Animals and village life.

2014/2015 saw a few animal attacks within and around the village of Bennde-Mutale.  Now we always experience wild animals within the village boundaries especially in September and October when the bush is so dry and you can see 100 meters through it.  Every year lion will come through a hole in the Kruger national park fence, sometimes where a dry river bed meets the bottom of a fence,  more often though where humans have passed through on their way to or from Zimbabwe to see friends or relatives on one side of the Limpopo or other.

The lion come and take cows or donkeys  as unfortunately most livestock have 'the clangers'. A terrible infliction where by livestock have continuous ringing in their ears.  Most cows, donkeys and goats have this affliction and  the only remedy is to undergo surgery to remove damn bells around their necks. When the lion come through, these animals are easy to spot or hear for the lion, I call it 'meals on bells'. Sometimes the lion hang around and nature conservation come and try to shoot it, but more often than not they don't, the lion take themselves back in to the park. A new scheme is in place to deal with problem animals, which I'll write about in due course.

I once disturbed a pride of 13 lions on my way home the local bush pub at Pafuri River Camp. Fortunately this time I was driving my trusty Landrover and not walking, which i often did through the bush at night. Another time there were 2 lions behind the pub just relaxing at night under a bush not 10 meters from where 8 people were relaxing, the local manager with 2 trusty stones in hand, ran screaming at them and the lions buggered off into the bush.  Needless to say some of the guests were wary of walking to their chalets!

Elephant come through as well at least a couple of times a year, walking across the Limpopo or straight through the KNP fence.  They come and eat the lovely crops which are lined up nicely, though not before wondering around trying to find THE tastiest maize cob.  Sometimes these elephant are from the KNP, sometimes they are from Zimbabwe.  If they are from the KNP I always hope they get back in.  If they are from Zimbabwe they are not wanted in the KNP, as they can be more aggressive, especially to humans, so again I hope they find their way home.  More often than not when elephant are in the area they destroy a number of peoples crops unwittingly, its not as if they think 'ah ha let me tap dance on these fine crops' this, obviously, would be very annoying.

Generally the elephants are shot for being problem animals, harsh, yes, though it is part of life in the rural bush.  Locals battle with enough environmental problems/changes as it is, most years crops fail due to changes in the rain pattern, when we do have good rains and crops grow the last thing you need is an elephant trampling around.

When elephant are shot, not one bit of the elephant meat is wasted, all the meat is used by the locals which provides them with much need meat for a month or so.  As news breaks that an elephant has been shot you see villages running with buckets and knives into the bush to find the elephant. When you see them running towards you for the first time when you are out for a stroll in the bush , you generally have to change your shorts, as it can be quiet a sight!  More so when it happens on their way back as they are covered in blood carrying bloody knives and buckets of meat.  Luckily I know I'm too skinny for anything

Seeing an adult elephant butchered in an hour is a sight not for the faint hearted. Locals will play a game of 'King of the castle' to stake their claim at first, but then it is generally shared out fairly evenly.

Sometimes the locals aren't so lucky, last year a lady from the village was trampled to death by an elephant whilst she was foraging for food...'toe jam' is one of the terms for this....not so nice.

Another local was attacked by a leopard whilst collecting Marula fruits for beer not 100 meters from his house.  His friends after a few minutes managed to scare this young male leopard off,  Nature conservation came along to put this animal down, but unfortunately they shot the wrong leopard, they had shot a larger leopard!

Another incident which happen towards the end of last year was where a tourist to the area was gored by a buffalo, after being choppered to hospital and many months in ICU he survived.

Life in the bush can be tough, you never can be sure what will happen or when it will happen, maybe nothing will ever happen to you.  The incidences above are quite rare and generally happen when you are in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Many locals forage for food, however their traditional areas are diminishing all the time as fences are put up and they have to put themselves in closer proximity to wild animals, as they has happened in the past.

Condemn them if you want but it is just part of life in the area and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.

I was going to write about poaching in our area, alas I think this will have to come another time!

The Internet, Bennde style

Continuing on with my 2015 slogan of embracing technology and using it to the capacity of my abilities, which I have not fully embraced YET! 

There are always small difficulties to overcome. 

Take the internet, fantastic, we have access here in Bennde-Mutale and therefore have the same access as someone in an office in Brazil. However at the moment the way we able to access that technology is very different and the end results are therefore quite different. Your attitude to the internet in general and how you utilize it has to be in the correct place.  I realise my attitude to how I went about using this technology was completely backwards even considering the following.

Here in Bennde we can only get cell phone reception (the only way to get internet) in certain places (within a 40Km radius), and within those certain places you get better signal for phone and better signal for internet (from Edge to HSDPA) and on top of this you have 2 or 3 different carriers which have better reception in each of these certain places.  Then you have to consider the weather, because on overcast days, other areas will work whereas your usual areas wont, again depending on which carrier you use. 

The culmination of this is general frustration which isn’t helped because you are usually sat in your car next the road at the ‘Cell Phone spot’ in 30’c+ heat, open to anybody to come and say hello, ask you for something, and yes disturb your work, research or concentration.  Some of you may be thinking, yeah stop your moaning………not moaning I’m just trying to paint a picture here of how we access the net, while you most likely sit and read this on an office pc, a tablet at home on the sofa or your phone on the toilet. I’m lucky, I can’t moan, I have a smart phone to access emails etc, I can create a Wi-Fi spot for my laptop and sit in my car.  For 99% of the villagers they don’t have any of this……..anyway I digress…

Frustration, time wasted and expense can be the results of how we access the internet here.  The expense comes in by having to use 2 carriers, I generally use 1 gb per month which costs 150 Rand (15$ 10£) per carrier so 300 rand a month, for 2 gb at poor to intermittent quality. An expense a local villager cannot afford.

If you are lucky you have built your house in a ‘Cell phone area’ and can get reception in your kitchen or bedroom, maybe if you put it, ‘there….right there, you see the door frame just on top you can get 2 bars if no clouds’.  This again depends on your carrier, which most people have 2 of.  Sometimes in peoples gardens you’ll see a sock hanging from a bush or a piece of wire from a tree, these are placed in strategic places where you put your  phone and get  1 bar maybe 2; enough anyway to send and receive a ‘please call me’. 

I am lucky again in this respect, I can occasionally, weather dependant, get 1 bar on one carrier, this is enough to sometimes get my emails, as I get an intermittent edge signal.  You may be wondering why don’t you get an external aerial?  Yep done that, no help and cost money.  I’m willing to buy something to boost the signal, but not until I see it working at my house for a month or so. Otherwise it is a waste of money paying for service or help when you live 200km away from a service place and they charge you 3 rand per Km for a visit or installation.

Until the area gets a tower for mobile signal or I get some cash for satellite internet, which is expensive and not always reliable the only other solution is to have a better way of harnessing the internet and getting the most from it.  This may be by connecting to people who you share interests and passions with.  Sharing in something which is more rewarding than an easy superficial ‘Like’ on Facebook.

Again I am lucky I have access to the internet and to such things as Facebook where I can harness the goodwill of people, but think for a minute of the secondary school child whose ‘homework’ is to research a historical figure or to find some information on Rhino statistics.  So many ‘latest’ text books and teachers rely on access to the internet to supplement school work.  Students have no such access and thus fail their homework assignment again and again, then they fail the whole year.  Yes, this is a problem for teachers and the dept. of Education to rectify but for the students it is a problem of now.  

The internet is a wondrous thing and a powerful force for change but let’s not forget that not everybody has it and for many millions if not billions of people it is still a great barrier to education and even an unknown.

The solution, there isn’t a perfect one however  this year I am endeavouring on building a ‘Digital Learning Centre’ with up to 10 laptops (safer as you can hide them from thieves).   This may sound quite straight forward but it brings with it so many other small problems, electricity being the biggest one!!

Anyway, I will keep you posted on the progress and if you are interested in helping out by researching small funds for such an endeavour or by donating old or refurbished laptops then please let me know.

I will do my best to embrace this technology and to keep people informed for the long term benefit of the community.

Anna and the Crocodile

This is the story that Anna (our creche teacher) penned, based on her experience  last November of fighting off a crocodile while fishing in the Limpopo River.

My name is Anna Munzhelele.  I was born on the 5^th of October 1973, at Musina Hospital.  I am 38 years old.  I’m the fifth born of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Munzhelele.  I live in Limpopo Province, which is in South Africa.  I live at Bennde Mutale village near Kruger National Park.

It was on the 10^th of November 2011.  When I went to the river called Limpopo for fishing with my friends.  It’s about 20 kilometers from the village to the river.

When we arrived at the river, we started fishing.  While we were fishing, I felt a punch on my stomach.  I looked and I saw that it was a crocodile.  I was not scared of it.  I told my friends to come and help me.  A crocodile had attacked me.  They both ran away outside the water and looked at me.  I started to push the crocodile and gave it a punch on its nose.  As you know that a crocodile is a ferocious animal.  It was still having a piece of my flesh from my stomach.  I keep on fighting with it and it left my stomach.  It touched my let again.  I continued to fight but the crocodile fought very hard.  I opened its mouth using my hands.  And it cut my thumb and another piece of flesh on my leg.  When I saw that I distracted it, and it had swam away from me.  

I got outside of the water, walking not running, because I was badly damaged like in war.  I asked my friends to bandage me using some clothes that we have.  After that, I walked by myself from the river until to the road for about 15 kilometers.  It’s where I got a car to transport me to the clinic named Masisi.  From the clinic the nurses transferred me to Donald Fraser Hospital.  I spent one month, two weeks at the hospital.  And the doctor sent me back to the clinic again until I was recovered. 

RAISING VENDA: toys for education

Friends of Mutale’s involvement in the region is growing, as I have been approached by a provincial representative of the Department of Health & Social Development to secure educational toys for over 50 crèches in the area.  It is a challenge to rise to, but none too daunting as I trust that corporate sponsors can be secured and successful toy drives can be initiated in the UK and US. 

Throughout Venda, there is a dire need for children and educators alike to be provided with toys for educational and fun purposes, as the crèches in this region typically have up to 60 kids in one small room, with only the basics (paper, crayons, broken dolls, tyres) to play with.  Toys are instrumental in a child’s intellectual, emotional and social growth.  It is incredible to witness their immediate delight and the gleam in their eyes as Legos, stuffed animals and hula hoops are laid before them.  Their senses stimulated, the children are encouraged and eager to learn. 

The request from the Department of Health & Social Development was based upon Friends of Mutale’s model of a mobile toy library, in which I visited 4 crèches weekly with toys, books, music and art supplies.  Due to lack of funding the mobile toy library was furloughed, but it is anticipated that the toy drive will permanently provide the resources that are so vital to a child’s growth.

Efforts are underway to organize toy collection centers in the United States (Portland, Oregon and Grand Rapids, Michigan) and the United Kingdom.  Donations of the following items are being accepted:

• Dolls 
• Legos 
•  Large floor puzzles
• Wooden shape puzzles
• Balls
• Jump ropes
• Building blocks
• Paint brushes

Likewise, a box that is stocked specifically with educational toys for crèches can be purchased locally for R1590 (£150 or $230), through a South African charity.  The Faranani Trust specializes in training rural crèche educators.  Incidentally, Friends of Mutale will be sponsoring the crèche’s primary educator to attend training courses later this year.

 

If you have toys to send to a collection center, would like to donate money to buy a box of educational toys in South Africa or if you would be interested in facilitating a drive in your community, Friends of Mutale would like to hear from you!  Also, getting the toys to South Africa will be a creative challenge, securing options that will be cost effective and efficient through customs.  Connections are being sought with someone in the freight or airline industry.  If you have a lead that I should pursue for shipping, toys to donate or are interested in creating a collection center, please contact me via email:  vince@mehers.com

Footballs for Schools

This week and next is football delivering time….. 248 footballs to 14 primary schools and crèches.  Ten footballs to each and the rest in reserve for when they are needed again .The footballs were generously donated by share-holders of Pafuri Rivercamp, Lou and Les of White River, Mpumalanga. 

I’ve done an initial delivery to a couple of schools within the area; the footballs were gladly received at every school….warmly by the administrators and eagerly by the students.   It is gratifying to witness the delight that a gift of a few footballs brings; but, above all it has allowed me to become even more aware of what work needs to be done to uplift the area schools.  Delivering the footballs has provided me with an opportunity to visit a number of schools for the first time; schools that house a few classrooms for 100 or more students – with only a couple of employees who play the roles of principal, educator, janitor, cook and counselor.  All the more reinforcing the primary goal of 2011: securing a steady stream of volunteers to assist educators in the schools of Mutale. 

Visit Venda Volunteering to begin planning your visit to Venda.

A Year in Review and A Year in the Making

The promise of a new year encourages moments of reflection, to tally the weight of the closing year and envisage limitless possibilities for the year ahead.   Friends of Mutale’s assessment:  2010 was a challenging, yet fruitful year; all the while 2011 holds the potential to be a productive year with far-reaching achievements. 

2010

The Friends of Mutale sponsored crèche began accepting students in February 2010, the most significant accomplishment of the year.  Success was stifled initially, as the crèche was closed for a couple of months mid-year while a new instructor was sought and hired and negotiations were held with the local traditional authority.  The crèche reopened in July, with 30 students enrolled.  A ceremony was held in December at the end of the school year for four students who graduated onto primary school.

A mobile toy library began visiting area crèches in May 2010, based on support from the Tshikondeni Mine.   Friends of Mutale visited 4 crèches weekly with toys, books, art supplies and music, so that the children could play and learn at the same time while the educators were exposed to the idea of toys in the crèche (some crèches have been operating for 10 years with limited educational resources:   tyres and broken toys).  Children were taught the importance of playing nicely, sharing and of respecting the toys so that they will last longer.   The lasting effects cannot be quantified, but the immediate benefit was evident for the 130+ children in the four crèches that the mobile toy library served.

The waste management and recycling efforts continued to be an uphill battle in 2010, due to the distance from government infrastructure and lack of support from the area municipalities.  Weeks may go by without a rubbish collection, despite the efforts of Friends of Mutale employees who collect waste and recycling that is deposited into metal drums that are placed throughout the village and at Kruger National Park’s Pafuri Gate.  Recycling continues to be sorted at the collection site, in anticipation that the municipality will soon respond and take interest once again.

2011

The crèche has grown immensely with the 2011 school year, now serving 50 children.  The school day begins at 8:00 am with prayer, instruction and learning games; at 10:30 am lunch is served, consisting of pap, beans and a fresh vegetable; while the day wraps-up with outside play and nap time.  The crèche will be formally registered with the Department of Education in 2011, solidifying its position in the community.  If time and financial resources allow, the lead instructor will attend educational training classes to develop her skills and enhance the resources available at the crèche.

A provincial representative from the Department of Education has approached me, requesting that I assist him in obtaining toys and educational material for over 50 crèches within the region.  It is a challenge to rise to, but none too daunting as I trust that corporate sponsors can be secured and successful toy drives can be initiated in the UK and US. 

The After-School Programme continues to be a great success within the community.   Attendance has grown in 2011.  On average, approximately 45 kids attend on a daily basis; some days nearly 70 kids participate.  The after-school programme is structured with an hour of extra study (English, maths and geography)  and an hour of play;  such as building with Legos, jigsaw puzzles, drawing, colouring, reading, playing football, netball, badminton, baseball, skipping, and hopefully soon things like chess, mini-cricket and an environmental club.  It has been observed that the children who regularly attend the after-school programme excel in school and are socially integrated.   Our friends at the Tshikondeni Mine, who have been generous supporters of the programme and the Learning Centre, updated the electrical system and installed a blackboard, screen and outdoor light in December 2010.  

While Friends of Mutale is involved in many thriving social efforts within Bennde-Mutale and the surrounding communities, it can be none too successful without the time, labor and love from volunteers.   The most crucial task of 2011 will be to create relationships with individuals, universities and other charitable organizations to secure a solid and steady base of volunteers in Bennde-Mutale.  Volunteers who have a passion for children, teaching and Africa are being sought who will be able to commit to a three month stay teaching in the local primary schools and after-school programme.  Volunteers are a critical asset in operations, ensuring that the programmes and relationships that are established with the students are uninterrupted.    

Supporting Friends of Mutale has never been easier…..when you shop online with your favorite retailers.   An account has been established with EasyFundRaising, who will contribute up to 15% of online purchases made with the likes of Amazon, Apple, Red Letter Days, House of Fraser, Thorntons and Marks & Spencer.  Before making your purchases, click on the link: www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/mutale or visit www.friendsofmutale.org.uk where you will find a link.

Friends of Mutale is grateful for your interest and support.  If you would like to hear more about any of these initiatives or have a lead that I should pursue, please contact me via email at vince@mehers.com.  

Updated website

Have now up dated my website with a Google map of where I am based.

http://www.friendsofmutale.org.uk/#/where-we-are/4544737898

Next thing is to learn how to link pictures to the map.