enjoying this blog with a beer in your hand and the evening sun on your face. Throughout the day, Jasper, Margo and Yolan smoothly worked together with the local craftsmen. Apparently they had been giving it all, physically and mentally exhausted, they managed to take a wrong turn when walking home. Luckily, they got local help and made it back to the accommodation where they were reunited with Jonas and Tine and heard about their progress.

Because of the extremely bumpy ‘roads’, Tine and Jonas’s buts were not that enthusiastic about the pikipiki ride to the carpenting group in Turiani, who had built the hives. This was wildly compensated by their eyes, which enjoyed every piece of the wonderful views on the mountains. After inventively transforming a branch and sponge into a paint brush, they were able to paint lots of the creative quotes of our incredible sponsors on their hives. Moreover, this all went extra smoothly due to the help of a local student who appeared to be an excellent painter. Mzungu’s and nyeusi working together, that’s the story we’re trying tell here ;).

After some days of hands on work, it was time to spare (some of) our damaged hands and catch up on the theoretical side of our project. So Friday, Yolan and Jasper proceeded with the honey press while the rest of the team had the opportunity to take a look at the planning, do some blogging, print some manuals to distribute to the beekeeping groups, complete some payments, …. In the evening, we were also able to meet our first Turiani beekeeping group to introduce them to the basics of beekeeping and the possibilities of value added products. This was a very heartwarming experience as the group was very kind and grateful for building the collection house and our efforts to express ourselves in basic Swahili and English.

With this happy ending of our third week experience, we can close this blogpost in style and promise to get back to you as soon as the playful internet connection allows us. That’s right, even the internet is a true adventure here in Tanzania.

Lots of sunny and dusty greetings from the beautiful Turiani

The BeeTogether Team