Iringa, August 2023

Social Enterprise Success

The Never-Ending-Road is possibly even more corrugated heading back along it towards Iringa from Ruaha. Maybe the crests of the corrugation waves are now pointed towards us. Whatever the reason, we have to crawl the 120 km’s to Iringa and are in a fairly exasperated mood on reaching the outskirts of the town. There is a stop ahead I have been considering ever since a year back when we cancelled this leg first time – Mark’s Farm. It is the first and only decent stop before Iringa and so we pull in to see what there is to see.

The iOverlander reviews are good for Mark’s Farm and the website 1) exists and 2) is decent in information and pricing. The farm and lodge is a social enterprise. We arrive down a small track. There is an African gentleman with a learning disability in a tweed jacket and a bowtie on the outside of the large property’s fence. The gentleman is filling a large water container from a tap. He transports the large water container on his bicycle. The bowtie, bicycle and twead jacket feel a little incongruous with the surrounding African village, but I suppose a good sense of style cannot be denied.

We are greeted by two ladies who manage the lodge and farm. One of the ladies appears to also have a form of learning disability and both are all smiles and excitement at our arrival. The camp dog is beyond excited, and makes it his duty to follow one of us around all the time.

The website promises cheap accommodation and we are not disappointed. For US$15 we are shown to a room with a comfortable bed. A separate but close ablutions block provides a much needed shower. I am quite taken by the farm and lodge. It is simple but everything is very well constructed. All of the necessities and some niceties have been very well thought of and laid out for use by guests and/or the learning disabilities crew managing the place.

We have arrived unannounced and the manager (Daniel) is away in the late afternoon but we have a pleasant chat on WhatsApp with one another and we feel comfortable with our situ.

Mark’s Farm & Lodge is a large area of land set in and amongst a wider village community outside of the city of Iringa. I have probably gravitated towards it because of an experience a few days ago. While driving from Mbeya further south, we had stopped at a petrol station to grab some snacks. At the petrol station was a local Tanzanian man who appeared to have down-syndrome. I watched as the man begged for some money from passers by. It is tough being poor in Africa. It can also be well tough to have a learning disability. To be poor in Africa with a learning disability is heart-rending. The man’s situation outside of Mbeya had been haunting me for a few days since and so it was a huge relief to see a project not too far up the road which provides a space for people like our friend back at the petrol station.

The large piece of land was purchased and donated by an amazing family from Europe. Their son Mark, who has a severe learning disability, loves working on farms as well as having farm animals around. Mark is reported to be somewhere in Europe farming to his heart content even now. Mark’s love for farming has been shared with this community and local people with learning disabilities are invited to join in and make an achievement on the farm.

Off in the distance there are some weird sounds and what looks like chicken coups. On examination the next morning, I find a whole lot of rabbits in hutches and sounds coming from a significant herd of goats kept secure in a hay filled barn. I silently ponder the fate of the goats and rabbits but decide that sometimes in this world good can win. On some farms, animals are bred for their fluffiness and huggability. That’s what I keep on telling myself.

Cracks Starting to Show

More serious matters are unfortunately to be addressed. On arrival at the farm, I noticed one of the roof rack legs on the canopy has developed a significant crack. On closer examination, I see that three of the roof rack legs holding the roof tent bars have developed cracks. This is not good! Damn that Never Ending Road.

The late afternoon is spent trying to message the manufacturer of the roof racks. Unfortunately, it is a Friday and the manufacturer closes early before the weekend. Not only that, they are closed on the weekend and next Monday is a public holiday in South Africa also. On the off-chance, we message the workshop in South Africa where we had some of the parts fitted. We’re in luck! They have a WhatsApp account and they’re very helpful. They even have a direct line to the manufacturer and we’re relieved to hear that the roof rack is made of mild steel. This means that the cracked legs can be welded.

The next morning we say a happy goodbye to the Mark’s Farm crew and head into Iringa to find a fix for our cracking roof rack. We consider trying to find anyone with a welding machine but decide that in unknown lands it might be better to head for Toyota Iringa. We bought a Toyota Hilux because the brand is ubiquitous in Africa and we know that the Toyota service centers en-route have standards they have to meet.

The Toyota Iringa service center is open on a Saturday until midday. The manager takes a quick look at the cracks on the roof rack and calls his welding technician. A hurried conversation and some head nods. We are quoted US$40 for the fix. I could probably get someone down the road to do it for quarter the price but know we need a good job done here. Moving the roof tent from the roof bars to the rack will require a lot of rearranging.

We agree to the price and leave them to it after assisting and supervising the removal of the roof tent. The cracked legs need to be taken off to be welded so that no hot metal burns the fibreglass tent shell or the aluminium canopy.

Kirsty and I head into central Iringa and wander around the souvenir market. Some amazing paintings and figurines, but we’re only just heading into East Africa and so need to save on space. We have heard of a cafe which apparently does great cappuccinos called Neema Crafts Cafe and so head that way for some brunch. By a pleasant coincidence, the cafe is also a social enterprise and most of the staff have disabilities and employment. The waiter is deaf and so asks me to write out my order on his notepad. I dutifully write out my desire for cappuccinos and a brownie. Both turn out to be excellent.

We saunter back towards the Toyota service center to find the roof rack almost complete in fixing. We’re over the moon! The legs are so perfectly fixed that the weld job can’t even be seen. We provided some black anti-rust paint we were carrying also and that has finished off a perfect job. We need to wait a bit for the paint to dry and everything to be reassembled and then, after paying the agreed price, we head off to our stop for the night.

Pizza Delights

iOverlander highlights a decent campsite which apparently does very good pizza. The route there is a little bit out of town and the neighbourhoods become less wealthy the further along we drive. We arrive through a corrugated iron gate to a well out of place building, it’s somewhere between a mansion and a steading, with what appear to be clay Italian roof tiles. We find out that the building is an old convent. It has been repurposed by the new owner into a type of boutique hotel and restaurant.

The waiter shows us around back to a simple campsite with a small ablution. We’re given permission to use the large washing line and get busy in the purpose built hand wash sink. The remainder of the afternoon is spent with a beer and a small nap in the tent.

The evening is spent in Mama Iringa’s restaurant. The pizza is superb, the lasagne delicious and the ribs special very tasty. The berry pannacotta excellent. Some satisfied burps drifted from the tent at bedtime as we settle into a pizza induced dream state.