The Korea Times

Footbridges on Mount Kilimanjaro

Villagers dance across a new concrete bridge in Mwika near Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. / Courtesy of Young Hoy Kim KimaroBy Young Hoy Kim KimaroWhen Johannes Rebmann, a German missionary, reported sighting of a snowcapped mountain in the heart of Africa as he traveled inland from the coast in 1849, the Geographical Society of London was highly skeptical. “What? Snow just 3 degrees south of the equator? Impossible! Perhaps the good missionary was hallucinating from a malaria attack.” It wasn't till 12 years later that a special expedition confirmed Rebmann's surprising discovery.Yes, despite its proximity to the equator, Mount Kilimanjaro's peak is snowcapped. Depending on how much rain fell the night before, the extent of the snow coverage on its peak varies. Glaciers that had once covered the summit have dwindled in size considerably. Some even predict the snow cap may well disappear before the end of this century.Plentiful rainfall (annual average precipitation of 1,200 millimeters) and the melting snow have corrugated Mount Kilimanjaro's slopes with numerous springs

Apr 4, 2018By Young Hoy Kim Kimaro

Kondiki dairy plant's wobbly leap to 21st Century

By Young Hoy Kim KimaroIf you visit the Kondiki Milk Processing Plant in Mwika on Mount Kilimanjaro today, you won’t find a trace of a wood burning stove nor a large cauldron in which 50 liter canisters of milk sit in bubbling, boiling water to be pasteurized. What was once an empty hall with only a non-functioning cooler at the far end has now come alive with crisscrossing of pipes and heat exchangers, a packing machine and more. When the plant is in operation, the packing machine spits out a 250 mg packet of cultured milk every few seconds into a container waiting below. The journey from wood burning stove to automated plant was as rocky as the unpaved, rain-washed terrain that one has to negotiate up the slope of Kilimanjaro to reach the plant.The pastor of the parish, who oversaw the original plant, continued to supervise the plant after it had been modernized. He decided to keep the original staff and, above all, his right hand man, H.H was a pleasant young man with a bright smile who had, over the years, won over the pastor’s confidence. H had some high school educa

Nov 29, 2017By Young Hoy Kim Kimaro

Kondiki dairy plant's wobbly leap to 21st Century

Pasteurizing milk the cottage industry way

By Young Hoy Kim Kimaro Most farmers in Mwika own a cow or two, the local type with hump back.  They are kept for manure mostly;  milk is only a minor side benefit, barely 2 lt. a day.  Milk is typically boiled before consuming, but hardly long enough for it to be safe. In 2005, a plant was built to pasteurize milk at Kondiki parish in Mwika.  The plant was housed in the parish’s underutilized office building which had a large meeting room with several offices around it. In 2007, like-minded villagers in Mwika who saw the potential in milk production for enhancing farm income, rallied together to bring to Mwika 80 heifers of improved variety.  That paid off.  By 2008, the volume of milk processed at the plant had grown from 50 liters per day to over 350 liters.  In the excitement, I volunteered to be a one-day photo-journalist to record every aspect of the plant’s operation. At 6 a.m. it was still dark outside when I arrived at the milk plant.  A line of villagers bringing milk to sell to the plant had started to

Nov 6, 2017By Young Hoy Kim Kimaro

Pasteurizing milk the cottage industry way

Small village church choir wins big

By Young Hoy Kim Kimaro“We won, we won!” shouted Masuki excitedly as he entered the library where our Rotary Club was meeting. His large eyes opened even wider, baring a sea of white. His smile, extended from ear to ear and would have gone further if it could have. His excitement was contagious. We all turned to him to hear more.“We got the first prize.” Club members burst into applause. It’s not often that a choir from a tiny village _ Shokony of Mwika _ with a population of maybe 2,500 to 3,000 _ would beat choirs from parishes in cities such as Moshi, which draw talent from parishioners who may number 10 times as many. Choirs from some 170 parishes took part in this Lutheran Church of Northern Diocese competition.Among a litany of finalists in many categories, the Shokony choir was the very last to perform. At the end of the day the choir members were all exhausted from just sitting and waiting for their turn. Worse, they were intimidated and nervous, having heard some great singing from their competitors.”&nbs

Sep 27, 2017By Young Hoy Kim Kimaro

Safe storage of grains to boost farm income on Kilimanjaro

By Young Hoy Kim KimaroThere are two cropping seasons on Kilimanjaro, marked by the rains.  “Masika,” the long rains is the main crop growing season, which starts around mid to late March and ends in June/July.  Unlike the monsoon rains in Asia, the downpours do not continue for days at a time. They are almost daily, though not continuous; enough to douse the crops and keep them growing.  “Vuli,” the short rains, the second cropping season, starts around mid-October and ends in January.Up on the hills, the main food crops are bananas, beans and avocados. But on the plains, maize and sunflowers dominate.On the plains, one too often sees fresh green seedlings at the start of the long rains turn scorched brown before they reach maturity.  With them, farmers’ hopes at the start of the season turn into farmers’ despair as the rains fail them time and again. The long rains have been exceptionally good this year.  Southeastern plains of Kilimanjaro have been bountifully covered with maturing maize and sunflowers.  The ha

Jul 30, 2017By Young Hoy Kim Kimaro

Safe storage of grains to boost farm income on Kilimanjaro

Dreaded word - cancer

By Young Hoy Kim KimaroWhen Florence K showed Dr. Makupa, her family doctor, a canker sore on her tongue that had been bothering her, he called in a dentist who called on Dr. Nduka, the most seasoned of dentists in Moshi. Dr. Nduka immediately dispatched her Florence to Muhimbili hospital in Dar es Salaam for diagnostic tests. It’s there that she heard the dreaded word, “cancer.”Yes, she could be operated on at Muhimbili hospital. But if she is, she will lose a good part of her tongue and, with it, her ability to speak for good because they are not able to give her reconstructive surgery in Tanzania. “Go to India if you can,” the lead doctor advised her, and go quickly because squamous cell carcinoma is aggressive. It spreads fast.Florence is a medium scale farmer. On a few hundred acres of farmland she grows maize, bananas, oranges, and papayas and raises cows, goats and chickens. Her farm has done well. But borrowing from a bank would be a lengthy process; her health insurance won’t cover treatment abroad. Her parents who retired from internation

Jul 5, 2017By Young Hoy Kim Kimaro

Market day on Kilimanjaro

By Young Hoy Kim KimaroIn Mwika, Tuesdays and Fridays have been market days for as long as anyone can remember. These market days are absolutely indispensable to Mwika villagers. They assure income flow and bring to them daily necessities not otherwise available in the village. The market grounds are located at Mwika’s business center, aptly called “Madukani.” “Duka” means shop. “Ma” added to the front of the word makes it plural ― hence, shops. “Ni” tagged to the tail end of the word turns it into a location. Madukani therefore means“ where the shops are.”Mwika has no grocery stores as we know them. Tiny “hole-in-the-wall” (gu-meong-gagae in Korean) stores carry most widely sought nonperishable provisions ― tea, sugar, salt, cooking oil, flour, bottled water, soap, soda, candles, matches and so on ― but no meats, fruits or vegetables. There are stores, but for limited goods ― hardware, farming implements and animal feeds, pharmaceuticals, stationary and clothing. Butcher shops carry meats from fresh slaugh

Jun 13, 2017By Young Hoy Kim Kimaro

Baby steps into 21st century

By Young Hoy Kim KimaroYou may have been shocked to read last month that the majority of the people living in rural hinterlands of Kilimanjaro don’t hold bank accounts, that instead they turn to spare cooking pots, layers of old clothing, underside of a mattress, or a pot buried inconspicuously under a tree or whatever to stash away spare cash. We had our first brush with microcredit through rural Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOSs) about 10 years ago.  It was highly successful.  But success which triggered rapid expansion of loans exceeding SACCOSs’ ability to manages put their very existence to the test.Neither SACCOSs themselves nor we realized that what they needed before any additional money was improved ability to track loan repayments. This happens a lot in development efforts. Money is often taken as the panacea, and we too had fallen into that trap.Our second attempt to make a difference to rural microfinance was to bring in the local Uchumi Bank, which was reputed to be pro rural SACCOSs. From the start, Uchumi put forward two condi

Mar 31, 2017By Young Hoy Kim Kimaro

Rural microfinance in Mwika

By Young Hoy Kim Kimaro Imagine a life without banking services: Nowhere to stash away your precious savings to protect them from the wanton temptations of your own and of other’s; stressed out over large purchases or school fees for children which always fall due at the same time. That’s how life has been for most folks in Mwika.In the absence of banking services, spare cooking pots, layers of old clothing, the underside of a mattress, a pot buried inconspicuously under a tree are some of the means people use to stash away spare cash. Men, I am told, prefer otherwise. They prefer to carry their entire surplus in their back pockets. The thicker the bundle, the better they feel. But here’s the hitch. It’s hard to resist being expansive … hey, what harm is there in dispensing a little for free drinks for all …? The man returns home tipsy with his cash stock substantially dwindled down once too often, much to his wife’s despair and wrath. Over the years the Government has encouraged Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOS) to be form

Feb 22, 2017By Young Hoy Kim Kimaro

How we are so alike!

By Young Hoy Kim KimaroIt has been nearly 15 years since I joined my husband in Tanzania after retiring from a job in the U.S.  Although we had spent month-long vacations in Mwika, our home village, practically every two years over 30 years prior to retirement, still settling in to live there was quite a cultural shock, a shock that’s magnified by vastly different sights and sounds that surrounded us.Now that I have lived here long enough for those sights and sounds to no longer rattle my senses, what once appeared as being worlds apart no longer seem so. Instead, I am discovering from day to day how much the Chaggas on Mount Kilimanjaro and Koreans have in common.The first thing that comes to mind are Chagga women. Yes, like the majority of folks of that gender worldwide, they serve. They serve their husbands; they serve their children; they serve their parents, their relatives. While they are at it, just like their Korean counterparts, Chagga women ruffle a lot of feathers or, as a saying goes in Korea, create a lot of wind with their skirts (chima baram).Chagga wom

Jan 25, 2017By Young Hoy Kim Kimaro

Younghoy Kim Kimaro