World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day and thoughts turn to Africa.  Mareja is in an area where an estimated 1 in 10 people suffer from AIDS: sadly the real figure is likely to be much higher. 

There is a very low awareness’ of the effects of the disease and the ease with which it can now be controlled through medication. Free treatment is available in Pemba but it's a 3 hour drive away and a local witch doctor is still a much preferred option.

A new recruit - thanks to my neigbour Annabel and a game of cricket

Annabel yahooed as I approached down my street 'you must meet Tom.'  She was playing cricket at the time with her two children and Tom.  I had arrived back early from London so in fact had half an hour before dashing for an appointment about my blasted frozen shoulder. 

Well long story abbreviated Tom turned out to be an extraordinary find.  Recently left working in Tanzania and looking for a real African conservation project to work on, with a wealth of experience including army, guiding and even some biodiversity research.

So we have a new recruit, as a volunteer until I can raise funds and he has discovered whether Mareja and Dominik in the raw are to his liking and vica versa.  Anyway it does feel as though I have a fairy godmother after all.  A passionate and driven conservationist to support us and Mareja - thank you Annabel and your cricket team.

New tiles, early developments - what do you think???

This batch was not fired perfectly but I love the resulting black swirls

We run womens projects when all the harvest is in - giving them a chance to earn their own money. 

Sofiana with daughter feeding

laying large tiles -
some have a Kudu print

They do various jobs, like collecting grass to repair rooves but last year we began making floor tiles and have now, after lots of trialling, really mastered these large plain terrocota coloured tiles.  (Indeed Dominik has used them to pave every surface inside and out he can think of.) 

They are beautiful and highly practical...when fired correctly.  Over or underburning results in disintegration in the rain or brittle cracking.  The first firings were done in a large pit with much firewood, then the Donkey furnace by the house and now the new furnace which was built with the help of Jason (an ecoBrit who works in Pemba.)

Amina and Margaretta

We are now embarking on a new phase, working on smaller tiles with patterns and designs.  It is a highly interesting and experimental phase.Our local Makua tribe are not known for their art.  They make baskets, matts and beautiful cooking pots smoothed and perfectly rounded and balanced but the extent of the design is markings at the top, dots or dashes.  There is not tradition of jewellery or other mark making -unlike neighbouring tribes.  So this is a real adventure ...one I am greatly enjoying.  We all sit together and happily work in the dappled shade of the cashew trees.

So I tried to encourage them to play and explore the idea of design, creating images from their life at Mareja- with books for inspiration. Sitting in silence with occassional chat and I write down Makua in the hope they might penetrate my dry brain (Niparooto is butterfly - said with emphasis on the 'oo').  These days were probably the most fun I have had in a very long time.

Levene and her son...lending a helping hand/foot!

Two of the young women (Sofiana and Levene) have small children who eat, sleep, fiddle with clay making their own creative constructions and occassionally interfere with the process with a sudden fist or foot, but this happens surprisingly little considering their mothers attention is elsewhere.  They are amazingly skilled at working while a child is attached to a breast or slung neatly about them.  And you can't but help reflect on the benefits of this style of mothering.

They have produced some wonderful designs - using a porcupince quill or guineafowl feather. 

Here you are...

Guineafowl and cashew tree

Sable Antelope or Pala pala

Cashew tree by Amina, this is one of my favourites-
wonderful composition





Do you like these early designs?  Please let me know your thoughts.

Elephant poaching in QNP - shocking photos released

Mother and child



Here skulls gathered. We don't really know how many elephants have been killed recently.
At least 15 locally but likely to be many more.

Killed in the area surrounding Mareja within Quirimbas National Park, Northern Mozambique.  Killed for their ivory.  Ivory turned into trinkets, carved into artefacts that are sold openly in China and across Asia.

Elephants are protected by International CITES legislation - recognised as one of the most majestic and highly intelligent large mammals, from an ancient line of evolution called Afrotheria.  Their killing, trade and the making of artefacts is totally illegal.

Above a mother and baby - the baby would have had only stubs for ivory (teeth) - heartbreaking pointless slaughter. 

I am about to embark on an Appeal to better equip our local team of Rangers and increase our surveillance of the area, which stretches to 36,000 hectares of coastal forest.  These new professional heavily armed groups seem to be close to Mareja.  We provide a sanctuary for a small breeding population of now extremely frigthtened elephants.

Back with a bump: Dominik arrives in Pemba

Dominik is back in Mozambique and without car, water or refrigeration (and the hot season is well underway) ...

• car alternator broken (despite having been with mechanic for 2 months, they haven't the right screw)
• water pump totally defunct in Pemba (and no nearby river unlike Mareja)
• fridge cable chewed through by mice

He left his computer at a friend's house in Nairobi (sadly only himself to blame) and more devastatingly his bags didn't arrive with him in Pemba.  They were stuffed full of wonderful things - such as 10 new rangers uniforms, night lights and the usual mysterious and essential plumbing parts.

So all in all a bad start....not to mention the news that the armed poaching groups are on the Mareja border.

10 elephants killed in 11 days at Taratibo

Ivory poaching has been on the increase but we have just received news of a MASS slaughter at Taratibo.  A reserve run by Jacob (a cousin of Dominik's) the only other conservation project within the Park - it is a particularly beautiful area with a large Inselberg range.  How devastating for Jacob and what a huge dent in the small population of elephant in this area.  Jacob has a good local ranger force but the poachers were heavily armed with automatic weapons and supported by a helicopter that removed the ivory.  Locals say the poachers are planning to return.  We must put everything in their path to stop them getting to Mareja. 

Sign of a new born elephant at Mareja 

Only yesterday Dominik was telling me about the elephant birthing grounds that are near the house. When a female makes noises to indicate she is giving birth, all females within range trumpet back and form a protection ring against predators.  Time for trumpeting from the human world.

poachers retaliate - wild fires rage

Apparently fires have been lit all around Mareja and even below the house. The Rangers found a poachers camp and confiscated nets and snares.  They then scuttled away before the poachers returned.  Fire making is a skill everyone has with or without matches and it is very effective, used to drive game into your net, push them into a snare rich zone or temporarily wipe out a habitat.  The hope is that they were not really 'hot' fires which devastate all flammable life.  However, at this time in the season the land is getting pretty dry, so they could be...

Every year there is a programme of early burning.  And we managed, what felt like, a good amount this year trying to create 'breaks' so that the big hot fires can't take hold.  I drove as others dabbled their fire sticks into thick knots of vegetation (fire sticks made from bamboo shredded at the end like a loobrush or knots of grass tied into bundles). 

These burns are done along roads and tracks so the breaks are linear.  Dominik particularly wants to protect the rich and rare mountain vegetation.  But the thought of this uncontrollable force of nature manufactured for maximum effect is really worrying. You can only imagine the panic in the animal world when they hear that deep crackle of hungry fire.  And apparently a 3 day fire came really close to the house, they have estimated about 5,000 hectares of fire.