Interviewer(s): I003
Interviewee(s): P475

I003: Now mother, if we can start out interview, you told me that you are 59 years old and you are Pare by tribe and you have lived in this village for almost 41 and you have attended school up class seven and you have eight children. And also your main economic activity is farming and livestock rearing.

P475: Eeeh.

I003: Now before we start our interview, you said you came from Pare to Tanga or where did you come from?

P475: I came from Pare then I went to Tanga and lived there for some time then I came here.

I003: Now you lived in Pare when you were still young?

P475: I got married in Pare then came to Tanga.

I003: Fine. For all that time when you were in Pare, I want you to explain to me what kind of homestead you had for instance in the Maasai Community, you will find out that every household is independent and nobody eats food in another household but you will find out that in other communities, children can eat to the neighbor’s house, uncles, aunties or grandmother’s household as they all live in one homestead. Did the Maasai Community live together or each homestead was independent?

P475: We lived together as a family.

I003: Therefore, you lived together as a family?

P475: Yes, we could even tell a neighbor to cook food as we could not eat in our household that day.

I003: And how many were you born in your family?

P475: Hahahaaa…at my original home?

I003: Yes…or you do not even remember?

P475: We were twelve in total.

I003: Out of the twelve, how many acquired education (went to school)?

P475: Let me say eight.

I003: Eight of the children went to school?

P475: Yes.

I003: Fine. If I may ask you a different question, out of the eight children, I think some were male and others female?

P475: Yes, others were male and others female.

I003: I would like to know the roles male and female children played?

P475: Male children looked after cattle and the female children were responsible for farming and also milking cows.

I003: You mean the male children did not go to the farm?

P475: They went but their biggest role was to look after cattle.

I003: What of fetching water and washing clothes?

P475: Yes, that was our work.

I003: What of cooking?

P475: That was still our work.

I003: What was mother’s role?

P475: Mother’s role?

I003: Yes.

P475: They were still the same roles or you mean when I go to school?

I003: Therefore you mean the roles that female children were the same roles played by the mother?

P475: Eeeeh, you mean when I had gone to school or when I am home?

I003: I mean when you were at home when you were still a girl. Respondent:	She used to prepare food when we were at the market or when we went to fetch water into the river.

What of constructing a house or repairing, who did such jobs?

P475: That was my father’s work.

I003: It was father’s work?

P475: Eeeeh.

I003: Okay and what was the father’s major role?

P475: His main responsibility was to look after livestock, sometimes go to the farm.

I003: Therefore, did he also assist the male children?

P475: Yes, sometimes he would look after the male children like when they are from grazing and sometimes help them to ensure that cattle and goats had taken (drunk) water.

I003: It is fine. Now lets us look at another question. If you may explain to me, which common foods that you used to eat most of the time when you were there at home?

P475: Kande, ugali, milk and rice.

I003: Mmmm.

P475: Though rice is not that common, ugali is the most common meal and kande is on some days.

I003: What do you mean when you say some days.do you mean once in a month or once in a week?

P475: No I mean we could eat ugali like 4 days in a week, rice for 2 days and kande 1 day in a week.

I003: Therefore, you ate kande rarely just on some days?

P475: Yes, I used to eat and my husband used to ask me what I am eating.

I003: It is better you tell someone the truth.

P475: Yes, it is true.

I003: Every community had its own favorite food (meal). Maybe out of all those foods that you have mentioned to me, which food did the female or male children liked most and would really enjoy when cooked at home?

P475: It was ugali.

I003: When ugali was prepared, you all liked it?

P475: Eeeeh, one could take the cup of milk then take it with ugali, it was nice you feel good and satisfied.

I003: Then you eat with ugali?

P475: Yes.

I003: You also practiced farming?

P475: Yes.

I003: Which crops did you grow?

P475: Maize and dolichos beans (fiwi)

I003: What of bananas?

P475: No, we bought bananas from your tribe.

I003: What about beans?

P475: No, you know we do not live in the mountains. The beans are grown there on the mountains.

I003: Okay, therefore what you grow mostly is dolichos beans and maize.

P475: Do you know our home?

I003: No, I might have passed with a vehicle.

P475: We just stay there; when you pass there check very well it is not a mountainous place.

I003: Okay…now I want you to tell me, these foods you were cooking, are they the same foods you bought or is what you harvested from the farm?

P475: We buy rice.

I003: What of ugali and kande?

P475: We grow maize.

I003: Now I want you to tell me, who used to go to the market to buy food?

P475: We do not buy food here.

I003: I mean the ones you buy like rice and beans.

P475: We buy ourselves, our father sends us.

I003: You mean he cannot go himself?

P475: He can still go but he sends us, we do not buy a full sack or a 20 kg bucket of maize we used to buy half a bucket or 10 kgs then when it runs out we again go and buy.

I003: Therefore, it is you, your mothers and your brother who mostly go to the market to buy food?

P475: Yes, but the male children look after cattle most of the time.

I003: Therefore, it is the female children who go to the market to buy food?

P475: Mmmm.

I003: Now, where do you get the money to buy food like rice?

P475: We sell milk and the money we get is what we used to buy food with.

I003: So, the same money is what you used to buy food?

P475: Yes.

I003: Okay, now who makes the decision of the food to be bought?

P475: It is the mother.

I003: Did the father provide the money for buying food?

P475: No. He did not provide the money because the money for buying food was from sales of milk.

I003: What did the father use his money for?

P475: When he sold his cattle, he would keep his money in the pocket and if you borrowed him, he will not give you the money but instead would use his money to buy big things as the money from milk could be used to buy the small items.

I003: Okay, what kind of hens are these?

P475: They are indigenous chicken.

I003: Okay, that is fine now in those days, how would one know that now a girl or boy child had grown up to adulthood?

P475: A child would be called an adult when he got married without which we do not consider him as an adult.

I003: Did you pass them through an initiation ceremony?

P475: Eeeeh. He only become an adult when he marries.

I003: Not when others say that he becomes an adult when he passes through the initiation ceremony?

P475: No, our laws here say only the day of wedding where people dance is when a child is recognized as an adult.

I003: There are some of the communities where a boy is recognized as an adult after going through a circumcision ceremony

P475: But others are circumcised while still young then you tell me that they are adults?

I003: Why not?

P475: Not at all unless he marries.

I003: You mean until he marries a woman is when you can recognize him as an adult?

P475: Mmmm, everybody with his own tribe and in Maasai tribe, we take it that when a child has undergone initiation (circumcision), he is now a grown-up person and can be married of. And for a girl is when she starts her menstruation periods she can be married and that is among the Maasai Community.

I003: Now mother we have talked about the past when you were still young to date when you a grown-up woman, do you think life has changed compared with the past or it has just remained the same?

P475: For instance, life here at my household is different from one that I used to live in the past in that now I depend on myself e.g. I look for food and also I decide on what to cook unlike in the past where I depended on my mother to look for food then cook for me.

I003: Therefore, you see that life has changed?

P475: Yes, it has changed.

I003: When we talk about your home environment you think it has changed or it is just the same environment?

P475: It has changed and that time has come for us to run away from here and that is what lingers in my head.

I003: What is it that is chasing you away?

P475: By Mano

I003: What is the meaning of Mano?

P475: They say this is their brigade.

I003: Is it conflict or what is it? Kindly elaborate?

P475: Okay, it is a deadly fight a conflict between farmers and herders.

I003: That is what you are talking about?

P475: Eeeeh.

I003: What caused these?

P475: It is just a conflict. They were competing for sections of this Kambala village where there are farms are their home so they formed their own militia group (army), it is even shown on a television.

I003: What I see on television was in Kilosa?

P475: Even here people have died. They have killed us.

I003: You said that it is the farmers who formed this group?

P475: Yes, it is farmers who formed their militia group called Mano.

I003: But you are also farmers?

P475: Those were farmers, us we are mixed and they segregate us and because we live with herders. But we also rear livestock and till now we have livestock.

I003: Therefore, you are also pastoralists?

P475: Yes.

I003: Okay, is Mano their language?

P475: No, it is just what they called themselves (nickname). Even police were here and they asked them what is the meaning of that name and where was it originated from but they did not say anything, that is why I remember home.

I003: That made you think of home?

P475: Yes.

I003: Let us now go to another matter. Now how do you see the responsibilities that you used to do in the past y as a girl child or a boy child, today in your home, is that what your children do?

P475: Yes, it is still the same.

I003: Does your girl do the same today?

P475: Yes.

I003: What were you doing in those days?

P475: I would go to the farm to till, milk cattle.

I003: Therefore, that is what your children do?

P475: Eeeeh that is what they do apart from schooling…ahaaa! Don’t you till land there at your home?

I003: Hahahaaa, I do.

P475: Then what?

I003: Therefore, there are no changes as such?

P475: Yes…there are no.

I003: Now mum if we can go to another topic of food. Do you think among the Pare tribe there were some foodstuff which was there in the past but nowadays are not found in our markets?

P475: Yes, maybe rice is what we bought in those days but today we just cultivate it ourselves.

I003: Now lets us look at the foods that you used to eat in those days but is not available today.

P475: No. It is not there because the same foods are available.

I003: They are just the same?

P475: Yes, and I even won’t bother to look for food because we stay for few days then we cultivate the food ourselves.

I003: Don’t you have indigenous foods that the mother used to cook?

P475: All are still available.

I003: Don’t you have foods that were not eaten during those days but are eaten today?

P475: No, all of them are there.

I003: What about chips, eggs etc.

P475: Now you talk of chips yet I fry them here.

I003: Therefore, all these foods were there and even used to be there in the past?

P475: Yes.

I003: We also have different cooking methods. For instance, in those days foods were boiled but today it is fried with onions etc.

P475: In those days, we used to squeeze fat from meat then use for cooking food and even today we still do the same.

I003: That is about your tribe. When you look at our friends the Maasai’s they just boil meat and then eat isn’t?

P475: They shouldn’t lie to you at all because they eat the same food we eat today. The Maasai’s are those of the past, they even eat fish nowadays.

I003: Do they eat chicken?

P475: Ooooh! They just eat like others especially when they are themselves but when they are with other people they do not eat.

I003: Do you think there are some foods that you never ate but right now you eat them?

P475: What I do not eat is the vegetable called okra.

I003: Only you?

P475: Yes, me in person but some of my children like it but others do not eat.

I003: Why don’t you like it?

P475: I do not like mixing food while cooking.

I003: You do not like food that is mixed up?

P475: Yes.

I003: I have understood you. Now mum, lets us talk about cooking methods, we have a variety of foods. What do you think has contributed to all these?

P475: What I do not like eating is beans because I have stomach ulcers.

I003: It means you do not eat beans at the moment?

P475: I just struggle to eat when there are no other vegetables but when it gets to the stomach, it really makes me uncomfortable.

I003: So you do not cook beans in your household?

P475: I cook and eat beans but when there is no any other vegetable though I eat beans only for lunch and not for dinner.

I003: Your husband has no problem at all?

P475: He has no problem, even my children and grandchildren too.

I003: What of Jute mallow?

P475: Jute mallow, the smoothness is too much I do not like it.

I003: But some say it is a lift for ugali.

P475: Hahahaaa, Lift of a dose?

I003: Yes, lift of a dose. Now if you look back in the past, you will find out that the Maasai used to eat certain foods but today they don’t. What do you think is the reason that has contributed to this?

P475: According to me, I would say that they do not eat fish because they fear the sharp bones but now again what of chicken which has no sharp bones?

I003: When you came here, did you teach them how to eat them or how was it?

P475: Let me tell you, when we came to this village, we found our brothers and sisters who came before us here and they were lucky because they found the mountainous soils were fertile and therefore they developed very fast, their towns were well developed and because of that they started choosing food and they were ashamed when others see them eating chicken because people will say that they are poor that is why they are eating chicken. But now that financial ability has declined and they no longer choose food but instead one eats what is there…if you find ugali and chicken, you eat.

I003: The climate change has also contributed to this change?

P475: Yes, the climate changes has contributed to the change of diet for instance you do not have chicken; you do not have money etc. You will just eat any food that is there.

I003: Therefore, we may say that the climate changes have contributed to change in diet….

P475: Eeeeh, they do not have an option other than eating what is there. In the past one person could have 1000 cattle but have died and only remained 50 and has almost 60 children, and then you choose food?

I003: What of education?

P475: When it comes to education they are far ahead, or you mean which people?

I003: I mean you and even among the Maasai; do you think education has contributed to the change of diet?

P475: In the past the Maasai did not want to educate their children but right now, the Maasai’s have gone ahead of us because of educating their children.

I003: Do you think now that education has changed them and that is why they have also changed?

P475: Yes. Education has contributed a lot you can even see how today children have changes

I003: Mmmm.

P475: Education is good.

I003: May be don’t you think that the influx of other tribes might have contributed to these changes like here we have Pare, Maasai?

P475: The Kaguru, Gogo are here…. We do not have any other tribes (communities)

I003: Now don’t you think that the coming of these other communities might have contributed to the change of diet?

P475: But they live in their villages there.

I003: Don’t you think that you are the ones who could have influenced them to start changing diet and eating other foods?

P475: Which tribe?

I003: I mean the Maasai?

P475: No, I told you that the Maasai changed because of the situation they were not changed by anyone but instead by the changing of environment in the country.

I003: Mmmm…let us look at another issue. Do you think that all these changes that have happened have affected you negatively or positively?

P475: Like dying of cattle?

I003: No, I am not talking about cattle’s what I mean is Maasai eating other foods. Is there any harm that you get?

P475: But one eats with his stomach so there is no harm on my side?

I003: I mean food like chicken etc.

P475: But they too feed those chickens and that is the reason they eat them.

I003: I mean may be in those days, chicken was cheap for instance one chicken would cost Tsh 5,000 and all people need to eat meat yet the prices have changed. Don’t you think it has effects?

P475: It has no effect at all.

I003: Do you feel that the Maasai traditions of eating their original food are wading off?

P475: No.

I003: So, the Maasai is just a Maasai?

P475: Ohh yes.

I003: If we can look at another question, if we look at cows here in your homestead, the cows are there and you milk them?

P475: At the moment, we do not milk them as they are not here because of the dry spell.

I003: During the recent drought that just past, did you too loose cattle?

P475: Yes, we lost them in this village there is no one who did not lose cattle.

I003: I just wanted to ask you, of what importance is the milk to you right now?

P475: First importance of milk is that it is food; secondly, we sell it and get money.

I003: Mmmm…the third one?

P475: We use it to make ghee.

I003: Do you still make the ghee?

P475: No, it is a dry spell and there is no milk at the moment.

I003: Now you have told me three things. First, you have said that milk is used for the purposes of food, source of income and deriving fat from it, is there anything you can add concerning the importance of milk?

P475: No.

I003: Now, we have seen that it is very difficult to get milk at the moment because of drought, what do you think has caused this situation?

P475: It is drought.

I003: Second reason?

P475: Maybe when cattle are sold, it is still the same dry spell that led to lack of milk.

I003: Therefore, during the rainy season, there is plenty of milk?

P475: Ohh yes, during the rainy season there is plenty of milk.

I003: What about land conflicts don’t you think it has contributed to the decline in milk productivity because in the past you used to take your livestock to a far places for grazing?

P475: If it will continue, we will continue to have conflicts just the same way and when it rains milk will be in plenty because the cattle get enough pasture.

I003: It is true.

P475: Even if there is conflict, milk must be available.

I003: So the major problem is the drought?

P475: Yes, it is the drought.

I003: Nowadays milk is very expensive for examples when you need milk for consumption will you have to buy?

P475: Yes.

I003: But you say that you sell milk at the moments?

P475: We do not sell milk at the moment.

I003: You mean in those days?

P475: Eeeeh.

I003: Right now, when you want to make profit from milk, you will have to sell it?

P475: Eeeeh even in this area it is difficult to find milk at the moment because whom will you find that has cattle with milk given that it is a dry season and there is no pasture?

I003: So, it is expensive?

P475: Yes, it is very expensive.

I003: Why expensive?

P475: When it is scarce, the farmer also hikes the prices so that they make profit.

I003: Now, which food do you mostly eat here?

P475: For now, it is just ugali and rice.

I003: Where is rice grown in this area?

P475: We just grow them on our farms near the valley.

I003: Just on your farms?

P475: Yes, Maybe if you want those that are irrigated, then you will have to hire.

I003: Have you ever hired a farm?

P475: No.

I003: Are they expensive?

P475: Yes, they are expensive.

I003: Like how much?

P475: Just renting one acre of land you are told is Tsh 200,000.

I003: Just for one season?

P475: Yes, just for a season.

I003: Mmmm.

P475: And there is a condition, if you do not use fertilizer, you are not given land

I003: You are not given land?

P475: Yes. Then water costs Tsh 200,000 just like the Tsh 200,000 you have paid for land.

I003: It is costly.

P475: It is really costly but it is very productive in that one acre produces 40 bags of maize.

I003: How many bags can one normal acre here produce?

P475: It produces 8 to10 bags of maize.

I003: Let us talk about food at the moment compared with the time you came here, how was the availability of food for example one wants to buy onions, tomatoes, rice from the market, is it easily found now or in the past?

P475: It is easier to get them today in that we do not have gardens to plant these vegetables now but they bring for us and we buy them, and nowadays we can get rice and other foodstuff just within you do not have to travel far to get foodstuff.

I003: Who brings to you?

P475: Those who bring them here live near, farmers who cultivate them near the valley, the youths bring them here e.g. Onions, cabbages, tomatoes they bring them here for us.

I003: Therefore, the availability of these foodstuffs is easier today?

P475: Yes, it is easier today compared with the past when we came here.

I003: It is okay. Maybe if we go to another question, if you decide that today you want to eat for example ugali, banana, rice or cassava, what is it that will make you make such a decision?

P475: It is because these foods are available.

I003: What if food is not available?

P475: Then you will not eat them and instead will just eat ugali if the money is not there.

I003: So, without money you do not eat them?

P475: Yes.

I003: Another reason that may contribute to changing of meals?

P475: It is because they are available.

I003: What about appetite?

P475: If it is available in the house I just cook. If not there I call my husband and he buys it.

I003: Don’t you think the children to contribute to the change for instance they say mum we are tired of eating this food etc.?

P475: Of course they contribute.

I003: Don’t you think drought which you often complain about also contributes to this situation?

P475: It contributes.

I003: In which way?

P475: for instance, last year, people planted but no one harvested because of drought and they therefore ran to buy food.

I003: So, it has contributed too?

P475: Yes.

I003: In which way do you think drought has contributed to this?

P475: Drought has contributed in that when you plant and the rains fail to pour, the food will not produce and one will be forced to buy food.

I003: Now you said you rely on cattle for milk, don’t you think drought may have contributed to lack of cash as a result of low production of milk?

P475: That is true; drought has contributed to lack of cash.

I003: Now how has this lack of food caused by drought affected the family?

P475: Lack of food has really affected the family in that even the cattle do not pasture and a cow that worth Tsh 400,000 or Tsh 300,000, you are told that it is sold at Tsh 100,000.

I003: Therefore the price has reduced?

P475: Yes.

I003: In a family between the father, mother and children, who is mostly affected by the drought?

P475: They are all affected.

I003: Yes, all but there is one who is mostly affected.

P475: No, because there is none who is affected.

I003: You mean no one is affected?

P475: Yes may be the herders are the ones affected as they lack pasture for their livestock when they take them for grazing.

I003: Mzee, what is your perspective?

P475: When you talk that way, I get annoyed.

I003: Hahahaaa…why?

P475: Because when you take a cow worthy Tsh 400,000 but you are told that it worth Tsh 100,000 and when you calculate the price of 20kg bucket of maize you are told it costs Tsh 30,000 and then you come back home and tell your wife that you sold the cattle at lower prices and you only managed to buy three gallons of maize, mhhh you will have to think again on where you will buy another cattle next time when the maize runs out. You go out to struggle/hustle for food so that you bring for the wife to cook. She does not know how I suffer.

I003: So Father is the one who suffer most?

P475: Eeeeh I struggle looking for food which I bring for all of us to eat.

I003: Therefore, the mother (wife) does not know how you suffer looking for food?

P475: Ohh yes, you bring the food and your partner asks you…eeeheee something is lacking in the house so you keep asking yourself where will I go to lend some money so that I can buy food.

I003: Mother what is your opinion?

P475: I am telling my husband that I sympathize with herders…. But you wait for me to go grazing then again expect me to bring food home.

I003: Is that true or they eat there?

P475: No.

I003: Therefore, it is through your struggle that the family gets food to eat?

P475: Eeeeh.

I003: Now lets us look at another issue. You have lived here for a very long time, you are almost 60 years old and your wife is in late 50’s almost approaching 60 years. Is there a time where there was acute hunger I mean there was food shortage?

P475: Halloo…

I003: Yes.

P475: To speak the truth, this year is the only year that I experienced big changes since I migrated to this place.

I003: Hahahaaa…. Why?

P475: Because you would be told that a cow that we used to sell at Tsh 400,000 is sold at Tsh 100,000 even a goat that worth Tsh 100,000 is sold at Tsh 10,000 or even 5,000.

I003: One?

P475: Yes.

I003: You mean even the goats had grown thin?

P475: You think selling the goat at that price is because they had grown thin? It is not because of that, Where was the money? Money is only available when people have got food to eat.

I003: It is true.

P475: People came from urban areas to this place to buy food because they are satisfied and have the money therefore the drought has persisted everywhere even to the urban areas.

I003: This year the drought affected you so much or your wife or children?

P475: For a fact were all affected.

I003: You were all affected?

P475: Yes, as a father, I was affected in that I struggled to look for food. If it is sleeping hungry without food, we have all slept hungry if it is porridge, we all took porridge.

I003: So how did you manage to come out of that situation?

P475: It was only by God’s grace that we managed to survive, then we planted again and harvested and that is how we have survived to this time.

I003: But God also says that if you help yourself is when he too helps you too?

P475: But we have helped ourselves till we have come out of that situation.

I003: Did you help yourself by selling things or, how was it?

P475: I sold the properties that I had, then invested in farming that is how I managed to get the food that we have at the moment.

I003: Therefore, you sold cattle?

P475: Yes, I sold some cattle in order to get money.

I003: Let us go to the last question before I leave you to continue with your work. Now in this village if one wants to receive education concerning good diet for example eating fruits, green vegetable like amaranth which contributes to good health, where does one get such education?

P475: It is not there, maybe if one can go to the hospital.

I003: You can get it from the hospital?

P475: Yes the doctor will advise you for example to eat a particular diet so that you get healed, but to say that a teacher comes to these village here to teach people to eat this and that it is not there at all.

I003: Don’t you think the government has never done it for instance calling for a seminar?

P475: No.

I003: Have you ever been told to eat a particular diet in the hospital?

P475: Eeeeh for example when the child is weak, you are told to give him/her a particular diet.

I003: And when you are told to give them a particular food do you give them or not?

P475: We do it because if you don’t follow the instructions the child might die

I003: Therefore, you do as directed?

P475: Yes we do.

I003: It is okay. I will wrap up by asking, for example one wishes to bring such an educational seminar here, how should it be done so that it reaches to every member of the community?

P475: Now a person will want to be given fare to help them reach to the seminar I mean if the sponsor of the seminar wants that person to attend to the seminar, then he/she is the one to facilitate that person to come to the seminar for example, as you walk like this, you are a student who goes around doing research and when you go back and submit your findings then it is marked and you are promoted (pass) to another level.

I003: Mmmm, they need to be given something during the training session?

P475: Who is the one to give them?

I003: You mean that if such a seminar is to be organized, then there must be something to give them (money). Didn’t you say so?

P475: Eeeeh, but aren’t they paid by the employer who sends them to go and carry out the seminar?

I003: What we want to know at the moment is what should we do if at all the project is to be done here in this village so it reaches everybody? For instance, you said that people need to be motivated with little money so that we get many of them to attend the seminar.

P475: No! No! Not the student to be paid but the teacher will be paid by whoever sent him/her.

I003: Therefore, you mean I am the one to be paid and not you?

P475: No. Not us

I003: Okay, I understand now.

P475: How many people will be paid?

I003: And how should you be taught? Do you want to be taught from house to house or how should it be conducted?

P475: No, you just organize for a class or seminar for instance you come and announce to the people that for such and such date, there will be a seminar and people will come

I003: So, the announcement reaches many people, should we disseminate the information through the church, hospitals or through Ward executive officer?

P475: Ward executive officer.

I003: Okay

P475: Yes. You announce to them that such and such day we are inviting you for a seminar at a particular venue.

I003: Okay. Now thank you very much. I have reached the end of my interview. Maybe if you have any questions before I switch off the recorder?

P475: Yes, we have questions. If we count now you are the fourth person coming here.

I003: Since the interview started?

P475: Yes, since the interview began and it is not only in my homestead, but also in neighborhoods in the village but not all homesteads. Are you only selecting homesteads with milk project and for how long will we wait to see results because we have not seen any help to date? What is the benefit of this project?

I003: You should know that even if it is you, when you want to go somewhere to do something or a project, you will first ask or inquire where others did pass. Is it true?

P475: Yes.

I003: For instance, if you want to go to Turiani, you will ask your friend how to go about. Do you have to come back then go through this route or you go back to the main road then head toward there? Therefore, what we wanted to do before executing the milk project, we so it fit for us to carry out a research first through the pastoralist community because they are experienced in rearing dairy cows and know the importance of milk well though it is optional because if one does not want, then he/she just speaks it out that I do not want to be interviewed.

P475: Hahahaaa…! My self cannot say I do not want because I do not see any harm. For instance, the first interviewer who came here took photos of my house.

I003: It is true.

P475: for real what harm, has it caused? There is no harm at all. Only that I was asking when one sees such an interview he expects a positive outcome or something good to come out of it.

I003: It is true. Now let me give you a secret. Whenever money comes in for a new project that has to be started, they will always consider the village where the research was carried. A project cannot be taken to another village where the research work was not carried out because the money has to be spent where the problems were identified through the research work.

P475: Aaahaaa okay.

I003: That is why you will find that other researchers will come and ask you about the problems you are facing here For instance, there is no water, no tanks to preserve water, no cattle dips etc. Therefore, you will find out that when grants to help farmers come through the ministry of agriculture, they will take them to villages where problems have been identified through research for instance they will say the projects be set up in kambala village because that is where farmers face water shortage. Therefore, that is the importance of research and it is not only done for your benefit alone but on behalf of all the people living in this village.

P475: it is okay. That is how it is?

I003: Yes. And that is why when I interview you here with the mother you wife, I get the whole picture of how the situation is in this village. I cannot go to every household.

P475: And when you come you do not go to all households?

I003: We do not go to all households. For instance, when you want to know if the maize has any problem, you just pick one cob. You do not need to pick all cobs.

P475: Hahahaaa! This young man I say is funny.

I003: But it is true.

P475: Yes we have understood you.

I003: Thank you.

P475: Okay.