During our travelling lecture we visited a school in the neighboring town of Karatu in the Bashay community. The driving purpose behind the school is to teach the children about conservation issues and how to be sustainable. I was impressed by the concept of educating members of the community at such a young age, and in this way the people of Tanzania are far ahead of us. I wish I could have received education like this growing up in school, and maybe then it would not be so difficult for me to change my thinking and daily habits in order to live a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle.
We were taken to a group of tables surrounded by tree saplings the school was planting and beautiful murals depicting several conservation issues such as soil erosion and agricultural expansion. I listened to a faculty member at the school of more than 800 children speak about the challenges that the area faces and the steps that the school is taking to not only educate others but to also solve these issues. Using their 30+ tree nurseries complete with native and exotic tree species, the school aids the community in meeting their ten tree quota, a law passed which requires each household to plant and manage ten trees. Not only does this help the degraded environment and promote retention of water in the soil, but it also empowers community members by providing them with fruits to sell and steering them away from an unsustainable pastoral life (and can also act as food to boost the production of their livestock). Other efforts that the school supports includes improving the income of the average African family by encouraging alternative activities such as beekeeping, the use of organic fertilizers in farming to reduce salinity, and the reduction of livestock populations among farmers, as many livestock end up dying in times of drought. I had heard of several of these issues and strategies before, and it was interesting to hear this same dialogue occurring in another part of the world. In matters of the environment, we are all united.
We were next taken to see the school's three large cooking ovens. We were told that in Africa, 90% of people depend upon wood for cooking. Not only does this mean that people are often inhaling unhealthy smoke, but also that numerous trees are being cleared for this purpose. Their ovens only utilize a few pieces of wood for one meal as opposed to previously used methods like the three-stone stove (by stove, I mean three stones on the ground that the food is placed onto with a fire in the middle).
Approaching the front of the brick school, we passed through banners of colorful triangular flags as children in uniform laughed through a game of jump rope. We were taken to an area of ground covered with large holes, which many of the people in my group likened to the movie Holes. School children used hoes to break up the crumbling dirt, swinging the tools behind their heads and smashing them back down in swift motions. The purpose? Trees were being planted. And the next thing I knew, I was helping to plant a sapling myself. I kicked away some more dirt as I was handed a small green plant. After cutting off its plastic wrapping, I placed it into one of the holes and covered it with the reddish soil. As I looked on at the little green life form (which we dubbed the name Travis the Tree), I couldn't help but feel elated. The instructor said that we could come back in several years and witness the very trees we planted fully grown.
Later in the day, we even got to see a local woman's sustainable stove utilizing methane gases produced by cow dung. Her stove allowed her to cook much more quickly than she would have been able to with fire. In this way, the stove empowered her as a woman by allowing her to do other things with her day besides sit inside and cook.
I thought about several of the people we had talked to and things we had seen over the past few days, and could not help but think how cool it was to see how many people near and far care about sustainability and are making an honest effort.
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