Christmas

Christmas 2019 has come and gone.  You have to look hard to notice it is happening at all here.  The larger supermarkets make an effort - staff wear santa hats with flashing lights, reggae or disco versions of carols play over the loudspeaker systems, plastic trees and decorations are briefly for sale for outrageous prices ($A190 for a bog standard tree).  Otherwise life goes on much as it always does.

Both our workplaces have shut for a couple of weeks.  I went to work in the week before Christmas and was often the only one there.  I had a couple of small grant applications to prepare and submit so had useful things to do.

We have been otherwise fairly quiet of late.  We had lunch at an Indian restaurant with the rest of the Australian volunteers a couple of weeks ago for International Volunteers Day (a couple of days late).  Great to catch up.

On Christmas day we woke early and Skyped family who were in the middle of various celebratory activities.  Jenny and I exchanged gifts.  One of my presents to her was a Giraffe made of metal from her favourite shop Shanga.  One of her presents to me was a Giraffe made of metal from her favourite shop Shanga!

They seem to be getting along well.

We had arranged to have lunch with friend Per Holman and his fiancee Selvine.  Our table for 4 had to be changed to a table for 6 and then 9 as more people wanted to join us.  So we ended up with two Norwegians, a Dutch, four Kenyans and two Australians.  We went to Rivertrees Lodge in Usa River where they put on a delicious buffet lunch.  All good fun.

Our Hamilton friends Rob and Lou took off a couple of hours ago to fly to Arusha.  We will collect them from the airport tomorrow afternoon and then head off for a two-week safari on Sunday.  My next post will be reporting on that.

Our safari taking in Lake Manyara NP, Lake Natron, Serengeti NP, Lake Victoria and the Ngorongoro Crater.

A month of all sorts of stuff

Since my last post on 3 November we have been busy with diverse work and non-work activities.  So briefly:

We welcomed new Australian Volunteer Program (AVP) arrivals Woody and Alex from Warrnambool and put them up in our compound's guesthouse for a few days.  A nice young couple.  Woody is an ambulance paramedic and Alex is a high school English teacher.  They will both be very useful here.  It turns out Woody knows our son David from when they were both working in Port Fairy a decade ago.  We took them to Arusha NP for their first safari and it was fun seeing their reactions to Giraffe, Warthogs, Baboons and an Elephant.

I submitted another project funding application to begin working on the degraded rangelands to our south and west.  Fingers crossed everyone please although we won't know if we are successful until early 2020.

I went birding to Lark Plains to the north of Arusha with the Attraction Birding Club.  

Lark Plains is a short grassland north of Arusha and is the only place in the world where Beesley's Lark can be found.  The Maasai maintain the area and protect it for the bird, other larks species and the birders who come from all over the world.

We saw several Beesley's Larks including a pair attending this fledgling.

Singing Bush Lark

Fischer's Starlings are common in the woodland adjacent to Lark Plains.

We went to a baptism of the sister of our birder friend James Nasary.  We were the only white folk among the 200 or so guests.  An interesting experience with lots of colour and music.

We were in the cheap seats.  No room inside.

This little chap was amused by me so I couldn't resist...

We had the AVP annual conference in a very swish lodge up on the Ngorongoro Crater rim.  Lots of sunbirds in the garden for me to photograph before and after the sessions each day.  Interesting to see three closely related species that have increasingly curved bills all sharing the flower beds.  The Golden-winged Sunbird males seemed to dominate all others though.

Tacazze Sunbird with the straightest bill.

Next is Bronzy Sunbird.

The bill of the Golden-winged Sunbird is the most curved.

I went with colleagues to the 3rd ECHO East Africa Highlands Symposium in Kigali, Rwanda.  This involved two 10-12 hours days of driving to get there and three slightly shorter days to get home. An addition to the normal challenges driving here is the requirement to switch to the right side of the road in Rwanda and our car being right-hand drive.  My colleague did this in the dark when we headed in to Kigali (3 hours from the border).  I did it in daylight on the way out.

Checking emails by the pool after breakfast on setting-up day for the conference.

The ECHO team getting ready for delegate registration.

Morning tea on the first day of the conference.  Going well so far.

I got to meet people working in conservation farming from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia as well as many from Rwanda and Tanzania. The talks were all well presented and we had great questions after each.  Hats off to the ECHO team for the effort they put on to make this happen so successfully.  A special shout-out to the excellent translator who dealt with French, English, Swahili and probably other languages.  When I got up to get ready for my talk she asked "Am I going to have trouble with you?".  I explained 'endophyte' and 'symbiosis' to her and the rest was fine.

Before lunch all presentations were in the main hall.

After lunch there were three concurrent sessions in the main hall and smaller rooms nearby
- hard to choose which to attend.

This wise old bloke gave his presentation in the main hall.

During breaks the ECHO publications were on sale.

I also got to see large areas of Tanzania I'd never been to before including southern parts of Kagera Region.  Bukoba, where we lived in 2010-11 is the main city in Kagera Region so it felt like a homecoming.

On the way we mainly drove on high quality sealed roads and traffic was mostly calm and light.  As we approached the Rwanda border however the road was severely potholed and had an increasing number of trucks.  Along this section a large truck had rolled and lost its shipping container.  The road was blocked to trucks in both directions and there was just room for cars to pass.  The last 30-40 km to the border took about two hours as we crept though the snarl of trucks.  Many trucks elsewhere along the way there and back were upside down in ditches or just broken down in inconvenient places.  Unroadworthy trucks are major contributors to the road toll of East Africa (see my theory on this in Uganda.  Nothing I have seen in Tanzania has changed my mind).

Birding highlights were few as we really couldn't stop along the way except for fuel for the car and ourselves.  In Rwanda I managed just 35 species but there was a Bat Hawk over the hotel on a couple of evenings so I can't complain.  The hotel gardens were sparse but did pull in a nice Scarlet-chested Sunbird on the last morning.

Scarlet-chested Sunbird.

A field visit to a site where local farmers get to try new ideas.
Here were potatoes and maize with various fertiliser and mulch combinations.

Some heavy rain preceded us in the Babati district on the last day of travelling home.

Next up is the run to Christmas and the arrival of friends from Hamilton for a two week safari to Serengeti NP etc.

Work stuff, birding the Maasai Steppes and home.

Herry, a local Biogass consultant and Harold Msanya, my office mate at ECHO,
using a filled portable biogas bag to cook rice.

I haven't said a lot about work for a while so this blog will be mostly related to my day job.  I have spent a lot of my time so far writing project funding applications.  These vary from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands and from a few months to four years duration.  So far I've had one hit and three misses.  The hit was a $10,000 grant from the Australian Government - a Community Grants Scheme which is administered by Australian Volunteers for International Development.  In this case my colleague Harold Msanya wrote the application with some advice and minor editing from me.  I will get him to write all proposals from now on!  Coincidentally, Jenny's organisation also received one of these grants (and she did all the work).  Tanzania was the only country which received more than one grant and ours were the only successful grant applications in Tanzania.

It is disappointing to put in weeks of work to prepare a proposal for submission and then have it miss at the first cut but the schemes are heavily subscribed and the odds of success are small.  All we can do is keep trying.  I have a small application nearly ready to submit on Tuesday and more concepts in the pipeline for the future.

Methane bubbling away nicely

Output from a digester heading straight into the fruit and veggie garden.

No labour required.  Cow manure straight into the digester.

A small biogas digester for a household.

A typical kitchen burner - so much cleaner and healthier than using charcoal.

We have been busy with two biogas projects recently.  Biogas is methane produced in a digester chamber into which is fed animal (inc. human) manure, food scraps, garden clippings etc.  The slurry that emerges is excellent fertiliser.  The methane produced is used for domestic cooking mainly but can also be used for lighting, heating and egg incubating.  We are evaluating portable gas bags that can be filled with excess methane from a digester and then sold to neighbours for use in their kitchens.  This will hopefully replace some of the charcoal that is widely used and is unsustainable produced from forests.  The technology works well but we are still unsure of the economics.  As well as evaluating the portable bags we have run a 10-day training program with a group of young entrepreneurs wishing to be biogas digester installers.

ECHO colleague Charles Bonaventure (Bonny) is a real people person.
Here spreading the word about nutritious leafy greens.

Isabel Galeano and Herry with keen biogas entrepreneurs in training.

ECHO is active in running local and international conferences and later this month we are hosting the East Africa Symposium on Best Practices of Improving Nutrition and Sustainable Agriculture in Highland Areas.  It will be held over three days in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda and I've been asked to attend and give a talk on the potential of incorporating endophytes into everyday crop species.  I've never been to Rwanda before so it should be fun.  Apparently we are driving there and back so it will be interesting to see lots of new country in Tanzania as well.  It is a looong way from here though.

Recently Jenny and I attended an ECHO weekend workshop on invasive weeds recently.  The worst weed in the Arusha district is Parthenium hysterophorus (Carrot weed).  It is an annual daisy bush from central America and has invaded many tropical and sub-tropical countries around the world.  It is resistant to common herbicides, produces foliage which is toxic to livestock and highly irritating to humans who contact it.  It produces chemicals from its roots to suppress other plant species nearby and is a prolific seeder.  Seed can remain viable in the soil for at least 20 years.  If you were designing  the perfect weed it would have these characteristics.

Parthenium taking over a roadside in Hawaii.  Could easily be Arusha. (Photo from Wikipedia)

Biological control is the only solution once it is established but it is easy to pull out when it is first noticed in a new location (as long as you are wearing rubber gloves).  The Tanzanian government has released some biological control organisms and is evaluating others but they are not having a huge impact yet.  ECHO is keen to educate farmers and others outside its current range to identify and remove plants before they can become established.  It was great to see many farmers from outside Arusha along with government research and extension staff at the workshop.  Disappointing that many of the NGOs we invited did not send staff however.

We have had a visit from Zoe, the National Program Manager for AVID and our regional director Colin who is based in Sri Lanka.  Time permitted them to only visit a couple of workplaces and Jenny's was one on Friday.  I tagged along to take some photos as ECHO is just down the road.  On Saturday all Arusha AVID volunteers joined Zoe, Colin and our in-country management team of Musa and Lizzie for a meeting and a sumptuous lunch at a nice big hotel in town.  It was fascinating to hear all the stories, successes, frustrations etc from our colleagues and to get Zoe's and Colin's input on the program from a management perspective.

Jenny with Zoe - AVID National Program Manager.

Jenny's boss, Father Pat, making a point with Colin - AVID Regional Director.

On Wednesday at work we had a visit from 5 government officials from the Ministry of Community Development, Health and Children.  They enquired into all aspects of ECHO and were particularly interested in the documents of the non-Tanzanian staff.  We hopefully satisfied them that we were all legitimate.  It was all rather unpleasant.

Birding has been relatively quiet of late but there have been some highlights.  I went out with English friend Alex and two Tanzanian friends James and Abdul to the Maasai Steppe region south east of Arusha.  We birded some acacia woodland and then wandered around the shore of Shambarai Swamp for over 80 species.  The only new one for me was Tsavo Sunbird but a few others were new for my Tanzania list.  Lots of waders and other waterbirds.  Many bush birds were also seen coming in to drink.

Mourning Collared Dove

Grey-headed Silverbill

Yellow-billed Stork

Fork-tailed Drongo

African Spoonbill

Cut-throat Finch

There is a Weaver colony at Jenny's workplace front gate and I finally stopped to check them out a few days ago.  Lifer!  Speke's Weaver.  Not uncommon in these parts apparently but I hadn't bumped into them before.  We have had tantalising views of a skulking, greyish, thrush-sized bird along the laneway outside our gate.  I think it is probably a Common Nightingale recently arrived from Europe.  A mystery for now!

Speke's Weaver

This morning I heard loud wingbeats wooshing over the house and I went out to try to photograph the expected Silvery-cheeked Hornbill.  It turned out to be a Trumpeter Hornbill.  This species is found along the coast and in forests further east than here so was a bit of a surprise.  Landlord Paul says he has not seen one in the area before.  I've only seen them once before - in the hills behind Dar es Salaam in 2011.

Trumpeter Hornbill

Time for a bird tally update:

Lifelist: 2313
Tanzania list: 587
Lifers this trip: 29
Total this trip: 371

A visitor and a trip to Lake Manyara NP

Lesser Flamingos near and far.

Our friend Rhona arrived last weekend from Scotland.  We last saw her in Bukoba in 2011 where she was working at the Katoke Teacher Training College as a VSO volunteer.  Now she is about to commence a PhD in teaching methodologies and is heading back to Bukoba for 6 months.  First though she is dusting off her Swahili with a two week course in Usa River.  She stayed with us last weekend and again this weekend.  It was great to catch up.

Rhona and Jenny enjoying a picnic lunch at Lake Manyara

On the boardwalk over the hot springs.

Yesterday we all headed off to Lake Manyara NP and Jenny and I were delighted to find our residence visas were honoured and we got in for half price.  The rainy season arrived on October 1st and it has rained most days since - often heavily.  So the park this time was damp and green compared to the dry dusty condition back in August.  It was also much quieter with fewer safari trucks holding us up.  Elephants, on the other hand, were a nuisance. We encountered our first group about one minute inside the gate and had to wait quite a while until they cleared off the road.  Two other groups were less obliging and we turned around.  There's no arguing with four large bull elephants when you are in a small RAV 4.

These four bulls were not shifting and we had to turn around.

In August we had extra time in the park as we were staying in a nearby lodge.  This time we were a bit rushed and saw fewer bird species (83 instead compared to 104 in August).  We drove the 30 km to the Hot Pool picnic site in around 2½ hours with stops for elephants, birds, other mammals etc.  After lunch we wandered along the board walk counting Grey Herons (350), Yellow-billed Storks (70) and noting the vast flocks of Lesser Flamingos that stretched along the whole lake shoreline.

Lesser Masked Weaver

Peregrine Falcon (probably just arrived from Siberia)

Little Bee-eater

Juvenile Palm-nut Vulture (trying to consume a small Leopard Tortoise)

Silvery-cheeked Hornbill

Going back was a bit more leisurely but we reached the hippo pool in good time.  Just as we arrived the heavens opened and we thought that was it for the day but it stopped as suddenly as it started and we drove the swamp circuit track stopping often to observe all manner of ducks, waders, herons etc.  There was only one hippo in the pool today and it was enjoying being groomed by a Jacana.

Rufous-bellied Heron

Red-billed Teal

Black Crake

Common Sandpiper

Hottentot Teal

African Jacana grooming the Hippopotamus

We left the park later than I would have liked and had a rather unpleasant drive home in often heavy rain and decreasing light.  Few drivers put on their lights in Tanzania until it is absolutely dark.  I was even flashed by a police car at one point - telling me my lights were on.  Overtaking slow trucks is tricky when you can't see cars coming towards you in the gloom with no lights.  We managed to get home OK though and today we took Rhona back to the language training place in Usa River after a lovely lunch in a fancy safari lodge.

Some obliging Impala - normally they turn and walk away.