Mvumi School Trust

I was in Nairobi last week: it’s a lot greener than the Dodoma region and refreshingly cool. You don’t even need a mosquito net at night, and the Mvumi dust was the stuff of memory. The shopping malls are a shock to the system. Dodoma is thriving with the occasional throngs of politicians hurtling down the excellent road to their parliamentary meetings mixing with the students from the two new universities, but the contrast between the two capitals could not be more explicit.

It’s difficult to see much more than a Toyota in Dodoma: in Nairobi the range of vehicles is testament to the prosperity. Dodoma now has street lamps but still enjoys fame as the only capital without traffic lights. There is a new super market in Dodoma but that phrase seems a bit empty compared to the bulging shelves and heaving trolleys in Nairobi. The signs of the Kenyan troubles are now mercifully absent, but we are grateful that ours is a peaceful society.

There wasn’t a great deal of peace in the cricket match we played on the lawn at my host’s house. I have never played cricket with a giraffe bone for a bat but I can vouch for its power. Its weight is more typical of a Botham bat: lots of meat (unlike the giraffe) although the grip on this piece of upper femur was slightly tricky. My shots fairly raced off into the bushes, and when I turned my arm over for some flighted off breaks, the ball fairly whistled off into the trees….

There are lots of trees in Nairobi: especially in the rather stylish country club for ex pats which I visited. We have our own club in Dodoma imaginatively named the Climax Club, but it has a smaller menu and lacks the shocking pink buildings. Our club is located close to the prison which I visited today, not to call on a school miscreant, I hasten to add, but to buy some of their quite excellent handicrafts. If you want to buy table mats, decorative butterflies and giraffes or stylish mats for the door, the prison is the place for you (sic). You will be met with the excellent manners and interest which is typical of this country whether it be the guards or the prisoners bearing their handiwork.

I drove back over the hills to the school passing the maize which is just about ready for harvest. It has not been a great year because the rains came late and the crops are not richly laden like they were last year. A lot of families will struggle. The fields are being guarded during the day: not from human thieves but from the vervet monkeys arriving with a gleam in their eyes. We passed a group today with a very proprietorial appearance swinging purposefully through the trees. They will take their chance. It’s dog eat dog when the food is around.