Trip to Tanzania!

I was recently given the opportunity to join a team from my office - consisting of our Regional Director, the head accountant, and a project coordinator – heading to our TLC office in Tabora, Tanzania. There were a few goals of the trip there, including checking on project progress, providing management and technical support, and hiring a new manager. My main objectives were to deepen my understanding of our projects there, and to apply the M&E system that we have been developing in Malawi to our projects in Tanzania.

The trip to Tanzania started with a flight on the private plane of a tobacco company (we get much of our funding from the tobacco industry). We flew at a much lower altitude than I’m accustomed to on commercial flights, so we enjoyed quite the fantastic view of the country.

Photo 1: Likoma Island from above (I'm headed there this weekend)

We landed just across the border in Tanzania to go through passport control. It was a funny operation, with a group of border guards just setting up shop beside the plane to process us.

When we were up in the air again, we were in for a special treat! We would soon be flying over the Selous Game Reserve, the largest in Africa (bigger than Switzerland!). The majority of the park is inaccessible to anyone but some rich hunters during the hunting season. Since it wasn’t the hunting season, we were able to fly at a low altitude, following the path of a river which was frequented by all sorts of creatures. So, we got quite the incredible aerial view of hippos, elephants, zebras, waterbuck, impalas, water buffalos, etc. It was really amazing!

Photo 2: Water buffalo (just off to the left was a huge herd of them, which I unfortunately missed-it is hard to take photos out the window of a moving airplane!)

Photo 3: Elephants

We spent the night in a city an hour or so west of Dar Es Salaam, before continuing on to the city of Tabora, another couple hours away by air.

Photo 4: Scenery on the way to Tabora

In Tabora, much of our time was spent conducting field visits. We visited several of our field coordinators, checking on progress in the field. It was really interesting for me to see just how different things are in Tanzania compared to Malawi.

Malawi, as I’ve indicated in past posts, has suffered tremendous deforestation, and the availability of land is a major issue. In this part of Tanzania, it was a different story entirely. There are vast expanses of forest, and ample land for cultivation. However, the forests are being depleted quickly in certain parts, and the use of tonnes and tonnes of wood for tobacco production is a key cause.

In our Tanzania projects, we’re working more closely with Tobbaco companies, who approached TLC to help decrease the impacts that their tobacco farmers were having on deforestation. In Tanzania, nearly 95% of tobacco grown is “flue cured,” which means that they are cured by heat in what are called “tobacco barns,” which use vast amount of wood to create heat (in contrast to Malawi, where the majority of tobacco is of the “burley” variety, which is air cured).

Photo 5 :a "rocket barn" - an improved design for tobacco curing barns, which drastically reduces the amount of wood required for the curing process

Photo 6: Farmer showing off a tree he planted in his maize field. Tobacco farmers are required to grow 500 trees per hectare of tobacco.

Photo 7: Farmer standing in a field with naturally regenerating trees. In the past, farmers were taught to chop down all trees in a field, based on the incorrect belief that trees and crops cannot be grown together. Not only is this untrue, but growing trees along with crops can have benefits, such as increased soil fertility.


Photo 8: A farmer showing off the natural woodland he manages. Natural woodland management is a major component of our programs in Tanzania. By applying a few management techniques to existing wooded areas the long term sustainability of the wood source can be ensured.

Photo 9: That big pile of wood will be used in his traditional (not rocket!) barn to cure some of his tobacco. All that wood was gathered during maintenance of the natural woodland area he manages.

Through our work, TLC is hoping that Tanzanian farmers do not soon find themselves in the situation of Malawian farmers . . .

Photo 10: Checking out a farmer's woodland

A common sight when we were driving around were beehives hanging from the trees. A local method of honey production involves setting up beehives, in the form of short pieces of logs, and hanging them way up in the trees. The honey of the area is apparently quite good, and my coworkers bought litres and litres of the stuff to bring back to Malawi. They packed it up well in a big box, and joked about how important the honey was, how all they cared about was that the honey successfully makes it back to Malawi.

Getting back from Tabora was a long process. Our schedule forced us to take commercial flights back to Lilongwe. We flew to Dar Es Salaam on Friday morning, arriving around midday. Spending the afternoon in Dar was pleasant enough. We explored the huge market there, and bought excessive amounts of fabric (much cheaper there than in Malawi) and other stuff. We had a fancy dinner by the ocean, enjoying the cool ocean breeze after a very hot afternoon exploring Dar.

Photo 11: Cloth for sale in the market

Photo 12: Dinner by the ocean (myself with Vicky, the head accountant, and Glynwell, a project coordinator and M&E guy)

We were originally to fly Air Malawi from Dar to Lilongwe, which should have taken a couple of hours. Unfortunately, Air Malawi was experiencing some problems, so we had to take a much longer path, stopping over in Johannsesberg. So, what should have been a 2 hour trip, turned into a 9 hour one. It wasn't all bad though - the Jo'burg airport had some excellent shopping ;)

When we finally arrived in Lilongwe, we waited by the luggage carousel. My bag was the first item to make its way out, followed by the box of honey. In the end, that was all the luggage that made it from my group of 4. My three coworkers' luggage had been lost. I blame the powers of jinx, because of all the fuss about their precious honey!