Planting trees is serious business in Tanzania. You are required to plant a certain number of new trees on every construction site, and we dutifully complied on Mariamu's land, under the supervision of the district land officer. We had seven small trees (called 'joholo') and were hacking out holes in the dry ground with the aforementioned Mbola woman's hoe when we noticed we had an audience. An old man and a young boy were watching us intently while their goats munched away on the thorny brush. Someone joked that the goats were just waiting for us to leave so that they could mow down the new trees. The land officer called the old man over, and pointing at the trees, he said "You see these trees? We will watch them, and if even one tree dies - you will die, too." The man nodded seriously and walked back over to his goats. All of this transpired in Kiswahili, so I was clueless until we got back in the land rover and the team translated for me, with lots of laughter.
I felt kind of bad for the goat herd - there's a drought in the area - and I can imagine him worrying about the trees and his own fate. Luckily, the land officer arranged for a local worker to water the trees. I hope someone tells the goat herd......
Pictured above: Young goat herd; land officer and Mariamu watching me plant a tree
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