Eliphas is 27 and met Maria in a coastal Tanzanian town called Tonga, where she arrived in Africa. He is a project manager for an organization that brings volunteers from all over the world to build schools and help the local African community. He escorts them from the airport, delegates their tasks, and sleeps where they sleep. Because he can speak English well, Eliphas is a great person for this role. His English has a British twang to the standard Tanzanian accent we have become accustomed to. He wears a blue Manchester United football Jersey with ELIPHAS printed on the back. There is a certain air of British to him. On his head is a green puffy knit cap with a small brim under which you usually see dreadlocks. His hair is short though and sort of spiked. Eliphas is a thinker and has many ideas about how to make his village, family, and himself prosper. There aren’t many who think like he does in his village because the people are focused on how to get food into the bellies of their children. His mother yelled at him the previous night because she saw him sitting pensively: “You think too much!” she said to him. “It’s all right mama, I will be ok.” His big plan is to organize tours to his village. It is so close to Moshi where people leave for both safaris and Kilimanjaro climbs that the clientele is there. While it is a smart idea, we fear the unintended consequences. In other towns where businesses have been made on tourists paying to watch tribal people dance, cook, make machetes, there is something unsettling—a fine line between innocent curiosity and exploitation. We conclude that since Eliphas is loved and respected by his village people this could be done in a respectful and mutually beneficial way.
The people of Moa are blessed with incredibly fertile soil and are able to survive mostly on their crops. Coffee, a big African export, grows wild here. Initially the Moan people tried to grow and export this crop but since the government pays very little for it, they razed the coffee plantations and stick mostly to subsistence farming. Much of the world’s coffee is grown in Africa, yet it is near impossible to get a decent cup here. Breakfast is usually served with a small container of instant Africa coffee grounds. And we were advised to be careful when ordering coffee, because in Swahili the word coffee means to slap in the face.
They have plenty of banana trees (initially imported from Brazil) all along the hillside. Property is divided by a certain type of tree branch--big leaves are placed starting at the road and through the property divide. We can’t help but think that each family is literally one drought/flood/illness away from starvation, and fights over property. Yet, the overall feeling in Moa is not one of sadness. In fact, a walk through town is nothing but miles of smiles on the villagers’ faces. We were definitely a novelty and since we arrived with Maria who the village people LOVE, we were quickly accepted.
Moans can either live very short or very long lives. The first morning of our stay the church bells rang from 5:00am to 5:12am to notify the villagers that someone had passed, a 47 year old woman. However, Eliphas’s grandfather lived until he was 120 years old. There are many who live to that age that Eliphas knows of, but we never see Al Roker wishing them a happy birthday.
Moa got electricity in 2005 but it is still spotty and it’s common for the power to be off for 12 hours and then on for 12 hours. Only half the village’s residents get electricity, depending on the side of the village they live in. Most people live in mud or cement dwellings, do not have running water, and use an outhouse (or drop toilet) for bathroom facilities. The families with income get their money from the father or children who work in Moshi or nearby Arusha, not from labor performed in the village.
The eve we arrived in Moa we were served an authentic village dinner prepared by Eliphas’s mama. We ate in the family/dining room. The square room consists of two wooden chairs with floral patterned cushions opposite a couch of the same design along the wall with a coffee table between. A TV in the corner, of which there is no volume control, blasts local music videos or animal planet episodes from DVDs. We sipped chai before the meal was served. The meal was perfectly cooked rice, tomato sauce with “organic” beef, green pepper, onion, carrot, and ginger. There was also the best tasting avocado to complement the dish; it was like avocado-flavored butter.
