Finishing Up Production

On Saturday morning, we were able to wrap up production. Our first priority was video- and audio-recording the “welcome song” the girls sang for us when we first arrived.  It begins, “Karibuni . . .” and goes on from there. (Note: “Karibu” means “you are welcome,” and it is used both when people arrive [e.g. Karibu – you are welcome here] and after thank you [e.g. karibu – you’re welcome].) The young women stood at their desks, in their uniforms, and sang it for us again twice! The first time, we got wide shots of the whole group and the second time, we got close ups on faces. Afterwards, the BECA students shot more B-roll and picked up sound – especially that of the treadle sewing machines.

There is a flag pole outside the school.  The Tanzanian flag was raised at the beginning of the day. As the projected ending of the video, we shot Violet, a student who had been interviewed on camera, lowering the flag. Then the girls gathered in front of the school, holding the flag, and waived.  That was our last shot, and it was a wrap.

To celebrate, after lunch we went over to the Lake Eyasi Lodge, where there is a swimming pool overlooking the lake.  Most of us went swimming in the cold water, and enjoyed sitting by the pool and looking at the beautiful view of the lake. Again, we were there at sunset, although this time, clouds concealed the view. Even so, it was gorgeous, and a nearly full moon shone over the lodge.

Sunset on Lake Eyasi

Late in the afternoon, we drove over to the lake for which the town is named. You don’t see the lake from the school, and I don’t believe we were able to see the lake when we were here in 2013.  At any rate, the lake is beautiful!

There are quite a few baobab trees in the area next to the lake. In the rainy season, the trees have leaves, but during the dry season, the top of the tree looks like upside-down tree roots sticking up into the air. The diameter of the trunk of the tree is quite large. There are a lot of baobab trees in Tarangire National Park, which is known for its elephants. The reason is that elephants eat the bark of the tree.  When they chew it, they get water from the bark. It appears that these same trees are so wide that some families live inside the trunk of the tree during the rainy season.  And poachers sometimes conceal themselves inside baobab trees to avoid being caught.

We drove from the Lake Eyasi Lodge, which overlooks the lake from a distance, down toward the lake. The area is very dry, with lots of aloe and cactus plants, in addition to the baobab trees. We made it in time to watch a perfect sunset.

Datoga Tribe

Some of the girls at Lake Eyasi come from the Datoga tribe.  We wanted to visit homes that the students come from to provide viewers of the video a sense of the transformation that occurs when the girls attend school at Lake Eyasi. So several of us, accompanied by Lightness, paid a visit to a Datoga family. In this group, the husband and father is 85; he has nine wives and close to 80 children and grandchildren. The man has a house for himself, and one of his wives goes to stay with him in that house for two days at a time. Then the next wife arrives.

The houses are rectangular in shape, with sloped, thatched roofs. We spent time with some of the wives, who wore gorgeous skirts made out of animal hide that had been heavily beaded.  The beading on the skirts, and the strings of beads hanging down from the skirts, were spectacular! One of the wives showed us the necklaces she had made to sell to tourists. Also hanging on display were small gourds decorated with beads. And the women were making flour from corn on a grinding stone.  They let a couple of us try to grind the flour.

Lake Eyasi is a big onion-growing area, and the variety that grows best here is red onions.  The Datoga family had a long shed to store onions, but it was empty when we were there because the price for onions is high right now, so the onions have been sold. When the price goes down again, onions will be stored in the shed.

Truth or Dare

Near the tent where meals are served, there is a big bonfire every evening.  On the 16^th, the BECA group plus Lightness and Janet Bayo, and Rachael Fitzpatrick’s two daughters, Lauren and Courtney, sat around the fire and played Truth or Dare. Ashley Habr’s birthday was the next day, so a lot of the focus was on her. I had never played Truth or Dare (although I had heard my sons talk about it), and neither had the Bayos.  From a Tanzanian perspective, the game was quite risqué, although Lightness took a dare (from me) to sing the welcome song (Karibuni), and she did a great job!  I finally went to bed at around 10:00 PM, but the students stayed up and played until after midnight so they could usher in Ashley’s birthday.

Production at Lake Eyasi

We began production right away upon arriving at Lake Eyasi.  We made the mistake, however, of interviewing three of the girls in front of their classmates, all of us, along with Rachael and her husband and the Bayos.  Understandably, the girls became nervous and froze up, so we re-interviewed them the next morning in a small office where very few people could be present.  By that time, as well, the girls had become acquainted with the students so they were more at ease, such that they were animated and emotional in their interviews. The conditions for production are not great here; there is a lot of wind and the classroom is big and echo-y, so the students are learning to control the situation – good practice for them and necessary for this project.

While the students were interviewing Lightness and Rachael, I spent time with the vocational school students.  There have been a lot of changes in the program since Brian and I were here in 2013.  The focus of the school has changed to an emphasis on completing secondary school and passing the test that reflects secondary school knowledge. (This isn’t a GED, per se, but it has the same effect; it allows students to go on for higher education.)  On the board, soon after we arrived were a series of chemistry questions that yours truly could not begin to answer. We have seen math, Kiswahili, and civics lessons, as well. There are three young women who want to go on to be nurses, and others who have other dreams.

The vocational program has taken a back seat now as the focus is on empowering women to reach their dreams. I had remembered the school as one in which the typical student was a young woman who had become pregnant, usually because of rape or lack of sex education, and who, as a result, had to drop out of secondary school.  Then the treadle sewing machines imported from mainland China were new, there were several knitting machines, and the young women were not only learning these skills but attempting to sell their wares to tourist and schools. (School uniforms here usually include a solid-color sweater, knitted with acrylic yarn on a machine.)  Now, many of the machines are broken or in need of parts; there is one knitting machine; and although some of the girls are learning these needlework skills, the focus is on secondary school and going on for more training.  The students are not necessarily mothers, but young women from the ten villages surrounding Lake Eyasi who have had to leave secondary school for any of a number of reasons, including the inability to pay school fees.

At any rate, I spent some time with the young women who were doing sewing. I had been concerned because I had seen a number of their garments, and found seams in the wrong place and threads that didn’t match, etc. I was looking for an opportunity to offer some skills to increase the professionalism of the products. (Now, although the girls are not necessarily training to become seamstresses, some of them still will purchase treadle* machines and go back to their villages to sew as a way to support themselves and their children.) They have a rudimentary instructional sewing book, but the line drawings are not that clear. So . . . I showed them how to do a waistband so the stitching doesn’t show.  Then I demonstrated flat-felled and French seams. Then they wanted to learn how to do a herringbone stitch, which is a hand stitch used on hems, so we did that. Then someone wanted to learn how to do cross-stitch (a type of embroidery, to the uninitiated), so we did THAT – and then went on to straight and chain stitches.  I had a great time – and was exhausted by the end of the several hours!  Keep in mind that all of this occurred with THREE hand needles and THREE different colors of thread (white, black and purple).

(Note: I plan to buy the girls some needles – and thread, if I can find it – before I leave Tanzania. AND when I get home, I plan to collect notions to send with the next person traveling to Tanzania from San Francisco. If you have materials to contribute, please let me know.)

Anyway, the production continued while I was with the girls.  By the end of the second day, the interviews were done, and all that was left was to shoot B-roll.

*If you are wondering why I say TREADLE machines, it is because electricity, where it is available, is intermittent. You can’t count on it.  So an electric machine would not be reliable here.

Dear Blog Readers

Greetings from Lake Eyasi!  I am writing now to say that we have been away from the Internet for much of the time we are here.  Occasionally, I can get email on my phone, and I have been responding to a few messages that way, but quite frankly, I don't do thumbs! I have been able to keep up with the trip in terms of the text, but it takes about a half hour per post to add a new post when I include pictures, given the slowness of the Internet here. So . . . I have decided, for now, to post my text when I can, and to post photos when I have the luxury of time with the Internet.  I hope you understand! And thanks for reading!
Betsy

Lake Eyasi Girls' Vocational School

After a sumptuous breakfast at the volunteer house, we stored some of our things and took off for Lake Eyasi. The road between Karatu and Lake Eyasi has NOT changed; it is all dirt, and is filled with potholes.  In two places, there are giant “gorges” where road runs next to huge, deep drop-offs.  In one place, a cement bridge holds the road; in the other, there is no support for the road.  In distance, it is a relatively short trip, but given the condition of the road, it takes well over an hour to drive that distance.

What a delight to reach the Lake Eyasi Girls’ Vocational School to see how the school has grown and changed in the three short years since Brian and I were here! Where there was only a cement foundation, there is now a large building that houses a big classroom and an office. Construction has begun on a second classroom for that building. Behind the main building is a dormitory – two large rooms, each with eight bunk beds.  The girls from the school now sleep in one of the rooms. (The dorm has been open for only about a week, so this is new for the girls.) Bayo* borrowed the bunk beds in the other room from the Tumaini Secondary School, because school is now out for the summer.  He brought in mattresses for those beds to arrive in time for us to use them. That was great, as we had expected to sleep on the floor. The bunks will now be available for more girls to stay at the school. In addition, there is a bathroom building and a small house for the matron who stays at the school.

We also saw the garden, where in the rainy season, the girls had grown vegetables that had fed themselves and much of the town. Now that the dry season has arrived, there is no water, although the garden is set up with a drip irrigation system.  Lightness is attempting to identify a source of water for the garden.

A doctor from Arizona is building a clinic very close to the school.  Right now, it is just a brick structure ready for a roof.  It looks huge, and it will be a much-needed addition to the Lake Eyasi community, which is constituted by ten villages in the immediate vicinity.

A little tent village has sprung up on the property, as well.  Rachael put up a tent – a substantial safari tent that has a bathroom with a (Western) toilet, shower and sink – where she could stay for several days while in Lake Eyasi.  Then the doctor added a second tent, and the Bayos a third. Bayo was able to get an old tent from his former tour company, which he put to use as a kitchen and dining room for the three safari tents. The Bayos can rent out the tents when their owners are not in residence, and the proceeds assist the school. Brian and I have each been housed in one of the tents, a totally unexpected luxury!

*Mr. Modest Bayo goes by the nickname of “Bayo.”