Municipal elections were held in the last month. The election of the mayor causes the revocation of the municipal council, which makes sense. But the mayor, still in place, took advantage of making a deal with a Tanga merchant, who requested a permission to cut planks of fine wood in the forest.
It is indeed possible to cut trees in order to make boards in the forest reserve, provided you have the authorization from the village authorities: mayor, municipal police officer, or Field Guard. Usually the permission quotes the number of boards, 25, 50 maximum. This allows the village to obtain wood and to limit consumption. The authorization lasts two days to avoid cutting for a week in a row. If it is a resident who asks of the boards, the cost price is 5 000 apiece. If it is an outsider, the price is 8 000 apiece.
The boards were gathered at the top of the pass between Chole and Jumbebibi.
If I was involved in the case it is that first Luka, outraged, came to me about it, announcing that the city council, of which he was a member, had no information. And that the case seemed to have been surreptitiously concluded, in his view, by the municipal police.
On the other hand, the sponsor called me to request permission to use "my" road. In particular, of course, the authorization to pass a tractor and its trailer on bridges and culverts. I accepted - it was hard for me to refuse, because it is not really my road, but I asked him for a document as to which it undertook to repair any damage on the works or the road. This did not commit him in any way, according to the local customs he would have disappeared without repairing anything. The promises are only binding on those who listen to them, after all. Already two years ago another truck had come to collect boards, had damaged a culvert, promised to repair and we had never heard of him again.
This bridge, I recall, had been built by the company who installed the communication antenna on Mount Ikamba. Already destroyed three times, the last version had three boards with two beams as guardrails. The sponsor of the boards, probably with the agreement of the owner of the tractor, had two trunks cut and had them lay across the river, with boards across. According to Kimsi, one of the trunks had been recovered from somewhere and was rotten, it is why everything collapsed under the weight of the tractor and its trailer.
During my negotiations with the sponsor we had estimated the weight of the load to be passed, knowing that the bridge over the Mlolwa could bear three tons, according to the masonry master. We we agreed on the weight of one tonne three hundred kilos for the vehicle, but I was talking about 80 boards per ton, according to a carpenter since the wood was not dry yet; and he claimed that the boards had dried in a month, that he could therefore calculate 200 boards per trip . We agreed between the two, that is 150 boards per trip for 1,086 boards.
The tractor has broken the bridge, even before it could transport a single board.
In the morning another tractor came to pull him from there. He announced that he had at least one and a half million to make up for, and swore, but a little late, that he would not be taken back.
The driver of the new tractor then announced that he would pass upstream on the Chabima River. On the Mlolwa he preferred to move on the side of the bridge, in the water bed of the river, next to the old drift. I have not seen any damage anywhere and the wheels of the tractor and trailer have strengthen the road, which will prevent farmers from nibbling on the road.
The tractor went down, setting a ford with some boards.
The owner
had brought a lorry to transport these thousand boards, which suggests a
comfortable profit for resale. He called me afterwards to thank me, which
I found courteous.
The bridge over the Chabima has remained as it is. Two boards now allow to pass, at a walking pace for motorcycles.
The area chief had long agreed, even before he was elected, to bring the villagers together with the mayor or not and start building the bridge. I had proposed a few months ago to bring together the materials, stone, sand and gravel and to finance cement and concrete irons. But the mayor refused, "The villagers will never accept it. Sand and gravel at a pinch, but not stones". This much more dynamic sector leader had found that it was possible. Following the episode of the boards I contacted him again to tell him that the village, thanks to these boards, had earned more than eight million shillings. The mason estimated that the bridge would cost 4 million if you bought stone, gravel and sand. Otherwise just under 2 million 2, counting only cement, irons, way and labor. The Area Leader promised to discuss this at the next City Council meeting in late December. As for me since the village has money I have no reason to finance this bridge.
With the rains come the mushrooms. In this beginning of the
rains, they are milkcaps, like Lactarius edulis. It is also
known as Lactifluus edulis, from the family of the Russulae.
The chanterelles will come later, orange in color, more fragrant to my
taste. Mushrooms are very popular, but you rarely see them on the markets,
they are rather consumed as soon as they return from the fields. These
milkcaps can be up to 30 centimeters in diameter.
There are of course inedible mushrooms, some are laxatives, without real danger of poisoning. It may be noted that some mushrooms are considered edible in one region and not edible in another.